Receiving The Holy Spirit Is Not The Same As Indwelling

[tatwo]

Greetings @Indentured Servant... "IS" if you don't mind?

On 11/11/2024 at 10:32 AM, Indentured Servant said:

If someone receives the Spirit, but He isn't dwelling in that person, where is He? 

Yes, sin dwells in one's flesh, but the Spirit doesn't dwell in flesh, so how could He ever dwell within us?

Well “IS”…it looks as though no one has responded to your questions…I will make and attempt as I see them both as appropriate questions.

An authentic living breathing human being is comprised of 3 distinct parts…spirit, soul and body. Here is a basic snapshot as I have seen it.

The “body” is that physical element that carries within it both a “spirit and a soul”…I am thinking most realize this…I’m simply pointing it out. There is a “life” in the “flesh” known as “bios”…simply put…it has the ability to interact with the physical “environment” around it.

The “soul” also has a “life” within it known as “psuché “…and it can be understood as the “seat of the mind, will and emotions” and in its natural state it is carnal [unspiritual] in essence.

It is the “soul” that takes inputs from the “environment” that the “body” puts it in…so to speak…via the 5 senses…sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. We can think of the soul as the “central processing unit” to use a technical term…that processes whatever comes in from the 5 senses allowing it to formulate an appropriate thought or response.

Then there is the “spirit”…the “life” within the spirit is called “zóé” which comes from God and is sustained by God’s self existent life…in other words this life is eternal. This is the life that returns to God when the “body” has died. Many do not realize this but the “zóé life” of God has no requirement or dependency for its existence…from anything in creation.

Now to try to pull this together…addressing your last question...which may take a few more words.

Tatwo...:)

[tatwo]

On 11/11/2024 at 10:32 AM, Indentured Servant said:

What's the point in receiving Him if He doesn't dwell in us upon our receiving Him?

Well I suppose it would depend on how one defines “receiving Him?” Look at what He told Nicodemus… “…unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now we know that it was in the Man Christ Yahshua that the “Kingdom of God” came into creation…in that day.

So…seeing the “Kingdom of God” there…is very likely to mean that one…like Nicodemus who said…“Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him”…is clearly acknowledging that he knows “Yahshua has God with Him”…as he states.

We must not forget that Nicodemus was a “Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews”…who has undoubtedly studied the Scriptures to a significant degree. The Lord once said this…in reference to the…“Scriptures” that the teachers of Israel study so diligently…“it is these [Scriptures] that testify about Me.”

All that to say…I think there is a chance that Nicodemus was “born again”…in that…he was a man who studied the Scriptures for a living…and it is the Scriptures that “testify of and reveal the Lord Yahshua.” I am suggesting that Nicodemus may very well have at least suspected…so to speak…that Yahshua…was God’s messiah who brought with Him the Kingdom of God?

If so…Nicodemus would have understood that Yahshua is requiring his life of him now…it’s not likely Nicodemus would have retained his status as “Pharisee and ruler of the Jews” if he was to be obedient to the Lords command…though I am not sure exactly…what happened to Nicodemus.

We have two instances of the Lord Yahshua commissioning people to go forth in authority [His Name]…once in Luke 10 where He commissions the “seventy two” and…in their strict obedience to His Words [trusting Him completely] they were give an “allotment” of His “authority” to interact with and dispatch the demonic and their names were written in heaven.

After His resurrection He came to the “disciples” and commissioned them…and in “breathing on them”…He told them to “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In that…the allotment of authority that He gave them was to “forgive or retain sins.”

However…later in Acts chapter 1…again after His resurrection and just prior to His ascension He tells…at the very least…the disciples/apostles…“you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now”…followed by…“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” However once again rest assured...that only those who followed His command directly…were considered obedient…and “received the Holy Spirit in power.”

So “IS”…in some senses “receiving Christ” and being “born again” may be something like “seeing Christ Yahshua as He is...God manifest in the flesh…the Kingdom of God having come to earth as prophesied”…think Nicodemus, the seventy two, and the twelve…a sort of spiritual knowledge and impartation perhaps?

However that does not necessarily mean that you have received the “power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Which looks like it can come upon you when you sacrificially and obediently do…that which He instructs you to do at that time…having been given the revelation of who He is.

His instruction to us today is to pursue Him…first through an obedient faith in being “baptized in water” and asking or expecting of Him…"the promise of the Father" which he told us was our receiving of the Holy Spirit in power.

Again…one must pursue Him in strong desire…exercising faith in the “promise of the Father that the Lord Yahshua spoke of”…which is…”to be born of water and the Spirit” thus being “cleansed of all sin and unrighteousness”…and having “…the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”

Thus having been purged and cleansed by the grace of God through obedience...qualifying this one to be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” It seems to me…that is what the Lord meant when He told Nicodemus…“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

It was as if the Lord Yahshua was saying…once I have shown you who “I AM”…you need to be careful to do what I have commissioned or commanded you to do. Be baptized in water and of the Spirit…and cry out “Abba Father” and you will be assembled into “Christ” thereby becoming a citizen of the “spiritual Kingdom of God” on earth.

This all works just fine…as I reported earlier…one of the components of “man” is “spirit.” When the Holy Spirit comes upon you…He takes up residence in your “spirit” which is the life we receive from God. Paul put it like this…“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” …this “animates your spirit”…if you will…with the eternal life of Christ…this is “salvation.”

One can then begin the process of being “reconciled” to His [God’s] foreknown and predestined call “in Christ”…as He [God] chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world…to be justified, sanctified and glorified in Christ.

So…speaking of those who “receive Him”…the ”Holy Spirit”…He does indeed “dwell in them” and He does so in their “spirit”…this is salvation. When this happens…this is where process of spiritual maturity via the continuing grace of God in…reconciliation, conformation, maturation and finally representation…will begin.

It is longer than I had hoped...whether one agrees with me or not...I believe I was "clear" in my communication.

Tatwo...:)

[Daniel Marsh]

true that