The Heavenly Guest
Unless you are a
spiritual orphan, the Holy Spirit has
taken up a permanent abode in your
heart. On the night preceding His
crucifixion Jesus told His disciples
that He would send them ‘another
Comforter.” In the original
Greek one of His promises in regard
to this Comforter reads: “I will
not leave you orphans, I will come to
you.” John 14:18. He wanted His
disciples to know that the Comforter
would replace His personal presence.
Even though He knew they would be
slow to comprehend, Jesus told them
that God would give to them His
Spirit, the very same Spirit that had
accompanied Him throughout His earthy
sojourn. As ‘another comforter,
the Holy Spirit would stand in
Christ’s stead and provide for
them the same inner assurance that
Christ’s personal presence had
provided.
Strange, eventful
happenings faced the disciples, the
meaning of which they would not
immediately understand. They would
see the earth mantled with darkness,
feel the solid ground quake beneath
their feet, and hear Christ’s
last piercing cry from the cross.
They were to carry His lifeless form
to Joseph’s new tomb. Then they
were to experience a painful
loneliness-they would feel like
orphans. However, Jesus did not
intend that they should be orphans.
At His very first meeting with them
after His resurrection, “he
breathed on them,” saying,
“Receive ye the Holy
Ghost.” John 20:22
In Old English the
word ghost had a more personal
connotation than the word spirit. In
effect, Jesus invited His disciples
to receive a person. No one knows the
indwelling presence of the divine
Guest will ever feel alone. The
action of receiving is vital,
however. The heavenly guest offers
companionship only to those who
invite Him into their lives.
Jesus admonishes
today, “Receive ye the Holy
Ghost.” God as never forced any
to be a spiritual orphan, an outcast,
or a derelict. He never abandons any
man. Rather, man forsakes God.
“Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God.”
Isaiah 59:2. Through disobedience,
man has made himself a stranger, an
alien-a spiritual vagabond.
God longs to dwell
with every one of His children. That,
indeed, is the meaning of
Christ’s Incarnation and the
ultimate purpose of the cross.
However, in the natural man-that is,
the unconverted person-the place that
God has made for Himself to occupy is
filled with an impostor.
Nevertheless, God is not deterred in
His desire to dwell in man because of
an impostor’s presence. He
freely offers liberation to all who
will choose Christ. If a man desires,
Jesus will evict the deceiver and
send the Holy Spirit to indwell the
soul.
To believe in Christ
is to receive the Holy Ghost into our
hearts. This is to be a permanent
relationship. To underscore this
Jesus told of a certain man whose
house or soul had been swept and
garnished, his sins forgiven, and the
evil spirit driven out. However, this
man, like many others, failed to
continue welcoming the Holy Spirit
into his heart. Later the evil spirit
returned, and, finding the house
empty, he recruited seven other evil
spirits, and eight of them invaded
the old premises to set up a new
tyranny far worse than the first.
(Matthew 12:43-45.) The soul will not
remain unoccupied. It will be indwelt
by either unholy spirits or by the
heavenly Guest.
The tragic story of
Saul, Israel’s first king,
illustrates how a man may lose
God’s Spirit. God gave young
Saul His Spirit. (1 Samuel 10:6.)
Saul gladly obeyed at first. However,
later, when reproved for
disobedience, Saul became moody,
dissident, and disagreeable. He
wanted to be a part-time believer, a
partway follower. Affable one moment,
he would indulge a violent temper
tantrum the next. Thus, he developed
a split personality. However, God
never works in partnership with
Satan. Christ said, “Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.” Matthew
6:24. The heavenly Guest left Saul,
and an evil spirit possessed him. (1
Samuel 16:14.) Eventually life itself
became so intolerable to Saul that
during a battle with the Philistines,
Saul asked his armor bearer to kill
him, the servant refused and Saul
fell on his own sword and died.
Saul’s successor,
King David, also faltered in
obedience and became a prodigal son
in Heaven’s sight. Sin made
David’s devotions meaningless.
He sang the songs of Zion, bowed his
head in worship, went through the
other emotions of religion, but
existed as only a wooden man, an
actor, not a worshiper. The heavenly
Guest could not continue to dwell
within while he refused to confess
the sin of his heart.
Months went by. Then
God sent Nathan the prophet to expose
to David the guilt that plagued his
soul. With the dreadful history of
Saul before him, he saw the Holy
Spirit soon would give up striving
with him and leave him forever to
that merciless spirit that had
plagued his predecessor. In
desperation David prayed,
“Create in me a clean heart, O
God.” He realized that heart
cleansing preceded Spirit indwelling.
David’s prayer
continued: “Renew a right spirit
within me.” Psalm 51:10.
Realizing that without the Holy
Spirit he would be a spiritual
castaway and banished forever from
God’s presence, David implored,
“Take not thy holy spirit from
me.”
As assurance of
forgiveness came, David pledged
himself to become a missionary
witness: “Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation; and uphold me
with thy free spirit, then I will
teach transgressors thy ways; and
sinners shall be converted unto
thee.” Psalm 51:10-13
Today we have the same
merciful God, and we need the
indwelling of the heavenly Guest just
as urgently as did David. There may
be no active hostility toward the
heavenly Guest in our soul, but there
may not be any genuine hospitality
offered Him either. Satan overcomes
many by little sins, mere trivia.
They love the things of this life,
its pleasures, and its sweet
nothings. For many, life’s
little goings and comings crowd out
the fellowship of the Spirit just as
effectively as would some great sin.
We must recognize that
activity, busyness-even in the
Lord’s work-cannot substitute
for the presence of the Holy Guest.
Memory Verse:
Psalm
51 “Have mercy upon
me, O God, according to thy
lovingkindness: according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies blot
out my transgressions. Wash me
thoroughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgressions: and my
sin is ever before me. Against thee,
thee only, have I sinned, and done
this evil in thy sight: that
thou mightest be justified when thou
speakest, and be clear when thou
judgest. Behold, ‘I was
shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my
mother conceive me. Behold,
thou desirest truth in the inward
parts: and in the hidden part thou
shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. Make me to hear joy and
gladness; that the bones which thou
hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, and blot out mine
iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, O God; and renew a right
spirit within me. Cast me not away
from thy presence; and take not thy
holy spirit from me. Restore unto me
the joy of thy salvation; and uphold
me with thy free spirit. Then will I
teach transgressors thy ways; and
sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Deliver me form bloodguiltness, O
God, thou God of my salvation: and my
tongue shall sing aloud of thy
righteousness. O Lord, open thou my
lips; and my mouth shall shew forth
thy praise. For thou desirest not
sacrifice, else would I give it: thou
delightest not in burnt offering. The
sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit: a broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good
in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build
thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then
shalt thou be pleased with the
sacrifices of righteousness, with
burnt offering and whole burnt
offering: then shall they offer
bullocks upon thine altar.
