The Holy Spirit does more than visit us in a church service or help us through an occasional crisis. He is God with us and within us. He fellowships with us, leads us, strengthens us, and assures us that we belong to Christ. Scripture says that God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit and placed His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. That seal gives us confidence for today and hope for all that God has promised for the future.
This is where the series on communion with the Holy Spirit has been leading. We have seen that the Holy Spirit is our friend, helper, and partner. Now we come to the assurance that undergirds that relationship: in Christ, God has marked us, sealed us securely, and given us the Spirit as the first installment of our inheritance.
Communion Means Fellowship and Partnership
Paul closes 2 Corinthians with a benediction that brings the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” 2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or an atmosphere. He is a person of the Godhead, God Himself. Therefore, Paul does not speak of the Spirit as something to use but as Someone with whom believers share communion.
The word translated “communion” comes from the Greek word koinōnía. It means fellowship, communion, sharing, and participation. It conveys commonality, solidarity, and shared responsibility. In its broadest sense, it describes a shared conviction expressed through mutual responsibility and a shared standing. Through Jesus, we know the Father’s love, and through the Holy Spirit we enjoy fellowship with God and with God’s people. 1
That kind of relationship grows through intimacy, transparency, and heart-to-heart communication. Trust and friendship do not deepen when two people never speak. Likewise, God invites us to cultivate a genuine relationship with Him, to share our hearts with Him, and to listen as the Holy Spirit reveals what is on God’s heart.
The same family of words appears in Acts 2, where the first believers devoted themselves to fellowship, and in Luke 5:7, where Peter and the other fishermen “signaled to their partners” after Jesus gave them a miraculous catch. Those men had fished all night and caught nothing. When Jesus told Peter to launch out again, Peter replied, “Nevertheless, at Your word I will let down the net.” The catch was so large that he needed his partners to help bring it in. In that context, koinōnía refers to people sharing a business, its work, and its responsibility.
With that picture in mind, Paul’s benediction could carry this sense: “The partnership of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
God is sovereign. He knows the beginning from the end and knows the choices we will make before we make them. Yet He gives us a will and chooses to involve us in His work. The book of Acts records how the Holy Spirit redirected Paul and his companions when they tried to enter one region and then another. He ultimately led them toward Macedonia. Their journey was not driven merely by a plan on paper. It unfolded through partnership with the Spirit, who revealed God’s direction and purpose.
Second Samuel 5 offers another vivid example. Before fighting the Philistines, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord told him to go up. David obeyed and won the battle. When the Philistines gathered again, David asked again. He did not assume that yesterday’s strategy had to be today’s. This time, God told him not to attack directly. He was to circle around, wait until he heard the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, and then move. David followed the strategy God gave him, and Israel defeated the Philistines again.
We need that kind of partnership. Memorizing and praying Scripture is essential, and praying God’s Word is one of the most effective ways to pray. Yet we must also learn how the Holy Spirit applies the Word and guides us in a particular situation.
Joshua 6 records Israel marching around Jericho and shouting before the walls fell. That does not mean every church seeking a breakthrough should automatically march around its property seven times and shout. Nor does it mean every mother should walk seven times around a child’s bedroom, praying for a breakthrough, as a formula. If the Spirit clearly leads and trusted believers bear witness, obey Him. But we cannot simply imitate what worked for someone else. We must know God’s Word, wait in His presence, and listen for His strategy.
Isaiah 40:31 promises:
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” NKJV
The Hebrew word often associated with “wait” is qavah, which can evoke the image of binding or twisting strands together. Waiting on God is an active dependence. We wrap our lives around His purposes and ask, “Lord, what are You saying? What do You want me to do?”
Full of the Spirit and Led by the Spirit
Jesus and the Holy Spirit always worked together. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, and led by the Spirit. He healed the sick and cast out demons by the Spirit. Jesus is fully God, yet He also came as the Son of Man and showed us a life yielded to the Father. As He says in John 5:19, the Son does what He sees the Father do.
Luke 4:1–15, read here from the Common English Bible, shows the pattern at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry:
“Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There he was tempted for forty days by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and afterward Jesus was starving. The devil said to him, ‘Since you are God’s Son, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus replied, ‘It’s written, People won’t live only by bread.’
“Next the devil led him to a high place and showed him in a single instant all the kingdoms of the world. The devil said, ‘I will give you this whole domain and the glory of all these kingdoms. It’s been entrusted to me and I can give it to anyone I want. Therefore, if you will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered, ‘It’s written, You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’
“The devil brought him into Jerusalem and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, ‘Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down from here; for it’s written: He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.’ Jesus answered, ‘It’s been said, Don’t test the Lord your God.’ After finishing every temptation, the devil departed from him until the next opportunity.
“Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.”
Jesus was tempted by physical need, the offer of worship and glory, and the invitation to test God. He answered each temptation with the written Word. Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in every way we are, yet without sin. His victory matters because evil is real.
Jesus defeated the devil, yet Scripture warns that our enemy prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), and describes him as the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). We should not live in fear, but neither should we pretend that spiritual conflict does not exist.
Luke makes an important distinction. Jesus entered the wilderness, full of the Spirit and led by Him. After forty days of fasting, prayer, and resisting temptation, He returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Communion with the Spirit is not a technique, but there are deeper dimensions of His power for those who wait on God, pray, fast, believe, and cultivate His presence.
Imagine what might happen if each person in a congregation set aside even thirty minutes or an hour, fasted during that time, and prayed for someone to be healed or to come to Christ. Prayer makes a difference. This church was born of prayer in a living room, and prayer has sustained it over the years. The intensity has ebbed and flowed, but the difference has always come when people walked with God, prayed, heard His voice, and obeyed.
Every generation must take up that responsibility. If a younger generation wants more than a pleasant Sunday morning church service, it must ask, “Lord, what do You want us to do? How do we press into You?” Repeating the same routine will keep producing the same results. But a generation that seeks God can witness the Spirit’s power touch cities, neighborhoods, children, and families. Scripture and church history show that God does so.
Like Jesus, we need God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to resist temptation and evil. As we rely on God in the wilderness and humble ourselves amid testing, He grants us grace, authority, and power.
Sealed by the Holy Spirit
Jesus walked with confidence because He knew who He was, where He had come from, where He was going, who His Father was, and what the Spirit was leading Him to do. In that sense, He lived with complete assurance. Believers are also invited to live from a secure identity because God has established, anointed, and sealed us in Christ.
Paul writes:
“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 NKJV
The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee of our present and future hope in Christ. The Greek word translated “guarantee” is arrabōn. It referred to an initial payment of money or property given as security that a transaction or pledge would be completed. In the New Testament, it is used figuratively of the Holy Spirit as the first installment, down payment, pledge, and guarantee of the blessings God has promised. 2
Paul uses the same language in Ephesians 1:13–14:
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” NKJV
What is the “purchased possession”? It is you and me: our lives, our bodies, and all that we are. Jesus purchased us with His own blood and willingly gave Himself for humanity. Hebrews declares Christ the mediator of the new covenant, established through His own blood and superior to the old, in which the sacrifices of bulls and goats could never finally remove sin. Christ offered Himself once for all.
God did not stop with the promise of redemption. He placed His own Spirit within us so that we could know both the reality of His kingdom now and the certainty of what is still to come. The kingdom is already present, though not yet revealed in its fullness. We wait for the return of Jesus, the new heaven and new earth, and the redemption of our bodies. Meanwhile, the indwelling Spirit lets us taste the life of the coming age.
The Guarantee of Resurrection Life
Second Corinthians 5:1–8 develops this hope. Paul compares the present body to a tent and the resurrection body to an eternal house from God:
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
“Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” NKJV
Our bodies remind us that the present age is not the whole story. I recently played golf with an eighty-one-year-old man who still likes to walk eighteen holes while pushing a cart (by the way, that’s five miles)! I told him I had done yard work earlier in the week and was using my aches as an excuse for not hitting the ball well! He is about fifteen years older than I am. When I mentioned the creaks and pains, he simply smiled and said, “Uh-huh,” as if to say, “You have no idea where you are headed.” We kept pushing our carts.
No amount of vitamins, exercise, or careful living can make the present body permanent. There is an expiration date. We may live a long life, yet mortality still presses on us. Paul does not leave us in despair. He says we groan because we long to be clothed with the glorified body God has promised, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. The Spirit within us is the arrabōn of that future. He is earnest money for the resurrection life Christ has purchased.
This is why Paul can say that we walk by faith, not by sight, and that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When we leave this earthly tent, we will be with Him, and God will complete what He began.
The Down Payment and the House
A home mortgage gives us an everyday picture of a down payment and a guarantee. When people buy a house, they put money down, sign an agreement, receive the keys, and begin making payments. The down payment signals the intention to complete the transaction. Imagine faithfully making payments for thirty years, only to hear the bank say at the end, “We have changed the terms. The house is not yours.” We would immediately point to the signed agreement.
If a human contract creates a legitimate expectation, how much more should God’s own pledge give us confidence? The Spirit with whom we commune is the guarantee that God will redeem His purchased possession. God will not renege on the covenant at the last moment. The blood of Christ is sufficient.
That assurance does not make holiness unimportant. We should walk righteously, grow in holiness, and be transformed into Christ’s image by the Word and the indwelling Spirit. When we sin, we should return to God and confess it. First John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (NKJV) Our failures should lead us to repentance, not to a constant fear that Christ’s work was insufficient.
Questions about false conversion, falling away, and the security of salvation have occupied Christians for centuries. Here is the pastoral assurance I want to emphasize: if you have genuinely given your life to Christ, have been born again, know the Spirit’s indwelling presence, and continue seeking to walk with Him, you can rest in Christ. No one becomes a Christian merely by being born into a particular church or by choosing the right label. The Spirit brings us into the body of Christ. In Him, we are sealed and promised the inheritance to come.
Paul’s use of arrabōn draws on the language of legal and commercial transactions, such as a down payment on land. God has initiated the work of redemption. The Spirit makes the promised future present among us now and assures us that we will one day fully inherit the kingdom. This is the “already and not yet” reality of Christian hope.
Pastor Carolyn and I have lived through a very personal version of the mortgage illustration. God led us to Arizona more than twenty-five years ago and then to plant this church. It was not our plan. We sensed Him saying, “There are not enough churches in this city.” Following that call required faith and practical sacrifice.
We mortgaged our house twice for the church. The first time, we were upside down, owing more than the house was worth, yet we took out seventy thousand dollars to buy the church property. It was risky, and we were nervous at times, but we believed God had spoken. As the church grew and refinanced its property, it repaid us. Years later, when God placed the new sanctuary on our hearts and on the hearts of others, we mortgaged the house again and invested that money into building the new sanctuary. The church refinanced again and repaid us, and then I committed to an accelerated ten-year home mortgage. The payments were high.
After twenty-five years and three months, we paid off the mortgage last week! I share this to brag on God and to give younger believers faith. We probably broke every Dave Ramsey rule in the book, but we were not borrowing against our house for a vacation to Acapulco or Hawaii! We put the money into what we believed God had called us to build. That distinction matters. Faith is not recklessness. We listened, obeyed, and trusted God with the cost.
When we first put money down on that house and received the keys, it felt like home. Over the years, we made wonderful memories while dealing with roof leaks, water damage, and all the ordinary problems a house can have. Still, every payment carried the expectation that one day the house would be ours. When we made the final payment, that expectation became a reality.
The Spirit’s presence is a far greater pledge. Jesus has already paid the decisive price. God has given us His Spirit as a down payment and a foretaste of the joy to come.
Theologian Gordon Fee expressed it this way:
“Along with the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit is the certain evidence that the future has been set in motion; and the Spirit’s indwelling presence serves as God’s own guarantee that we are to inherit all that has been promised.” 3
On my worst days, I return to that truth. When everything around me feels chaotic, I say, “Holy Spirit, I need a moment in Your presence. Remind me of what I know. Remind me that You dwell within me, that I have seen Your faithfulness before, and that You will be with me to my last breath.” Always remember, Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”
Living as People Who Are Sealed
Being sealed by the Holy Spirit gives us security and shapes how we live. We have been marked by God and sealed securely in Christ, who is always God’s “Yes.” The Spirit is the deposit, down payment, and first installment that guarantees the full inheritance. Therefore, when the body aches, the doctor delivers a difficult diagnosis, finances tighten, family relationships strain, or work becomes uncertain, we return to the guarantee. Jesus paid the price, and the promised Holy Spirit remains our Comforter and Helper.
The Spirit has nudged me many times over the years. Sometimes the direction was simple: pray for someone during my personal prayer time, pray publicly for healing, or speak to someone I worked with or served alongside in the Navy. At other times, He led me to take larger steps, such as a mission trip overseas, a building project, or planting a church. Some mission trips produced powerful fruit because I followed His leading and allowed Him to remain the principal partner.
The size of the assignment is not the main issue. We learn to recognize His voice in both small and large decisions. The Holy Spirit wants to fellowship with us and partner with us as a close friend and a trusted partner in a shared enterprise. The family business is the kingdom of God, and He invites us to take part in its growth.
One of the clearest ways He guides is through peace. Jesus says in John 10:27 NKJV, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” God often speaks by illuminating His written Word, but He also gives an inward peace that helps us recognize His direction.
If you are considering a house, a car, a job change, or another major decision and that peace is absent, stop and step back. If you are married, listen when your spouse says there is no peace. Pray and wait. When the peace of God is present, and the direction aligns with His Word and wise counsel, keep moving. God has given believers the mind of Christ and the indwelling Spirit.
Some seasons require more than a general principle. We need a strategy. We may ask, “How should I pray? How do I wage good warfare in this season? Is this the time for direct action, or should I move around the side as David did?” The Holy Spirit knows. He can give clarity about finances, work, a medical procedure, or using a doctor while we continue believing God for healing. His confirmation may come through Scripture, settled peace, wise counsel, a timely phone call, a text from a friend, or something that brings the matter into focus. We test everything, yet we also expect our Partner to guide us.
The Fruit of Communion
As we abide in Jesus, remain in His Word, and cultivate fellowship with the Holy Spirit, several things grow within us.
First, we engage in true worship. Jesus says in John 4:23 NKJV, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” Communion with the Spirit transforms worship from an outward routine into a living response to the Father.
Second, we hear God’s voice. Revelation flows from intimacy with Jesus and communion with the Holy Spirit, our friend and helper. Jesus teaches that the Spirit guides us into all truth, speaks what He hears, and reveals what is to come (John 16:13). We grow in discernment as we know Scripture, pray, listen, and obey.
Third, we are revived and renewed. Psalm 16:11 NKJV says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Jesus promised to send “another Helper” (John 14:16). The Greek word allos means another of the same kind, another like Him. The Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ presence near and renews us day by day. We must make room for Him to do so.
Fourth, we are empowered. Jesus says in John 14:12 NKJV, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” As we remain in Christ, trust His finished work, and yield to the Spirit, God releases His power through us to accomplish what we cannot do on our own.
Finally, we become a conduit through which God touches others. We were created to be a river of blessing. Human effort alone cannot bring life to dead places, but the Word and the Spirit, working through yielded people, can. We are God’s temple, and His presence flows through those who surrender to His mission and purpose.
A Promise for the Church
Peter declared on the Day of Pentecost:
“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38–39 NKJV
The promise remains for us, our children, and those who seem far away. God invites the church to another corporate outpouring of His Spirit. He pours water on dry, weary ground when His people seek Him. God can awaken people when prayer rises, and hearts turn toward Him.
Living in Arizona gives us a vivid picture. A long, dry stretch can leave the ground looking lifeless. Then a tropical system brings heavy rain, and suddenly water rushes through the washes. We must drive carefully, yet we also rejoice because the land desperately needs the water. In the same way, a nation can appear spiritually dry until the rain comes.
I believe a moment is coming when churches across our nation will struggle to hold those who begin seeking God. It may look like drought now, but keep praying. Keep believing. Keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Keep praying for sons, daughters, and grandchildren to come home. God can call things that do not yet exist as though they already are (Romans 4:17). The future He promised has already been set in motion by the Spirit.
Begin Today
Do you feel secure in Christ? Do you know you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit? If you have never given your life to Jesus, come to Him. You do not need to become a great theologian to be saved. The blood of Christ is sufficient. Pray honestly: “God, I believe in You. Jesus, help me. Holy Spirit, teach me to commune with You. Breathe on Your Word and make it alive to me.”
If you already belong to Christ, begin today to cultivate a daily walk of communion with the Greater One within. Let Him be all He intends to be in your life: your source of wisdom, power, peace, comfort, and strength. Consult Him before making decisions. Listen for His voice. Test what you sense against Scripture. Welcome His correction and assurance. Then step forward in obedience.
The seal of the Spirit is not a distant doctrine. It is God’s presence within us today, assuring us that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient and our inheritance secure. The Spirit is the foretaste of resurrection, the pledge of the coming kingdom, and the faithful Partner who remains with us at every stage of the journey.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, I thank You for being my friend, helper, and partner, and for taking responsibility for me. I need Your friendship and partnership. Forgive me for the times I have not had fellowship with You.
From this day forward, I choose to commune with You and consult You before making decisions or taking any step. Fill me afresh, and let me know the joy of Your fellowship.
Give peace and clarity to those in a valley of decision. Speak, guide, and direct them. Grant wise confirmation and the courage to obey. Provide direction for work, finances, family, medical care, and every area where Your people need a strategy. Help us recognize when to move forward and when to wait.
Thank You for placing the Holy Spirit within us as Your deposit and seal. Thank You that we can rest as Your sons and daughters. We have not done everything perfectly, yet the blood of Christ is sufficient. Keep us close to You until our final breath, and welcome us home to all You have promised.
Pour out Your Spirit again upon the church. Send rain upon the dry, weary ground. Bring prodigals home, heal the sick, save those who are far away, and empower Your people to carry the life of Jesus into their communities.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Footnotes
- Derek Leigh Davis, “Assembly, Religious,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).
- 2. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 576.
- Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1994), 671.
