The Indwelling Holy One

"You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst." (Nehemiah 9:20)


Here in Nehemiah both intelligence and goodness are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. There are those who say that the personality of the Holy Spirit is in the New Testament but not in the Old Testament, but this is hardly the case. This verse also clearly indicates the doctrine of the Trinity which some claim as not being in the Old Testament. In actual fact the doctrine of the Trinity is found hundreds of time in the Old Testament. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). Here grief  is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is not a mere impersonal influence or power that dwells in your heart and mine. No, He is a Person who is holy and intensely sensitive against sin, a Person who recoils from sin in what we would call its slightest forms as the holiest person on earth never recoiled from sin in its grossest and most repulsive forms. And He sees whatever we do, hears whatever we say, sees our every thought; and if there is anything impure, unholy, immodest, uncharitable, untrue, false, censorious, bitter, or unChristlike in any way, in word or thought or act, He is grieved beyond expression. This is a wonderful thought, and it is to me the mightiest incentive that I know for a careful walk, a walk that will please this indwelling Holy One in every act and word and thought.


Bearing this thought of the Holy Spirit in our mind will help us to solve all the questions and gray areas that perplex our day. If there is any question about whether an action we are about to take is right or wrong, we need only to consider that if we go, the Holy Spirit will go, too, for He dwells in our heart. Are we going to a place or thinking a thought that is congenial to the Holy Spirit? If not, let us stop it immediately.


Father God, I marvel at the infinite personalities of Your Son and of Your Spirit. But if these words that I understand with my mind are going to make a difference in my life, they must penetrate my inner heart. Breathe Your life into me and change  me, Lord. Amen


~R. A. Torrey~