Sealed
Ephesians 1:13 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, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
When I asked my wife Sheila to marry me many years ago, I gave her an engagement ring signifying my promise to her to stand at an altar before many witnesses and declare her to be my bride. That ring gave her confidence that I would follow through, and it also was a sign to others that she was taken, not available, not on the market, so to speak. The Holy Spirit, if you will be open to the idea, is like the engagement ring. He is the sign that Jesus will come again and will complete His promise. What does the ring Jesus gave us look like?
In Scripture, we are given examples of what Jesus was like and told stories of what He did.
Jesus said if you had seen Him, you had seen the Father. In other words, everything Jesus spoke and did was mirroring the Father.
So we also know what the Father is like and how He acts.
The Ephesians were told they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise after they heard the truth of the gospel of their salvation and believed in Jesus. They were told that the Holy Spirit of promise guaranteed their inheritance.
Now in a like manner, this is meant to apply to us who believe in Jesus today. The same truth is ours, just as it was theirs.
So it would be prudent to ask, is there anything in Scripture that shows us what the Holy Spirit is like and how He acts? Is there something about the Holy Spirit that indicates a person has Him in their life and thus can be assured of their guarantee of the inheritance?
The answer to this question is that there is!
Anytime the Holy Spirit filled believers, we find certain activities took place. In fact, because of this truth in Ephesians, believers are encouraged when they are part of a move of the Holy Spirit in a gathering.
It is the work of the Spirit that sets us apart. It is why sanctification is of the Holy Spirit. The act of sanctification is being set apart, made different, unlike what is common. It is what holy means: set apart, made special in a sense, given a specific purpose, not common.
A believer walking in the power of the Holy Spirit is uncommon. They are different. Believers who participate in the gifts of the Spirit in a gathering are different and set apart, so to speak.
But the key is revealed in Ephesians as to what unlocks this privilege of being sealed. It uses the terminology “having believed.” You see, it takes the same kind of faith needed to believe in salvation to believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus makes the privilege of the Promised Holy Spirit possible by cleansing us from sin and making us righteous. He pioneered the way for the Spirit to come and indwell us and flow out of us to others.
When we believe and surrender to the work of the Spirit so He might express Himself through bringing His gifts to bless all, we are exhibiting the seal of our inheritance because there’s no mistaking that He is at work among us and that is evidence that we belong to Jesus and are destined for eternity. Just as the Father was made manifest through Jesus, the Holy Spirit magnifies Jesus through us and makes His presence known by how He moves us to respond to Him in various situations. It will always lead to blessing someone else according to the working of His power as opposed to us trying to affirm ourselves by trying to be good enough in our flesh to convince ourselves and others that we might just be okay.
I love being encouraged by His presence at work in and through me, signifying that I am born from above and that I am not of this world. I have supernaturally been born again through faith in Jesus, and I live a supernatural life through faith in the Promised Holy Spirit, given to me as a gift from the Father.
I accepted the gift of salvation Jesus offered me when I came to Him, and I received all that the Holy Spirit offered me when I received Him as well. Just as Jesus gave the gift of salvation and new life, the Holy Spirit gives the gifts of the Spirit. I know I am sealed!
