The Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost to the church in her collective capacity, to abide with her forever, and has not been taken away, notwithstanding our many failings. Just as the fiery pillar was not taken from the Israelites, notwithstanding their many provocations, so the blessed Spirit of God has not been taken away from the church. Moreover God has given His Spirit to the individual believer-to all who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But though the Spirit dwells in the church of Christ as to her collective capacity, and in the individual believer, nevertheless it is fitting and suitable and right on the part of the children of God that they should ask God again and again, and with great earnestness, that He would work mightily by His Spirit. We depend entirely on the power of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of sinners. There might be the most mighty preacher as to the knowledge of the scriptures and the clearness with which he sets forth the truth; yet if the Spirit of God is not pleased to bless the word, he may preach for months, and yet there will be no blessing.
Are you renewed by the Holy Spirit?
This is the momentous point, whether through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are partakers of the Holy Spirit or not. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. Whatever we have, if we have not the Holy Spirit, we do not belong to Christ. In whatever way we seek to resemble the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ-we may be in the habit of reading our Bibles, of bowing our knees, of singing together with them, of meeting together with them, of partaking with them at the Lord's supper, we may be reckoned among them as disciples-and yet with all this, far from God.
With all this unregenerate. With all this, wanting the Spirit of Christ. With all this, not born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Talkers we may be, in outward appearance like the children of God, but if the heart is unrenewed, if there be no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of our souls, through which we are born again and renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit takes our bodies and makes them His temple-if this is not the case, we are yet far from God and His kingdom.
(Taken from: The George Müller Treasury, Edited by Roger Steer) (Crossway Books, Westchester, IL., c1987)
