WE MUST SPEND another day on: “In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13–14).
This sealing by the Holy Spirit is given to those who have “heard the word of truth,” “the gospel of [their] salvation,” and “have believed in him”—so this gift is a believer’s gift, not to be identified with conversion, but something in addition to and subsequent to conversion. It is a sealing of the letter of pardon and reconciliation.
After conversion the unsealed letter is open to influences from the uncleansed subconscious. The Holy Spirit cleanses and consecrates the subconscious drives, coordinates the subconscious and the conscious, puts them both under one control and redemption, and produces a unified personality. So the personality is sealed off from inner intrusion. The enemies are now largely from without. The inner citadel is safe—safe in the Holy Spirit’s keeping.
This sealing by the Holy Spirit is “the guarantee of our inheritance” until we take possession of it. This is a strange statement—the Holy Spirit the guarantee of the inheritance of heaven. Does He bring an inner unity and consequent joy which is a precursor of our heavenly inheritance? Is heaven unity and joy? Yes. It is a unity and joy around the person of Christ; we are united in Him and we joy in Him. Anyone who has the Holy Spirit has a preview of heaven within. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of heaven, for His presence within brings heaven. We have heaven to go to heaven in. The Holy Spirit brings a miniature heaven within.
O Blessed Spirit, how grateful I am for this glorious heaven of purity and unity and joy which Thou dost bring within. The absence of it is hell; the presence of it is heaven. So I walk the heavenly way to heaven, with heaven within. I thank Thee.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am a “guaranteed” person—guaranteed as to goal, direction, and quality.
