SIX ITEMS OF THE SPIRIT WITHIN US
Now we must see what the Spirit is to us when He comes into us. As we have seen, He is the Spirit of life to be life to us (Rom. 8:2). Second, He is the Spirit of reality (John 14:17). He is within us as the reality. Reality is not merely doctrine. The Spirit is the reality of all that God and Christ are. God is love, but without the Spirit of reality within us we do not have the reality of love. If we have the Spirit of reality within us, we have the reality of love. God is also light, but if we do not have the Spirit of reality, we do not have the reality of light. All that God and Christ are is in the Holy Spirit as the divine reality to us.
Third, the Holy Spirit within us is a seal (Eph. 1:13; 4:30). When we believe in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we belong to God, and God puts a seal upon us. When I buy a new book, I put my seal on it. This means that the book is mine. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we become God’s. We belong to God, so God puts His seal upon us, or within us. This seal is the Holy Spirit. Moreover, to put a seal on something we possess makes that thing exactly the same as the seal. The seal of the Holy Spirit within us is an element within us that is exactly the same as God.
Fourth, Ephesians 1:14 says that the Spirit is also a pledge. A pledge is a down payment. The Holy Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee, that all that God is and all that God has is our portion. The Spirit as the seal within us testifies that we belong to God, and the Spirit as the pledge within us is a guarantee that God belongs to us, that all that God is and all that God has are our portion. We may say, “O Father, You must give me all that You have and all that You are, because I have the Spirit as the guarantee.”
Fifth, the Spirit is the anointing (1 John 2:20, 27). We have the Spirit within us who is always anointing us. While He is anointing us, He also is bothering us.
Sixth, the Spirit is the Comforter (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). The Greek word for Comforter is Paraclete. In 1 John 2:1, this word is translated as Advocate. The Paraclete has a daily application and a legal application. In daily life, the Paraclete is always with us to serve us and care for us. In the legal sense, the paraclete is an attorney, a lawyer in a court of law who pleads for us. In our daily life, the Holy Spirit always accompanies us to care for us and to meet all our daily needs. Concerning the righteous law of God, however, Jesus Christ as the Advocate is the attorney in the heavenly court always pleading for us.
The Holy Spirit as life, reality, the seal, the pledge, and the anointing is everything to us, and as the Comforter He takes care of us in our daily life. However, if something happens to us in the heavenly court, the Advocate is our attorney to defend us and plead for us. These are the aspects of the Holy Spirit within us.
(The Work of the Holy Spirit, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
