“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Cor 1:21-22)
The promised Holy Spirit is a seal. God gives His Holy Spirit to His believers as a guarantee of our inheritance from heaven. The fact that God has chosen us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and poured out His promised Holy Spirit on us as a seal and guarantee is a powerful testimony that our hope in Christ is sure.
The Holy Spirit is the great promise that Jesus made. Jesus proclaimed, “If any one thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37) The term living water in John 7:38 refers to the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised to give the Holy Spirit to all who believed. This is the good tidings that we want to spread. The Holy Spirit has come to quench the thirst of our souls. It pours God’s love into our hearts. (Rom 5:5) The Holy Spirit is our counselor. He is our teacher. Paul advised in Gal 5:24-25, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” The flesh with its passions and desires are the burden of sin, which clings so closely and weights us down (Heb 12:1). If we can submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, surely, we shall receive our eternal inheritance.
God anoints us with the Holy Spirit to become His children, with the dignity of a royal priest. To be anointed means to accept God’s appointment, send, and inherit the priesthood, and to act in accordance with God’s will. From the onset of Acts the Lord Jesus told His apostles that they would receive power to preach the gospel when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1:8-9). Indeed, after receiving the Holy Spirit, the disciples were transformed totally. Whereas they were weak, timid, and had a poor understanding of God’s words and will, now, with the power of the Holy Spirit, they had extraordinary courage to preach to the masses. When Jesus gave the disciples the great commission in Matthew 28:19-20, He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Today, God’s abidance shows in the power and the work of the Holy Spirit.
God has given us the Holy Spirit as a seal to show that we belong to Him. For us, to show God’s abidance in us is to walk in the Spirit and to follow all what He has commanded. The presence of the Holy Spirit also guarantees the reality of our eternal inheritance.