Can you lose the Holy Spirit?

Much has been said and written on this passage and on the question of the unpardonable sin. Many who had lived in open sin and worldly lusts, having been arrested by the grace of God, almost despaired for they feared they had committed that sin and now in spite of their repentance forgiveness was an impossibility for them. This wrong conclusion is often preached in so called "revival meetings" to bring sinners to accept Christ. Believers who fell in sin likewise have thought that after sinning with open eyes, wilfully, they had been guilty of the unpardonable sin. How many poor, ignorant souls have grieved for weeks and months thinking the Holy Spirit had now left them for good. But the Holy Spirit once given to the believer in believing on Christ has come as the abiding Comforter. He has come to stay and never, no never, to leave that which He has sealed. The Spirit may be grieved, He may be quenched, but never can He be driven away so that the true believer would fall back and be lost.

This widespread doctrine of falling from grace in the sense of the believer's possibility to be lost dishonors Christ and His work for us. But some one says: "Did not David pray: And take not the Holy Spirit from me?" Certainly he did, and it was in order for him to pray thus for the Holy Spirit might have left him, for He was not then in the earth with believers as the abiding comforter. The believer in the New Testament is never exhorted to pray to the Spirit to remain with him. He is to be filled with the Spirit and continually guard against grieving the Spirit or not to quench Him, but never to doubt His presence. All these wrong conceptions spring from a deplorable ignorance of the fundamentals of the blessed Gospel of the Grace of God.

Nothing can be clearer than the line drawn by the Spirit of God in John 7:39, between believers before the glorification of Christ, and since that time. Before that time all that ever was done in or by a saint, prophet, or otherwise, was by the power of the Spirit acting in the vessel for the time. Now He dwells in the body of the believer, as in a temple (1 Cor. 6:19), seals him, having believed (Eph. 1:14), until the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). He may grieve the Spirit of God, but he never can lose Him. Besides all this, it was an action of the Holy Ghost, in whatever way it took place, in the Old Testament times. This is a different thing from His descending personally from heaven on the day of Pentecost, and dwelling amongst men. His person and presence upon earth is as distinct as that of the Lord Jesus when here. In the believer individually, and in the church collectively. The Lord's promise of the Comforter — the Holy Ghost, was that He would not only be with them (for a limited time, as Christ had been), but in them as well; and that, "for ever." To this end it was expedient that He should go away; if He went not away, the Comforter would not come. The passages you quote have reference to the action of the Holy Ghost in the vessel, whether of a prophet, or otherwise at the time. Back

We should also say that there is a vast difference between the Spirit's power and activity in the Old Testament and that in the New - the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and, as long as he required His power, it was there for him. Until the day he died he knew something of the power of the Spirit of the Lord upon him. However, like David, the Spirit might be taken from him (as it was from Saul - 1 Sam.16:14), but this could never happen at the present moment. We are "sealed [with the Spirit of God] until the day of redemption" (Eph.4:30). The Spirit of God indwells our bodies until the day the Lord comes for us, or until the day we die. It is a very sad thing if we are unfaithful but we cannot lose the Spirit of God, He is always with us. The Lord promised that He would be with us forever (John 14:16). It is sad that in a day marked by glory, blessing and wonderful opportunity, we might fail to take advantage of the power and blessing that is there for us. May the Lord help us to be stimulated by the example of such a man as Othniel.

What immense comfort that this Divine Seal will never be removed from any, even the feeblest believer. Many are defective as to this point. Many fear that the Holy Spirit will really be withdrawn, because of their faulty ways and walk. Not so. God gave me His Holy Spirit well knowing what I should turn out to be, and gave Him not because of what He saw in me, but because of what He saw in Christ. This will never change. But a careful holy walk is nevertheless due from us. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30)

Our present enjoyment of divine things depends upon the measure in which we keep from things and ways which would grieve the heavenly Seal, the Holy Spirit. He is sensitive to all that offends holiness, in conduct, speech, or disposition of heart as detailed from Eph. 4:20 and onwards. He will never withdraw Himself from the one sealed; that would be to falsify the whole truth of redemption. But He does, when grieved, withdraw joy and power from the Christian's life until the fault is confessed, and the frame of mind which allowed the old man to act again is judged. The reason that a Christian out of communion is inwardly wretched (even if he be outwardly placid) is not that the Spirit has abandoned him, but that He will not abandon him; necessarily depriving him of happiness until he has returned to his Lord in broken confession.

Our object now is to unfold what the Scriptures teach concerning this subject. As we have seen, the Spirit of God takes up His abode in us, consequent upon our becoming sons. And this it is which distinguishes a Christian from the saints under the old dispensation. Jewish believers were quickened, born again, but they knew nothing of God's Spirit as dwelling in them; "for the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). He wrought by His power; for it was He who quickened the Jewish saints, as well as Christians; He also strengthened them for walk and service; but His coming down from heaven as a person to dwell in believers, and in the Church, was consequent upon the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. This difference is marked in one aspect very plainly by a prayer of the psalmist: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11); but the apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians says, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). Working by His influences in the heart of the psalmist, it was possible for him to lose that blessed power; but believers now, though they may grieve, are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. Just as the presence of the Holy Ghost upon the earth, in the house of God, characterizes Christianity, so His dwelling in God's children distinguishes them from the believers of all past dispensations. For it is the Holy Spirit that unites us to Christ, makes us members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 5:30); and this union, this place as members of His body, was not possible until Christ had been glorified, and had taken the place of Head in heaven.

Here the Spirit is taken from Saul and transferred to David. After this Saul is as a man bereft of God's presence and help. He seeks satanic help by consulting the witch of Endor, finally in the battle on Mount Gilboa dying ingloriously by falling upon his own sword. So ended a life that once had some promise in it. This shows that the Spirit could be given and withdrawn according to God's pleasure. In the New Testament the Spirit once bestowed is never withdrawn, as we shall see plainly when we take up that side of the subject.

David seems to have known that the Spirit of God could be withdrawn. After Nathan, the prophet, had rebuked David for his sin with Bathsheba, he wrote that great penitential psalm, when he cried out in the bitterness of his soul,

"Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11).

The Holy Ghost is also the One by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption. He is the earnest, until we come into the actual possession of the inheritance, and the anointing or spiritual power whereby we are fitted to live according to the Lord's mind: "After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory." (Eph. 1:13-14.) "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2:20.) Besides these, there are many more operations of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, who has come down to dwell in us; and it is well to see that He is in us, and is to abide with us for ever. Many a timid soul says, "I am afraid I shall so grieve Him that He will depart from me;" but Scripture says quite the reverse. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Eph. 4:30.) But they say, Then why did David so fear this that he cried out, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me"? But it is certain that David never had the Spirit dwelling in him as we have; and if he only knew what it was to have the Spirit coming upon him, and moving him now and then to prophesy, etc., no wonder that he so ardently cried out, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." It is, however, sufficient to show that the teaching of the epistles is not, Do not grieve Him, lest He depart; but, Do not grieve Him, because He will not depart, but will abide with you for ever. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Eph. 4:30.)

The Spirit of God came upon Samson time and again, for some special action; and so it was with king Saul, but the time came “when the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him” (1 Sam. 16:14). At that time, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward,” (verse 13); but David, after his grievous failure, cries to the Lord, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). He knew what had happened to Saul, and in true repentance turned to God, crying for His mercy. But all these show the character of the Spirit’s action: He did not abide on any of those upon whom He came.

When David's sorrowful sin of adultery with Bathsheba was brought home to him by Nathan the prophet, he was smitten in his conscience and immediately repented of his evil deeds (2 Samuel 12:7). Not only did he repent but he left a record for all to read about the reality of his repentance toward God. Would anyone like to write about their failure in such an open way? Psalm 51 is a laying bare of the heart and conscience of a penitent man of God. It was against God that he had sinned. It was to God that he made his confession of guilt. The danger of losing the presence, help and power of the Holy Spirit was a very real one. King Saul, Israel's first king, had known the power of the Spirit in his life, but because of his failures the Spirit of God left him (1 Samuel 10:6, 10; 1 Samuel 11:6; 1 Samuel 16:14). It was the remembrance of this that caused David to pray as he did. It is of interest to note that the Spirit of God wrought mightily in Samson, a judge of Israel (Judges 13:25; Judges 14:6, 19; Judges 15:14). From the time that Samson betrayed his Nazarite vow to the cunning Delilah and lost his strength, there are no more references to the Spirit working in him (Judges 16:17). When devotion and reparation to God were slighted the Spirit's help was withdrawn.