Where Does the Holy Spirit Reside?

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless . . . �1 Thessalonians 5:23
�Your whole spirit . . . .� The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach. Read Psalm 139 . The psalmist implies� �O Lord, You are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea. But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me.�

Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? �. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin� (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will �walk in the light as He is in the light� (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God�s sight.

We should more frequently allow our minds to meditate on these great, massive truths of God."

Oswald Chambers

Someone suggests that the Holy Spirit "resides" in the gut. What do you think?

I'm not sure, I will freely admit, that I'm not exactly sure where the Holy Spirit actually resides in a redeemed individual. : "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell from where it came, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8 may give us a clue. Then again, it may be a clue on the actual ACTIONS of the Holy Spirit upon a believer in and a follower of Jesus. Wow....I just looked up John 7:38 on a website that displays the verse "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." and about half of the translations use either the prase: (out of his heart will flow.....) OR (out of his inmost being shall flow........) and the King James Version 2000 and the plain King James version uses: (out of his belly shall flow.......) rivers of living water. Verse 39: (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
So I suppose that answering that question would depend on which translation that I consider to be the most authentic. And, of course, that opens up a whole other can of worms, where opinions will run from one extreme to the other depending on which version one's grandma used when she read the Bible to him/her. Me? I always try to divorce myself from tradition and go with my "gut" on which translation is most accurate, as far as I can tell. I would say the Holy Spirit dwells within the heart (the seat of the will of the person....NOT the actual fist-sized muscle that pumps the blood). And I believe as humans, suffering the effects of the fall of Man, our will, or rather.....our "want to-er" is broken and in need of repair. At first, all it wants is to be happy. And after being touched by Jesus, it starts wanting others (including God) to be happy, although it may STILL have some of selfishness left. And after some more suffering the consequences of being selfish and self centered, it finally comes to a point where the heart of a redeemed peron wants most of all for his fellow man and God to be happy!!. I think that it is somewhere in this process, that the second work of grace occurs. Many of the old writers believed that it required a crisis of the heart to prepare it for being FILLED with the Holy Spirit. Such as, when the heart of an individual, in despair, gives up trying to be holy under his own power.....LOOKS UP, and prays Oh God, I can't...but YOU can.

Kevin

The last sentence of your post sums up how we get the fullness of the Spirit. As soon as we realize that we can`t, but He can...and will, we have taken a huge leap. In the OT, the Spirit" would come "upon" a person for a time, but then depart after a work was done. After Jesus ascended and sat down at the right hand of God, the Comforter was sent and will teach us...and live within us. Do we have to "ask" for the Holy Spirit to reside in us? I don`t think so because that comes with accepting Jesus as God in flesh and the sacrifice He did. I do think we must ask for Gifts of the Spirit...most of the time. Complete trust in Him and removal of "self" seems to be a prerequisite for becoming a conduit for His power, but I get a bit confused on finer points of this. Are we to "settle" for the indwelling of the Spirit? Should we ask for all these gifts? It has been enough for me, thus far, to simply know that God loves me and has sent His Spirit to dwell within me.....the peace is astounding!

In Christ`s Love,

Charlie

As I took my break at lunch today, I pondered this thread and especially the question about where the Holy Spirit resides in a redeemed person. Somewhere I read this example, and it about sums it up for me.
Take a bucket(the individual) and fill it all the way to the top with water(the Spirit). The bucket is full, right? No more water will fit into it, right? Now take the full bucket on a boat out to the middle of the Pacific ocean and drop it into the deepest part. As the bucket sinks, the bucket is still full of water, the water also completely surrounds the bucket on all sides, the bucket contains the water but the water completely contains the bucket as well as the water in it. I don`t remember who wrote this explaination of a spirit filled life, but it gives me comfort to know that the same spirit that fills me also totally contains me, wraps around me, and comforts me from all sides at once.
The Psalmist acknowledges that there is nowhere he can go that God is not there and has always been there. The Spirit of God`s love wraps itsself around us from inside, outside, near, far, and forever.

How great is our God?

Charlie

Many good thoughts here! We must not, however, confuse the incoming of the Holy Spirit with the fulness of the Holy Spirit. The disciples received the Holy Spirit for new life when Jesus breathed upon them in John 20:22. He had just returned from His Father, having presented His own blood as sacrifice upon the 'heavenly' mercyseat. Praise God the Father accepted this offering to cover our sins for all eternity! The Great High Priest returns to His people, finds them in a locked room for fear, breathes upon them and says "Receive the Holy Spirit". Later they are instructed to 'tarry in Jerusalem until they receive power' to be His witnesses. Pentecost was to endue the believers with power - they already had new life.
Today, the church in north America seems to me to be largely impotent. "O Lord, how we need another Pentecost, men and women baptised with the Holy Spirit. Revive Your work O Lord."

I FULLY agree. I'll go ahead and say it. I fully believe in a second work of grace (i know ...I know....,it HAS become cliche......but I am NOT quoting the cliche). What I AM doing is taking my stand with many great men and women of God who have gone before me, who read the scriptures, and saw the same thing. Tozer .....prophecied? .....about why the church was weak and would be grwoing weaker. I cannot remember the book, but I can remember the quote...but NOT verbatim. The essence of Tozer's quote was this: " The church teachers of the day, who teach that you recieve EVERYTHING at conversion, and that there is nothing, or Noone to be sought afterwards, has left the church in the weak and impotent postition that it is in!!!! People are told: You are now converted, there is no further need of seeking anymore of God. You got ALL of Him at conversion." Those people walk away thinking that: "there is nothing else to do. All is well. I am heaven-bound. Nothing else available." And so the power has gone out of the church and people wonder why. (Tozer also said): It is the most HARMFUL teaching to ever come along....that the measure of the Spirit that we recieve at conversion is "all that there is". It renders the church impotent.
I agree with this. St Luke said in his gospel: "If you fathers, being evil, no how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heaveny Father give the Holy Spirit to THOSE WHO ASK. (emphasis mine)
Until momma got so sick that I had to stay home with her on a more permanent basis, I attended a church (it was closest to my house) whose main Southern XXXXXXXX Convention teaches that you get it all at salvation. Expect nothing else. Seek nothing else. The gifts of the Spirit died with the last Apostle. Blah Blah Blah. I no longer attend that church. The alliterated sermons (where every point starts with the same letter) and the Bill Gaither-type gospel concert style worship placed no doubt in my mind that this was not an atmosphere of growth into the Deeper Life. But rather.....another example of people "doing church" on Sunday's to appease God and get Him off of their backs. It wa also a chance for many of the more musically inclined to get up, and have a captive audience, and showcase THEIR talents.....complete with applause and whistling. Many would sing to canned music like on Karayoke Night at the local Moose Lodge on Friday nite and I don't think that there is much difference between the two except that the pastor would occasionally say something spiritual. And this type thing is going on all over the Bible belt. I believe because people have forgot that the Holy Spirit wants to take up residence in their temple (body). Whetjher the gut or the heart, depends on which translation you read.
But it is an outstanding question: I, too, am now more curious, to which aspect of me does the Holy Spirit actually live. And I believe it is very close to the seat of my will. That is why the will of man can grieve the Spirit or, quite the opposite, walk in the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit. (I'm sorry, my blood pressure went up during my mini rant and I lost a bit of focus of the original posters question, which is a very good one)

¹⁹Do not put out the Spirit's fire; ²⁰do not treat prophecies with contempt. ²¹Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²²Avoid every kind of evil. ²³May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If He is sanctifying all...doesn't He need to dwell in All. I think the question should be where do we dwell / abide. No temple can contain Him anyway.

Absolute sway....

1 Corinthians 6:19 �What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?�

Just as God dwelt in a temple under the Old Covenant, so also the Holy Spirit dwells in each Christian as a temple today.

Hope this helps, Blessings to all!

Radar, you beat me to it!!! Very good, and a point that we must not miss.
"And in other news"...if I am heading toward a cliff and don't about it, and there are others standing around who KNOW about the deadly cliff, I would surely WANT them and ENCOURAGE them to SWAY ME away for the cliff by any means possible. Absolutely sway me.

Thanks Candice for great this topic, all the input has been a blessing. Sometimes I ponder what it would have been like to live in the times before the Holy Spirit resided in us. I've thought it would have been nice to live in times of miracles like the parting of the Red Sea or having the cloud of God travel through the desert with the peoples. Better yet to live during Jesus's ministry and be healed by Him because you knew who HE IS. And then I think how tough it would've been to keep from straying when the miracles weren't happening. The people started worshiping a golden calf when Moses was only gone 40 days. Sometimes I wonder how they maintained any obedience. But then again they lived closer to the beginning of creation and the history was fresher, not like these days where people have no idea that Adam and Eve are their oldest relatives. God created all people to have a longing for something more than just existence if that weren't true we'd be like all the other animals. So given how we were made whether before or after the Holy Spirit it seems like we just do the best we can and that unfortunately falls short. As a whole we have always fallen short and that helps remind us that we are nothing without Him. I frankly don't know how there can be any humanist left who believe that people will ever fix this world. I thank our Creator who's majesty and power not only show in the beauty and intricacies of the earth but in the Body who give us glimpses of Him. I'm so happy there will come a time when everything will be as God intended. Until then let His waters flow.

I know this is a old thread, but I am trying to get a deeper understanding of the holy spirit.

My question is where does the holy spirit reside? In our mind (externally) or in our physical body?

What I am struggling with.. if the holy spirit is the trinity of God and that holy spirit is supposed to dwell in us... how can we knownly sin?

If God dwells in us (via holy spirit)... how could we possibly sin?

Personally, I find that most debates about sin - can we be saved if we sin? - are we sinless if we are saved? can never be resolved because no one ever begins with a clear definition of sin. What is sin? Once you determine the overt stuff, like murder, adultery, thievery, fornication, all the biggies in 1 Corinthians 6:9, you then have to address the small stuff, like jealousy, gossiping, grudge-bearing, revengefulness, lying, cheating, being overbearing and mean-spirited.

 

The thing is though, most truly surrendered Christians, that I know, do not exhibit nor are attracted to any of these common human frailties because once you step up to the light of Christ, those dark things don’t pull anymore.

 

So, does that mean, sin is described only by the worst things mankind can do? Does the strict definition of sin circumvent small natural human reactions - like thinking a not so pure thought, laughing at a not so clean joke. What is sin? What about the fundamentalists who believe wearing lipstick or cutting your hair is a sin? Who gets to decide what sin is? Maybe it's as simple as, if you think it is, then it is - for you.

 

I see a growing rise in blatant self-righteousness, that mirrors exactly what Christ preached about how the Pharisees behaved. 

 

"God does not want us to live self-righteous lives - He wants us to live in His righteousness. He wants us to admit that He is the only one who is righteous - our righteousness is as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector with very different approaches to prayer (Luke 18:1-14).

 

The Pharisee was so self-righteous that he patted himself on the back for all his good deeds. He was full of pride and thanked God that he was not like that awful tax collector next to him. Well, the tax collector was a sinner for sure. Tax collectors were hated for squeezing money out of people and lining their own pockets with the extra money they extorted. This guy, though, was humble and so consumed with admitting his wrongs to God that he beat his breast, not daring to even lift his eyes to heaven.

 

God says the tax collector was justified. The Pharisee was not. I keep that in mind when I am wounded by self-righteous people and thank God that He accepts me, a sinner, and hears my prayers."  - Carola Finch

 

So long as we are still flesh and blood, in this world, no matter how we strive to do what pleases God even as we hope to avoid disappointing Him from time to time, the real issue is about how do we define what sin is. The kind that leads to death?

 

For me, I think of my relationship with Christ as being like a father and child. Like any father, He loves me and He brings to my attention, quickly I might add, when I am not living up to the standards He has set for me. Did I sin? Okay, let’s say I had a mean thought about someone who is determined to force his opinion on me. That’s what being in tune to the quickening of the Holy Spirit does, calls to our attention what is on the don’t do list. Then that’s what being humble and repenting is for. Pretty simple really. 

 

As for where does the Holy Spirit reside? That’s classic human myopia. We simply cannot define the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit is not flesh, and therefore doesn’t have to have a place to be, just like God cannot be confined to a man-made building.

RefineMe
I believe Holy Spirit dwells wherever the Creator allows or directs. Over the waters at creation, in Christ, in believers, in us. It’s too big.
Even David indicated that many things are too big for him to grasp.
I’m good with it.

Thanks Candice/Meema for your replies!

It has been a challenge to get dialog with a forum on this topic... typically the response I get is a few bible quotes and I am to accept that.

I will be honest... I am a engineer so I process things different then most. I am searching for a deeper understanding. I feel that I am missing something regarding the Holy Spirit and I feel if I can "unlock" this mystery (within me)... my Christian walk will be more fruitful. So, please be patient with my quest for understanding.

I have been a "Christian" for about 30 years now, yet I don't "see" or feel the Holy Spirit inside me. My thoughts are no different since I have been saved.

I understand the concept of replacing "me" with the "Spirit" via meditation on the word, etc.

But again, how can I sin or have sinful thoughts if the Holy Spirit, the Trinity of God is residing in me... that is where I struggle. Should I vision the Holy Spirit as a little guy that sits on my right shoulder and tell me what path I should take, while the devil is on my left shoulder telling me the opposite... and my human nature has to decide? I cannot believe that is what the Holy Spirit is. If the Holy Spirit is in my physical body, then it should be more of a driving force in my life. That is the challenge that I struggle with.

Any comments (please be nice LOL) are welcome.

Dear RefineMe,

 

This forum is, essentially, a well kept secret. :-) For the most part there is no ‘judging’ here. The point of this forum is to provide a safe haven to openly discuss difficult topics that examine what the Deeper Life means. 

 

I am a life-long student of human personality types and the amazing ways God has created us to be, not robots, but different. These differences equip us to see things from multiple perspectives, and to cope with (or not) life as it comes to us. We are not all wired the same. My take on this is that we are each designed to do what we are able to do then. The feet cannot do what the eyes do, etc. 

 

Classic example: Peter and Paul were not big fans of each other but then they had different assignments. Even so, though they did not see things the same, they had a singular goal - whatever was Christ’s will for them individually. 

 

What is Christ’s will for us, as individuals, who are collectively part of the Body?

 

I personally am wired toward seeking discernment, defining what is fundamental. Getting to the root of a thing. It is my experience that most of what we choose to believe has a lot of unnecessary added on baggage collected over time. You say you are an engineer so I assume you see things as needing to fit together properly. When something doesn’t fit, it bothers you. I get that. Solution oriented.

 

So, the only way I have been able to be open to growing in the spirit, was first knowing myself, the good, the bad, the ugly, and then come to the end of myself. To get out of my own way so that I could actually see His. For me, this meant that I had to stop overthinking everything, to stop looking inward and look out and up instead. I had to stop relating to everything based on my personal scope of understanding and accept that God is way bigger than we can grasp. I had to finally trust, more importantly, that He knows me, and He is more than able to guide me. I can’t thwart God.

 

I did have to give up self will though, to accept that my way is never as good as His. Ever. In fact, I am so accustomed to being completely blown away by His amazing solutions, that I don’t even try anymore to offer up suggestions like I used to.

 

Instead of praying his will is done, I trust more on just being His will without thinking about it. And, yet, never ever thinking that makes me any kind of special.

 

Even so I am still compelled to dig into the root of all things, and usually this means testing human semantics. It is so easy to say a thing and yet say nothing because the actual language used has no concrete definition. If I say we can’t discuss a thing until we define the key words, then what happens is that all the ways differently made people can see something changes the conversation and usually dissolves into conflict, and the object of the conversation is lost.

 

I have said this before but I’ll say it again and again, one litmus test for being okay is: if you can say, truthfully, that you would serve Christ, just because He is worthy to be served, even if you found out you would be discarded, then you are okay.  

 

When one is truly ready to know what it means to be an open vessel, ready to receive, a lot of emptying out of self has to happen. Not saying it’s easy though.

 

Not sure that was what you were looking for but there it is. :-)

 

Blessings,

Meema

Dear RefineMe,
I began this thread in 2013. I was wanting every question answered in a concrete manner. Now, I surrendered, as only the Lord did a work —not me working it out—in me.

Six years brought many trials and some idea that I don’t have a concrete answers for that spiritual world. But, I believe it’s right here somehow. We don’t see it snd that always bothered me just like you say, you didn’t feel the Holy Spirit.

I hope you keep on asking the Lord snd believers and the skies knows you care snd are seeking. He will not let you down.

Okay, so this has launched a question for me - what should the Holy Spirit, in me, feel like? 

A complete sense of knowing God’s presence is there?
That’s what I desire at all times.

Yes. Faith in His constant presence is a great definition. 

 

Full disclosure, it wasn’t a rhetorical question. I didn’t have an answer at the ready. Sometimes, and I am guilty as charged, we are so familiar with something we don’t even know how to step back and describe it. 

 

I had to think about this. So, here’s what I came up with.

 

Receiving the Holy Spirit isn’t always an ah-ha moment.  God speaks to us in the way we can hear. Some might need a rushing wind or a bolt of lightning or being thrown to the ground face down. That sort of demonstration of power was never necessary for me though. 

 

My first known experience with chatting with God was at age six. I do not recall any specific theological training that led me to a knowledge of the existence of God so I can’t tell you how I knew He was there and listening. I just knew.

 

I was swinging, as high as I could pump, trying, in vain, to touch a low hanging branch of a pine tree that stood in front of the swing set. Given the actual distance between my toe and the pine needles, I was never going to achieve that goal but I kept trying anyway.

 

When the arc of the swing reached maximum height, my bottom suddenly lifted off of the wooden seat and then gravity immediately bumped me back down. For one millisecond I felt as though I was flying. 

 

It was a beautiful day and fluffy clouds filled the blue blue Texas sky. Suddenly I wanted to be able to fly. I told God that if He would allow me to fly in the clouds, just for a minute, I would never tell anyone. I didn’t hear Him, there was no voice booming from the sky or sounds in my ear. I felt His answer somewhere in a place that is not my flesh. That indescribable reception area specifically designed to receive communication from the still small voice. He said, “Wait.”

 

And, because I was a child who believed without question that the answer I received was good enough, I never doubted that one day I would fly in the clouds. Decades later, as an adult, I was looking out the airplane window to the fluffy clouds below me. It hit me like being lifted off my swing in one split second and then slammed down again. I was flying. In the clouds.

 

In that moment, so many decades later, I received a much needed confirmation. He knew so long ago that I would be in a slump, needing refreshment, encouragement and uplifting.  I needed to be that child again, who understood somehow that He is there, He always was there, He always will be there. 

 

We think He wants us to do something to prove we are His, to demonstrate some kind of outward appearance, but really all He needs from us is to believe He is in every moment. He has all the answers. We don’t have to. All we have to do is listen, obey and trust. 

 

I am always astounded by His solutions. They are never whatt I would have imagined. Flying in the clouds can happen more than one way.

 

blessings,

Meema

Hi! I came with this same question today! He comes to lives permanently inside us but operates primarily in our  souls, minds  with a special connection to our hearts. We learn, decide, feel, behave, obey, and act according to what we think. Our thoughts direct almost every action of our lives. He changes, transform, remind, teach,give us: wisdom, understanding ,council, strength, freedom,knowledge, enlightenment etc. We are called to have the mind of Christ, to center our attention in heavenly things. We are able to know the Fathers will through the renewal of our minds. So, I can't assure the Holy Spirit lives exactly in our mind but certainly our mind is important to Him. We are spirit, soul and body. Maybe He comes to live in that special place that is missing and completed once we receive it! Good question for thought! God bless! ( Please excuse my grammar errors. I am practicing my English)