God's Holy Fire: 'Don't Take Your Spirit Away'

This desperate cry for God's forgiveness is from King David to God in David's deep sorrow for his sin with Bathsheba. The king before David, Saul, had blatantly disobeyed God and sought to rationalize his sin. God took his Holy Spirit from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14). So David's cry is understandable: In the Old Testament, God's Spirit normally didn't come to dwell in his people permanently. However, I believe that the New Testament teaches that when the Holy Spirit comes into people at their conversion, this gift of the Spirit is permanent. They can grieve, quench, resist, and ignore the Spirit's influence, but God doesn't take the Spirit away from them. Jesus promised that the gift of the Spirit would be with us forever (John 14:14-16). In a chapter focusing on the Holy Spirit, Paul talked about nothing separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37-39). As followers of Jesus in whom the Holy Spirit lives, we shouldn't have the concern David voices. Instead, when we hear David's heart-wrenching cry, we need to be reminded of three things:

1. We need to be thankful for this precious gift of the Holy Spirit, God's presence within us, to be with us until we go home to the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:22).
2. We need to be reminded of the hurtfulness of sin to the Spirit of God living within us (Ephesians 4:25-32; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).
3. We need to commit to honoring God with what we do, think, and say (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).