Page 40 - Ephesians

I don’t know what it means to you, but it becomes increasingly
precious to me, that God has put His seal on my life. Satan loves
to torment the children of God, but nobody breaks the seal. Once
you get the seal, it’s there, and you can’t erase it. My wife used to
have tremendous doubts about her salvation. I entertained
doubts, but not like hers. She went through agony. But doubts,
don’t’ erase the seal. Backsliding can’t erase the seal. He says,
“You are rich, and you are in Christ Jesus. Even though you don’t
see it, I’ve put a seal on you. The Holy Spirit is that seal, and your
fears will not be able to erase it”. Nothing can erase it,

“Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ
Jesus; not death, not life, not angels, not principalities, not
things present and not things to come and not powers and
not height and not depth nor any other created thing is able
to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus”.

Look at verse 14. The Holy Spirit not only seals us, but is given
as a pledge. KJV says, it’s an “earnest”. The Greek says,
“down payment”. In the world of agriculture, the word would
have been “first fruits”. But we aren’t farmers. The earnest is the
partial payment, toward the total obligation. It guarantees the
fulfillment of the transaction. Let me illustrate. If I were buying a
house, and they wanted a down payment. I’d put down 15% cash.
I’ve paid the earnest. When it comes time to pay it off, I ask,
“How much do I owe?” They would say, “85%.” If I pay them
85% in marbles, will they let me have the house? If I pay 85% in
bananas, or old newspapers. Will that satisfy the debt? The down
payment and the balance owed, must be in like value. It has to be
qualitatively the same.

Do you see what God is saying here? He’s saying, “I’ve blessed
you so much, you will never come to the end of it”. How do I
know, for sure, I’m going to get it? He’s already given, the “down
payment”. He has given the earnest, His Holy Spirit. A foretaste
of His presence, which in the future, will be the Kingdom of
Heaven. It’s an amazing thing.