Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”
Definition
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the doctrine that the Spirit takes up permanent residence within every believer at conversion, making each believer, and the church as a whole, a dwelling place of God himself rather than a place God merely visits or influences from outside.1
Biblical Basis
Paul asks the Corinthians to recognize what they already are: “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God” (1 Cor. 6:19), and describes the whole church in the same terms, “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). This indwelling marks out who belongs to Christ at all: “anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him… he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:9-11). Jesus promises this same permanent presence to his disciples before his death: the Spirit of truth “dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17), a settled indwelling rather than a temporary or occasional visitation.1