Recently at White Fields, we did a 5-week study on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, called “The Spirit Filled Life” (click here to view that series).
One of the questions that is sometimes asked about the Holy Spirit, is whether God will ever remove the Holy Spirit from a person because of disobedience or sinful actions.
Certainly there are verses which talk about God removing the Holy Spirit from people, such as Psalm 51:11, where King David prays, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David prayed this in the wake of his sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), so that brings up the question: Are there times when God removes the Holy Spirit from someone if they do something really bad?
Furthermore, in 1 Samuel 16, is says that the Spirit of the Lord departed from King Saul, and in the Book of Judges, it says that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Samson.
So, does this mean that God will REMOVE his Spirit from YOU, if you live in a bad way? If so, that would be a pretty big problem, because Romans 8:9 says “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
Understanding the Three Relationships the Holy Spirit has with different groups of people
In order to answer this question and understand what it meant for David, Saul, and Samson – and what it means for us today, we have to first understand the 3 different relationships that the Bible tells us the Holy Spirit has with different groups of people.
Relationship 1: “WITH” All People
In John 14:17, Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit had been with them up until that point.
Jesus then he told them that the work of the Spirit in the world is that He brings about conviction in people’s hearts and minds about 3 things: Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment (John 16:8)
In other words, the Holy Spirit is at work in the world in every country, with all people, and he is whispering in their ears and speaking to their hearts about the fact that 1) They are sinners (they have fallen short of God’s perfect standard), and 2) God is righteous, so therefore 3) There is coming a day of judgment when they will have to stand before that righteous God and give account for their lives.
The purpose of this conviction is not to just make people feel bad about themselves; the purpose is to draw them to Jesus by bringing them to a realization of why they need a savior, so they will embrace Jesus and what He has done in order to save them.
Relationship 2: “IN” those who have been redeemed by Jesus
Jesus told his disciples in John 14:17: The Holy Spirit has been WITH YOU up until this point — but soon, the Holy Spirit will also be IN YOU.
This indwelling of the Holy Spirit is something that was prophesied by the Old Testament prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that one day God was going to put His Spirit within His people (Ezekiel 36:27), in order to transform them from the inside out.
For people in the Old Testament, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was always a future event, but after Jesus had died and resurrected, we read in John 20:22 that Jesus met with his disciples and he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It was at this moment, that the disciples received the Holy Spirit within them, and it was at this moment that they were “born again.” (See also: “What does it mean to be “Born Again”?)
What it comes down to is this: Only those who have put their faith in Jesus have the Holy Spirit within them, and every person who has put their faith in Jesus has the Holy Spirit dwelling with them.
The Bible tells us that when you put your faith in Jesus, God puts his seal on you and gives you His Spirit in as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:23). Furthermore, the regenerating and indwelling Spirit is called “the Spirit of Adoption” (Romans 8:15) It’s His guarantee that you belong to Him, and you are His.
The indwelling Spirit sanctifies, leads, guides, strengthens, and transforms from within.
Relationship 3: “UPON” Some people at different times, to empower them to do what God has called them to do
Remember how in John 20 Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? Well, right after that, Jesus told his disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them. (Luke 24 & Acts 1:4)
But… if they just RECEIVED the Holy Spirit, then why did Jesus tell them to wait for the Holy Spirit?
Because: this is speaking about two different relationships with the Holy Spirit!
When Jesus breathed upon them, they received the Spirit IN them (and they were born again) — but then they were to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come UPON them: to EMPOWER THEM to carry out the mission Jesus had given them.
That’s why Jesus His disciples in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come UPON you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Throughout the Old Testament, before people could have the Holy Spirit WITHIN them — we read that the Holy Spirit would come UPON people, to empower them to do things God had called them to do. For example, it says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon! (Judges 6:34 NKJV) We’re also told that the Holy Spirit came UPON Samson, and UPON David, and UPON Elisha, and others — to EMPOWER them to do what God had called them to do.
So, Jesus was promising his disciples (and us) — that the Holy Spirit will also come upon us, to empower us to carry out the callings He has placed upon our lives.
Un-Adopting? Un-Sealing?
Remember: in the Old Testament, the Spirit was WITH people (to bring conviction) and the Holy Spirit was UPON people (to empower them), but at that point that Spirit was not yet WITHIN people. So when we read in the Old Testament about God “removing” his Spirit, it’s not in the sense of a person who had the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, rather it’s in the sense of God removing the empowering work of the Holy Spirit from those people.
But for a person who has been sealed by the Holy Spirit indwelling them, we never read of God removing His Spirit from someone in that sense. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption. God does not un-adopt us when we make mistakes and mess up, rather: he disciplines us like a loving Father (see Hebrews 12).
If He has SEALED you, as a guarantee of your salvation, that’s exactly what it is: He has placed his Spirit within you as a guarantee that He will see you through and bring to completion the good work that He has begun in you.
If you are His child, He won’t give up on you – and that’s really good news!
Further Study
For more on the 3 Relationships with the Holy Spirit, see this study: The Promised Helper
For more on the question of God removing His Spirit, see this study: The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Life of a Believer
Theology for the People 
Thanks Nick. Very helpful article, Glenn
I have a few questions and observations.
It seems there many scriptural examples (parables, teeachings, stories) and deductions from scripture that indicate the Spirit can and will leave a believer in the OT or now if a believer backslides and doesn’t turn from their sin and confess and repent. That they will develop a reprobate mind the longer they don’t renew their mind and walk in darkness. Jesus’ parables and apostles warn of the deceitfulness of sin and vain faith that doesn’t mature, endure, and continue to listen to and follow Christ. God’s salvation promises seem to be like any covenant and requires the believer’s ongoing faithfulness, obedience, and inner fruit of righteousness and holiness. Jesus will save all of His sheep but I think that requires the believer to stay close to Christ and keep following Him and come back when He corrects. Jesus’ provides protection to those sheep who stay close and continue to trust and obey. I am not sure His yoke is a prison but requires a willingness and humility of the believer to submit to Him and His way of living and not renal/resist the Spirit. Scripture says there is no forgiveness without confession and repentance and we know scripture talks about sin that leads to death and blasphemy of the Spirit being unforgivable. The believer’s body is a temple and the Spirit cannot dwell in a corrupt temple that becomes captive to sin again. That would become a divided kingdom which would fall if the believer doesn’t confess and repent after too long. It seems that is what blasphemy is, resisting the power, forgiveness, and prompting of the Spirit while God is still near (inside the person) and can still hear His voice. That seems to be what Hebrews is talking about for those believers who don’t mature and understand God’s ways, His loving discipline, and role of the Spirit. God uses discipline to sanctify and correct His children to become obedient through suffering but some resist God’s discipline out of ignorance, foolishness, stubbornness, temptation, deception, neglect, etc. Scripture commands a believer not to grieve and quench the Spirit which happens because of sin with the danger that that children may drift away from Christ and not come back.
There are so many warnings in Christ’s parables and apostles letters that salvation is continual after the new birth and one has to keep believing and following Christ and strengthen in their faith or they run the risk of falling back into walking in the flesh instead of the Spirit which eventually leads to condemnation and spiritual death if the Spirit eventually departs. There seems to be a spiritual law or reaping and sowing for the believer which leads to physical/spiritual life or death. Man had freewill that has to chose to cooperate and submit to walk in the Spirit. This seems to be played out in Saul as he rebelled and fell back into unconfessed and unrepentant sin and lost the Spirit which filled him and changed his heart according to scripture he was a new creation. David witnessed this and was a man after God’s own heart too but with better character and willingness to humble himself and stay close under God’s protection. David seemed to know these spiritual truths of how the Spirit works and the human heart and that he could lose the spirit on the inside after he backslid if God didn’t renew a right spirit and heart within him also clearly indicating the Spirit was inside David for him to know and ask this and for God to restore/cleanse his heart that had became corrupt.
Also, I don’t see how Abraham and any descendants of Abraham in the OT could have saving faith, be reconciled to God with a personal relationship, and walk in obedience without the Holy Spirit. I don’t recall scripture anywhere using the word “indwell” to indicate location of the Spirit. If the Spirit was in a believer I can see a writer saying God was with them or filling them and both indicating God’s Spirit was inside them leading and guiding them (thinking, decisions, etc.). Anyone born again today can say God is “with them” because the Spirit of God is inside them. Also, 1 Sam says both Saul and David were filled with the Holy Spirit which is a NT term and command that believers are to experience as well. If someone is filled with the Spirit then the Spirit is inside them not on them. I don’t know if anyone NT believer that would say someone who is filled with the Spirit today like David or Saul doesn’t have the “indwelling Spirit”. It seems if the Spirit is filling someone, it is doing that from within itself inside of the person. Also, it doesn’t seem outside the possibility that when scripture says the Spirit came upon someone that it represents the writer using their linguistic freedom to describe the same thing in a different way, meaning that the Spirit is inside that person when it “came upon” and God was giving them to will and work for His good pleasure. it was just a different way to indicate it was inside them or both inside and on them. Who is to say that someone born again doesn’t have the Spirit both inside and on them? We are talking about the spiritual realm and there are probably things pertaining this realm we don’t understand.
1 Sam says Saul was given a new heart as was David when they were filled with the Spirit which is exactly what the Spirit does today, change the inner man’s heart and give spiritual gifts. Believers are filled with the Spirit in both the OT and today so i don’t know if the prophecies in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel are distinct to the church age but perhaps distinct to Gentiles as that hadn’t happened on a mass scale before which is indicative of the message of the gospel, salvation coming to all of the Nations.
When reading the Psalms it seems pretty clear David has the Spirit inside as his focus is on God’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, spirit of the law, and God changing his heart and being holy and righteous on the inside. These are all spiritual things that only the spiritually minded can understand, those who have the mind of Christ with the Spirit inside them illuminating and enlightening the eyes of the inner man’s heart. The internal revelation and ministry of the Holy Spirit seems no different than what happens to believes today with the internal sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Why do Christians believe believers in the OT weren’t saved the same way now, by grace through faith and then receive the gift/marking of salvation in God giving them the Spirit? Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Salvation was never by works of the law but by grace through faith and walking in the Spirit of power, love, and self-control. Salvation always requires the Holy Spirit for justification, reconciliation, obedience from the heart, sanctification, holiness and righteousness and endurance. There is no salvation and relationship to God and willingness to follow Him without the Spirit of God in that man. Isn’t that what Paul says in Romans? That those descendants of Abraham who had saving faith were circumcised of the heart in the OT just like we are now? The only way scripture says someone’s heart can be circumcised is if the Holy Spirit is sanctifying them on the inside.
Job 32:18, 33:4 seems to describe regeneration and new birth. Other passages indicating the filling/in dwelling of the Spirit: Gen 41, Ex 31:3/35:31, Daniel 4:8, 2 Sam 23:2.
Israel was saved from Egypt and 1 Cor and Hebrews seems to infer they were spiritually saved to (born again) and given the Spirit inside them when they trusted God and followed Him out of Egypt. 1 Cor 10:3-4 as does Jer 2:13 seems to be talking about spiritual life/living water which only Christ can provide to those who have the Spirit living inside them which He appears to do with all of His children in any time and space. The OT writings and Hebrews and other NT letters seem to indicate that just like Israel perished in the wilderness (lost the Spirit) that NT believers can as well by falling back into a lifestyle of sin and not continuing to trust and obey and love Christ and put their hope in Him and His salvation.
It help to remember that EVERYTHING in the old testament was a TYPE and A SHADOW of what was to come IN CHRIST…..EVERYTHING IN THE OLD WAS TO POINT YOU TO THE NEW……