Date of message: 27 May 2002
Subject: We Have Been Sealed With The Holy Spirit

Shalom, Boker-Tov ( good morning ),

On Friday 24th, I was on a one-day vacation to attend the funeral service of my godmother who went home to be with Jesus on the evening of Saturday 18th May. That day she had two falls in her kitchen but she did not inform anyone as she thought they were not serious. She was also struggling to recover from a cough and cold which she had for a couple of days. That evening, when her flat-mate came home, she requested her to help call her physician for consultation as she was feeling tired.

When her personal physician could not see her that evening as he was attending a function, he made arrangements for her to be examined at Mt Elizabeth Hospital. Her flat mate then contacted a family friend ( a retired pastor and his wife who is a pediatrician ) to come and escort her to the hospital. On her way to the hospital, my godmother exclaimed that the road they were travelling on was getting wider and the lights brighter. Three times she mentioned the phenomenon but her friends did not take notice and had even forgotten about it until after her passing.

Right until her last moments, she was still fully awake and alert. In fact she was so alert that she was even giving instructions to this friend on how to cook abalone (she was a superb cook). When the nurses were getting her ready for her ECG scan, she took off and went home to be with Jesus having suffered a heart failure. She was 85 years old at the time of her passing.

She seemed to have a premonition that she would not be coming back to her flat that evening because her closest god-son ( she had more than 50 god-children having no children of her own ) made the observation that all her usual jewelry were not on her body that evening but kept neatly in her jewelry box at home and this was rather unusual of her.
The apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians Christians in Ephesians 1: 13 - 14: -
13. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
14. who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of His glory.

All believers in Jesus Christ, the moment they invited Him into their lives as their own Lord and Savior, have been given the Holy Spirit as a mark ( or seal ) of their belonging to the Heavenly Father. They are now able to address their Creator God as their own Heavenly Father and to enjoy His riches and blessings. The Holy Spirit becomes a sort of down payment ( or deposit ) for greater things to come. I remember a recent purchase of a two-piece suit at a leading department store. The trousers of the suit needed minor alterations and so I had to place a cash deposit and come back to collect the whole suit after three working days. God the Father has placed in all believers the Holy Spirit as a down payment on all our lives and He will return to redeem His own.

We need to remember that each of us is a spirit living in a body and his /her body has emotions and feelings or what we term a soul. When the body reaches the end of its useful life span, the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and feeling cease to function. However, the spirit continues to live on and there are only two possibilities - with God in Heaven or away from God in Hell. So when Paul wrote in Ephesians 1: 15 ( see scripture text above ) and mentioned that there will be a time of redemption, he was referring to the return of Jesus to take those who are now rightfully His back to be with Him.

The experience that my godmother had was not new. Over time, many had similar experiences. The most well documented account was that of the first century church leader Stephen ( read Acts 7 ). During his trial before the Jewish Council and his subsequent stoning, Stephen looked up to Heaven and saw the glory of God ( Acts 7: 55 ) and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he gave up his spirit. Realizing that he would be meeting his redeemer shortly, Stephen gave up the spirit from his earthly body; he stepped out from his human body and immediately stepped into his eternal spiritual body. The new body would be able to transcend through matter and would not be subject to decay such as what Jesus had after He rose from the dead and came back to visit His disciples.

Have you believed in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? Receive Him right away and God the Father will grant you His Holy Spirit as a down payment as well. It is a simple act of faith but the benefits that go along with that act goes a long way. Please pray this prayer and receive Jesus into your heart.

Our Father in Heaven, thank you that You loved us so much that You sent Jesus Christ, Your only Son, into this world to die for our sins. Thank you that Jesus took our sins so that we will never be rejected by You; He died in our place so that we will forever be accepted by You.
Lord Jesus, I believe in You and I receive You into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you that You have given me Your Holy Spirit to be my Guide and my Counsel. Thank you that You will be coming back soon to redeem us and bring us back to our Heavenly Home to be with You forever.

Thank you that with Jesus in my heart, I am now forever forgiven, greatly blessed, highly favored, deeply loved and completed protected. Thank you in Jesus' most precious Name.
Amen.

If you have prayed the prayer, welcome to the family of the Heavenly Father. Your life will certainly change; you may now see the changes immediately but the changes will come as you learn more about the love of the Father through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Your spirit has been redeemed but your body has not yet been redeemed. One day, you will experience the complete redemption of every part of you - spirit, body and soul - when Jesus returns to take us home to be with Him for eternity.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26

Have a blessed week ahead, shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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