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Wellsprings
christian-pneumatologyfeatured in 40 works

Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

God's own Spirit takes up residence within the believer

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the teaching that God's Spirit dwells within believers, making them temples of God. Paul develops this in Romans 8 and tells the Corinthians that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Affirmed across Christian traditions, it expresses the conviction that God is not merely distant but present and active in the life of each believer.

How it traveled

  1. Romans
    Corinth · 67
    explains
  2. 1 Corinthians
    Ephesus · 67
    explains
  3. Ephesians
    Rome · 67
    explains
  4. Galatians
    Ephesus · 67
    explains
  5. 2 Corinthians
    Philippi · 67
    explains
  6. Acts
    Rome · 84
    explains
  7. Luke
    Rome · 84
    explains
  8. John
    Ephesus · 100
    explains
  9. 1 John
    Ephesus · 100
    explains
  10. Against Heresies: Book V
    Lyons · 202
    explains
  11. The Epistles of Cyprian.
    Carthage · 258
    explains
  12. Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations
    Mosul · 345
    explains
  13. The Letters
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  14. The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril
    Jerusalem · 386
    explains
  15. On the Holy Spirit
    Milan · 397
    explains
  16. A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  17. Homilies on First Corinthians
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  18. The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  19. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  20. Homilies on Second Corinthians
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  21. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  22. Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  23. Expositions on the Book of Psalms
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  24. Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  25. Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  26. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  27. A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  28. Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  29. Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)
    Paris · 1274
    explains
  30. Commentary on Galatians
    Wittenberg · 1546
    explains
  31. Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church
    Geneva · 1564
    explains
  32. Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It
    Geneva · 1564
    explains
  33. Book First. of the Knowledge of God the Creator
    Geneva · 1564
    explains
  34. A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, in Three Parts
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  35. Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  36. Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  37. XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvation
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  38. Seventeen Occasional Sermons
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  39. Five Sermons. On Different Occasions
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  40. Narrative of Surprising Conversions
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains

Key passages(20)

1 Corinthians · Paul the Apostle

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Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

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1 Corinthians · Paul the Apostle

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Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own,

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1 John · John the Apostle

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As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, an

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1 John · John the Apostle

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He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.

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1 John · John the Apostle

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By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

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2 Corinthians · Paul the Apostle

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What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

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And it must be here observed, that although it is with relation to the Spirit of God and his influences, that persons and things are called spiritual; yet not all those persons who are subject to any

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2. Another reason why the saints and their virtues are called spiritual, (and which is the principal thing.) is, that the Spirit of God, dwelling as a vital principle in the souls, produces there thos

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True saints only have that which is spiritual; others not only have not these communications of the Spirit in so high a degree as the saints, but have nothing of that nature or kind. For the apostle J

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The reason of it appears particularly from this, that gracious affections arise from those operations and influences which are spiritual, and that the inward principle from whence they flow, is someth

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A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter · Augustine of Hippo

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Chapter 36 [XXI.]—The Law Written in Our Hearts. What then is God’s law written by God Himself in the hearts of men, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is “the finger of God,” and by whose

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Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations · Aphrahat

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11. And if anyone, whose conscience lacks knowledge, should dispute about this and say:—“Since Christ is one and His Father is one, how does Christ dwell, and His Father dwell, in faithful men? And ho

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Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations · Aphrahat

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15. This is the Spirit, my beloved, that the Prophets received, and thus also have we received. And it is not at every time found with those that receive it, but sometimes it returns to Him that sent

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3. Here it will be proper to point out the titles which the Scripture bestows on the Spirit, when it treats of the commencement and entire renewal of our salvation. First, he is called the “Spirit of

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John · John the Apostle

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the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.

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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo

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5. The evangelist explained, as I have said, whereof the Lord had cried out, to what kind of drink He had invited, what He had procured for them that drink, saying, “But this spake He of the Spirit, w

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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo

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Tractate LXXIV. Chapter XIV. 15–17. 1. We have heard, brethren, while the Gospel was read, the Lord saying: “If ye love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you ano

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Romans · Paul the Apostle

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But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John · John Chrysostom

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Homily LXXV. John xiv. 15–17 “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth,

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The saints have both their spiritual excellency and blessedness by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and his dwelling in them. They are not only caused by the Holy Ghost, but are in him as their principle.

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