As you can tell, I’ve carried this little envelope in my Bible for quite some time. I sealed and secured it with wax because it contains something of great value to me. I pressed my initial into the melted wax to identify it as mine. Makes you wonder what’s inside, doesn’t it?
Remember the scene from the Lord of the Rings in which Gandalf slips the ring of power into an envelope and seals it to keep it safe? Well, there’s no magic ring inside, but there’s a message of great power. It’s, in fact, the message that changed everything. But that’s another post for another day, so stay connected!
God has a seal of colossal significance. When He uses it on His child, it secures them and identifies to whom they belong. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.[1]
The moment I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sin and accepted Him as my Savior and Lord, His Spirit supernaturally and literally entered my body and it became His home. God pressed His seal of ownership into my melted heart. All beings in the spiritual world – both dark and light – read His seal and know that I am His and not to be messed with. His seal announces: she belongs to Me and nothing can touch her except by My permission. And it also announces, “She is of great value to Me.”
I’m in the process of selling my mother’s home, and the potential buyer has deposited $1,000 to show they’re committed and earnest about the purchase. That’s the implication in Ephesians 1:14. The Holy Spirit is a pledge and deposit showing God’s earnest commitment to me and that there is more to come. His seal is a guarantee…a guarantee…of my eternal destiny with Him in glory and His constant Presence day by day. Whether I’m aware of Him or not, following close or staying distant, listening to Him or talking over Him…I am safe and sealed forever, guaranteed eternal life.
God’s possession of my soul is unyielding. Nothing will ever dislodge me from His grasp… neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God…nothing![2] Not even my sin can separate me from Him. Cynthia Heald wrote, “Since we can do nothing to captivate His love, we can do nothing to lose it.”[3] He pressed His seal into my heart with all His Sovereign authority behind it, and nothing can breach His seal.
Oh, praise the One who created me, redeemed me and calls me His own!
[1] Ephesians 1:13-14
[2] Romans 8:38-39
[3] Heald, C. (1997). A Woman’s Journey to the Heart of God. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
I am sitting here, stunned. What a beautiful reminder I needed to hear right now, that I am truly redeemed and nothing will ever change that! Thank you Pam, for your faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ, and using the gift he has blessed you with.