Birds come and birds go. They choose to stay for a while and then they leave. Once I heard a preacher say that, “the Holy Spirit is like a dove, you can scare Him away.” My friend God is not a bird. He does not leave you every time you sin. He is our present help for our very time of need, and when do you need God the most? When the power of sin is over you. We need God all the time, and especially during temptations.
During the time of the Apostle Paul there was a church in Corinth which was having trouble with some people in the church, some where sleeping around with temple prostitutes. Paul responded to this by saying, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?[1]”. His response was not that they needed to do something or bring the Holy Spirit back. His response was, “Don’t you know?” Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you know that God will never leave you, nor will He forsake you?
If God left us every time we sinned then how could we escape our sin? It is the very fact that God is with us, that empowers us to overcome sin. The Bible says Jesus came, “so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). It also explains that, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5). A believer cannot lose the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament when the people sinned they would have to bring their sin offering to the priest. If the person did not have enough money to have an animal they could buy a dove for a cheap price. Remember when Jesus was turning over the Temple tables. They were probably selling doves there. Imagine Jesus turning the tables, and doves flying out of the cages. The whole idea of the Holy Spirit being like a dove is the idea of Jesus paying the price for those who could not pay. Jesus once said, “16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” (John 14:16). God has promised you that He will never leave you! His Holy Spirit stays with you forever. He is not a bird that gets scared when you come close towards it. Knowing that the Holy Spirit stays with us will help us to understand this huge topic.
[1] 1 Corinthians 6:19
thank you very much for the teaching. its been very helpful