For most consumers, buying a home is one of the most important financial investments most of us will ever make. Location is probably the most desirable aspect of the purchase. We have sold two homes in our many years of marriage, and I’ll have to say I was so thankful for the closing day that it all went smoothly.
Several years ago my niece and her husband put their house up for sale. In just a few weeks, they had a buyer, a contract, and earnest money (down payment), with a closing date set. The closing date was sooner than they had hoped for, but when you are the seller, you sometimes will sacrifice your benefits for theirs to ensure the sale of your home.
They quickly started packing and moving furniture to be prepared for the closing date, because the buyer had asked that they be vacated by that day. They arrived at the lawyer’s office; they waited for the purchaser to arrive to finalize the sale, and guess what? He is a no-show! He called the lawyer and declared he had backed out of the purchase. To say they were disappointed is a huge understatement! They were devastated! They emptied their home and put most of their belongings in a relative’s garage. Their little world was turned upside down for a while. They trusted the buyer; the earnest money was a good-faith pledge, a guarantee that a full promise of final payment would follow. It was the down payment toward the full purchase that was to come.
As I have thought of this story so often, the word earnest just always moves me to the scripture about the down payment we have received from the Lord toward our eternal home.
The word earnest in Greek is ” arrhabon” – a financial down payment on a legal pledge, a security deposit. Earnest is found three times in the New Testament describing the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” Ephesians 1: 14
“ God has sealed us, and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts.” 2nd Corinthians 1:22
“God has given us the earnest of the spirit .” 2nd Corinthians 5:5
Unlike a purchase today, even though the earnest money is received, a buyer can back out, renege on a sale, and lose what he paid down. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, repent of our sins, and are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, we shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2: 38: Our home is then paid in full.) In Ephesians 11:13-14, the Bible states that
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation : in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest ( down payment) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.”
The Bible states, “that which is flesh is flesh, but that which is spirit is spirit.” As Paul spoke to the Ephesians, he asked that “according to God’s riches in glory that they would be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” Ephesians 3:16
We live in this tent (flesh) now, and we have to contend with the flesh every day; it’s a war to take off the flesh and put on more of the Spirit that lives within us. Some days my flesh reigns more in my actions, but that doesn’t mean my Spirit within me has failed; it is secure and sealed with a blood-bought salvation that is all-powerful and eternal. We are blood-bought brothers and sisters, and Galatians 4:6 states that “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of His son into your hearts crying Abba, Father.”
In many ancient cultures, there were “blood brothers”; this involved cutting flesh, where two people pressed an open wound together, intertwined a life force, and became one of blood, establishing an unbreakable lifelong bond of loyalty. Because of Jesus ‘ complete, selfless blood sacrifice on the cross, we now have his blood running through our veins by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing of ourselves, but by surrendering our heart in belief and obedience to His work on the cross.
As Paul reminded the Ephesians, his prayer for them was that “God would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that their eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Oh, how I need to be reminded of this so many times! We have a hope of inheritance not made with hands, as the saints of God!
What I fail to remember so often is that the Spirit in me is present now to help me overcome daily until I’m fully redeemed in that new body fashioned unto the Son of God. So often we succumb to our fleshly nature when Christ wants us to be filled with all the fullness of God. We miss so much when we neglect our inner man.
The security of the power of the Holy Spirit has been on my heart for a good while. Last year we lost a very special nephew to cancer. He fought so hard to live, but sadly, in just a few months, the disease took his flesh.
I got to spend his last day at the hospital by myself with him, so my sister could get a little rest; she had been with him 40+ days in the hospital. For most of his life, he battled addiction. He was raised in church, accepted Jesus as a young boy, and was baptized. He had many battles from a young man to an adult in overcoming this weakness. He had years of victories and years of defeat, but he was always so broken that he had let God and his family down in his weakness. He repented many times, and we reminded him that God came to forgive and set us free, and that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. None are righteous, no, not one. Because of this thorn in the flesh, he doubted his salvation so often; he never felt worthy of God’s love.
We shared that none are worthy, but by the grace, the unmerited favor of God toward us, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He would claim those promises, but so often the enemy would attack, causing fear and doubt, and he would battle within himself again and doubt that the Spirit of God lived in him. One night, two weeks before he passed, he called me, and those same attacks of Satan were beating him down, and as he began to share his heart, the Spirit of God within me began to speak. This was not my flesh; the Spirit began to bear witness with scriptures. Truth after truth was spoken, and all of a sudden he was so calm, so at peace from God’s word.
He had about two more weeks, and then Thursday night, before he passed on Saturday morning, he called me and asked me if I would come on Friday and spend the day reading scriptures and praying. He was mostly alert all day. As I read, he’d say, “Read that again, let me hear that again.” We read, prayed, and sang all day. I left the hospital knowing he didn’t have long, but totally unprepared that it would be the next morning. As his precious Mama and family arrived, we played and sang his favorite songs. As we began to sing “Come Jesus Come” ( his favorite song), he quietly went to his eternal home. I so would have loved to have peeked under the veil, seen him arrive in the presence of the Lord, and seen the joy that awaited him!
I’m so thankful for the amazing grace of God, who purchased our souls with His flawless, perfect life and placed His Spirit within us to lead and guide us unto repentance. The flesh is weak, but the Spirit is strong and is able to keep us, and nothing can pull us from His hand. I believe the void we often feel in our lives that nothing will ever fill is that longing for eternity, the inheritance that God himself purchased in full for us.
My prayer is for so many brothers and sisters in Christ who doubt that they are a child of the King, that they would know how much Jesus loves them; nothing you can ever do turns you from his love, except unbelief in him. He can do nothing else to secure your soul; His one death on the cross paid it in full. He said that when He went away, He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to guide us in all things. He’s here; trust him.
In loving memory of my nephew:
Michael Todd Greer
September 20, 1969-November 29, 2025
Diane Mann
Lean Into Jesus Ministries
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