“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).

Jesus promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would be with them “forever.”

I take that as an eternal security verse.

How long will the Holy Spirit be in the disciples? A day? A month? A year? Just so long as they are good and faithful?

Jesus said, “Forever.”

Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit at the moment of faith. And the Holy Spirit remains there forever.

The relationship is permanent.

But what about the fellowship?

We all have relationships to members of our family: our mother, father, grandparents, siblings, and cousins. Those relationships are biological and objective. But they do not indicate how you get along with your family. Do you have good fellowship? Are you close to your brother? Are you best friends with your sister? Do you have a warm or cold fellowship with your mother?

There’s a difference between having an objective relationship with the Spirit, and a subjective fellowship with Him.

The Holy Spirit indwells believers forever, but you can “quench the Spirit’ (1 Thess 5:9); “grieve the Spirit” (Eph 4:30); and even ignore the Spirit by living according to the flesh, instead of according to the Spirit (Rom 8:4-6).

In other words, your fellowship with the Spirit is conditional. It depends on where you have set your mind: on fleshly things or spiritual things?

Even though your relationship with the Spirit is a given, don’t take your fellowship with the Spirit for granted.