Not a luxury but a necessity

Remember, my brethren, it was the Holy Spirit who first of all regenerated us. If we have indeed been born again from above, our new birth was by the Holy Ghost: “Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” are we made this day spiritual men. If, therefore, we have not the Spirit, or it be possible that the Spirit be taken from us, the very essence of our spiritual life is gone; we are utterly dead, we are no longer numbered with the living people of the living God. The Holy Ghost is not to us a luxury, but a necessity. We must have the Spirit of God or we live not at all in a spiritual sense. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his; without the supernatural work of this divine person upon our nature we are not numbered with the family of God at all.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Most Needful Prayer Concerning The Holy Spirit," delivered October 9, 1870. Image by Francesco Sgroi under Creative Commons License.