Weekly Devotional 4-14-14 The Promised Helper
On the night that Jesus was betrayed, arrested and crucified He told His disciples, “15If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 19A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:15-21).
Jesus promised His disciples, (they to whom He spoke, and by extension us) that the Holy Spirit would not only dwell with them, but also would be in them. God Himself, as Spirit, would indwell Jesus’ disciples. This was something new. Clearly the Holy Spirit had been with all who believed before Pentecost; throughout redemptive history as the source of redemptive truth, faith, and life, but these disciples to whom Jesus spoke would be indwelt by Him as would all disciples of each succeeding generation.
I am not sure we can fully grasp this. The Spirit of God was sent to indwell the believer! Does this mean that He is not pulling at us externally but directing and influencing us internally? Certainly this is the case. We cannot see Him as Jesus’ followers saw Him. Jesus was flesh and blood. They followed Him because of what they saw, because of what He verbally told them, and because they had been called by God the Father.
The Holy Spirit does not have a physical body as did Jesus. He does not speak to us verbally as Jesus spoke to His immediate disciples, yet the follower of Jesus, since the Holy Spirit came, is led by Him. It is an inward influence. It is not of the natural man (the unregenerate man) to continually think about God, yet the believer does. It is not of the natural man to seek God’s face in the things that he does, yet the believer does. It is not of the natural man to recognize sin in his life, yet the believer does. It is not of the natural man to want to confess sin and ask God’s forgiveness, yet the believer does. Why? It is because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. How else could love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control, which are all attributes of God, dwell in man? They couldn’t unless God Himself, as Spirit, indwells him. Since those attributes are the fruit of the Spirit produced in the person in whom He dwells.
What a blessing would soon be theirs. Fifty some days from the time Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit indwelling them, His Spirit would come and would be the replacement helper. While they would no longer have Jesus with them, He would be with them and in them. The wonder of it all is that He indwells us also; we who have been spiritually reborn, regenerated unto newness of spiritual life.
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power: the Work of God on Behalf of Man