John 14: 16 – 17
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.
When Jesus left the earth, life altered for his disciples. They had to learn a new walk. Jesus began to prepare them before he left, knowing that their lives were about the change dramatically. It was a new time for them, a new beginning.
We are at a new beginning also, the beginning of a new year. Each year we look at the course of our lives and often plot out some new coordinates. How will this year be like last year and how would you like it to be different? There seems no better approach for us than that which Jesus paved for his disciples, that being a new start with the Holy Spirit of God. What better way for us to begin our thoughts about a New Year with the Holy Spirit than to see how Jesus introduced the idea to his disciples.
Jesus laid the groundwork for their introduction to the Holy Spirit in these two verses. The Spirit is a gift, that gift is from the Father and the gift is that of a helper. The disciples must have been devastated at the idea of Jesus’ departure. It is telling, I believe, that Jesus direction to the future is the path with the Holy Spirit. Here is where we need to abide. Why was this coming of the Spirit so important? What does it mean for our daily lives? What did Jesus intend to impart to the disciples that we, too, should be participants in? Jesus distinguishes believers from the rest of the world. Life with the Spirit is only for those who belong to Jesus because the world is unable to receive him, the Spirit. That means we can receive him. Jesus said the spirit was abiding with the disciples but that he was going to ask the Father and then believers would be able to receive the Spirit so that the spirit would not abide with but rather “in” the children of God.
There is a third person of the trinity who wants to have an abiding relationship with us. We are learning about the Father and the Son. Now we can invite the Spirit to participate in our lives in a very dynamic way. There is more to him than we have discovered so far but 2018 is a great year for us to dedicate to the Spirit of God: to learning more about him, to spending more time with him and to walking in the power of his might. This could be the year that changes our spiritual atmosphere forever. I believe that environmental change is in the person of the Holy Spirit. Let’s get to know him better this year. Let’s seek him and abide with him. It is a guarantee that we will have a great year.
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