The Promise, Power and Presence of the Spirit

 

Pentecost Sunday: The Spirit Lives Within Us

John 14:25–26; John 16:7–15; Acts 2:1–4

1. THE PROMISE GIVEN BY THE SON

For weeks now we have been leading up to the day of Pentecost, hearing from Jesus that something, someone was going to come, another Helper, Comforter of the same kind that He Jesus was, Someone who would be even better than being with Jesus Himself.

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus tells His disciples: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit… will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

This is a Messianic promise that God Himself will dwell within His people.

In Luke 24:49, Jesus said, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

In Acts 1:4, Luke wrote, And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; ⁵ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

Three times in Hebrews, it says Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,” Hebrews 3:7-8

And again in Heb. 3:15, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

And finally in chapter 4 of Hebrews, God says, ¹ Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. ³ For we who have believed do enter that rest, … ⁷ again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: ​​“Today, if you will hear His voice, ​​Do not harden your hearts.”

THREE TIMES The Bible said “TODAY,” , what day is today? Is today yesterday, yes or no? Is today tomorrow? Yesterday, today was tomorrow. Tomorrow today will be yesterday. But if today is today will you say AMEN?

THREE TIMES, The Bible says, “IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,”

Is this the word of God? Can you hear me Reading the Word of God.

Then will you obey what the Bible says today, if you hear His VOICE DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.

Read Hebrews 4:1-2

Three times in Hebrews God said do not harden your hearts

Three times in John, chapters 14, 15, 16, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit.

John 14 —  ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — ¹⁷ the 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. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you... ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 

John 15 —  ²⁶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

John 16 —  ¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 

The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:6, Will you turn with me there?

1 John 4:6 — We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error .

How many of you know there was a spirit of error? There are false prophets, false Christs, and false Spirits of error. But look up a few verses earlier in 1 John 4 as he talks about the false spirit .

¹ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

Did you catch that? The Spirit of the Antichrist was already in the world during John’s day. People thought that Nero or Domitian were the AntiChrist in personal form, but He couldn’t be because the Holy Spirit was restraining the embodiment of the Spirit of the AntiChrist. THE Antichrist will be the physical embodiment of the many spirits of AntiChrist. John has mentioned the antiChrists in chapter 2, and he will again in his second epistle in 2 John 1:7. But let’s keep reading in 1 John 4, verse 4.

⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, (who? the false spirits. How? Keep reading:) because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (play-Nay)

Play-Nay means wandering, or error

1 Timothy 4 — ¹ Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving (planos) spirits and doctrines of demons, ² speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, ³ forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵ for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

2 Timothy 3 — ¹ But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. And Paul lists 25 different characteristics over the next 12 verses, ending in verse 13: ¹³ But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

And then Paul gives a wonderful and marvelous antidote to the deception in verse 14 

¹⁴ But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The coming of the Holy Spirit is the continuation of a story God began writing long before Acts 2 — a story woven through the feasts of Israel, the giving of the Law, the resurrection of Jesus, and the birth of the church.

In the Jewish calendar, Firstfruits and Pentecost (Shavuot) were connected by fifty days. Firstfruits celebrated the first sheaf of the harvest.
Pentecost celebrated the full harvest. And in the Messianic story: Jesus rises from the dead on the Firstfruits of the resurrection and the Spirit is poured out on Pentecost, the firstfruits of the new covenant, the New Testament.

GracePointe 1 – Pentecost fulfills Jesus’ promise: the Spirit of TRUTH in us, guarding us from every spirit of deception.

Who saw that the USS Gerald R. Ford returned this week after 326 days at sea? I thought about the families who waited nearly a year for reunion. It reminded me of being at FBC Killeen near Fort Hood. More than half of the 50,000 soldiers were deployed. Connection was everything.

A letter from overseas carried a soldier’s voice. A satellite call carried his reassurance. A video chat carried his face. But none of those were the soldier himself. They were promises pointing toward the day he would finally walk off the plane and come home. And that’s what Jesus is saying in John 14-16.

Jesus promised: “I will not leave you orphans… I will come to you.” Another Helper, the Spirit of Truth would bring Jesus near, dwell in US, the first installment, the seal of HIS presence we will one day know in Heaven.

Those letters, calls and Face Chats were real, but not like the reunion, the Spirit is real, and He is the foretaste of the reunion. Pentecost is the promise that will become presence. The Spirit is the firstfruits of the New Covenant. The down payment of glory. The guarantee that the One who ascended will return.

Secondly, Pentecost is not just a promise. Pentecost is a promise fulfilled. Pentecost is Christ in you the hope of all glory, Promise made, Promise kept.

2. THE POWER GIVEN TO BELIEVERS

Turn to Acts 1:4–8

¹ The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, ² until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, ³ to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

⁴ And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; ⁵ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Ten days before Pentecost, Jesus didn’t tell His disciples to wait for a plan or to get ready with a program, He told them to wait for a Person. The Powerful Person of the Holy Spirit. They were not waiting on a strategy, not self-effort or inner strength, but for the Spirit. And when He comes, He brings God’s Strength, God’s SOURCE. God’s own SELF in God’s own SPIRIT.

Jesus didn’t tell them to wait for instructions! He didn’t say wait for INSIGHTS. God didn’t want them to get more information, to clean up their act with more SELF IMPROVEMENT. NO. He wanted them to get the spirit’s infilling, indwelling, igniting, imparting, invigorating, illuminating, interceding, inhabiting, inspiring, inscribing, increasing God inside of you. “You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Pentecost is when the moment Defeat, Doubt, and DISCOURAGEMENT meets divine DUNAMIS DYNAMIC, DYNOMIGHT POWER.

But there’s more. Jewish tradition teaches that the Law was given on Mount Sinai on Pentecost. So, on the same day the Law once written on stone, NOW the Spirit came to write God’s life on hearts. Jewish tradition holds that the Law was given on Pentecost, or fifty days after the Exodus.

At Sinai:                                              At Pentecost:        

The mountain shook                    The upper Room was shaken

God descended in fire                  The Spirit descended in tongues of Fire

The laws were written on stone    The Law of the Spirit was written in hearts

3,000 died because of sin             3,000 were saved because of salvation

Paul told the Romans, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom. 8:2

Paul also told them, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 1 Cor. 2:4

Paul told the Corinthians, “You are our epistle of Christ, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” 2 Cor. 3:3

This was not a coincidence! It’s a God-incidence. Hundreds of years before Pentecost, Jeremiah wrote about what would one day happen when the Holy Spirit would replace the Law of Moses. The moment when the promise would bring the power and the power would be the very presence of God through His Spirit. The Letter of the Law which once sealed our fate because we could not keep it, On Pentecost it becomes our life and the church becomes the harvest. Let’s look at one more story.

Jeremiah 31 — ³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

GracePointe 2 The Old Covenant revealed God’s Demands. The New Covenant releases God’s DUNAMIS POWER. The Law told us what to do BUT Pentecost gives us the POWER to do it.

The other day, I came to church with my laptop, with more technology in it than was in the entire room that launched the Apollo moon missions. You remember that right? July 20, 1969, an entire room of cigarette smoking, tie wearing, short-hair cutted scientists and a computer called the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) which ran at 1 MHz, and 64 KB of memory!

A basic modern laptop runs at: 2–4 GHz (that’s 2,000 to 4,000 MHz) and has 8 to 32 GB of RAM (that’s millions of times more memory)

My laptop literally as 1 to 3 million times more ability than the Apollo Guidance Computer. But I had forgotten to charge my laptop the night before. And I had forgotten to bring the charge cord.

The Spirit is the charge that activates every believer’s calling. Our churches don’t need more programs; WE need more OF THE POWER OF GOD.

The promise came with POWER…And the POWER became the very  PRESENCE of God.

3. THE PRESENCE GIVEN TO THE CHURCH

Acts 2:1–7

¹ When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. ⁵ And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. ⁷ Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? …

…

³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” ⁴⁰ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” ⁴¹ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 

The next chapter, Peter preached again and 5,000 were added.

Peter again said, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before.”

GracePointe Church I ask you this morning, why is it that churches today do not have the Pentecost Promise, Power, and Presence of the Holy Spirit? Where is the fiery tongues to be witnesses to the world.

John the Baptist said someone was coming that was mightier than he was who would baptize in fire and the Holy Spirit. Could it be that you were baptized with Water but do not have the fiery Holy Spirit inside of you?

When was the last time that the spark of the Spirit of Jesus ignited and illuminated your life.

You can fool me, your parents, your kids, your wife, your husband, the pastor, and the church but you cannot fool God. And you cannot fool yourself.  And if you are fooling yourself, then you are a fool.

The Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. And yet, you may not say it with your mouth but in your heart you are saying it every moment of every day of your life and one day your life will be over and you will say too late, “How could I have been a fool?” When Christ says I NEVER KNEW YOU.

Did you know God calls people a fool who are rich in this world but in poverty toward God. Luke 12 says that Jesus ¹⁶ … spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. ¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ ²¹ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

It wasn’t the riches that made him a fool. It was his spiritual poverty.

Today is today. / Can you hear God’s Voice / Don’t harden your heart. Ask yourself, Am I truly truly saved?  The Bible says “The spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.”

Isn’t it fitting that Pentecost marks a harvest? Pentecost was the Feast of the Harvest. On that day, God harvested 3,000 souls. We saw three baptized today. Jesus, the Firstfruits of the dead, rose from the grave. The Spirit, the firstfruits of the new covenant pours out in our lives.

John 14

—John Chapter 14—

Memory Verse:

“Let not your heart be troubled;

you believe in God, believe also in Me.

(John 14:1)

 

John, as pastor at Ephesus, surely must have preached his share of funerals. John Chapter 14 is used in times of mourning. John, last of all of the living disciples, likely felt lonely. It wasn’t just the disciples he had seen die, but he had heard of thousands of Christians being put to death for the gospel’s sake. He had seen the temple burned and destroyed along with countless fellow Jews.

But John 14 is not for the dead but for the living!

The night before Jesus died, his Lord comforted his disciples with these words. Jesus did not leave them orphans. Though John felt lonely, he was not alone. He had the comfort of the Holy Spirit of Christ living within him.

The sixth “I AM” statement of “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me” is one of the strongest statements of Christ being the only way to God. It comes after Thomas’s question, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” and is linked to the miracle of the nobleman’s son (John 4:46–54).

The nobleman believed but insisted twice that Jesus “come down.” Jesus said, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you (plural) will not believe.” Like the nobleman, Thomas would later learn that believing is not always seeing.

Day 30: Morning

Love Revealed Through Faith!

 (John 14:1–6) 

Someone asked me on Facebook what I would tell my younger self if I could. I said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Jesus was about to leave this world and told the disciples, “Don’t sweat the big stuff.” Well, not exactly in those words, but He told them there were hard times ahead. Then He says, “Don’t let your heart be troubled.” And just how are we supposed to do that? Typical of Jesus, He tells us how in John 14.

Peace of Christ “Let not your heart be troubled.” Jesus said this as He was soon to be crucified. You too can have peace.

Place of Faith “you believe in God, believe also in Me.” What are you trusting in? Finances, friends, abilities, power? Seek God’s kingdom first, putting your faith in Him.

Personal Place “In My Father’s house” Heaven is not on a cloud or a quiet boring place. Jesus related it to a personal, family home, where you can find rest and peace.

Plentiful Place “are many mansions” Do you think there may not be room for you? Jesus has prepared a large, plentiful place for those who trust Him (see Revelation 7:9).

Promised Place “if it were not so, I would have told you.” People may be dishonest, but you can trust Jesus. He not only told the truth, He is the truth.

Prepared by Christ “I go to prepare a place for you.” Our place in Heaven is not a cookie cutter house; it is prepared uniquely for you, custom-built by Christ himself.

Preceded by Christ “I will come again and receive you to Myself” Isn’t it good to follow a guide who has already been there. Jesus will personally come and take us there.

Presence of Christ “where I am, there you may be also.” Some translations call the “mansions” as “dwelling places” or “apartments.” I don’t care as long as Jesus is there.

Passage provided “where I go you know, and the way you know.” This is not a hope so, think so, maybe so. We can know where we are going and how to get there.

Perplexing questions “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Do you have questions? That is okay. We know He has the answers.

Powerful answer “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Drop the microphone.

Provision by Christ “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Don’t trust in people, or other faiths or even yourself. Trust only in the work of Christ on the cross.

By keeping these heavenly perspectives, we can remember that even the big stuff is small stuff for Him. Just remember, Jesus sees the big picture. 

Pray this prayer to God: “Jesus, thank You for being the Way, the Truth and the Life. Give me a heavenly perception so that nothing would trouble my heart. Amen.”

Day 30: Evening

Love Revealed Through Jesus Christ

(Read John 14:7–14)

This morning we saw that love was revealed through faith. But faith alone is not enough. Love and faith must be placed in a trustworthy person. In chapters 13, 14, and 15, the word “love” is mentioned more than 20 times, more than anywhere else in three consecutive chapters of the gospels.

When Jesus says, “Let not your heart be troubled,” He is speaking to His disciples, but He is also speaking to us today. The best way to keep our hearts from being troubled is to know the love of Christ.

It is innate within all of us to have a “troubled heart” at times. Even Jesus was on occasions “troubled” in His soul (John 12:27) and in His spirit (John 13:21). Because of this tendency within all of us, Jesus commands us to strive for our hearts to not be troubled nor afraid (notice He repeats this phrase again in John 14:27).

How can we keep our hearts from being stirred up, anxious, disquieted, and not at peace? The antidote is found in 14:1: Belief/Faith/Trust.

Belief, faith, and trust all mean that we have to put our confidence in Someone else (Jesus and His Father), rather than ourselves. “Trust God…and Me.” Jesus commands us to trust Him in verses 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. We trust that Jesus went to His Father’s house, is preparing a place for us, will come again to take us there, and is the only way to get there.

Kyle Idleman wrote a book entitled Gods At War, with its title meaning that there are many gods who are at war to take your attention away from the true God. One of the chief false gods in this world is the god named Worry.

The third disciple Jesus called was Phillip (John 1:43), yet still he did not understand that Jesus Christ was the bodily manifestation of the Heavenly Father. Even though he and the rest of the disciples had been personally taught by Jesus Christ Himself over the past three and a half years, Phillip and Thomas still had questions.

When we have questions, the answer ultimately will be to believe (verse 11). It is not to be sincere or do your best. The answer is to believe that Jesus is the only way to get to God the Father. Jesus is not “a way” but “THE way.”

Pray this prayer to God: “Heavenly Father, thank You for revealing yourself to us through Jesus Christ. Help me to trust You and Your love for me more. Thank You that whatever I pray in Your Name, according to Your will, You will do. Amen.”

Day 31: Morning

Love Revealed In Obedience

(Read John 14:15–24)

Have you truly and completely trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you trust Him with the salvation of your eternal life, which is far greater than anything in this temporal world, should you not also trust Him by obeying Him in your actions while you are here on earth?

There is a problem we all have with people who say with their mouths that they have trusted Jesus for salvation, and yet they do not keep His commandments. (John 14:15, 21, and 24).

James, the half-brother of Jesus, did not believe in Jesus as Savior until after His resurrection. Later, however, he would write that “faith without works is dead,” meaning that a person is not truly a Christian who only professes faith but has no actions to back it up. Believers are proven to be righteous not only by what they say they believe but also how their life is lived as a result of their faith (James 2:24).

The love relationship between God and His children is not a one-time profession with no change in behavior. You don’t simply pray a prayer, and everything is all finished! True love is shown by how we are changed. We do not change our ways and obey God’s commands to receive God’s love. Our response to God’s love is to first love Him back.

“This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins…We love Him because He first loved us.” 

(1 John 4:10, 19).

If we have truly received the God of the universe into our lives, we have received the very essence and manifestation of God (John 14:21, 23–24). With that essence within us, we cannot help but follow in obedience. That is the proof that we truly love God.

Can you explain that God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit of Truth all three will dwell in your life? (See John 14:17, 21, 23).

We as Christians aren’t the only ones who reveal our love in obedience. Look at John 14:31. Jesus doesn’t ask us to do anything He hasn’t already done. Jesus demonstrated His love for His Father in His obedience, “as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.”

Pray this prayer to God: “Dear God, I confess I have received You into my life. You are my Lord and God, not just for my eternal salvation, but also for my life here on earth. Help me keep your commandments in my life. In Jesus’s name. Amen.”

Day 31: Evening

Love Revealed In The Holy Spirit

(Read John 14: 25–26)

 For two days now we have been discovering how love is revealed to us and in us. When you receive God the Father into your life, you receive God’s Holy Spirit. When you receive Jesus Christ into your life, you receive the Spirit of Christ.

Love is revealed in us through the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, and Christ’s Spirit.

⁹But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.                                                                                          

Romans 8:9–11

Paul later reveals that having “Christ in you, the hope of all glory,” was a mystery throughout the Old Testament and is revealed in the New Testament through the Holy Spirit (See Colossians 1:26–28).

Jesus in John 14 calls God’s Spirit in us the “Comforter” or “Helper,” and is also translated as “Advocate.” John later uses that same word “Advocate” in describing Jesus in Heaven. It is as though that God’s Holy Spirit is doing the same thing for us on earth (Helping, Comforting, Advocating) that Jesus is doing at the right hand of the Father.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and accomplishes the following things:

1)    Abides in us forever and

2)    Cannot be received by the world

3)    Teaches us all things, bringing to our remembrance Jesus’s words

4)    Is better for the Spirit to dwell in us than for Christ to be here on earth

5)    Convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment

6)    Guides us and speaks to us into all truth

7)    Glorifies Jesus Christ by declaring things from Christ

Being a Christian is more than saying a prayer, agreeing with Biblical truth and having a good answer to God’s question of why He should let you into heaven. It is having the living Christ dwelling in you.

Pray this prayer to God: “Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. As I have received Your Spirit, teach me to walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit and worship in the Spirit. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.”

Day 32: Morning

What Can The Holy Spirit Do For You?

(Read John 14:26–27)

 I have shared with children that if you make a home in your heart for God, He will make a home in His heaven for you when this life on earth is over. Like a child who hosts a sleepover or a birthday party at his house, and then later gets to go spend some time with his friends, Jesus promises His Spirit will stay with the believers and equally promises He will come back for them to bring them to His Father’s house.

When we are saved, we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. When we are controlled by God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. But perhaps the greatest thing about the Holy Spirit is that He is at home in our hearts.

Jesus is trying to give peace to His disciples by telling them of all of the good things he is going to prepare in heaven, while still giving reassurance that until He comes to bring them home, they will not be left as orphans. Both the Father and the Son will come and make their home within the believers. How? Through the Holy Spirit. As you grow, ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things and to also keep them in your “remembrance” (verse 26).

This passage here teaches one of the most profound and hardest to understand truths in Scripture: The Trinity. We as Christians believe in one God, but He is manifest in three personages: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When Christ lives in you, that entity inside you is the Holy Spirit.

However, just because we have the Spirit, and just because the Spirit will help us and teach us, all of those things will not mean we will understand everything. In those times, Jesus promises us peace, but not externally in the world, but internally in the heart.

Jesus promises peace, but He does not promise peace from the things in this world. In fact, we will not feel like we are at home until He returns for us. The ruler of this world at this time is not Jesus, nor His Father, but of course the great Satan, to whom God has temporarily given partial control of the world. When humanity fell, God purposely let the devil rule here on earth temporarily as a consequence for our sins. (We will see more of this in the next devotional and in John 17).

But even so, God is still in ultimate charge. And He gives us His Holy Spirit to make a little Heaven for us on earth.

 Pray this prayer to God: “Lord, there are things I just do not understand. There are things that happen that just don’t make sense. In those times, let me long for Your return for me to take me home. Let me never get used to being here. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.”

Day 32: Evening

We Are Not At Home In This World

(Read John 14:28–31)

  Do you feel a little uneasy in the world? Are you longing for something, but you can’t quite put your finger on it? Don’t worry and don’t fear. Jesus is coming back to take us to a home that we have never been to before.

How can it be home if we’ve never been there? Because our Father, our Savior and our spiritual family of brothers and sisters are there. Jesus said to the disciples that they should rejoice that He was going back to the Father (John 14:28). I understand how the disciples felt. I have been to many a funeral and while I know my loved ones are now in heaven with our Savior and loved ones, I know I am going to miss them and to be honest I don’t always feel like rejoicing at a funeral.

And that is okay. Jesus, as you may recall, wept at Lazarus’s funeral. It is not a sign of lack of faith or even a sign of lack of joy for them. It is a sign of our love on how much we will miss those who have gone on to glory.

But I also think that sadness at a funeral is a sign that we are not at home in this world. If death is so natural, if dying is a part of life (the last part, that is), then why don’t we shrug our shoulders and move on?

The Father is greater than we are, and He really does know best. When death comes to pass, whether it was the death of Jesus as foretold in John 14:29, or in our own lives when loved ones die, we can mourn and miss the departed. When the cruelty of this world and its ruler, Satan, seems to have solidly taken charge of this earth, we can say with Jesus, “He has nothing in me.” Why? Because, as the old saying goes, “the world didn’t give it to me and the world can’t take it away.”

Maybe Jesus said it better with His words in Matthew 6:20. “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Makes you a little home-sick, doesn’t it? 

Pray this prayer to God: “Dear God in Heaven, my heart and my spirit are with You, hidden in Christ’s heart at Your right hand. Help me to have a heavenly perspective on this world. When I get weary by the world’s wicked ways, let me remember this is not my home. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.”