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 that I have said to you. John 14:26
But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. John 15:26
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. John 16:7
Jesus is literally telling His disciples that He is going to send them the Holy Spirit when He leaves them bodily and that’s going to be even better for them!?! Wouldn’t you think having Jesus right in front of us bodily would be even a greater advantage? Not according to Jesus. Do you believe this? Have you experienced this? Jesus, as you can see, told His disciples this multiple times. Do we believe this as a Church today? The general answer is “no”. Why has the topic of the Holy Spirit become the most divisive issue in the modern Church today? We seem to have ‘Word’ Churches that focus on the intellect and academic teaching of the scriptures and ‘Spirit-filled’ Churches that seem to emphasize the experiential ‘feelings’ of the Holy Spirit over the ‘printed’ Word. But in my understanding, it should not be one or the other. We need to include the deep academic historical and cultural understanding of the scripture AND the experience of the NOW working of the Holy Spirit in and through our lives. We need to encounter the LIVING God within us who IS the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us. He teaches us. He comforts us. He reminds us of Jesus. He brings scripture to our remembrance EXACTLY when we need it. He IS God. But alas to use a moniker coined by Tyler Staton the Holy Spirit is mainly known as the ‘Familiar Stranger’ in the western Church today. (You can find Tyler’s book with that title on Amazon.)
Personally, I encountered the Holy Spirit early in my life when I was 14 years old in a VERY dramatic way. Jesus healed me from stage 4 AML (acute myelogenous leukemia). Just so you know, I was diagnosed twice with it, once at Valley Children’s Hospital, and again at Stanford Medical Center in 1974 and given a maximum 6 months to live. Zero treatments taken. Then in one day with Jesus, He healed me. It’s a long story – but out of it came my term terminally committed to Christ. It is His life I literally now live and not my own. Since that time the Presence and encounters with the Holy Spirit have been very rich and very challenging in my life. But it should be the same for anyone who has been baptized in Christ. For our old lives are dead and the life we are raised with is His! It’s more than just ‘water’, there is a deep spiritual component when someone commits to being ‘baptized’ into the life of Christ.
Do you think the relationship you have with the Holy Spirit is BETTER than having Jesus bodily in front of you? How much have you entered into the relationship with the Holy Spirit? Have you begun to discern His Voice within you? This is why we actually need the ‘gift(s)’ from Jesus (Ephesians 4:11-12) He gives to the ekklesia (Church) to equip them and guide / teach them. The ‘gift’ that Jesus sends to help the Church understand the Holy Spirit better is the ‘prophet’. The prophet just like all the other gifts should be within the church elders and leadership of your community / Church. The prophet is the gift who ‘lives’ with one foot in the spiritual realm and one foot in our known dimensions. They are often ‘strange’ and often have a way that can seem weird to others. As a whole the world tends to not like those sent as ‘prophets’ by Jesus. And the enemy LOVES to counterfeit and misalign that gift because if it is allowed to ‘thrive’ in the community the Presence of God will only increase dramatically as people learn to give the Holy Spirit first place in their lives. There is too much to say about this topic for a devotional – but the main message is Jesus thinks sending / giving YOU the Holy Spirit is BETTER than Him being there bodily in front of you. This IS the ‘advantage’ Jesus is giving you!!!
Ponder that truth.