Meet the Holy Spirit
John 16:5-15
5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, “Where are you going?”6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’
12 ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’
Reflection
The God the disciples grew up worshiping remained in many ways beyond understanding; you couldn’t make an image of him and you couldn’t say his name out loud. After sharing everything for three years, they could only liken Jesus to their God – except that he was much more accessible. You could see and talk to him and go with him wherever he went. This was a tremendous joy and so it was almost impossible to get their heads around the idea, “it is for your good that I am going away” (7). How could losing this experience of close friendship possibly be good for them?
The ambition of the Father was however, still more wonderful than making himself known in the person of his Son. His ultimate desire was to come closer and closer and closer; even closer than breathing, even nearer than hands and feet in the person of his Son. Close enough to enter right into the heart.
But for this to happen, the Son would need to leave – via the cross and resurrection. This alone would open the floodgates of true intimacy. The Holy Spirit, ‘the Counsellor’ can now indwell any who look to what the Son has died to achieve; he is now able to come right in at the centre of our beings. Jesus says that the Son receives from the Father and the Spirit receives from the Son – and he makes all that is disclosed between Father and Son known to us (14-15).
We aren’t servants, we are friends
We aren’t slaves, we are true sons and daughters
We no longer need to guess at God because lives within us.
Meditate
“the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” (15)
The ambition of the Father was however, still more wonderful than making himself known in the person of his Son. His ultimate desire was to come closer and closer and closer; even closer than breathing, even nearer than hands and feet in the person of his Son. Close enough to enter right into the heart.
But for this to happen, the Son would need to leave – via the cross and resurrection. This alone would open the floodgates of true intimacy. The Holy Spirit, ‘the Counsellor’ can now indwell any who look to what the Son has died to achieve; he is now able to come right in at the centre of our beings. Jesus says that the Son receives from the Father and the Spirit receives from the Son – and he makes all that is disclosed between Father and Son known to us (14-15).
We aren’t servants, we are friends
We aren’t slaves, we are true sons and daughters
We no longer need to guess at God because lives within us.
Meditate
“the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” (15)
John Peters is the leader of St Mary's and conveniently has a book all about the Holy Spirit that you can read to learn more.
Posted in The Holy Spirit
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