Waste Not the Gift of the Spirit

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” John 14:25-26

Jesus told His disciples in John 16:7 that, “It is better for you that I go.” What’s better than Jesus walking the earth, preaching, healing people, loving them? Believe it or not, Jesus NOT being on the earth! That’s exactly what He was explaining to those listening to Him. “It is much better for you that I go, (it is profitable, expedient, it is for your own good, it is for your advantage that I leave you),” Jesus said to the disciples because they were filled with grief. “Unless I go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you, (will not have close fellowship with you, will not be able to partner with you). But if I go, I will send Him to you.”

I am tempted to be skeptical here, but I prefer that truth form my experience, rather than experience form my truth. I prefer to believe Jesus when He says things like that. I can see that if Jesus were still walking the earth, I would have to go where He was to speak to Him, to ask Him questions. Instead I can be in my nightclothes, and just ask Him from wherever I am. I can read the Bible and the Spirit can illuminate certain passages for me. I can pray in the Spirit for people I don’t even know because the Spirit knows them and their problems. And the Holy Spirit can speak to a million people all at the same time. The Spirit is more pervasive than the internet or TV or radio because the Spirit can go where those are forbidden or censored. 

Yes Jesus is present in a more powerful way today. He is IN us! And because He is IN us, we can be more powerful if we work together, pray together, plan together!

Let us not waste this precious gift of the Spirit by belittling it, or not being aware that we have Him in us. Jesus said in Luke 10:19, “I have given you authority…to overcome all the power of the enemy.”