John 14:16-22

“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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”^[1]

Many believers love to lay claim to being Trinitarians (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit), but the truth of the matter is that many are at best ‘Binarians’ because they are, as some would say, Holy Ghost shy. They embrace God the Father and God the Son, but are more than a little squeamish when it comes to God the Holy Spirit. The problem may be that some have so ritualized life in the Spirit that it has been reduced to reveling in ecstatic manifestations such as speaking in tongues or, in the worship life, regular prophetic utterances, and the laying on of hands with people resting in the Spirit. But here Jesus calls the Holy Spirit ‘another helper’ (He being the first) that they will need because His hour was drawing near when He would no longer be with them.

He tells His disciples who this Helper is, the Spirit of truth; that the world cannot receive Him; and, how they will recognize Him, “because He abides with you and will be in you.” Jesus was leaving His disciples but He was not leaving them alone (orphans) because this helper will be with them. It is comforting to know that though the physical presence of Jesus is no longer with us we are not left alone. The world cannot and does not recognize Him because they do not have a relationship with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus, our love for Him is demonstrated in how we keep His commandments. That we do love Him Jesus abides in us and we abide in Jesus we know Him, and Jesus discloses Himself to us. There is no reason, therefore, to dread life in the Spirit because He merely discloses Jesus.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us and abiding with us. Thank You for disclosing Yourself to us through Your Holy Spirit. Help us to know and recognize You as You dwell in us. Enable us to allow Your Spirit to freely work in and through us to draw people who have yet to meet You come to know You and love You. As You are in the Father, teach us what it means to be in You and to have You in us. This we ask in the strong name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Jn 14:16–21.