It is so good to be reminded of and challenged by the promises Jesus made and the realities he described in John 14, 15 and 16. He tells his disciples that it is good for him to go away. From our perspective looking back, we rejoice in his going away because we know that he was crushed for our iniquities and pierced for our transgressions. But Jesus highlights the additional benefit of his going away: his sending of the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. He knew the incredible gift the Holy Spirit was going to be to his disciples and to all believers, and he wanted to leave so that they could experience that gift – so that WE could experience that gift!
I love Chan’s description of the caterpillar’s metamorphosis, likening that to our experience in being new creations with the Holy Spirit living in us. “As the caterpillar finds its new ability to fly, we should be thrilled over our Spirit-empowered ability to live differently and faithfully. Isn’t this what the Scriptures speak of? Isn’t this what we’ve all been longing for? … I am tired of living in a way that looks exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them.” Along with several other statements on that page that resonated with me, those words remind me of the incredible things that the Lord can do in us and through us when we recognize the source of power and love that he has placed in us.
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"We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone...[We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost." -A.W. Tozer
ReplyDeleteWell I think that just about sums it up eh. What a sad bunch of lies we've bought into.