"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’
Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
‘All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
‘You heard me say, “I am going away and I am coming back to you.” If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
‘Come now; let us leave.’
John 14: 15-31
A symbol of the Holy Spirit that we should consider is the wind. The wind cannot be seen, but it can be felt. Jesus tells us in the above text that one of the reasons why the world does not know the Holy Spirit is because they cannot see him.
A sceptic once said to a Christian, I do not believe there is a Holy Spirit, because no one has ever seen him and therefore I cannot believe in anything I cannot see. The Christian replied, let me ask you three questions: Have you ever seen pain, no said the sceptic. Have you ever tasted pain? Again the answer was no. Have you ever felt pain? Oh yes admitted the sceptic, many times. That is how it is with the Holy Spirit, said the Christian. The Christian had never seen him, never tasted him, but had felt him at work deep within him.
The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God within us and all believers, helping us to live as God wants us to live and helping us build Christs church on earth. By faith we can appropriate the Spirit's power each day.
The Holy Spirit has been active among people since the beginning of time, but after Pentecost He came to live in all believers. Many people are unaware of the Holy Spirit's activities, but to those who hear Jesus's words and understand the Spirit's power, the Spirit gives a whole new way to look at life.
Written by Arnold Pollitt