God Inside

John 14:16-18

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”  NKJV

These three verses are weighted down with truth, revelation, and importance. Humanity will probably be mining their depths for all of eternity. I will be taking my time and enjoying the richness of this meditation like a fine, desert. I hope you derive as much excitement, peace, and love of God reading and pondering it as I do meditating and writing!

First we have Jesus, the Light of the world (John 8:12), the revealer of grace and truth (John 1:17), announcing to His closest followers, His chosen disciples, that He is leaving.

 I am not sure that we can grasp how devastating this news was to these men. Nothing like Jesus’ ministry had ever been seen before on earth, no, not even in Israel. With even the mightiest prophets healings, miracles, raisings from the dead, and the love of God being revealed to His people, was incredibly rare. With Jesus they were commonplace.

He even had the authority to transfer that power to these men and they were able to pray for people and see them healed! They had cast demons out. The bread had multiplied in their hands. And if any case was too difficult for them He was there to set it right. (Matt. 14:7-21)

Hearing Him preach, seeing the miracles, the healings, the restorations; this – this was life! Their hearts must have been on fire during this three year period! How intoxicating!

These men had “left everything” (Matt. 19:27) to follow Jesus. They left wives, children, family, friends, businesses, and had staked their entire reputations and futures on the belief that He was the Messiah. They believed that, because He had prayed, heard from God and chosen them, they were going to rule with Him when He ascended to the throne of Israel.

Keep in mind that there was already a king on the throne of Israel. He even had the backing of Rome. Kings generally don’t allow others to make claims to the throne and let them continue breathing. Either Jesus was going to pull this off or they were all dead.

And now he says he’s leaving?  

As the depth of depression is setting in they hear that He is sending Another in His place. A “Helper”? We don’t need a helper, we need a Deliverer King! Jesus calls this Other the “Spirit of Truth”. Then He goes on to explain that this Spirit has been with them the whole time. He is the source of power they've been living with. …

And He is going to live in them.

What?

God is going to come live in us?

You and this Spirit are the same?

You are going to come live in us?

What?! 

Is it this even possible? God told Moses that he was not allowed to see God’s face and live. It has been that way since before the nation of Israel took the Promised Land. So, how is it that God is going to come live inside of them and they will somehow survive? And one other question:

How will God – the one who has been doing all of these healings, miracles, deliverances, restorations, signs, and wonders – coming to live inside of them change the way they live their lives?

How much better is this going to be?

How much better is this for us?

Do we dare to believe it?