16 And
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter
(Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby),
that He may remain with you forever—
17 The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.
19 Just a little while now, and the world will not see Me any more, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
20 At
that time [when that day comes] you will know [for yourselves] that I
am in My Father, and you [are] in Me, and I [am] in you. John 14:16-20 AMP
Who will Jesus ask the Father to give us? The Holy Spirit. How is He described? As another Comforter, as our Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby, and as the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit was going to be moving from where to where? From a position of being with them constantly to being in them! Did Jesus say He would leave us orphans? NO! What does it mean to be left an orphan? It means to be left alone, with no one to care for you or be there for you, noone to belong to, noone to love you. It means to be bereft, abandoned, forsaken, rejected, all by yourself in this world! Jesus did not leave us that way! What did He do? He rose from the dead and because He lives, so do we - He took us with Him into His resurrection! He didn't leave us behind in the dark world alone, He took us with Him into the new creation! And what do we realize/come to know because of what He has done, taking us with Him as He did it (as He rose and ascended)? We realized that He is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us! It isn't just that Jesus is in the bosom of the Father. It is also that we are in Him, that He took us into Himself and included us in Him in all His work and experiences. What happened to Him happened to us. But even beyond that, we realize that He is in us! There is no closer place for someone to be than IN us!
We cannot have a closer friend and confidant and supporter than one who is IN! Because HE is IN us, we are never orphaned! We are never left alone, bereft, rejected, or forsaken! We will never be forgotten, uncared for, unsupported! We will ALWAYS have someone there to love, support, stand up for and help us! Christ has entered into us by His Spirit and He is the Friend that sticks closer than a brother, the Friend that will be with us forever, that will never leave us or forsake us! We will never be all by ourselves to face this world, for He is facing it FOR us from behind our eyes, seeing the world as us, and living for us! The dear Holy Spirit is called the Friend, the Comforter, the Consoler and Encourager, the Standby, the Helper, the Advocate, the Encourager, the Counselor, the One who always tells the wonderful truth about God's love for us and Jesus' finished work for us, about the wonderful new creations we have become, how pleasing we are to the Father, and how secure we are in His arms! He is all these wonderful things to us, not from the outside, not even from beside us, but within us!
When we received Christ, we received God to come live inside of us, to come make His home in us, to come dwell within us and never leave us! We are now face to face with God. There is no separation between us and God, for how can you be separate from someone who is INSIDE of you? You are always joined together and always will be. Why? Because He promised never to leave you. And because He tied Himself to you forever! He became a man and took you into Himself, to be part of you forever. Jesus will always be both God and man in one body. He took all of humanity into Himself and identified Himself with us forevermore. We are always IN Christ. And now that you have received Him through simply believing He was there and loved and died and rose for you, now He has entered IN you! The presence of Christ changes everything! It brings you from death to life, from illusion to reality, from confusion to clarity, from turmoil to peace! It moves you from the kingdom of darkness where Satan controls to the kingdom of God where Love reigns! It brings you up into a whole new world by making you a new creation and birthing you into the eternal realm! This new creation is literally made of heavenly material, made by the Holy Spirit, and this new person that is born is literally born from above, born of God, born of the Spirit, born of indesctructible seed, the Word of God! You are made of Jesus material and can't be separated from Him, ever, because He is part of your makeup, part of your spiritual DNA. You were remade a person who is bonded and blended and united with Him spiritually. Your spirit and His Spirit are one! You will never be apart from Him, ever! It would be like trying to divide yourself from yourself! He is your very life and can't be divided from you. He is part of your real identity and you aren't even 'you' without Him! That's how close He is! It gives us security to know we can never be separated from Him! The only thing that could ever have separated us from Him in our minds and thoughts was sin, and He took away all ours in! So there is nothing to separate us, and we are bonded to Him in unity forever! We are safe in Him.
He is so close, He is IN! You cannot get any closer than IN someone! He is our very heart of hearts, the source of our life, our life itself! What love! He loved us so much He wanted to live IN us! He knew everything we would do, all the choices we would make, any negative things that we would be involved in, and He still chose to live IN us forever, never to leave! He has put all those negative things away anyhow, but that was more for our sake. He has removed any shame, guilt, condemnation, or horror we might feel about a holy God seeing all our dirty laundry. Now we can know we are standing face to face with Him in pure innocence and beauty, flawless, faultless, blameless, perfect,with nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to hide! God has always wanted this intimacy with us, ever since Adam was created! But Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and he became fallen and confused, fearing God and hiding from Him in his shame. Now God has reversed the fall! He has brought us back to the garden, but even done better than that! We have it better than Adam because we are not only brought to a state of innocence like Adam had, of standing before the Father simply as His children, with no reference to right or wrong, good or evil, just innocent children dwelling in love. He has taken us farther by giving us to eat of the tree of life! Righteousness is our gift through Jesus, and righteousness means 'the right to life' - we have the right to pick and eat, and we have done that in receiving Christ! Christ, the fruit of the tree of life, has entered into us and we have been born again as new people who have God as their life! God's very life has been born in us, in our person! We have God dwelling in us, his innocent ones! And so the fellowship we share with Him is not just side by side but within!
God fellowships with us! He loves intimacy with us! He understands everything about us and adores us! We are innocent little ones before His face, and He is always hugging us to His cheek and whispering, "I love you, my dear little one!" He loves to look at us, study our features, listen to our thoughts. He loves our company! He loves spending time with us, hanging out with us..no time with us is ever a waste in His eyes but is instead the most important and special thing of all to Him! We rock His world! We are His darlings, His pride and joy! We are like His precious little babies in His arms, and He sees no fault in us, thinks we are absolutely perfect, the best thing going, the cutest baby ever! Every one of us is His favorite! Every one of us is His special, dear, prized and precious little child. We are so valuable to Him we are truly priceless. He is so thrilled to have us in His arms, where He always planned for us to be, from before the foundation of the world. He has been waiting for this time of just holding us in His arms for all eternity! He loves the way we look into His eyes, the way we laugh, our features, our personalities; He loves everything about us, everything! Do you know how special you are? Do you know that Someone has been adoring you for all time! Do you know you have His constant attention, that you are always the center of His attention and care and concern? Do you know He'd do ANYTHING for you? Do you know He's always focused on you, and thinking of you, that you are NEVER out of His thoughts? Do you know that your value is beyond words to Him? God thinks heaven is being with you, and it just wouldn't be heaven without you there! You make His day special just by being in existence! In fact, you were loved into existence. He created you to love on you, to cherish you, to hold you, to share His love with you forever. God enjoys you, delights in you, is singing and shouting over you right now with joy! You move His heart with joy! You are held in His arms of love forevermore, never to be parted from Him, never to be separated from the Love that made you His new, whole and beautiful little child!
We are face to face with the God who is Love. We are in union with the God who is Love. We are always in the Presence and care of the God who is Love. When we meet Him through His Spirit in us, we find that He has been waiting for us to acknowledge Him all along, He has been waiting for us to enjoy this relationship, He has been planning for this day for all time! And we find that He is Perfect Love. He is delightful, fun to be with, laughing, merry, and always in a good mood! He is always delighted with us, even right after we fail (those sins are gone, anyway, through Jesus' cross!). He is always there for us, always a Friend, always looking at us with tender love and affection! He actually enjoys our company. He has only good words to say to us, only words that uplift us and heal us and encourage us! He's kind and patient, good and generous, giving and never taking into account a wrong suffered. He is love! Let's talk more about this Loving God next time!