The Helper!

"If you love Me, keep My commandments. 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 orphans; I will come to you" John 14:15-18.

Jesus is talking with His disciples during the last supper with them before His crucifixion, and he continues to talk about the Holy Spirit, "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" John 14:19-21.

Judas (not Iscariot - not the one who betrayed Him), had a question and he asked, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"

Jesus responded, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me... But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" John 14:22-24, 26.

The message of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer who is obedient to Christ's instructions is so important that Jesus emphasized it three times during His last meal with His Disciples.

Jesus shared other valuable insights into the gifts He shares with us through the Holy Spirit; "He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" John 14:26. "When He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth" John 16:13.

Paul had quite a lot to say about the union of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ... The Holy Spirit who is in you, you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's… For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people'" 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19, 20; 2 Cor. 6:16 (Leviticus 26:12).

Paul expands on this theme to include the body of believers when he writes, "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" Ephesians 2:21.

And Paul gives specific examples of the diversity of gifts shared by the Holy Spirit. "And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all; for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills" 1 Corinthians 12:6-11.

The body of Jesus Christ has many members but it is one body through the administration of the Holy Spirit! Jesus is the Head and we are various organs and parts of His body. "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church; first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administration, and varieties of tongues…

"Earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal… Now abide faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love" Ibid. 12:27-31; 13:1, 13.

Without the love of Jesus in our hearts, we are not just "sounding brass or a clanging cymbal" we become toxic. Without the love of Jesus in our hearts, the opposite of healing becomes evident in our lives. Love is a healing agent. And Jesus is our healer. "I am the One who heals you" Exodus 15:26. Thus, the gift of healing is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it is associated with Christ's love for you and me.

Paul eloquently sums up values that we receive from the Holy Spirit when he wrote, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law" Galatians 5:22, 23.

One of Christ's final reminders to His disciples was, and to us is, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" Matthew 28:19, 20. And His Presence with us is "The Helper!"

May God bless you and share His love, joy and peace with you this week and forever!