More on the Helper
These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 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 that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You heard that I said to you, "I go away, and I will come to you."...Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. John 14:25-29, NASB.
More and more emphasis falls on the gift of the Holy Spirit as the farewell discourses proceed toward Gethsemane and the cross. In our Scripture reading for today Jesus tells us several more things about the One He will send to stand by every disciple's side after He has ascended to the Father.
The first thing Jesus explains about the Helper is that He will teach us all things. It is the Spirit who leads God's followers deeper and deeper into spiritual truth. That is why it is important to pray and invite His presence as we open our Bible for serious study. The same divine Person who inspired the prophets to write the Bible will unlock its meaning ever more fully to those dedicated to its study.
A second thing Jesus reveals about His gift of the Helper in John 14:25-29 is that He will remind us of what Jesus has said. That means several things. One is that in matters of faith the Spirit constantly brings into our consciousness the words and acts of Christ and His apostles. It is those teachings that form the basis of hope and the context in which followers of Jesus evaluate all their conclusions about the meaning and goals of life.
A third aspect of the Helper's guidance is that He keeps us on the right track in our conduct as we navigate the corridors of life. When we face difficult moral choices, it is the Helper who flashes the teachings of Christ through our minds to inform us of the best way to go.
We can thank God for all of those benefits of the Helper in our lives. But perhaps the most personal and precious is the gift of peace, which infuses our lives when we trust in God because of the accomplished victory of Jesus. Biblical peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is also that sense of well-being that God implants in our hearts and minds through the Spirit.
It is that sense of boundless peace that Jesus was seeking to leave with His followers in John 14. And it is what He desires to infuse in my life. But more than that, He desires me to be His Spirit-inspired agent of peace in my family and workplace today.
These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 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 that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You heard that I said to you, "I go away, and I will come to you."...Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. John 14:25-29, NASB.
More and more emphasis falls on the gift of the Holy Spirit as the farewell discourses proceed toward Gethsemane and the cross. In our Scripture reading for today Jesus tells us several more things about the One He will send to stand by every disciple's side after He has ascended to the Father.
The first thing Jesus explains about the Helper is that He will teach us all things. It is the Spirit who leads God's followers deeper and deeper into spiritual truth. That is why it is important to pray and invite His presence as we open our Bible for serious study. The same divine Person who inspired the prophets to write the Bible will unlock its meaning ever more fully to those dedicated to its study.
A second thing Jesus reveals about His gift of the Helper in John 14:25-29 is that He will remind us of what Jesus has said. That means several things. One is that in matters of faith the Spirit constantly brings into our consciousness the words and acts of Christ and His apostles. It is those teachings that form the basis of hope and the context in which followers of Jesus evaluate all their conclusions about the meaning and goals of life.
A third aspect of the Helper's guidance is that He keeps us on the right track in our conduct as we navigate the corridors of life. When we face difficult moral choices, it is the Helper who flashes the teachings of Christ through our minds to inform us of the best way to go.
We can thank God for all of those benefits of the Helper in our lives. But perhaps the most personal and precious is the gift of peace, which infuses our lives when we trust in God because of the accomplished victory of Jesus. Biblical peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is also that sense of well-being that God implants in our hearts and minds through the Spirit.
It is that sense of boundless peace that Jesus was seeking to leave with His followers in John 14. And it is what He desires to infuse in my life. But more than that, He desires me to be His Spirit-inspired agent of peace in my family and workplace today.
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