THE INDWELLING SPIRIT

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— (John 14:16 NKJV)

 The gift of the Holy Spirit was due to the intercession of our Lord, and the Apostle Peter refers to it when he says: "Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:33). In 1 John 2:1, the Revised Version, the word Helper is translated Advocate--"One who makes us strong by His presence, as Helper, Guide, and Instructor." Think what this means, to have always beside us, not a vague influence, but a divine Person, who waits to be our strength in weakness, our peace in trouble, our wisdom in perplexity, our conqueror in temptations, our consoler in sorrow. The Lord meant that the Holy Spirit should be to us all that He Himself had been. This is the meaning of another. There are two advocates, or two paracletes. When the one ascended to the glory, the other descended into the hearts of His disciples. "He abideth with you, and shall be in you."

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." Christ had been speaking of sending another; now He says, I am coming Myself, so that we learn that He is so indissolubly One with the Holy Spirit, Whom He sends, that the coming of the Spirit is His own coming. Do not look for the Spirit apart from Jesus. As the sun comes in the light, so does Jesus come in the Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit, we shall not think of Him, but of Jesus to whom He bears witness, and when our hearts are taken up with the Lord, we may know that we have received Him, who is the Gift of gifts.

Open your whole nature to the entrance of the Holy Spirit. Unlock every door; open every curtain on every window, so that entering He may fill you with the glorious indwelling of the Father and the Son. "I will prepare a "mansion," Jesus said; and, "We will make the holy soul our mansion."

"'He shall teach you all things." His lesson book is the life and words of our blessed Lord. We may think that we are fully informed of all that He has said, but as we study the Bible, the Holy Spirit brings us back to them again and again, always revealing new light, and unthought of depths. Never let a day pass without reading some of the words of Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER

You have not left us comfortless, heavenly Father. May life be renewed in its springs, by the gracious operation of Your Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and leading us from grace to grace. I ask it in your Sons name, Amen.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #307:
I have chosen you to be My own treasured possession.

Deuteronomy 7:6 (WEB)
For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God:
Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession,
above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.