WHY THE HOLY SPIRIT HAD TO COME
SCRIPTURE: JOHN 16:7 (AMPL)
”However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].”
When our Lord Jesus Christ was teaching and introducing the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, He used certain words that are critical for our understanding and lifestyle as saints. Actually, according to the biblical record, the apostles and disciples had begun to express sorrow (John 16:5-6, 22) because Jesus mentioned that he was going to leave them.
From a human standpoint, their sadness was understandable. Why? Anytime these disciples and apostles had questions, needs and challenges, they came directly to Jesus for all their answers and solutions. Remember, when they were stuck in the wilderness without food after three days of teachings, Jesus multiplied bread and fish for them to eat sufficiently. When Peter’s mother-in-law was sick, Jesus went over to pray for her healing. When they were threatened on the sea and feared drowning, Jesus literally spoke to winds and the waves and delivered them. Practically, Jesus was their provider, helper, healer, strengthener, counselor, teacher, etc
Nevertheless, it was now time for them to consider Jesus’s going from a spiritual standpoint. It was now time for them to consider how Christ Jesus’s absence would benefit them forever and beyond the three and half years he was with them.
This is one thing we must continually reflect on in our hearts and minds so that we can appreciate better the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The key words in Jesus’ statement, as seen in today’s verse, are “good, expedient and advantageous.” What was the advantage in Jesus’s leaving? What was expedient and good about it?
His leaving was to make way for the Holy Spirit to come and make his residence not just in the apostles and disciples who believed in Him, but also all of us who would believe in Him afterwards. Therefore, without the coming of the Holy Spirit, experiencing salvation and the presence of God on a personal level would be impossible.
This is where the advantage of Jesus’s leaving lies: we can have and operate a personal, dynamic, supernatural life, filled with God’s presence, power and dominion over all circumstances. The Holy Spirit therefore is a major factor in your ability to experience all that is yours in Christ Jesus and also for all your personal success physically, emotionally, financially, in ministry, family life and all other areas.
PRAYERI am forever grateful to you, Father, for the Holy Spirit in my life and daily walk with you. I rejoice in this experience and the dynamism and impact it has brought me. Apart from the new life imparted into my spirit, my understanding is illuminated and my body is quickened by the same Spirit. The Lord Jesus is becoming more and more real in my life as I depend on the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Father, in Jesus’s name, Amen.
FURTHER READING (NKJV)
JOHN 14:16-20
[16]And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
[17]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.
[18]I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
[19]“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
[20]At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.le to God through Jesus Christ.