HOW IMPORTANT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT??
I was reading a book this week and the author asked that question. He was looking at John 16:7 which says:" "Nevertheless I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don't go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you." HCSB version.
This is Jesus telling His disciples that it is better for them if He went to His Father in heaven. If He didn't, the Holy Spirit would not come to them.
Think about it. The disciples must have been so confused as to what Jesus was saying. They had spent so much time with Jesus, seen so many miracles, heard so many teachings and now they would be better off without Him!?!
Seems like it doesn't make sense! But we know that the Holy Spirit would be sent down to all who accept Him.
The disciples mind set was that they knew of how the presence of God was with so many of the prophets of old and that to have Jesus leave would be a devastating to them!
Up to that time, the presence of God was displayed with smoke or fire. This was so foreign to them. You could say that the Old Testament was "God with us". Like Jesus was with them in the flesh. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given out in the full and powerful sense that was promised for the new covenant age.
I always wondered that when I went to Heaven, I wanted to ask the prophets of old what it was like to see the presence of God in the form of smoke or fire. But with Jesus being with the Father, we now have the Holy Spirit in us! In Romans 8:11, that's the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! Now that's pretty awesome!! Maybe the prophets will be asking us about what was it like to have the Spirit inside of us!!!
So it went from "God with us" to "God in us"! How many times I have forgotten about the Holy Spirit in the things going on in my life. Do we really know what we have??
This study I am doing has brought back to me the importance of the Holy Spirit in my life.
How about you?
Blessings,
Paul