Never Alone: Parenting in the Power of the Holy SpiritEsimerkki

Day One: “He Is for Our Good”

Read John 16:5-7.

In this passage, Jesus prepared His disciples for His ascension and the forthcoming ministry of the Holy Spirit. This was by no means the first time Jesus spoke to His disciples about sending the Holy Spirit to be their (and our) Helper, but Jesus’ departure at this point was imminent. He provided a final word of comfort and encouragement to His grieving disciples about the significance of the Holy Spirit’s coming.

The Helper (the Advocate) is, of course, the Holy Spirit. But the disciples couldn’t fathom how Jesus could say such a thing. How could it ever be to our advantage or for our good that You go away and “only” leave us with Your Spirit?

This wasn’t just disappointing news to the disciples. It was devastating. They’d spent three years by His side and under His leadership, and this wasn’t how they expected it to go down. They felt like Jesus was abandoning them when He was supposed to be setting up His kingdom among them!

Has your posture toward the Holy Spirit been similar to or different from how the disciples responded? Why?

My response has been much like the disciples’ response. “But Jesus, I want You.”

What the disciples didn’t understand is that when Jesus returned to the Father, they would lose physical closeness with Jesus but gain something far more valuable: deeper connectivity to Jesus because God’s Spirit would take up residence within them. They would each become the new temple in whom the Spirit would reside:

"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"

1 Corinthians 3:16

You see, Jesus is “God with us.” The Holy Spirit is “God in us.” Jesus wasn’t giving them less of Him; He was giving them even more.