Christ Generously Gave Us the Holy Spirit 

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.”—John 14:16 (NIV)  

By Danny Saavedra    

Jesus knew His disciples so well. In John 13–17, we see the Lord sitting with His disciples for Passover. Today we call this occasion the Last Supper. During this meal, Christ revealed He would be going away, and the disciples wouldn’t be able to follow Him there (John 13:33). 

Obviously, this was difficult for the disciples. They’d followed Jesus for three years and believed they would follow Him everywhere. They loved Jesus and didn’t know what to make of His words. It likely left them confused and discouraged. 

And Jesus understood this, so He told them, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1 NASB). And He proceeded to tell them something amazing, something that would change their lives in ways they never could have imagined: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17 NASB).

Again, Jesus knows us so well! He knew that apart from Him, the disciples would scatter like sheep without a shepherd, which they did. He knew that because He was returning to heaven to prepare a place for them, they needed a helper, a guide. Why? Because they would be lost without Him. So, He generously gave them the Holy Spirit, who would “teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26 NIV). 

Likewise, apart from the Spirit, we would be totally and completely lost as believers. You see, the Holy Spirit teaches us what we ought to say (Luke 12:12), intercedes for us (Romans 8:26), fills us to accomplish the work of God (Acts 4:8), reveals truth (1 John 5:6), and searches all things (1 Corinthians 2:10). The apostle Paul goes as far as to tell us that “the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14–16 NIV). 

Jesus gave us the very best thing we could possibly receive—His Spirit. And now, we don’t have to go anywhere to be in the presence of God, to see Him, hear from Him, to be close to Him. Now, for us who believe, God is with us always . . . He is in us always. We are forever in His presence. We no longer need a mediator like a priest to come to His throne; we have the Holy Spirit, our Advocate, our Helper, Christ in us!

The gift of the Holy Spirit is one of the most obvious and beneficial expressions of God’s generosity toward us. Today, take some time to reflect on this gift. Reflect on the fact that “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11 NIV, emphasis added). Ask yourself: Are you accessing that power? Are you walking in the steps He wants to direct you toward? Are you listening and leaning into Him? Are you allowing Him to work through you to show the love and grace of Christ to those around you? Are you being generous with the gift of the Spirit?