Benefits to Having the Holy SpiritExemplo

He Never Abandons YOU

In John 14:18, Jesus said to His disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

One of my favorite characteristics of the Holy Spirit is His loyalty.  We never have to fear letting God down so deeply that His Spirit will flee.  

This may likely go against much of you what you’ve heard about God. Maybe you’ve heard the narrative that God will stop loving you if your behavior isn’t godly enough or your performance isn’t perfect enough.  But this, my friend, isn’t the Gospel. God’s presence, through His indwelling Spirit, is permanent. The Holy Spirit is the most loyal companion we will ever have. Even in our loneliest moments, we are never truly alone. 

We’ve never needed to know this like we do today, when loneliness is being called the new epidemic in America. Loneliness is actually the number one fear of young people today. They are more afraid of loneliness than they are of losing a home or a job, and 42 percent of millennial women are more afraid of loneliness than a cancer diagnosis. Scientists now recognize that loneliness not only leads to depression, anxiety, and other painful psychiatric disorders, but it also wreaks havoc on our bodies, leading to serious physical ailments. 

Even on our most rebellious days, He stays, lovingly convicting us and wooing us back to the heart of Jesus. And here’s the other thing: He helps us stay. When the day feels too hard to face and we want to quit showing up, or when we want to run from relationships or make ourselves numb to our hard realities, He helps us stay, because He stays too. And there isn’t anything we can’t face when we know we have the power of the Spirit inside us. Oh, we can grieve Him and we can quench Him, but we cannot lose Him. This is our post-Pentecost promise! 

We need to know that He is still closer than our breath—even when it feels like God has ceased to uphold His promise to never abandon us because the pain runs so deep and the silence feels so deafening and life feels so disappointing.

I might not know what valleys you’re walking through—or have come through—but I do know this: Not only will He not abandon you, but His desire is to comfort you. His comfort is the assurance that Jesus knows your pain, enters into your pain, and won’t waste your pain. His comfort provides supernatural hope. Not the kind of hope like when we say, “I hope this thing happens” or “I hope I can heal from this pain.” It is the hope of salvation that “will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:5 NLT).

His abiding presence is internal and eternal. He is the faithful friend you long for, taking your hand and leading you toward your hope of wholeness.