Christ in Us: The Holy Spirit

In John 13-17, Jesus still had a lot to tell his followers. John, that wonderful writer of commentary on Jesus' life and ministry, relates to us Jesus' words during and after their Passover meal together. Jesus was departing, but in another way, he really wasn't. There was another way for him to be with them,
and he starts describing it in John 14:16-18: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you." 

You've probably heard that the Greek word for "another" in this verse is "another of the same kind," and that word helps us in two ways:  technically, it tells us that Jesus is exactly the same essence as the Holy Spirit; practically, Jesus says that although he will not be leading them daily in the same way he has done, he will be with them in a new way, through the Spirit. He also says "I will come to you" and although that might mean his end-time return, the context shows us that the day-to-day presence in us of the Spirit is also the presence of Jesus.

In the 50 days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to them for the first 40, then they prayed for the next 10, then the Spirit came dramatically and the church was birthed through the Spirit's powerful proclamation of the Gospel. The mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) continued with the church by the Spirit living in all disciples, and it still continues.

The Holy Spirit is in you, and he is the mind of Christ in you, leading you toward living in love, joy, peace and the other qualities of God's mind. The Spirit is here to bring honor to Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Savior of humanity, and so he longs to make the love of Jesus obvious in your life for others to see. When we are sensitive to the Spirit's presence and work, and when he fills us with his power, there is no mistaking it!

If you have not seen the Spirit's work in your life lately, it's not that he's gone away, but perhaps you've not been focusing on him. So, 10 days of prayer, like the disciples did, might be in order. What do you think?