Lent Devotions
Lent Week Three – for Catch up.
Lent Week Four started March 5, 2018 and March 23, 2019
Lent Day Nineteen
The Promise of a Comforter
Music
Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove – First Congregational Church of LA
Scripture
John 14:15-31
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Devotion
This week we looked at
on Monday, Mansions
Then, The WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.
Tuesday, we looked at THE WAY.
Wednesday, we looked at the TRUTH.
Thursday, we looked at THE LIFE.
But today, we are jumping back to the original plan, and talking about the Promise of a Comforter.
Passage
John 14:15-31
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
First, we need to look at
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
The whole reason for this chapter is that Jesus doesn’t want the disciples hearts to be troubled. He says “LET NOT your hearts be troubled:”
There is something we can do to let not our hearts be troubled – and that is “ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
For us to be comforted, we must do something – BELIEVE!
John 14:1 HCSB – Your heart must not be troubled. Believe[a] in God; believe also in Me.
“Let” is a verb.
“must not be” is a state of being.
The command is BELIEVE in God, BELIEVE also in Me.
We must believe in order to receive, and I’m not talking about “name it claim it” stuff…I’m talking about the fact that
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
This gift is to BELIEVERS. Those who chose to live their life by FAITH.
The beginning of our passage is this:
New Living Translation says it “If you love me, obey my commandments.
Every other version I looked at through www.BibleHub.com said Commandments.
What are the commands of Christ?
We could say the Beatitudes – but I think he was describing character qualities to aim for in the Sermon on the Mount.
Then what?
That brings us back to
John 14:1 Amplified
“Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me.
Doesn’t that fit? heart, soul, mind and strength – LOVE – and this being the main outcome of BELIEVING. These are the commands of Christ that I can absolutely say.
There are other things, like telling us to believe. But, he said it. If you love me, keep my commands. So, by faith – we are to love and believe. Yet, there is a condition for the promise:
John 14:1 Believe in, God believe also in me.
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, ….
Does this “commandments” get repeated?
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
We’ve agreed that the commandments are His great commandments given in Mark 12:30-31 (above). And the promise is that if we keep his commandments, He will send a comforter (vs 16, 17,26 ), He will come to us ( vs 18,21,23,), we shall live (vs 19), have His words brought to our remembrance ( vs 26) and PEACE (vs 27).
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Who or What is this Spirit of Truth?
THE MYSTERY
John 14:17Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
John 14: 18I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
John 14:20At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
John 14:23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Jesus is hinting at the Triunity of God. Father, Son of Man/Son of God are spoken of in John 14:20 – and a comforter is mentioned in John 14:16.
The Spirit of Truth is part of the Godhead – but that’s another study. GotQuestions discusses the personhood of the Holy Spirit as God in great detail.
So assuming that the Holy Spirit is God – John 14:17 says He dwells with us and in this time, shall be IN us.
Who comes to live in us? THE GODHEAD!
Colossians 2:9 For in him(Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
In Christ, dwells all the fulness of the Godhead – we know that.
Colossians 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
It is NOT unthinkable that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in us through the redeeming work of Christ, and our faith (belief) in Him.
A cool thing is that the power of the Godhead is the very power that existed in the beginning and created everything – CREATION POWER LIVES IN US!
Genesis1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Colossians 115 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
What are some of the promises that come as comforts? I’m defining comfort as the freedom from fear.
verse 17 Spirit of Truth – freedom from lies
verse 19 Live eternally – freedom from fear of death
verse 26 Teach all things – freedom from spiritual ignorance
verse 26 bring remembrance – Proverbs 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. – freedom from power of Sin
verse 27 Peace – freedom from fear
Got Questions discusses what the Holy Spirit does – it’s A LOT. HE is a great gift!
The comforter, or The Comforter or The Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity. The gift is that He will dwell in us and help us, guide us, comfort us and protect us and lead us
Ephesians 4:13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
I wrote about the differences between the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit in Itty Bitty Bible Study Ephesians 2.
Worship
Come Holy Spirit, Fall Afresh on Me – Maranatha Singers
Spirit Song – Edwin Hatch
Spirit of Our Living God, Fall afresh on Me – Marble Church
Spirit of the Living God – Vertical Worship
Where the Spirit of the Lord is – Hillsong Worship
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Hi!
My hope in the midst of despair and my joy in the face of depression is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not have one, or are not sure you will join him in heaven, please check out these links:
- Got Questions provides a detailed explanation of The Roman’s Road.
- Billy Graham’s version of the Plan of salvation.
Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
M. Christine Wildman
“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest
Copyrights and Legal-eze
There are many organizations that support children and families. Here are ones that we are blessed to be a part of. Please consider sponsoring a child – the life you change could be your own.
- Naomi’s Heart Ministries
- Obed’s House Ministries
- The son of a friend will be interning with CRU – previously known as Campus Crusades for Christ. If you’d like to support someone I can vouch for in this area, please consider going to Matthew Plant’s donation page.
