Phenomenal cosmic power. Itty bitty living space.
That’s the assessment of Disney’s Genie of his lamp in Aladdin. My generation had I Dream of Jeannie. She lived in a bottle. They were ‘tiny homes’ before tiny homes became a thing.
I don’t really ‘get’ tiny homes. Live in a trailer. Then again, I’ve become fascinated by container conversions.
If you want tiny, buy a decommissioned submarine. Paint it yellow, of course. One of our Navy veterans was a submariner. He would fondly describe the mere 15sq.ft. each man had for berthing.
Go to mysubmarine.com to find decommissioned subs for sale. They have an ABS class sub they convert to a restaurant that can serve twelve people at a time. It’s only going to set you back $1mil.
Jesus told the eleven that He was going to Heaven to prepare extravagant, luxurious, spacious, custom mansions for believers. While waiting for Jesus to come and take us home, He told believers to expect a slightly more crowded housing arrangement:
“The Spirit [Who ] dwells with you… will be in you” (v17).
Every disciple would have a roommate in the person of God the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul writes, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God…” (First Corinthians 6:19).
God the Holy Spirit lives in you. I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 God the Holy Spirit Lives In You Permanently, and #2 God the Holy Spirit Lives In You Peaceably.
#1 – God the Holy Spirit Lives In You Permanently (v14-21)
We are casually discussing God Himself, God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, living in us.
There are additional verses that speak of Christ, or the Spirit of Jesus, or the Spirit of Jesus Christ, living in the believer. For instance, Ephesians 3:17, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”
This doesn’t mean Jesus and the Holy Spirit live in you. God the Holy Spirit lives in you on behalf of Jesus.
Joh 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Can you do anything that has eternal value without the help of the Holy Spirit? Charles Spurgeon didn’t think so. He said, “Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless.”
Jesus told them to “keep” His “commandments.” The one, foundational commandment He gave them that night at supper was to love one another as He loved them. Not possible without the Holy Spirit indwelling us.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever –
Jesus had been their “helper” for the previous three and one half years. He was leaving. He would send them another Helper who was simultaneously just like Him, and better than Him.
If I say “hamburger,” what is the first thing that pops into your head? For me, it’s “helper.”
Hamburger is good, but helper takes it to the next level. People have a tendency to think that way about God the Holy Spirit. We are the hamburger, and He is the sometimes Helper. There if we need Him.
You’ve seen the Christian bumper sticker, “Jesus is my Co-pilot.” You are letting the world know that you are your own pilot, and you’ll let Jesus know if you ever need His help.
Another false notion of His help has to do with His power. Christians see Him as a source of power to be tapped into if needed. In the Fast & the Furious movie universe, the street racers are equipped with nitrous oxide. The driver flips a switch and tries to hang on. That is not how the Holy Spirit operates within us.
Question: What does God the Holy Spirit have in common with the Hotel California? Once He has checked in, He never leaves. He abides with you forever.
The permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is unique to the Church in the Church Age. Old Testament saints were saved by believing in God. They were not born-again, they were not baptized spiritually by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Jesus Christ, and they did not have God the Holy Spirit as their permanent roommate.
David said to God, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). We cannot pray that prayer. The Spirit “abides forever.”
God did take His Spirit back from David’s predecessor. We read of Saul, “The Spirit of the Lord had left Saul” (First Samuel 16:14).
BTW: Those who argue that the Holy Spirit’s ministry was the same in the Old Testament as it is today make no distinction between Israel and the Church. They say Israel was the Church in the Old, and the Church is ‘spiritual Israel’ in the New. The Bible distinguishes between Israel, the Church, and Gentiles. You cannot understand Bible prophecy if you confuse God’s dealings with these three people groups.
When you believed Jesus, and were born-again, God the Holy Spirit came to dwell in you, forever. He doesn’t check-out. Not ever. You can grieve Him; you can quench Him. You cannot evict Him.
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Jesus earlier said He was “the truth.” The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth.” The Spirit shows you Jesus truth in a world filled with lies about Him.
The nonbeliever rejects Bible truth. Put it this way: A person who rejects clear, unequivocal, biblical truth in favor of the devil’s lies, does not have the Spirit.
Joh 14:18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Perhaps one or more of the eleven were thinking, “I thought I was a child of God, but it seems I am to be orphaned.” Not possible.
Christians express feelings of abandonment. Especially in what seems your darkest time. Not possible.
“But Gene, I’ve been seeking God, and He’s silent.” Is not! You have the completed Bible through which He has spoken to you. With God the Holy Spirit in your heart, He is still speaking to you. He hasn’t abandoned you, but you might have to wait for His wisdom.
The Bible, for instance, repeatedly encourages us to “fear not.” It supposes that you will be in fearful circumstances.
Joh 14:19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
Jesus would return to Heaven. Unbelievers don’t see Him again until the Second Coming, after the seven-year Great Tribulation.
The eleven, along with lots of other believers, would see Him in His resurrection body for forty-days after He rose.
Today we “see” the Lord by faith even in His absence on account of the Holy Spirit’s ministry.
Joh 14:20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
On the upcoming Day of Pentecost, Jesus would give them the promised Holy Spirit. God the Father is spirit. So is God the Holy Spirit. I cannot fully comprehend life among spirit beings. But Jesus made it sound really great:
We will have the assurance that Jesus and the Father are one. We will be in Jesus. Jesus would be in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. And it is forever.
Joh 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Verse thirty-one says something similar. “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.” Jesus loved and obeyed as our example. Jesus didn’t need to prove He loved the Father by obeying Him. Obedience and love go together.
Same with us. Obedience is our response to God’s love. Obedience and love go together.
We can, stupidly, choose to disobey. Does that mean we no longer love God? Let me ask it this way: Each time you sin, do you no longer love God?
It is true, we tend to hurt those we love. It happens on a cosmic scale, too. Disobedience hurts the Holy Spirit. But it doesn’t mean we no longer love God.
You will be immersed in the love of God for you. The spiritual response to the love of God is to love Him and keep His commandments. Love reciprocates. To paraphrase Barney I love you, you love me, We’re all in God’s family.
I saw a meme that said, “The only thing permanent in this life is that everything is temporary.”
Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, said, “There is nothing permanent except change.”
Korg explained to Thor, “Nothing makes sense here, man. The only thing that does make sense is that nothing makes sense.”
In the midst of that kind of despair and sarcasm, we are permanently indwelt by God. Forever.
#2 – God the Holy Spirit Lives In You Peaceably (v22-31)
Whether it is the Manchurian Candidate, or the Winter Soldier, we see the effects of programming.
We are programmed by the “ruler of this world.”
gotquestions.org says, “Satan is the major influence on the ideals, opinions, goals, hopes and views of the majority of people. His influence also encompasses the world’s philosophies, education, and commerce. The thoughts, ideas, speculations and false religions of the world are under his control and have sprung from his lies and deceptions.”
The Bible describes Satan as a murderer and liar. He has invented religions and philosophies that compete with the salvation offered by God. He breaks down boundaries God has lovingly set for His creatures, convincing people that they are making progress when, in fact, they are reverting to base, fleshly lusts.
A saved person finds him or herself in a struggle with their unredeemed flesh and the devil’s programming.
God the Holy Spirit can override our programming.
Joh 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Joh 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
Jesus keeps returning to His revelation of the Spirit’s indwelling. Our hearts become God’s home. Obedience is made possible by the Spirit, and when we choose to obey, we overcome the world’s programming.
Joh 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.
Joh 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
The eleven constantly struggled to understand the sayings of Jesus. Now they were told that when the Helper came, He would enable them to recall and understand what Jesus taught. They couldn’t – not fully – until then.
The Father’s sending the Spirit in Jesus’ name is another way of saying that the Father will send Him in response to Jesus’ request.
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The Holy Spirit in your heart is the “peace” that Jesus will leave with us. Thomas Watson writes, “If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble.”
You can always be in the peaceful eye of the storm.
C.S. Lewis writes, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of Jesus. The peace of God is His indwelling.
Joh 14:28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
The revelation that the Lord will return for us ought to be enough to replace trouble and fear with peace. The eleven, however, remained steadfast in trouble and fear.
Jesus added that His returning to the Father was good for them, because the Father “is greater.” Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal. The Father is “greater” with regards to the plan of salvation. God the Son voluntarily submitted to the Father, and the Spirit voluntarily submitted Himself to Father and Son.
One pastor asked, “Would you rather have Jesus beside you, or the Spirit inside you?”
Joh 14:29 “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
The Lord has told us, too, about what is coming before it comes, so that we may remain at peace:
“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
“All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (Second Timothy 3:12).
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified” (First Peter 4:12-14).
Realistic expectations go far in helping us remain at peace.
Joh 14:30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
Satan was coming to do his worst against Jesus. No matter what the devil might try, Jesus was spotless, blameless, unimpeachable. He was in charge of the events that were about to transpire.
Joh 14:31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
This was Jesus’ assessment of the Cross. Dying on the Cross as an act of obedience would show the world how much He loved the Father from eternity.
“Arise, let us go from here.” Jesus just said that the ruler of this world was coming, and perhaps by this He was saying, “Let us rise and be ready to meet him.” That’s pretty good advice for believers:
As Jesus went to the Cross, so we take up our crosses daily to follow Him.
Be ready to meet our defeated enemies and not be stumbled by trouble.
It’s OK to want more of the Holy Spirit, to ask to be filled with the Spirit, for Him to come upon you. Just so you understand that He is a Person, not a power. Since He is a Person, He has already come upon you, and He already fills you.
We like to see Before&After pics. A favorite on the web is celebrity Before&After pics of plastic surgery.
One of the best ways to search our hearts about the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is to see the Before&After of the eleven:
Before the Lord was crucified, the apostle Peter denied Him:
Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about” (Luke 22:54-60).
After God the Holy Spirit came to “abide forever,” Peter spontaneously addressed several thousand Jews in the Temple. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).
If you’ve never experienced that kind of transformation, maybe you are not born-again. What would you say if I asked you to give your testimony?
Most of us have a testimony of being born-again. There are things, lots of things, that can quench our dependence on the Holy Spirit:
Churches often emphasize self-effort as equal or more important than the Spirit. It prompted the apostle Paul to confront believers in the region of Galatia, saying, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (3:3).
Jesus wrote to believers in the church in Ephesus and revealed, “you have left your first love” (Revelation 3:4).
Pastors and teachers tend to gravitate toward a conservative cessation approach to God the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. They deny any possibility He will give you certain gifts. They reduce Him to a kind of Teacher that tells you what to do, expecting you to do it on your own.
Ask the Lord what is going on with you & He.