| “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; 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” (John 14:16-17). |
| Several times we have mentioned the Holy Spirit, and how He dwells in every true believer. I would like to explain this a little more. When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He looked after all the needs of His disciples, and showed them where to go and what to do. But after His work on the cross He was going back to heaven. His disciples were very sad to hear this, but the Lord Jesus pointed out that when He went back to heaven, He would send down “another Comforter,” who would remain with them forever. He was referring to the Holy Spirit, and here He is called the Spirit of truth. |
| In our second verse the Lord Jesus says that “He (the Holy Spirit) dwelleth with you,” That means that He was in the Lord Jesus, for all His activities were done in the power of the Spirit of God. The disciples had seen the power of the Holy Spirit in all that the Lord Jesus did here in this world. But then the Lord Jesus said, “[He] shall be in you.” That means that when the Holy Spirit came down, He would live in each true believer, and be their Guide and Comforter instead of the Lord Jesus. |
| The Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, after the Lord Jesus had ascended back up to heaven; you can read about it in Acts 2:1-11. At that time the Holy Spirit came upon each believer in that room, and from that time on they were indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Now, after each new believer accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior, they are also indwelt with the Holy Spirit. A true Christian is one who has accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior, and who is then indwelt with the Holy Spirit. |
| He will never leave us, for the Lord Jesus says, “That He may abide with you for ever.” He is always with us, and when the Lord Jesus comes back to take us home to be with Him, the Holy Spirit leaves this world too. He will depart with us when the Lord comes for us, and will be with us for all eternity! What a wonderful thing it is, to have an actual Person of the Godhead — one of the Trinity, living in us! How careful we should be in our behavior, in view of this “divine Guest” who is in us. |
