John 14:15-18
If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; 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. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
How many of you ever followed professional wrestling? I don’t know the new wrestlers, but back in the day I use to love watching Hulk Hogan, Macho-man Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, and my all time favorite Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock. Individual battles were cool, but the real excitement came during tag team matches. Tag team bouts were so exciting because no matter how bad your favorite hero was doing, you knew all he had to do is reach out and touch his partner and the match would totally change its trajectory. You could go from completely defeated to winner just with the touch of a hand from your partner. Well, this morning I want to talk about the ultimate partner: the Holy Spirit!
Even though Jesus clearly explained the process of new life and abundant living to his disciples (and to us), all too often the power of his statement is lost because we are only listening to him from the limits of our perception and not the ears of faith. Because of that his disciples left the encounter baffled and confused. And even if they could envision Jesus going away for a while, who was this Comforter guy, and why did he need to come help? What did he have that the rest of them (us) don’t?
I would be critical of the disciples for their apparent lack of faith, but I honestly believe at times we (me) may display even less. The disciples didn’t have the benefit of the written word, testimonies from saints throughout the ages and evidence of the outpouring of the Spirit at the time Jesus gave his instructions. But we do! We have an enormous amount of spiritual affirmation, yet many times we make the tragic mistakes of trusting our own interpretation and rendition of the Word instead of truly seeking revelation knowledge. Studying and research are wonderful. God calls for us to do so. But nothing supersedes or surpasses the leaning of the Spirit in our lives. The Spirit of Truth is the actual representation of Christ living in us. It is the fulfillment of the hope of heaven for all humanity. Certainly nothing to take for granted.
I recently was introduced to an older gentleman named Graham Cooke on a Zoom meeting. He isn’t known to be a savvy internet guy or super technical individual. So why was he being introduced to a bunch of pastors, leaders and internet content creators? I thought to disconnect, but thank the Lord I didn’t.
Graham’s testimony was that he didn’t grow up in church or have a religious background. He came to the Lord at a house in a small group setting. So that means he didn’t experience Sunday School, all night prayer services, tarrying, week long revivals or many of the other activities that made their way into our lives. There’s nothing wrong with any of these activities at all. However, the activities should never color our perception of who God is. More specifically, who the Holy Spirit is and what he came to do.
I listened and listened to this man, and actually became jealous of his level of deep relationship with the Spirit of God. Not that I can’t have the same, but. I must be willing to acknowledge my limitations and “tag” the Holy Ghost in every area of my life. I must be bold enough to allow the influence of the Lord to become ‘scary real’. Only then will we really begin to see our truest partner and friend.
God bless
