Having looked very briefly at the Holy Spirit in the Bible, let us now turn specifically to Jesus’ teaching on the Paraclete in John ch. 14-16. The passages in question are 14,16-17; 14,26; 15,26; 16,7-15. Some important points follow below:
ANOTHER COUNSELLOR – ANOTHER HELPER
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth”. (John 14,16)
Up until this time Jesus has been there to answer all the disciples’ questions about God, about prayer, about faith. He has been their strength and standby! Now he is going to the Father, but he will not leave them fatherless, he will send them another counsellor/helper, to be with them forever, when he is gone; even the Spirit of truth! To him now the disciples will be able to look! The word John uses for this person is Paraclete (παρακλητος), a Greek verbal adjective meaning “the One called alongside”. It means helper or counsellor.
FROM THE FATHER’S SIDE
““But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”
John 15,26.
Just as Jesus is sent from the Father’s side – or from beside the Father (John 16,28), so the Holy Spirit is sent from the Father’s side (John 15,26).
I have included this because it shows the Father as the source of all things. Some have concluded that this makes the Son less than God, because the Spirit does not also proceed from him. See the note below.
But Jesus said,
“He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16,14-15
Jesus is not less than the Father!
That the Spirit proceeds from the Father, shows the oneness, the unity, the wholeness and the love that exists eternally in the Holy Trinity!
WHOM THE WORLD CANNOT RECEIVE
“…whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14,17)
Because it neither sees him, nor knows him. The Holy Spirit is not known to unbelief! BUT TO FAITH – major point!
HE BRINGS TO US THE FATHER AND THE SON
““I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14,18
“Jesus answered 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.”
John 14,23
“I will come to you…..”
This is deliberately ambiguous language on John’ part: Does Jesus mean he will see them again after he is resurrected, or when he comes again in glory; or is he saying that he will come to them in the person of the Holy Spirit? Probably all three are meant. Just 5 verses down, in verse 23, Jesus says that both he and the Father will come and make their abode with the believer. It has been the blessed experience of Christians down the ages to fellowship with the Father and the Son, through the Spirit.
HE POINTS TO AND GLORIFIES JESUS
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16,14
The Holy Spirit’s sole agenda is to glorify Jesus. He has nothing much else to speak to us about than about Jesus! This is the acid test of whether we are hearing from him in our lives or not! Ask yourself: “Does what I think he is saying to me glorify Jesus – does it point to him?” If not, forget it! If what we hear the Spirit say to us is from Jesus, it is always going to be incredibly encouraging and uplifting. More on this below!
HE IS A TEACHER AND A GUIDE
“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 that I have said to you.”
John 14,26
“….When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16,13
The Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher there is! He knows how to get you and I where God wants us to be in our lives. For that reason it is vital that we learn to listen to him, that we exalt his ministry in our lives. That means highly esteem it, seek it, honour it.
We need to really get our heads around the words of Jesus – I am talking about the Bible in general, but the New Testament in particular. Make it your business to meditate on it – let the word of God dwell in you richly (Col. 3,16) – you are giving the Holy Spirit more to speak to you about, more to remind you of!
HE TEACHES US TO PRAY!
One very great help we can always get from the Holy Spirit, is that he will teach us to pray as we ought. In any situation that you or I might be in, ask the Holy Spirit how to pray about it! It may be someone in deep, deep trouble in their lives that earnestly needs our prayers! The Holy Spirit teaches us, helps us in our weakness. See Romans 8,26.
If you can come to him in prayer, anything can happen! Just come!
THE PARACLETE AND THE WORLD
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” John 16,7-11
C.K. Barrett comments on these verses saying that the Paraclete places the world in advance where it will be on the final day of judgement!
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” John 14,16
Three times in these verses in John 14-16, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth.
The “truth” in this gospel is closely connected to him who is the Truth (John 14,6) – Jesus Christ, and the salvation that is in him.
The devil denies the truth God reveals (John 8,44), but Jesus says in 8,32, that the truth shall set you free!
The ministry of the Spirit of truth, is to point us to Christ who is the Truth, and to redemption through him. Truth is not first and foremost factual truth (i.e. 2+2=4), but related to Christ and God’s faithfulness in him.
If we are not walking in truth; walking in the light, he will convict us of sin, but thankfully in that case, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. 1 John 1,9 is where we must go, if we need to confess our sins!
The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin, but not condemn us. Instead, he will guide us to Christ, who is the solution to our sin.
Neither will he let us grovel in self-pity, or self-recrimination, as if it were all about us – no, it is all about Jesus, and what he has done for us – it is this truth that the Spirit will constantly guide us to, remind us of.
DON’T DOUBT HIS WORD!
If the Holy Spirit has taught you something, spoken to you or revealed something to you, he wants you to believe it, and walk in the light of it. If you start doubting it, you will lose the sense of his presence. It is because you are believing some lie, instead of his truth. Remember that the Holy Spirit witnesses to truth – his truth; the truth about Jesus, and the truth about you in Jesus; the truth about you in Christ – for
“you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Cor. 6:11
That is what the Holy Spirit witnesses to!
He doesn’t keep telling you what a miserable worm of a sinner you are. That may be what you tell yourself, but the Spirit speaks to us of better things; he says you are a beloved child of God, you are forgiven and cleansed, and clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Stand up straight, you have authority in his name!
Believing a lie leads to the lights being turned off – which is another way of talking about bondage. The Spirit witnesses to truth, and your faith, believing that truth, leads to the lights being turned on again – YOU ARE SET FREE, as Jesus said – the truth will set you free!
SPIRIT OF ENCOURAGEMENT
You have the encourager, the faith builder INSIDE YOU!
In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul deals with spiritual gifts, gifts given by the Holy Spirit! In 14,1-3, he says that we are to earnestly desire spiritual gifts , but especially that we may prophecy, for
“the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.”
1 Cor. 14,3
This is how the Holy Spirit wants to speaks to people!
He is not going to speak much differently to you, when he speaks to you personally, as he lets his voice be heard in your innermost being: He is the Spirit who brings upbuilding, encouragement and consolation – whether a) to you directly, in which case you don’t need the spiritual gift of prophecy ministered to you from someone else – or b) you are not hearing his voice of encouragement for some reason. In which case he may speak to you through the prophetic gift! The former is the best way!
For this reason, the gift of prophecy is a wonderful gift which Paul encourages us to earnestly desire! It is for building up the Church, for encouraging it!
SENSITIVITY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
The wonderful, beautiful, holy and pure presence of the Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ. We should covet this more than anything in the world – the sense of his presence!
Moses said to God:
“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here!” (Ex. 33,15)
I have learnt by experience that if we put worship and friendship with God, loyalty to him first in our life – by the grace of God – then that brings the sense of his presence.
Conversely, if you suddenly feel the presence of God come over you, immediately stop what you doing, and go and find a quiet place – he wants to talk to you! That is honouring his presence!
If you feel the presence of God on your life, you are doing something right – it is his pleasure you feel – go for it -worship him and thank him!
We should value nothing in this life as highly as having the pleasure of God! Let’s have a love relationship with the Lord! It starts in worship!
Add to this a strong adherence to, and affirmation or confession (with your mouth) of faith in the truth that is in Christ Jesus – this gets the witness of the Holy Spirit!
You will know his presence!
BE BLESSED!😀👌👍
NOTE:
In Greek the prepositional phrase translated “from”, in both cases (15,26 and 16,28), is παρά του πατρος/para tou patros: the preposition para + genitive tou patros denoting “from beside the Father”.
The original Nicene Creed of Nicea, 325 A.D. states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. An addition was later made in 381 A.D. (Council of Constantinople), or 451 A.D. (Council of Chalcedon), to the clause about the Holy Spirit; adding “from the Father and from the Son” – this phrase is “Filioque”, in Latin.
The Western churches wanted this addition, but not the Eastern churches. The controversy is seen as one of the reasons for the split in 1054! See e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nicene-Creed