“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18 NKJV
RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
Do you want to know truth? Be able to discern lies? Know how to figure it all out in these confusing times and have peace? The Bible says Jesus is the truth. I have experienced it and it has changed my life. I was once a hot mess of sin, promiscuity, drug and alcohol use and so much more. But I was lost and when I could not find my way, or find a truth, I numbed it with bad choses. When I found Jesus, and truth – I found peace and deliverance from those things.
If you want a relationship with God without truth you will get the counterfeit, hypocritical Christianity that has kept some of you away for too long. You need truth and relationship. You need to be honest with yourself and God (including honest repentance) and God will reveal truth to you. It becomes the two way, interaction that your relationship with God is built on. This is why Jesus is called the truth, because he is our only way to the Father.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen
BIBLE READING:
Dear Heavenly Father – Please give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who you are, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. Open the eyes of our understanding, please, so we may know the hope of our calling and the vast sovereignty and power of the grace of the cross. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepares us and not scares us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word and our sound mind. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! And we pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen
Today’s reading we will re-read the same passage in the Gospel of John, chapter 14 at verse 15 (embedded below for your convenience in the NKJV).
Jesus Promises Another Helper
15 “If you love Me, [d]keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another [e]Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 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. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Indwelling of the Father and the Son
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. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 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 [f]manifest Myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
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. 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.
John 14:15-24 NKJV
MEMORY VERSE CHALLENGE:
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Luke 4:8 KJV
BIBLE DISCUSSION:
Today’s reading continues in that moment after the Last Supper and before they get to the garden. The disciples are full and feel great, full of joy and celebrating. Jesus is heavy and trying to express that most important information to them – which will sustain them in the hard times to come.
To me, it kind of feels like the moment we are living in! That moment of us being distracted by the day to day and unaware of the turmoil ahead – and then a few voices keep rising up saying hard times are coming and few listening. Like Jesus, I will tell you of the foundational things YOU MUST HAVE in place to survive. Because if you are in a position of seeking Him first, everything else is added to you. How bad and how soon? I do not know – and I do know we can keep praying God pushes it back so more can get ready and turn to Him! But then we must also do our share to reach people. I do not even know how long God will answer the prayer to hold back. I know the shaking is coming and is here – but I am speaking of what comes after the shaking, the thing the shaking is preparing us for. Like the disciples in this passage we are in a season of preparation.
SO like the disciples needed a few things (a few being/people) assured-up as their foundations so do we. Jesus made sure that we know that we know Jesus (and we know how to enter into a relationship with him if we do not). And if you really do not know that, please go back a few weekdays and start reading these daily post’s over again, because it is all laid out. Second, Jesus made sure we understood who the Father is, how His authority works and how we can partake in life with the Father as Jesus did. This all led to some of the MOST POWERFUL VERSES on ANSWERED prayer!!! Verses often preached and stood-on outside of the context of us falling humbly in line with the understanding of the Father. So finally today, Jesus reveals the Holy Spirit, who is measure has come to all of us who believe, but has yet to come to the disciples.
The conversation about the Holy Spirit begins with obedience.
“15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
And obedience and the Holy Spirit are intertwined throughout the rest of this passage. I think it is because the HOLY Spirit is HOLY and if we are not obedient we become unclean and are no longer holy until repenting. If we remain good at repenting and Obedience, the Holy Spirit dwells within us – but wait!!! Before you say all those scripture verses that are contrary to my implied “disobedience make the Holy Spirit Leave” – I did not say that, nor did I imply it intentionally, but obviously I see where you picked it up. And in the interest of keeping this clean, scripturally clean, all I am saying is:
“Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16 KJV
Which references Leviticus 19-20 and the Hebrew word for holy: “qadash,” which means to be sanctified, consecrated, and dedicated or to be separated from the world, worldliness, and the flesh. And that comes from being obedient. It comes from respect and love for the Holiness of the Spirit and goes back to our lesson about being the temple or the dwelling of God – we do it for the sake of intimate communion.
“16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 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.”
This Helper, The Spirit of the Lord, gives us power and boldness, but it also teaches us love, mercy and tenderness. It helps in ALL THINGS!
“18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
And most important, once Jesus is no longer here in body – this Holy Spirit makes a way for Jesus to still come to us. I have seen angels and had dreams and vision – but I have never seen Jesus. I know Him well and that is through the Holy Spirit. The disciples had this same feeling of being in His presence and continuing to get to know Him – and it was through the Holy Spirit, who makes it possible for Jesus to come to us and abide with us.
“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deut 31:6
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Heb 13:5
Jesus then goes on to describe it further so we can fully understand the indwelling.
“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.”
Ok – we talked about the mansions and how they are dwellings for God (a few days ago). We talked about being under authority and being in Him like being in the military (yesterday). We talked about relationship, communion, and intimacy. And now when we have Jesus in us and we are in Him we have life. And if you are following all this you also have a good measure of the Holy Spirit. Because on the day the Holy Spirit comes we will not just know, not just understand, but experience:
“20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
It is a revelation of the Spirit!
“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.”
And it is not predicated on obedience but it is wrapped all up with obedience – because it is tied up in love! He who loves me! And it is not conditional – it is actionable.
“22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
A couple things to note here. One is that there are more than the 12 disciples with Him. We know Jesus had many followers and some traveled since the beginning (which we learn in Acts when they try to replace Judas Iscariot). I think the scene on the Last Supper and the 12 painted by Leonardo da Vinci is what we all think of. But Leonardo da Vinci was a better artist than he was a Bible Scholar!
Another thing worth noting is that even though Jesus said when the helper comes you’ll understand – they still did not understand what they did not understand. If these men could change the World, there is hope for me!!!
“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. 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.”
And finally we see a clearer, less abstract picture. The Father Son and Holy Spirit are like an old style lock and keeping Jesus’s word (aka Obedience) transforms us into the key that fits into that puzzle and we are work together interconnected within each other.
Although there is more on the Holy Spirit, specifically, tomorrow. It is interesting to see how Jesus is really hammering home how vital it is that we be IN HIM and stay with Him even when He is gone to heaven.
And as much as this was probable very helpful for those disciples. It is ALL you and I have since Jesus has not walked the earth in our life time.
I grew up in the church and it was not until I walked away and came back that I studied this and realized the depth of what this means and let it reshape my understanding of accepting Jesus into my heart.
Previous I thought accepting Jesus just meant loving him and having him in my heart meant the same as a lover holding a special place in your heart. But it is not even that abstract. It is submitting obediently and humbly in love into the kingdom, into communion, like enlisting in the army and there is an authority to come into and then today’s focus on the Holy Spirit’s revelation, power, boldness, love, help, comfort and other functions – it becomes an exploit of obedience and being IN is actionable.
Please join us tomorrow as we continue to discuss the Book of John.
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I also wanted to remind and inform all of you, that instead of writing a book on fasting (since it is the topic I get asked the most about) I have created a Facebook group that is designed to be interactive and give you all the Bible verses on fasting, all the types of fast, and how to fast. In the group are specialist to help us along the way, like the creator of The Fasting Protocol (fasting for health and weight loss; which is part of fasting and important to know about – He can also speak to fasting in a healthy manner). The group is new and other experts are invited, I am hopeful they will join. So let’s join the group and see what we will learn about prayer and fasting. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/509149707741862
Thank you for reading in 2023 – a Year of Grace and Provision
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace. Walk in wisdom.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!
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If Not For Grace 