John 16:7-11 – Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

It is surprising to me that Jesus says here that having the Counselor with us would be more advantageous than having Him with us. This is something that we should consider. I have heard some say that we shouldn’t talk about the Holy Spirit and that it is more important to pay attention to Jesus. Although, I agree that the Holy Spirit does speak to us about our Lord Jesus, it is not to say that we shouldn’t pay attention to the Holy Spirit. Jesus mentioned Him many times here in John and that tells me that He is worth mentioning!

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages we now have because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has entered into people. This means that God is now closer to man than He has ever been. I can’t believe that this has happened but it has. We now have God very close to ourselves. He is inside of the one who believes in Him. Jesus, being physical, couldn’t do that. Jesus was also limited when He became a man to being in one place at a time. The Holy Spirit is just as close to you as He is to me right now because He is spirit and not physical. Also, the Holy Spirit has been given a unique ministry to the world that I hope to discuss next time. One other thing that we learn about from Paul is that the Holy Spirit restrains the anti-Christ from coming.

The wonder of this is that it is through you and I that the Holy Spirit does His work if we will allow it. It isn’t that we are perfect and never do anything wrong. It’s that when we are forgiven and we trust in the Holy Spirit we will have the power to move His agenda to the world. His agenda is real and it will move even as frail as we are.