One of the most beautiful of the many fragrant blessings Jesus has promised us is that He would send us another to guide, teach and console us. Just one more incredible treasure promised to us that we do not deserve. But the promise comes direct from the mouth of our Savior and therefore we can count it as trustworthy and seek to have it actuated in all honesty in our lives today.
Jesus had to leave us in physical terms as His work in the earthly body was accomplished, but He prepared everything so that we would not be lost and without comfort and guidance. He promised and has given the Holy Spirit to work inside of us to unite all our intentions with those of our Lord and the Almighty God.
In John 14:15-31 Jesus lays out for us this wonderful blessing, the promise and the reasons. But He starts with and repeats that there are conditions to the receiving of this wonderful gift.
For sure many people would like to be filled with this miraculous Spirit, which settled on the early church as flames of fire. Everyone would be thrilled to be able to heal other suffering people or perform miracles. Who would not want to be able to speak in all kinds of different tongues and see thing that will happen in future days. The benefits and out-workings that come with having your nature filled in this way with a supernatural force are too wonderful to imagine and highly desirable to us all.
However, even though Jesus offers this treasure and gift to all, He did make it exclusive. Not everyone who cries out father, father will receive it. Jesus states plain as day, ¨If you love me and obey my words.¨
Now it is crucial for us to understand what Jesus means here because there are many interpretations and almost every branch and denomination has their own take on it. But the answer does not lie with any particular church nor can you look at any other human to find it. Once again, those who would love Jesus and would obey His words, must do what Jesus always said. We must turn and come.
All of Jesus´ teachings are in accordance with this simple beginning truth. If you truly want to know anything real about Jesus or God or any other concern with religion in general, you MUST actually turn from you to Him. It would be a good rule to begin with, that if you are not on your knees with your complete heart poured out to Jesus, you should not expect any real council.
Jesus tells us that there are those and will be those who love Him enough to do this. When He offers us this particular blessing and makes it exclusive to those who do His will, He tells us that it must be this way. Only persons who truly love Him will care enough to find out what Jesus really wants us to do. And what is it that Jesus asks of us? What is does it mean to follow His commandments?
In our fallen nature and with our completely worldly way of taking literal the words and converting them to worldly actions and laws, we normally take this to mean that Jesus wants us to listen to certain commands that He gave like the ten commandments. We are humans and we live in this worldly environment so this process seems natural. However God is spirit and anything pointing towards Him must not have limitations that would limit anything about Him. His commands are not cold acts that we may or may not do in complete detachment from Him. They go far deeper into the heart and soul of every being. They are spiritual of nature and that means that they go past the action and down to the very core and intention behind it all.
For example if the Lord says do not kill, it may be quite simple for you and I to say that we have kept that rule and are therefore without blame. Great, good for us! But we are looking in the wrong direction.
A parent tells his or her child not to hit. But what that parent really wants is for the child to have compassion on other people. The action of hitting is just a result or an indication that the child is thinking only of himself and not considering what he is doing to another person. The rule is good and worth stating, but the child needs to be instructed in overcoming it´s natural responses and learning to behave in a caring and educated manner.
The process is similar in the spiritual sense but many times we fail to cultivate it. We continue to hold the Bible to the letter because it is easier to see and easier to follow.
But let any man have the honesty of heart, to bring the case to Jesus, turn away from ourselves and truly look for Him, and we would find the intentions behind His teachings. Jesus did speak in many parables and therefore limited the success of finding Him to the more persistent and honest seeker, but the conclusion and the solutions are simple. Jesus laid out the rules but He did not make them difficult by any means. The hard part in following Jesus is getting the consent of our selfish hearts who love our own ways and the ways and thoughts of the world.
Jesus called men unto Him. Jesus wanted our hearts and souls to be with Him as He is with the Father. We do not accomplish this by obeying the cold letter of the law, we do it by honestly seeking to be one with Him. Loving Jesus in this way we accomplish to the letter what He commanded but it is not because of the letter or the law, but because we love Him. We are going past the world and it´s limited interpretations and limited intentions and holding everything up to Him.
Like the child who does not hit, we follow Jesus not only because the rule did not permit it, but we understood what our Father was getting at. We were meant to learn all that we could about what our Father´s intentions are for us. We love because He first loved us and that love burns inside us and conditions every thought, every action and all the intentions along with them. This love that pours out towards our Savior pours out also to all of God´s creation. It goes far, far deeper than the outward expressions. We find our actions falling into accord not merely because someone told us but because we have so fully loved and so fully sought to be one with the One who spoke them to us.
It is to this kind of believer that Jesus promises this most wonderful blessing. And as He is trustworthy as only a God can be, than the blessing is sure. We too can be receivers of the promise and we can find the way to accomplish the required condition. Bless the name of the Lord to make the requirement something so desirable as loving and drawing near to One that is so worthy of loving and adoring.
Let us all make it our most utmost goal and our most vital necessity to draw nearer to Jesus in all honesty within our hearts. Doing this cannot hurt us and only opens doors that we have not imagined.
The Holy Spirit is available to you and I today. He comes with unspeakable power and unlimited blessing for us. But even His goal and His work is to show us the Father and the Son. We know too, the way towards receiving the promise and that is loving Jesus and following Him.
Come Dear Lord, allow us to draw near to You and to love You today. Let us draw so near to you and to love you so much, that you are pleased to give us that incredible blessing of the promised Spirit of truth. Give us this gift so that we have a guide and a helper to assist us in drawing closer to You. Then we will truly honor You and Your Father as we are so united that You may be in us and we may be in You. There is nothing more or better that we could ever desire and to do so is to have peace and everlasting life.
Amen
Scott W
Searching For Christ 
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