Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

God Living in Me

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holy spirit in me

John 14:15-21 (GNT)

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.

18 “When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. 19 In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. 20 When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

21 “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Good News Translation (GNT)Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society

Jesus was God living in the world.
The Holy Spirit is God living in me.

We are not left alone
God is still with us
here now.

God’s helper
with us always

God’s breath breathing in me.

Breathe in and through me Lord,
that I may breathe your life,
that you may fill every cell of my body,
ever present within me.

Breathe in me now
equipping,
changing,
strengthening
making me more like you

 

Dhanushka Jayaweera / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

If centering prayer is your thing, or even if it isn’t, try sitting with God and gently inviting as you breathe, “Breathe in… and through me Lord”.  Feel God’s breath in you and hear his voice. Give God the opportunity to change you, reassure you, fill you with his presence.

 

You’ve Seen One

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“If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”, is a phrase usually used  to mean they’re all the same, there’s nothing special about them, nothing to distinguish them from any other of the genre.  For example if you’ve seen one rom-com film, you’ve seen them all*.  (*this may or may not be a belief I subscribe to!)

Here that is given a slightly different spin.  Again, jumping ahead slightly to next week and Trinity Sunday, Philip asks Jesus to show them The Father:

John 14:8-17

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”

9 Jesus replied:

Philip, I have been with you for a long time. Don’t you know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you ask me to show you the Father? 10 Don’t you believe that I am one with the Father and that the Father is one with me? What I say isn’t said on my own. The Father who lives in me does these things.

11 Have faith in me when I say that the Father is one with me and that I am one with the Father. Or else have faith in me simply because of the things I do. 12 I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father. 13 Ask me, and I will do whatever you ask. This way the Son will bring honor to the Father. 14 I will do whatever you ask me to do.

The Holy Spirit Is Promised

15 Jesus said to his disciples:

If you love me, you will do as I command. 16 Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. 17 The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don’t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.

Jesus replies that seeing him is the same as seeing the Father.  They are not poor imitations of one another, or just totally predictable copies of each another – they are as seeing each other because they are as one.  When they see Jesus and what he does, it is what God would do and is doing because he is God – here amongst them.  There is absolutely no difference between them, apart from Jesus being the physical personification of God.

Yet Jesus goes on to promise more than that,

if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing

Those who follow Jesus are invited to join in the work.  Wow!  Now that is quite some task.  How can we even contemplate doing what Jesus did?  What God does?  We are mere fallible human beings with all our failings, misunderstandings, half-cocked ideas and foibles.  How can we share in doing God’s work?

Jesus tells us how – by he and the Father sending the Holy Spirit to be with us always and help us.

Jesus is God living as a human being in the world, the Holy Spirit is God living in us, equipping us for all that we are asked to do.  I don’t know about you, but I need that…

Being God’s Children

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Pentecost.  The Coming of the Spirit.  What difference does the Spirit make in our lives?

Through the Spirit, we become God’s own children.  Not good friends, not colleagues or associates, not people to run around after him, but his own children.

Romans 8:14-17 (NIVUK)

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[a] And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

  1. Romans 8:15 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture; also in verse 23.

I love this version of this passage from The Message

God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!

Life with God’s Spirit is adventurously expectant!  Some days I feel like life is adventurous enough, but it is true.  Life lived with God is never boring.  There is always something to do.  With an ear to the voice of the Holy Spirit, he is always calling us, nudging us on.  How can we do what he is asking of us?  Because we know.  One of the aspects of the Spirit’s life is confirming.  Confirming who we are – God’s precious children.  Known and loved by him, given all he promises to us.

Being an heir is a privilege – but it is also a responsibility.  And so as well as enjoying being the child of the loving God, we should also be asking

What’s next?

Holy Spirit,
fill this place,
fill this life.

May I know that I am a treasured child of God,
wanted and welcome.

As I know I am your child
may I learn to know your voice
ever more clearly,
to ask
‘What next’
to hear your reply
and to walk in confidence with you