The Same Spirit
If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him. Because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:15-18).
It took me a long time to realize that the Spirit whom Jesus gave to his disciples was not just the third person of the Trinity; it was the Spirit who had empowered Jesus’ own life and ministry. The secret to Jesus’ life was the Spirit, and the Spirit is anxious to be the secret of your life and mine.
The Spirit was the one who initiated Christ’s conception. It was he who anointed Jesus at his baptism. The word Christ means “anointed” so, it was the Spirit who made Jesus the Christ. It was the Spirit who led Jesus and sustained him through his temptation in the wilderness.
The Spirit was the source of Jesus’ power over the demonic, and the Spirit enabled him to endure the Cross. The writer of Hebrews speaks of Christ as the one “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God” (Heb. 9:14).
It was the Spirit who, with the Father, raised Jesus from the dead. The Spirit was the key to the earthly life of Jesus. Now on Jesus’ last night before the Cross, he told his disciples that he wanted them to have the same one in their lives who had been in his own. He promised them the Holy Spirit.
And that promise is to you and me as well. Have you received him? Do you let him gently lead you? This is your privilege as a believer in Jesus. Read the promise in Luke 11:13: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
—Dennis Kinslaw
This Day with the Master
The Spirit is anxious to be the secret of your life and mine.” Kinslaw sums it up nicely: the Holy Spirit not only indwells you, He longs to lead you. All the power and all the promises, yours in Christ through the abiding presence and ongoing workings of the Holy Spirit! The devotion asks, “Have you received Him?” I’d offer that this is a great question to ask on a day-by-day, situation-by-situation basis. Have you received Him in the midst of this setting and that? In this relationship and that? In this decision and that? In this feeling and that? In this fear and that? In this celebration and that? … You get the idea. Cry out regardless of the many and diverse circumstances you find yourself in, for the same Spirit attends! —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics