John 14 (Eleven) Do You See?

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you (John 14:18-20).

What did Jesus mean when He mentioned orphans? The Greek word used for ‘orphans’ means comfortless, in other words bereft of a father or parents or of a guide. He simply meant He would not leave the disciples, and therefore us Christians, to ourselves – He will be there for us. An orphan is a child growing up without the comfort and direction of parents, especially of a father. These words of His indicate that we disciples are not able to cope on our own. We may be able to cope as adults in a human world, but in the spirit world we are but children – we need a Dad for protection, comfort and guidance.

The next word in this passage that needs some explanation is the word “see”. Jesus stated that soon the world (those who are not part of Him) will not see Him anymore, but the disciples will see Him. He probably meant it physically, since after His ascension it was obvious that nobody would see Him, but we can also assume He was talking about the post-ascension time, which is why He mentioned that the disciples would still be able to see Him. How could his past and present disciples see Jesus? The Greek word used in this passage means "to see, to behold, to view attentively, to view mentally, to enjoy the presence of one, and to discern." This word is not used of an indifferent spectator, but of one who looks at a thing with interest and for a purpose. From these definitions we gather that ‘see’ here actually means to see Jesus in the spirit, perceiving Him with the mind’s eye, to enjoy His presence and feel His closeness.

That is why the world will not be able to see Him, because to be able to ‘see’ one must behold Him - look for Him attentively and with interest. Even Christians would not experience His presence if they were indifferent. To see Him demands undivided attention and focus. ‘So I see Him, but what do I see? Do I see him physically?’ you may ask. We see Him for who He is. He says in John 14:21, which we will discuss later, the following: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him" (MKJV).

The greatest adventure for a Christian is not doing all kinds of exciting things, but is to get to know the Lord. It is to self-develop through doing the Word and then see how He responds by making Himself known. This is how the original disciples saw the Lord and how we would see Him. We experience His presence and get to know how He thinks. Although the latter focuses on Jesus' personality, Jesus also offered His disciples other things such as physical peace, comfort, strength and love while He was on earth. These we can also have through the Spirit if we would seek to find them. To those who eagerly seek Him (Matthew 7:7), to them He will be there as if He was there physically, just like the apostles and Paul experienced His presence. On the Lord’s part nothing has changed. It is us who found ‘more important’ things to do with our time so that we do not experience His reality in our presence. There is, however, a condition to seeing Him - you must be born again. The spirit with which we are born is dead toward God due to Adam’s sin and can therefore not connect with the Holy Spirit. It therefore needs to be renewed through rebirth after which we must be baptised with the Holy Spirit, because Jesus only lives within us through His Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 9:23-24: "Thus says the Lord: 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.'"

Lord, I want to see you. Help me be obedient so you can show yourself to me.

John 14 (Ten) ‘With’ or ‘In’

“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,” (John 14:17).

I was about to skip this passage since I didn’t intend to teach about these chapters verse by verse, when the Lord opened my spirit to something very interesting. Jesus said that the disciples knew the Holy Spirit because He lives with them and will be in them. Note that at the time Jesus that said this the Holy Spirit was, according to Jesus, already with them and would have been in them at a future date. What is the difference between the ‘with’ and the ‘in’ in this passage? The Holy Spirit lived in Jesus since the day He was baptised with the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus was with the disciples and they saw the Holy Spirit in action through Him and believed, Jesus stated that they have known the Holy Spirit for He was with them through Jesus. The reason why the World can neither see nor know the Holy Spirit is simply because they will see Him in action but refuse to believe.

Jesus however also stated that the Holy Spirit “will be in you”. What we see here is that even though the disciples had been with Jesus for almost three years, they had not been baptised with the Holy Spirit yet and therefore did not have the Holy Spirit living in them. This is the reason why they were weak and hid in a room after His crucifixion and even after His ascension. At the time of our passage they were not even born again yet. It seemed that they were only born again at the moment recorded in John 16:30-31: “‘Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.’ 

‘You believe at last!’ Jesus answered.” 

This was the moment when faith entered their hearts and they thus got born again. It was only after they were baptised with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) that they received power to preach the gospel (Acts 1:8) and confirmed it with love and miracles. A practical example was Peter who, at the time of Jesus’ arrest had been born again, but still had no love or courage, which is why he selfishly and fearfully denied that he knew Jesus. After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, however, we read in Acts chapter 2 and several other chapters that this same weak man acted with tremendous courage and boldness.

We get exactly the same situation today. Many believers believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved (Mark 16:16, Romans 10:9), but experience no power. They feel too fearful to preach the Gospel, have no confidence to pray for the sick, do not act with the power of the Word of Knowledge and Wisdom, and in general do not walk in the Spirit but in the flesh - acting on the prompting of the mind rather than that of the Spirit. These people only live with the Holy Spirit. However, when we are born again and baptised with the Holy Spirit, we have the Holy Spirit with all His gifts and power living in us. All that power, love, knowledge and wisdom are then available to us to enable us to effectively build the Kingdom of God there where we are called to.

How do you get baptised with the Holy Spirit? Either ask the Father yourself to give you the Holy Spirit as Jesus offered 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!” Otherwise you can ask someone to lay the hands on you (Acts 19:2-6).

Holy Spirit, please come and live in me and fill me with your presence and everything that comes along as promised in the Word of God.

John 14 (Nine) Would you Like to Know How to Exercise Power, Love, and Self-Dicipline?

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever - The Spirit of truth," (John 14:15-16).

When Jesus spoke the words in John 14:13-14, I can imagine the disciples thinking: Wow, whatever we ask in His name - how about a nice something to make life comfortable? Maybe they had a new fishing boat or a bigger house in mind. Jesus, however, added some water to their fire in the above passage. He basically said: ‘If you love me, you will do as I say and also make use of the offer to ask for whatever you need to get the task done.’ He added in the same breath that He would ask the Father to give the Holy Spirit. Did you see the condition? ‘If you love me’ you will prove it ‘by obeying my commands’, and to help you I will ask the Father to give you the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is called a counsellor. What is the work of a counsellor? Is it not to guide us in discovering truth about ourselves? Is it not to guide us in the way we should go? If one for example consults a marriage counsellor, she will have two purposes in mind - to get both partners to see where they individually have gone wrong in the course of the marriage, and then to guide them in the necessary action to put things right. This Counsellor is called the Spirit of Truth and His task is to counsel us in the truth.

Here is where many Christians get deceived. I once drove behind a vehicle that had the following written on the rear window: ‘Have you experienced the Holy Spirit power’. On the door was the emblem of a church organisation. I asked myself whether that is what the Holy Spirit is all about – to have some sensational experience. Paul summarised the role of the Holy Spirit well in 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (KJV). Although the context is somewhat different, the truth is the same. The Holy Spirit works in three ways:

·         Through power - 1 Corinthians 2:4: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,” and in 1 Thessalonians 1:5: "Because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake." Miracles were many – of that we have enough evidence from the book of Acts - but the power spoken of in these passages is power related to preaching, conviction and lifestyle.

We therefore need the Holy Spirit to counsel us in how He wants us to implement His power to change the hearts of the people to God; whether by miracles, conviction or His gifts. His power is not meant for the church to draw people to a sensational meeting in order to make us look good or to increase the popularity of the church, but to assist us in building the Kingdom of God.

·         Through love. Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love, His task is to counsel us how to love one another. Only through love toward one another (John 13:35: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another) and toward our enemies (Luke 6:27: But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you) we will be able to build the Kingdom of God and at the same time love the Lord, since we then obey His commands.

·         Through a sound mind. This is a very important role of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the devil goes out of his way to confuse God’s people. One only has to look at all the deception under the name of Christianity to understand this, leave alone the battle of the mind that every Christian experiences. The meaning of the Greek word for sound mind is self-control and is translated in the NIV as self-discipline.

The Holy Spirit therefore has the task to counsel us how to always have God’s mind concerning His Kingdom, and how to exercise self-control when dealing with all the power and knowledge we get exposed to when being involved with God’s Kingdom. He will guide us away from ourselves towards the Lord who deserves all the glory.

I submit to your guidance Holy Spirit, so I can prove my love through obedience.

John 14 (Eight) Whatever You Ask

We are discussing John chapter 14 as part of a series.

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13, 14).

How often have you blamed the Lord; "Lord, I ask and ask, and ask, and ask in your name but I do not receive?" What do we ask for and with which motivation? Last week we have discussed the god that many Christians actually serve, which is Mammon. Do you think the Lord will give you the nice car and house you ask for to suit your lifestyle?

The above words were written in the context of the previous verse. Earlier we have proved that Jesus was in the Father as the Father was in Him. He did nothing out of His own. When He was therefore challenged with a faith situation, He first asked Father to give Him that which He needed to accomplish the task, including the faith. I have often wondered why Jesus waited for four days before He attended to Lazarus (John 11:1-44). Then a thought came to me. This was not an easy miracle and Jesus needed to spend more time than usual to consult with Father and receive what He needed to do this great miracle. Remember that, although Jesus was both God and man while on earth, He did not use His godly powers. For Him to identify with man He had to become in all respects just like us. 

When Jesus called Lazarus forth, as recorded in John 11:43, we see the following: "the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face." Was it possible for Lazarus to walk out of the tomb with his hands and feet bound to his body and his face covered with a cloth? No. So how did he get out? The power of God lifted him and brought him out, Hallelujah!

Jesus therefore actually said in our passage under discussion: "Whatever you need for the sake of My Kingdom here on earth, just ask for it in My name and I will do it so that the Son may bring glory to the Father". Asking for all kinds of things to suit our own comfort, to make life easier for us and rid us of our personal troubles is not what Jesus meant in this invitation. Once again we can link up with 1 John 5:14 & 15: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.” Father God desires only a few things, namely souls and truth (1 Timothy 2:4), obedience (1 Samuel 15:22) and faith (Hebrews 11:6). Therefore before we ask anything of God it will be wise to establish the Father’s will regarding these basic guidelines first and then ask for anything we might need in order to establish His Kingdom here on earth.

Father, please share with me your will regarding your Kingdom for my life, in Jesus name, amen.