Holy Spirit

[Jesus said,]  "I still have many things to tell you, but you can't handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you."

—John 16:12-14 MESSAGE

Key Thought
I love packages that come by special...

 

[Jesus said,]  "So let me say it again, this truth: It's better for you that I leave. If I don't leave, the Friend won't come. But if I go, I'll send him to you."

—John 16:7 MESSAGE

Key Thought
Many of us have often longed to have been alive and seen Jesus as he ministered and taught while on earth. Yet Jesus is emphatic: It is better for us that he has gone to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit as our Friend and Guide. We have Jesus' life and teachings to guide us into God's...

 

[Jesus said,]  "When the Friend I plan to send you from the Father comes — the Spirit of Truth issuing from the Father — he will confirm everything about me."

—John 15:26 MESSAGE

Key Thought
I have always been amazed at how Jesus uses the last few hours of his life to prepare his followers for their ordeal as he faces the cross, their wonder in his resurrection, and their amazement at his ascension. There is so much happening in a relatively short time, and it is so unexpected...

 

[Jesus said,]  I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left — feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught."

—John 14:25-27 MESSAGE

Key Thought
I hate goodbyes...

 

[Jesus said,]  "I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back."

—John 14:16-18 MESSAGE

Key Thought
The Holy Spirit is all about truth: The...

 

[Jesus said,]  "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you."

—John 14:15-16 MESSAGE

Key Thought
Love is shown by the actions that back up a person's words. We show our love for Jesus by what we do, by obeying what he has taught us. Jesus, however, doesn't expect this demonstrated love for him to be a one-way street. He shows us his love for us by having the...

 

On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says." (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

—John 7:37-39 MESSAGE

Key Thought
Jesus is looking forward...

 

[Jesus said,]  "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life."

—John 6:63 NIV

Key Thought
The apostle Paul said essentially the same thing as in today's verse when he wrote, "I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him ..." (Philippians 3:8-9)...

 

[Jesus said,]  "But the time is coming — indeed it's here now — when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."

—John 4:23-24 NLT

Key Thought
Must! That is a hard word when spoken by Jesus! So we must pay attention. Our actions must conform to his words. Must! Yet this "must" is not one we can do on our own. The...

 

[Jesus said,]  "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."

—John 4:23-24 NIV

Key Thought
Jesus' words, spoken to the woman at the well in Samaria, echo down through time. They cut through the worship wars of every era. They rattle our selfish preferences and challenge our...