Advocate • Helper • Counselor • Comforter • Guide • Revealer

Pause

“No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:11-12

In silence, quiet your heart today.
Breathe deeply, resting in the wonder that God has freely given you His Spirit.
Ask the Spirit within to open the eyes of your heart to Jesus today.

Ponder

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth… He will tell you whatever he receives from me.”
— John 16:13-15

I saw him walking across campus laughing with a friend and thought, “That’s someone I’d like to know.” So began my journey with Joe, the love of my life. Through dates at Denny’s over pancakes, we began to share our silly likes and deeper yearnings and everything in between. Getting to know each other was the highlight of our college years.

Do we ever fully know a person? The intricacies of their thought processes or the complexities of their character?

This question matters for our spiritual lives for Jesus said that knowing Him is the essence of eternal life (John 17:3). What does this mean?

Eternal... without end... never ceasing.

God’s ways are infinitely wondrous, His character unfathomably complex. Whatever we might grasp in our short sojourn on earth is only a taste of what is to come. It seems we will spend eternity discovering the depths of the exalted Christ.

Jesus tried to help His followers understand this in His final hours. They were sad that He might leave them, but He explained that it was to their advantage that He go.

Why? Because through His death and resurrection, He would ascend to His throne on high, from where He would send them the Spirit — One just like Him — to be with them and in them. One who would never leave.

Miracle of miracles. The Spirit of Jesus alive in me. Alive in you.

Daily, I place my hand on my heart to remember this... and give thanks.

Jesus gives the Spirit without measure, unsparingly, generously (John 3:34). The Spirit is a counselor, a guide, a comforter, an advocate — the list is long.

But the most profound thing the Spirit does is to reveal the depths of God — to take what is eternal reality and whisper it to our hearts day in and day out. Only the Spirit can do this, for He alone comprehends the mysteries contained in the nature of God (2 Corinthians 2).

As the exalted One, Jesus speaks and the Holy Spirit makes known to us His hopes, His desires, His purposes, His plans.

In this way, the Spirit would glorify Him, Jesus told His followers--by opening our eyes to the wonder of His ways, the brilliance of His beauty, and the awe in His attributes. This is our destiny.

It has been over five decades since Joe and I had that first date at Denny’s. Now we drink espresso at the local French bakery. But one thing hasn’t changed: we still love long conversations — listening, discovering, learning together.

If getting to know a person here on earth can be so endlessly delightful, it is hard to imagine what knowing Jesus intimately for eternity will be like.

Even Paul struggled to describe this. He called it a mystery--that Jesus would send His Spirit to live within us and reveal the deep things of God. Hidden from before time began, we cannot begin to fathom:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
    and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
    for those who love him.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:9

Jesus... Spirit-Giver.
Incomprehensible.
Unfathomable.
Uncontainable.

Pray

What is your experience of Jesus as Spirit-Giver?
What part does His indwelling Spirit play in your spiritual journey?
What does your heart long for when you think of this eternal mystery — the Spirit in you, revealing the wonders of Jesus?

Offer a prayer of gratitude and desire.

Jesus, I am so thankful that…

Jesus, I long for Your Spirit to…

Practice

Place your hand on your heart and say quietly: Holy Spirit, You are here.
Take a deep breath and say it again: Holy Spirit, You are here.

Try to do this every day as you begin time with Jesus, and once or twice as you go throughout your day.