INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT

“But  very truly I tell you it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away the Advocate will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you”

John 16:7

Jesus is giving His final instructions to His disciples.

In a great book called “The familiar Stranger” by Tyler Station says and Ill quote

‘So according to Jesus and he is remarkably clear about this – the holy spirit is a staggering improvement to a direct, face to face conversation with God in the flesh. Gods indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit surpasses Gods bodily human presence through Jesus. That’s what He said. The most interesting part of that at least for me is this we don’t buy it.  And the disciples didn’t buy it either and neither do we. Honestly how many of us would trade our current experience with the Holy Spirit for one face to face with Jesus. Basically, all of us right. Regardless of maturity, commitment, gifting, education or tradition most of the people dotting the pews across the globe on any given Sun are a bit

underwhelmed with the experience of the promise that Jesus so excited about.

This challenged me. And its true the disciples didn’t really buy it at this point either. It was only after Pentecost that they began to grasp it.

The fact being that we are now the very temple of God now on earth. The same glory of God at Mount Sinai and the same glory filled the tabernacle and temple is now in us. In America in 2022 they did a survey called State of Theology and they asked participants this true or false statement ‘The Holy is a force not a person’   60% of committed Christians answered true.

Just as Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit acting as living temple so now, he commissioned the disciples and us his church to be filled with the person of Holy Spirit and act in this world as His living temple, indwelled with the presence of God.

What a challenge and wake up call and remind us how radical this is. Do we believe it is the real question.