When I was a kid, I used to dream about receiving an invitation to the Super Bowl. I envisioned sitting on the sidelines, with all the stadium food I could handle, yelling passionately as my favorite team took the field and crushed our rival.
Have you ever dreamt of an invitation like that? Maybe yours wasn’t an invitation to the Super Bowl. Maybe it was an invitation to the White House to visit with our nation’s leaders, or a front-row seat to your favorite musical artist’s concert. Whatever your dream invitation might be—I believe I’ve found an invitation that tops all others. It’s found in John 14:16-17 (NASB).
In this passage, Jesus has just been crucified and has risen again. He is about to ascend into heaven when he tells the disciples, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.”
This dream invitation is to know this Helper—the Holy Spirit. Now, depending on your background, you could have a lot of opinions on (perhaps even misconceptions about) the Holy Spirit. So let’s talk about who He is. Simply put, the Holy Spirit is God’s presence given to dwell inside us—to be with us, guide us, comfort us, and bring supernatural power into our lives.
There are four main reasons we should accept this invitation. First, as verse 17 tells us, the Holy Spirit offers relationship. We are relational creatures, and so is God. He didn’t create us to control us; He created us to have a personal relationship with us through His Holy Spirit.
Second, the Holy Spirit offers guidance. Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV) says, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” John 14:26 tells us He does this through the Holy Spirit.
Third, the Holy Spirit offers power. Romans 8:11 (NLT)says, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you . . .”
Lastly, but most importantly, the Holy Spirit makes us more like Jesus. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control . . .”
As you seek to develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit, remember we can find all we need to know about Him in God’s Word. The Holy Spirit will never contradict Scripture, because, as our passage says, He is the Spirit of truth.
Friend, we don’t serve a distant God, and the Holy Spirit is proof of that. In a seemingly dark world, we’ve received an invitation for the greatest Light of all to live inside us. If we’ll accept that invitation, then greater is He that will be in us than he that is in the world!
