The POWER of the Holy Spirit and of Prayer

The book of John is unique in many ways, but I think some of the most profound ways are found in our reading today.  Jesus speaks very boldly about the role of the Holy Spirit and shows us some amazing prayer that is NOT recorded in any of the other Gospels.  And some of this prayer is about US...believers that will come after He is no longer here on earth.  God's Word just never ceases to amaze me with its depth of meaning.

Jesus promises us in Chapter 16 that it is for our own good that He is going away so that the Counselor can come to us.  What an incredible name for the Holy Spirit...Counselor.  When I looked up this word in the dictionary, part of the definition said advisor.  A synonym for this word is also advocate.  All of these words describe so beautifully the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  BUT, this is not all there is to the Holy Spirit by any means!  Jesus VERY clearly states that the Holy Spirit will also "convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment..." (verse 8).  Jesus also says something in verses 12 and 13 that is very intriguing to me.  He states, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth."  Jesus knows us so well...after all, He created us.  He knew that the disciples could not handle more than what He was now telling them, so the Holy Spirit would have to take over in revealing things to them after He had ascended into heaven.  Don't you just wonder though what more He wanted to tell them?  Was it hard for Him to stop telling them all of the things He wanted them to know?  Do you know how that feels...wanting to desperately tell someone something they NEED to know but NOT telling them because you know they cannot handle it at this time and it would do them more harm then good?  So because you love them SO much, you DO NOT tell them?

Let me also say something else here that is HEAVILY weighing on my heart.  Do we really KNOW the Holy Spirit and have a close relationship with Him?  Do we truly see his actions in our lives and in the lives of those around us?  Do we truly tap into the power that is inside of EVERY believer through the Holy Spirit?  I think the bride of Christ and the whole world would look A LOT differently if we were truly believing in the Holy Spirit and responding to what He is telling us to do!  I am taking a Wednesday night class at Oak Hill called "The Forgotten God".  It is a study done based on a book by Francis Chan with the same title.  It has been "eye opening" and "heart opening" to say the VERY least!  I can now see how very much we have in fact "forgotten" the Holy Spirit as the body of Christ.  We need to be made aware of this AND we need to act on our neglect of the Holy Spirit.  After all, He is the third person of the Trinity and all members of the Trinity are equal and they are ALL God!

How is your prayer life?  Could this possibly be another area of our lives that we are sadly "neglecting"?  I know that it is an area of my walk with the Lord that I really need to work on.  I have a tendancy to do what I call "bow and arrow" prayers.  I shoot prayers up throughout the day and hope that somehow that will get credited to me as prayer time.  And it is, but God is longing to spend more time with us than that!  You cannot get closer to anyone unless you spend QUALITY time with them...it is just NOT going to happen!  The same is true in our relationship with the Lord.  How can you really get to know someone if you hardly ever talk to them?  YOU CAN'T!!!  So why would it be any different with Jesus? 

In Chapter 17, Jesus prays a VERY lengthy and packed prayer.  First He prays for Himself.  Then He prays for the disciples.  And then, He does something astounding to me...He prays for US.  He asks the Father to make us one, just as He and the Father are one.  He asks the Father to bring US to complete unity so that the world may know that the Father did in fact send Jesus to this world.  WOW!  Here we have recorded in Scripture a prayer that Jesus prays for you and for me!  Doesn't that just blow your mind?  Thank you John for recording that for us...it gives us GREAT hope and comfort!

In Chapter 18 we come again to the part of Jesus' time here on earth where men put Him on trial and He experiences the extreme pain of betrayal through the denials of Peter.  PLEASE DO NOT BECOME CALLOUSED TO THESE EVENTS!!!  They are incredible and life altering events.  The fact that mere men put the God of the universe on trial just never ceases to blow me away!  And the pain of being TOTALLY deserted by all of the men you had come to love and know as brothers.  Jesus DID experience everything we could ever go through in our lives...AND HE TRIUMPHED OVER IT ALL...EVEN THE GRAVE!!!

"I have told  you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you WILL have trouble.  BUT take heart!  I have overcome the world."

                ~John 16:33 NIV (Emphasis added)