Monday, June 8, 2015

Another Counselor

"But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7)

The third line of proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit is that an office is predicted of the Holy Spirit that could only be predicted of a person. Look, for example at John 14:16-17: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." Here the Holy Spirit is represented as "another Counselor" who is coming to take the place of our Lord Jesus. Up to this time our Lord Jesus had been the friend always at hand to help the disciples in every emergency that arose. But now He is going, and He tells them that though He is going another is coming to take His place. Can you for a moment imagine our Lord Jesus saying this if the other who is coming to take His place were a mere impersonal influence or power? No! No! What our Lord said was that He, one divine Person, was going, but that another Person, just as divine as He, was coming to take His place.

I take this as one of the most precious promises in the Word of God: that another Person just as divine as Jesus, just as loving and tender and strong to help, is by my side always, yes, dwells in my heart every moment to commune with me and to help me in every emergency that can possibly arise. The Greek word for "Counselor" is "parakletos", which means "one called to stand alongside another"; one called to take his part and help him in every emergency that arises. Just like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is with us wherever we go, every hour of the day or night, always at our side.

What a precious and wondrous thought. If this thought gets into your heart and stays there, you will never have another moment of fear as long as you live. How can we fear under any circumstances if we really believe that He is by our side? How can loneliness or a broken heart remain? Do you know this Friend, the Holy Spirit?

Lord Jesus, how can I thank You enough to sending the Holy Spirit to be my Counselor? I take this precious thought into my heart and ask You to unveil its meaning. I truly need You, Holy Spirit, to be at my side every hour of the day and night. Amen

~R. A. Torrey~

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