John 14:15-18

Jesus Promises Another Helper

¹⁵ “If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

We call it ‘the still, small voice,’ among other things, but it’s by far the most important voice we have, and the one we’re most prone to ignore. I have endured unnecessary struggles as a result, and have no one but myself to blame.

I remember the day Jesus sealed His promise of eternal life to me; that it took place on a mountain held a special significance for me then, but then I came back to the valley, and the clouds of the world rained down, and though the voice never stopped speaking, I stopped listening.

But the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not break their promises, and they are not without understanding, and while the Spirit may yet be found, it’s in my best interest to not only listen, but to abide.

As Jesus said the Father sent Him, and He spoke not on His own, so it is too, with the Holy Spirit. Christ tells us:

John 16:12-15

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

The Word of G-d is not a scattered, random thing, for if Jesus and the Father are One in will and purpose, the reconciling of man to G-d by the Word and faith in Christ, the Spirit is of the same. So, taken all in all,  there’s no  disconnection in the consistency of the Word’s message: Repent, and believe the Gospel.

How fitting, then, that He who came down a King of humble birth, would use a ‘still, small voice.’ But it’s the most authoritative one we should serve without hesitation.

The miracles and signs were done in the presence of assemblies in temples, in cities, in villages, in front of hundreds and thousands, but in the quiet moments of mountaintop prayer, closet intimacy, nights of candlelight on your knees before the altar, the voice speaks to you, in your circumstances.

But our Savior was never ‘over the top,’ and the Holy Spirit, one on one, won’t be either.

We are on a difficult road to find a narrow path, to spend eternity with a promised king, guided by the Spirit with a still, small voice, while being pelted from the roadsides of the world with all manner of mockery and filth.

Do we, as He did, set our faces like flint as we set our sights heavenward, while doing His will on the earth?

No doubt it is a hard calling in unparalleled times. And yet, the Word of the Lord, higher than His name, has survived all attempts to blot it out, and we take it our hands today to read:

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to You.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Therefore I pray:

Holy Spirit, 

I repent of grieving You through doubt, disobedience, willful sins, rebelliousness, and faithlessness. You are spoken of the least in our churches’ earthly sermons, but You are as powerful a manifestation in the assembly of the saints as when the Father’s glory filled the temple.

And indeed, You glorify the Father as well as the Son.

Let us be reminded that You speak the words of our Lord to our everyday, modern day problems with simple truth, heavenly guidance, and eternal love, and that You also, like the Father and Son, can’t look on sin, and grieve when we give in to temptation.

But we thank You, also, for not abandoning us, for convicting us, and being constant in the message: Repent, and believe, and be reconciled to the Father.

Help us to know that it is not only You, but also the voice of the Father and Son that tell You what to say to us, though You have Your own realms of authority.

Thank You for not waiting for the quiet hours only to speak, but also in the midst of chaos, You impart that peace beyond understanding to us, that we may glorify G-d in word and deed among the faithless. 

As You continue to guide us and reveal the Truth of the Gospel, help us also to do the Father’s will by remaining humble, by noticing the still, small details among us that allow us to serve the Kingdom: to help the widow and orphan, and give a cup of water to a child, and restore our brothers and sisters who’ve fallen by the way, and to say what You would have us say, not speaking on our own authority, that we might bear fruit and reconcile others to Christ, that they too might be saved, walking the Narrow Way with us, fulfilling a hard calling in difficult times.

Let it be done to us as You have said. 

Amen.