Present Relationship

“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.” - John 14:17

If you look around you, people generally look the same. For the most part, we have the same body parts, we all talk, we walk, we converse, we see, and we hear. On the outside, you would think people are just people; but God said it is what is on the inside that counts. Jesus sees only two types of people in the world, and the difference between them is the Holy Spirit. One type of person has the Holy Spirit living inside him, and the other type does not.

The question we must all ask ourselves is this: “Have I received the Holy Spirit?” The reason why there are so many people who say they are Christians, who talk the Christian language and even attend a Christian church, yet show no evidence of being a Christian is because they don’t know the Holy Spirit. They have never received Him through faith in Christ.

If you are truly a believer, you have a “present” relationship with the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit is present within you. When Jesus was on earth, He could only be in one place at one time. He could be in Capernaum, but not in Jerusalem. He could be in Bethlehem, but not in Jerusalem. But the Holy Spirit is everywhere at once. He is in every believer at the same time, because we are not talking about a physical location. It is about a personal, present, permanent relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Do you know where God lives? He lives in every believer in the person of the Holy Spirit. God’s address is not a physical building, but the temple of Richard, Carol, Jason, Betsy, and John. The Holy Spirit is not just an appendix to the Christian faith. He is at the heart and the core of the Christian life that God wants us to live. Jesus knew that after His resurrection, His followers would need supernatural power to do what He wanted them to do and to be what He wanted them to be. The same is true of every believer since then.

How important is the Holy Spirit? You cannot come to Jesus unless the Holy Spirit leads you, showing you that you need Him and empowering you to surrender to Him. You also cannot be the Christian that God wants you to be in your own strength. It can only come through the Spirit of God living in you. We can live like Jesus, because Jesus will live in us and through us by His Spirit.

Application: Do you know the Holy Spirit? Are you certain that He is living inside you?