Experiencing God's Presence #283

He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.

John 16:14

Many in our age wish we could have seen Jesus when He walked among us. We want to see His miracles firsthand and hear His words directly. If we could hear His tone of voice when He preached or observe His interaction with His disciples, we would know a lot more about Him than we do. We long for the personal experience of being there.

The eyes of our spirit can still see and hear Him. He communicates with us regularly. The Spirit receives things—words? gifts? assignments?—from Jesus and reveals them to us. He interacts with us at a level that caused Jesus to tell His disciples it was better for them if He went away (John 16:7). His ascension was by no means the end of the relationship. It was only the beginning.

We now have access to greater truth than the disciples had when Jesus was physically present. But notice that Jesus didn’t define the Spirit’s role simply as a guide to our intellectual study of Scripture. Just as Jesus did and said many things that were never recorded in the Gospels (John 21:25), God has many thoughts that haven’t been written in the Word. The Bible is the lens through which we see the realms of heaven and earth, and all that the Spirit says will be consistent with it. But He leads us into deep mysteries and shares His heart in personal ways. He directs our steps individually and opens our eyes to the ways God works in our lives.

Jesus’ glory is made more visible in us when we receive His revelation through His Spirit. If our current relationship with Him causes us to long for the “better” days of His physical Presence, we have much more room to grow. His Presence is as real now as it was then.

Jesus, let the Spirit bring You glory in me by revealing Yourself—Your truth, gifts, and mission—to me. Help me experience You as personally as the disciples did.

From the book