The peace of God, John 14:27-31

The two biggest themes of the 60’s generation, aka, the hippie movement, were peace and love.  When you look at images from that era, whether they be concerts or sit ins, or protests, or whatever, you often see them holding signs professing their desire for both. In fact, it was trendy in those days to espouse both of those as ideals.  I remember very well as a young person holding up two fingers in a peace sign and saying “Peace, man,” in place of the usual hello and goodbyes. It was the thing to do. Young people drew peace signs everywhere.  It was a popular concept, but unfortunately, they had a much different type of peace in mind  than that which was traditionally thought of up until that point in society.

I have spoken many times in my messages concerning love, and the biblical view as opposed to the world’s view, particularly as expressed by that generation, but I have not said as much about peace.  However, today we find ourselves at a passage of scripture when Jesus Himself speaks of peace.  The peace which He offers though, He said is not as the world gives.  So once again, we see biblical principles co-opted by the world, and a need to define our terms according to sound doctrine in contrast to that of popular conceptions.

In the 60’s, peace came to mean a lot of things.  Peace came to mean a state of mind, like “a peaceful, easy feeling,” according to the Eagles, perhaps induced by drugs or dropping out of society and forming a commune.  But I would suggest that it’s origin as a mantra of the hippie movement stemmed from their desire to see the war in Vietnam come to an end.  And that ideal seems to still be most associated with the concept of peace in the world today.  For many in the world, peace is an ideal that is worth any cost, even the loss of many freedoms.  Many people just feel that peace, or the absence of war or hostilities or violence is an end that justifies any means necessary.

My goal here today is not to debate that kind of idealism, or the politics of appeasement in the name of peace.  But my goal is to explain what kind of peace Jesus was referring to.  Because it is important to note that Jesus is making a promise of peace. He is leaving them a promise of their inheritance.  He has said repeatedly that He was leaving the disciples.  He was speaking here in this passage on the night before His crucifixion.  This whole passage of several chapters is called the Upper Room Discourse.  And as the disciples begin to understand that He has been betrayed by one of their own, and that He is leaving them to go back to heaven, they are troubled.  They are understandably upset.  So He begins this chapter by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled.”  He offers them assurance and comfort that He will be with them in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.  And that one day He will physically return for the church and they would be with them for ever.

Last week we looked specifically at the promise and purpose of the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus refers to Him as the Helper, or the Comforter. So today’s passage must be considered in that same context.  Jesus’s promise of peace is given in the context of “don’t let your hearts be troubled.”  It’s the context of “I will send you a Helper, I will not leave you as orphans.  I will come to you.”

So in that same train of thought, Jesus says, ““Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” It’s an echo of verse one, to some extent.  I would say that it is an extrapolation of verse one.  You should not be troubled in heart because Jesus leaves you peace, He gives you His peace.

So within that context we can be pretty certain that Jesus is not talking about the cessation or absence of war.  He is speaking of a peace of soul, of the heart, of the mind.  It is the peace spoken of in Philippians 4:7, which says, “And the peace  of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Now that is the peace that we all need, is it not?  That is the peace which Christ promises.  And yet I would suggest that is not the daily experience of most of us.

I believe that most doctors would agree that stress and anxiety are at the root of many of  our health problems today as a society.  And I can assure you that Christians are not exempt from it either.  I read an article the other day that claimed antidepressants showed up in significant, measurable amounts in most cities tap water in the United States. That gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “drinking the  koolaid,” doesn’t it? I don’t know what that means for the safety of our drinking water, but I will say that it indicates that our society is still trying to find some sort of peace through drugs.  So I believe that this promise of Christ is one that is especially pertinent today.  And it’s especially pertinent for Christians whose hearts are troubled by the trials and tribulations that we endure in this world.  That we might find the peace that Christ spoke of at the end of this Upper Room Discourse, in chapter  16:33, saying, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

So as we consider this vital text, I would like to break it down into four points, which hopefully will help us to see it in the light it was intended.  First let’s look at the principle of peace, then the promise of peace, then the possession of peace, and finally the practice of peace.

First the principle of peace.  And I deliberately use that phrase because it is sort of a play on words.  See, the principle of peace belongs to the Prince of Peace.  Jesus says, it is “My peace.”  It belongs to Him.   It is His to leave to us, and it is His to give.  It is His peace.  We just inherit it, if we are His disciples.

This title for Christ is found in the prophecy made familiar by Handle’s Messiah.  It finds it’s origin in Isaiah 9:6, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, From then on and forevermore.The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  Now that is obviously referring to the Kingdom of God, of which Christ rules. In this present age we experience the Kingdom of God spiritually, but upon Christ’s return we shall see it in glory.  But for now, Christ rules over His people, through whom He rules the world.

But there is a rebellion against the Kingdom of God.  That rebellion began in ages past when Lucifer desired to be like God and took with him in his rebellion one third of the hosts of heaven.  And then Satan seduced God’s creation,  the crown of His creation - man who was made in the image of God, to be like God, who was to rule the world with God - Satan seduced mankind to join him in that rebellion, and so mankind fell and has become a slave of the kingdom of darkness, even willfully participating in that rebellion against God.  So that James 4:4 says, the world is an enemy of God.

Christ then is the Prince of Peace because He came to earth to reconcile mankind to God.  To make peace with God through His atonement for their sin.  Hebrews 2:14 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Christ defeated the power of death, and Satan, so that whosoever believes in Him, would be saved from their sin and be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of LIght, being born again as sons and daughter’s of God.

That transaction, where God places the punishment for our rebellion against Christ, and transfers Christ’s righteousness unto those who by faith believe in Him, is what Ephesians 6:15 calls the “gospel of peace.”

And that is how Christ can refer to it as His peace.  It is His gospel, it is His good news, it is His victory which produces that peace, it is His to give to those who by faith believe in Him, because He won it, He purchased it with His blood.  So because He purchased peace with God, we can have peace of mind.  I have made a statement for the last couple of weeks, and I will say it again this morning: The greatest comfort in life is to know God, and to be known by God.  Perhaps you have seen the bumper sticker which says, “Know God, know Peace.  No God, no peace.”  Because we are His, and He is mine, I can have a peace that passes all understanding.  Because I know Him who knows the future.  I know Him who triumphed over Satan.  I know Him who stilled the storm, who raised the dead, who healed the sick.  I know Him who was from the beginning, and who always will be, even through eternity.

Now there is so much more that I could say, but let’s move on to the next point.  But that first point, the principle of peace is foundational.  All the rest build upon that rock.  So we had to establish our foundation for peace, which is the principle of peace, made possible by the Prince of Peace.

Secondly, there is the promise of peace.  Really, it is our inheritance.  This is in effect the last will and testament of Jesus Christ.  He who had no earthly goods, left us the most priceless treasure that no amount of money can buy.  He leaves us peace.  You know, a will is only a promise while the person is living, but when they die, the executor acts in accordance with the will and makes it so.  However, I’m sure you have all heard of cases where the people who were supposed to receive an inheritance ended up getting cheated out of the will of the deceased.  And in such cases, it is possible to hear someone say, “Oh if so and so were alive, he would have wanted this person to get the inheritance, and he would make sure that they did.”  But of course, the person is dead, and that sometimes doesn’t happen.  But we have an inheritance made sure, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead and lives and rules from heaven.  We can be sure of our inheritance because He lives to make intercession for us.

We are entitled to this promise because we are the children of God by faith in Christ. We are not of this world, as Jesus says His peace is not as the world gives.  But a peace from God. Rom 8:16, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Our promise then is not founded upon wishful thinking.  The world cries for “peace, peace, but there is no peace.”  But peace is promised in God’s word.  And His word cannot fail.  His word is forever settled in heaven.  HIs word is doubly guaranteed by the Father and by Jesus Christ, and He has given us the Spirit of God as a pledge of that promise, the same Spirit who is called the Comforter.  The very presence of God is our peace.  The Comforter is who Jesus was promising would come, who would testify of Him, who would indwell His disciples and be with them forever.  That is why He could say in vs.28, “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.  Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.”

We know that the promise is sure because we know that Jesus died and rose again and is now seated at the Father’s right hand.  Because God raised Him from the dead, we know that we have the things that He has promised us.  Because Christ was counted righteous, and His sacrifice was sufficient, and the penalty was paid in full, therefore God did not allow Him to stay dead, but raised Him to show that He had triumphed over the devil and sin and the grave.  That is why Jesus says in vs.30, “the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.”  His resurrection proved His words were true, and thus we can have the assurance that His promise to us of peace will be true. Thus, I am His and He is Mine, and nothing can touch us without His approval.

Thirdly, not just the promise but we have the possession of peace.  How do we go from the promise to the possession?  I would submit to you it is by the same principle found in all of our salvation.  The just shall live by faith.  It is by faith that we possess the promise of peace.  That is how we receive peace with God.  And that is how we will achieve peace of heart and mind.

The best example of having that kind of peace is found in the life of Jesus. What kind of peace did Jesus have? Did he have the peace of a placid, stress free existence? Did he have the peace of an emotionless, stoic kind of life? Well, no, he had  peace born out of the confidence that He was God’s Son. But if you look at our Lord’s experiences, his experiences were anything but emotionless or stressless. He was a man of griefs, of sorrows, of emotions like anger and heartache and feelings of rejection and unbelief. Often we have seen that Christ was troubled in spirit.  Yet in HIs troubles He had peace.

It’s interesting to note that at the very time that our Lord talks about peace and presents this peace as His own peace that He’s granting to His followers, He is at the most dramatic, disturbing, distressing moment in His life.  He is leaving the world in hours through the means of execution on a cross, and He knows that, and He knows the details of it full well.  And yet He is at peace.

Why?  Because He knows that He is in the will of God.  He knows that He is working in conjunction with the Spirit of God.  He believes in the sovereignty of God.  He believes in the Word of God which prophesied all that happened and would happen to Him.  He had peace because He knew that He was the Son of God and all that happened was working according to the plan of God.

But, you might protest, “that was Christ.  Christ was sinless.  I am not.  How can I have that same peace?”  Well, we can have that same peace when we abide in Christ.  That is what Jesus goes on to teach in the next chapter.  As we abide in Christ, specifically, as we walk in the Spirit of Christ, as we follow His leading, as we live by His teaching, we have peace knowing that we are in accordance with God’s will, and He hears us in whatsoever we ask of Him. Jesus was confident, at peace, in spite of the circumstances, because He knew that the devil had nothing on Him.  He had not given the devil a foothold in His life.  He had not lowered the armor of God to allow the devil an opportunity in any way.  He knew that He had been faithful to the word of God, that He was living in the will of God.  And that confidence is available to us as we abide in Christ.

Listen, you may not be able to say that today.  I think all of us will find ourselves from time to time compromised in our spiritual situation.  That is why we need our feet washed on a regular basis.  We need the daily cleansing and confession and restoration every day to maintain that peace with God.  Our possession of peace is tied to our perseverance in our faith.  That is why we are commanded to be sanctified, to be holy even as God is holy.  That is why James says we are to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts, so that we might have a clean conscience before God. That the devil will have no hold on us, no part in us. That is how we possess the promise of peace.

If God is the source of peace, then we need to draw near to God and He will draw near to us.  When you know that you are right with God, then you will know the peace of God.  You will know that peace which transcends our circumstances, without the fear that we are experiencing sin’s consequences.  There is a great difference between the two.  Those who are out of step with God and running after the lusts and passions of the world suffer the consequences of doing wrong.  And there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.  But those who walk in the Spirit, know the peace of God which transcends whatever circumstances that may come.

And that brings us to the final point, the practice of peace.  About 20 years ago, I found myself at a point where I had no peace.  I almost lost my mind.  I went through about 4 years of daily anxiety attacks which were absolutely crippling.  In the process, I lost my home which I had built with my own hands, I lost my career as a nationally recognized antique dealer and authority, and I lost all my money, furniture, and cars eventually.  During that time, God used those circumstances to prune away all those things which were keeping me from communion with Him.

I wanted nothing more in those days than peace.  I wanted mental peace.  And so I turned to the source of peace, the word of God.  But it wasn’t just as easy as name it and claim it. It was a long process of proving scripture to be true and trustworthy.  There was one passage of scripture in particular though that came to mean a lot to me, and through it I found the formula for peace.  We like formula’s, don’t we? “Three ways to prosperity.”  “Five ways to peace.” “Ten steps to marital reconciliation.”  Pastor’s obviously love them too.  But this passage really does seem to be a formula from God specifically to help us find this peace that Jesus promises.

It’s found in Philippians chapter 4, and I will read from vs.6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  Well, that sounds an awful lot like the first  verse of John 14, doesn’t it?  “Let not your heart be troubled.” And also vs. 13 and 14, when Jesus says, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Maybe there is a pattern here. Peace starts with prayer.

Then Paul says in vs.7 of Phil.4, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Well, that’s what Jesus promised in vs27, isn’t it?  That’s what we want, our hearts and minds at peace.  Notice that Paul says that peace is found in Christ Jesus.  But then Paul goes from the theological, to the practical, as he so often does in his epistles.  First he gives us the doctrine, and then he gives us the application.  And so he does in vs8: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”  So the formula so far is pray, praise, and ponder.  Ponder means to think on these things.  Meditate on them.

So peace comes as we think on those things, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute, worthy of praise, let your mind think on these things.  Listen, there is so much there that I could preach on that list for a week.  But let me just highlight one, briefly.  Our trouble is in our minds.  The mind is the battlefield, more often than not.  And where we get off track usually is in the first one on the list; truth.  Whatever is true.  We need to start practicing peace by telling ourselves the truth.  The devil is the father of lies.  And he has engineered the world system to be a system of lies.  So that the average person doesn’t or can’t tell the truth from a lie.  They want to believe the lie because it sounds so appealing to the flesh.  A person becomes a drug addict because they have bought into the lie that drugs are fun, that they won’t hurt you.  A person becomes an adulturer because they believe the lie that a little flirtation is harmless, or a little pornography isn’t such a big deal.  You get the picture.

I believed the lies of “what if’s” that constantly bombarded my mind during my anxiety attacks.  If I believed the lies, I was crippled and couldn’t work or travel.  But when I believed the promises of God, then I found deliverance.  So let your mind dwell on the truth.  And I can assure you that the truth is found in God’s word.  And all of Paul’s list can be found in God’s word.

Then Paul says in vs.9, “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”   Practice what things?  The things which are taught in God’s word, the truth, the right things, the honorable things, the principles of sanctified Christianity.  Those things.  Practice the application of sound doctrine.  Practice those things.  Oh my!  Sounds like legalism doesn’t it?  You mean peace doesn’t come by just giving lip service to God but living like the devil?  No, I’m afraid not.  If you are truly a child of God, then He says He chastises those He loves when they disobey.  So instead practice righteousness.  Practice holiness. You say, well I’m not very good at it.  I sin a lot.  I can’t help it.  Well, Paul says practice some more.  It’s like learning to play the piano.  It takes practice.  And the more you practice, the better at it you will get.  Practice makes perfect.  And Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”  So practice what we learn by pondering God’s word and we will have perfect peace.


Heb.5:14 tells us, “that because of practice we have our senses trained to discern good and evil.”  Peter tells us in  2Peter 1:10, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.”  So we practice the things which Paul and Peter and John give us as applications of righteousness in their epistles. and when we do them, Paul says, the peace of God will be with you.”  “The peace that passes all comprehension.”

Listen, in this world you will have trouble.  If we get caught up in the lies of this world, we will not have peace.  But I can assure you that Jesus has left us His peace, it is a gift of God.  By faith in Christ we have peace with God.  And then practically we let our minds ponder on the truth of God, and we practice the doctrines of God, so that we might have our hearts and minds fixed by the peace which only God can give, in spite of whatever circumstances we might find ourselves in.  We know we are His, and He knows us.  That is the comfort which we can all appropriate through faith in Christ.

John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

The Helper, the Spirit of Truth, John 14:16-26

In today’s passage we are continuing our study of what is called the Upper Room Discourse.  It spans several chapters, and yet it all occurs in just one evening; Christ’s last evening with His disciples before He is crucified.  In this talk that Jesus gives, He tells His disciples that He will be leaving them very soon, and that where He is going they cannot now come. Of course, they are very troubled by this revelation.  And Jesus knows that they are upset over this. So He says to them not to be troubled, but that He will return for them one day, that they may be with Him forever.

But in the meantime, He says that He will send the Comforter, the Helper, who will take His place and come alongside of them.  That is found in vs.16. He says He will send “allos Parakletos” another Helper to come alongside them who is just like Him.  That is the translation of the Greek. 

Then in vs.17, Jesus reveals the name of the Helper; the Spirit of Truth.  He is sending the Holy Spirit to help them.  Now this is very important for the disciples, because they are not going to make it if they don’t have some divine help.  That much has been proven in the last 3 years of Jesus’s ministry.  And even before this night is over, they are all going to fall away when Jesus is taken from them by force.  They are going to be scattered.  So they need to realize that they are not being forsaken.

But it is also important for the church today as well.  Because we live in a time that we cannot touch and see and experience Jesus as they did.  We live by faith in what He taught, but we cannot experience what the disciples experienced. And so it is even more important for us, because in some respects, the Christian life is harder for us than it was for them.  

You may remember after His resurrection, Thomas did not believe the other disciples who said that they had seen the risen Lord.  He said I’m not going to believe unless I put my finger in His nail prints and His wounded side.  And Jesus shows up a few days later and says “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

So it is important for us as it was for the disciples, to understand what Jesus is telling them here.  Because Jesus is describing for them the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  They needed to know what that was going to look like.  And in the same way we need to know what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is supposed to look like, and what He is supposed to accomplish.  Because we are living in the in betweens, the time between Jesus’s first appearing and His second appearing.  And for those of us who are saved, we have this same promise of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, and without His help we cannot really know Christ and we are powerless to live the Christian life.  

Furthermore, I think this is important for the modern church because no other doctrine is so misunderstood and twisted today than that of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  The devil is a deceiver, and he spreads confusion and chaos in order to try to derail naive Christians, and to keep the Church from the victory which is possible and promised in Christ.  So let’s try to unpack these verses and see if we can’t demystify some of the misunderstandings and mischaracterizations that surround this important doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

First note in vs.16  that Jesus identifies the primary work of the Holy Spirit in the very title that He uses for Him. As I mentioned earlier Jesus says He is the “Allos Paracletos.”  Paraclete means one who is called alongside to help.  And then “allos” means another of the same kind.  So that Jesus is saying, I am going to send you another Helper to come alongside of you of the same kind as I am.  

Now that is important.  Because many people think that the Holy Spirit is something completely different than Jesus.  But as He recorded in vs.10, Jesus said He didn’t do anything on His own initiative, but He spoke the words of God and He did the works of God.  And He said that is how you could know that He was of God.  He told Philip in vs.9, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.”  So if you wanted to know what God was like, you simply had to watch and listen to Jesus.  The same principle is true of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not glorify Himself, but glorifies Jesus. Jesus said in chapter 15:26, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.”  And in chapter 16:13 He says, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  

In Romans 8:9, Paul identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God and then again as the Spirit of Christ. So there you see the unity of the trinity.  The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus, and Jesus glorifies the Father.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t speak on His initiative, but He speaks the words of Christ.  And Christ doesn’t speak on His initiative, but He speaks the words of the Father. So they are in agreement.  They are three in One. The ministry of the Holy Spirit then is to glorify Jesus, and Jesus glorifies the Father.

So Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit is going to take over where He leaves off, and He is going to continue the ministry that Jesus was doing.  He is going to be with the disciples every minute of every day, just like Jesus was. Vs.17,  “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

Let’s break that down a little bit.  There are two elements in this verse that I want to focus on.  First, Jesus  calls Him the Spirit of Truth.  The second element is that He abides with you and will be in you.  Two vital components of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  

First, the Spirit of Truth.  Jesus has just announced in vs.6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  So Jesus is the Truth.  In John 1, it says Jesus is the Word. So the Word and the Truth are one and the same.  As Jesus concludes this Upper Room Discourse, He prays for His disciples, and in that prayer in chapter 17, Jesus says in vs.17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

So the Word and the Truth are two sides to the same coin.  God’s word is the truth.  Jesus’s whole ministry had been about teaching God’s word, teaching the truth about God.  Teaching the truth about the Kingdom of God and what it is like and how we must enter into it.  Jesus said in chapter 8vs31, ““If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to teach the disciples the truth of God’s word.  To help them to discern the truth of Christ’s gospel. He is the minister of the Word.  This is how we can know the truth.  And this is how we can know the Spirit of Truth.  He will speak the word of God, He will minister the word of God.  He will not speak new revelation, but He will disclose the revelation of Christ. We can verify the ministry of the Spirit by whether or not He ministers through the word. He doesn’t come to give us an emotional experience, but He comes to give us the word of God.

Secondly, the Spirit is given to help them do God’s word. Vs. 12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”  Jesus adds in chapter 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”  So the power of the Holy Spirit is given to help us do the works of God.  

In Acts 1:8 Jesus told His disciples, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”  That was the “greater works than these” which Jesus promised them in chapter 14.  They would take the gospel to the whole world through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And that is the same power that is available to us as we witness to the world.  And that power of the Holy Spirit finds it’s root in the word of God, the gospel.  Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

So they have the same power through the Holy Spirit as they had with Christ, that they might do the works of God as Christ did.  Then as indicated in chapter 14 vs 12, what are the works of God? First, it’s the will of God. Vs.14“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Jesus is going to help us to do what He wants us to do.  He is not going to ask us to do anything contrary to God’s will, and He will provide all our needs to do His will.  In 1John 5:14 it says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”  The disciples could continue Christ’s ministry because the power of the Holy Spirit would provide what was necessary to do the works of God.

Secondly, the works of God are found in the word of God.  It’s the commandments of God. vs.15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  Notice how many times Jesus speaks of this principle, equating love and obedience, keeping His word with His communion with us. Vs.21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” And vs.24, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

So how does the Holy Spirit help us to do God’s word, to keep His commandments? Jesus says that He does that by reminding us of His words. vs. 25,  “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  Now that was fulfilled in two ways.  One was when the disciples preached the gospel or had to give a defense of the gospel, the Holy Spirit brought to their mind the word of God.  These were unlearned men.  They weren’t Rabbis trained in the scriptures.  And yet when you hear Peter preach on the day of Pentecost, he preaches from the word of God, quoting from Old Testament prophesies like that of Joel.  And he does so with discernment, with the discernment which is given to him by the Spirit of Truth.

And in the life of a modern day believer, we have the same promise.  We are told to hide the word of God in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. The Spirit of God brings to our mind the words of God in order to teach us how we are to act.  He uses the preaching of God’s word to admonish us and correct us when we get out of line.  Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  So Paul tells young pastor Timothy in  2Timothy 4:2 to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” The Holy Spirit uses the word of God to train us so that we might keep His word. He works through the spoken word of God.

But the other purpose of the Spirit bringing the words of Christ to their remembrance was to author through them the scriptures.  They would go on to write the gospels and the epistles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  2Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  And Peter adds in  2Peter 1:20, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  

The scriptures are the great legacy left to us by the apostles under the direction of the Holy Spirit.  That today we might know God and know the way to God because we have the word of God made more sure.  It is written down for us by eyewitnesses, who had every word brought to their mind by the Spirit of Truth who brought it to their remembrance.  

This is how we might know God and to be known by God. We cannot come to know God and be known by God apart from the word of God. I said a couple of weeks ago that there is no greater comfort than to know God, and to be known by God.  There is no greater treasure.  There is no greater blessing.  Jesus said in  vs 21 of our text, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  As we keep His word, He discloses more of Himself to us, that we might know Him more and more.

The second element of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as stated in vs.17 is that He abides with you and will be in you.  And again, this is a principle that Jesus makes over and over again.  He wants to drive this home because He knows that in a few hours He will be crucified and laid in a tomb.  And so He wants to offer to His disciples the comfort of the Paracletos, the One like Him who will come alongside of them to help them and teach them and lead them in His absence. 

So because the Spirit reveals truth through the word, because He is able to help us to know the word and obey the word, we come to know the love of God, which produces intimacy through the indwelling of His Spirit.  That we might be one with Him, and live with Him, and be with Him forever.

Note in vs.18 Jesus anticipates that sense of abandonment and bewilderment that they will surely feel in just a few hours.  He says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”  I think that is key to having the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  That this is not something we work for, or have to apply for, or even ask for.  It is the initiative of Jesus Christ that sends the Holy Spirit to us, because He will not leave us comfortless.  He will not expect us to go on without Him.  He doesn’t expect us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get our life straightened out first.  No, but He sends His Spirit to us in our hour of need to help us.  When we were helpless, He came to us and offered Himself as our substitute.  And when He went away, He came again in the Spirit of Christ and took up residence in each of us so that He might be with us always.  Matt.28:20, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The word in the Greek there is “orphanos,” it means fatherless. Or one bereft of a teacher, guide or guardian.  Christ will never leave us fatherless, helpless.  He will come to us in the Spirit of God, to be with us forever.  Look how often He reiterates this promise. Vs.16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” Vs.17, “you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”  vs. 20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”  And vs.23, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

So four times the Lord tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will be in them and abide in them forever.  And that promise stands for us today as well.  Romans 8:9 says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”  

But how do we know this to be true?  How do we know that we have the Spirit of Truth dwelling in us?  Is it through some experience?  Is it by some emotional response on our part?  Is it by some supernatural occurrence that we have this confidence and comfort?  I don’t believe so.  There may be feelings or emotions one way or another, or no emotions at all.  No supernatural occurrence whatsoever.  Jesus doesn’t say anything about how you would feel.  He says you will know it. Look at vs.17 again: “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” 

Notice He says that the world cannot know Him.  Why?  Because the world is not saved.  The world has not received salvation through faith in Christ.  They try to judge spiritual things by what they can touch or feel or sense with their senses.  But the Bible says that the just shall live by faith.  And that which is seen is not faith.  Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the]assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.”  So Jesus says you cannot try to know what is unseen by the senses.

Instead He uses the Greek word “ginosko” which means to know intimately.  It was often used to imply the intimacy between a man and his wife.  It is the knowledge which comes of an intimate relationship.  He says that you will know that the Holy Spirit is in you, because you will have the intimacy of relationship with Me.  That is the evidence that the Holy Spirit is in you and will abide in you forever.  Because you know Him with an intimate relationship based on love.  

And how do we have that intimacy? We have intimacy with Christ when we keep His word.  Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”   Love is the basis for intimacy.  And intimacy is the basis for the knowledge and assurance that He will never leave us or forsake us.  He proves Himself to us as we study His word and obey His word.  That is how we show our love for Him.  And when we love Him, He will love us in return in a special way that supersedes our senses.  So that whether we live or die, we know we are the Lord’s.  Whether we are in comfort or in danger, we know we are the Lord’s.  Whether we are in poverty or in plenty, we know we are the Lord’s.  

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  He has sent His Spirit to dwell in our hearts by faith. He has given us His word which will abide forever. That we might be comforted with the word.  So that we might know God, and know that God knows us, that we are His, and He is mine, and He will be with us, forever.  Amen.

Obedience, the link to fulfillment, John 14:14-17

In many of my past sermons, I have established the principle that the Christian’s relationship with Christ is like that of a husband and wife in marriage.  In our Wednesday evening Bible study, we are looking at that principle right now.  Paul says in  Ephesians 5:31, “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”  So then marriage, as defined by God, is an illustration of our relationship with Christ.

In any marriage relationship, the foundation is love. But everyone here surely realizes that for a marriage to work, both members must love one another.  It doesn’t work to have just one person loving their mate, but the mate not to respond in love.  So it is with our relationship with Christ.  There must be love from both parties if it is to be a healthy marriage.

There are two problems in the church today though that threaten the sanctity of this marriage with Christ.  The first problem is that for the most part, the emphasis on the responsibility to love is one sided. The church is continually talking about and singing about Christ’s love for us, but hardly anything is said about our love for the Lord.  In the church’s relationship with Christ, love is disproportionate. He does all the loving, and we do all the taking.  And that kind of one sided love produces a lopsided marriage relationship.  In that kind of relationship, the one being loved too often ends up abusing that love, and taking advantage of that person, becoming something of a narcissist, selfishly using the other for their own ends. They end up with a distorted view of their own importance.  They end up seeking their own selfish priorities, often at the expense of the one doing the loving.  

That isn’t the Biblical view of love, however.  1 Cor.13:5, which is part of the famous text on love, says that love “does not seek it’s own.”  In other words, true love seeks to benefit the other partner, not itself. It doesn’t seek it’s own benefit at the expense of others.  But unfortunately, this is far too often the church’s perspective on love. It’s one sided.  It’s focused on God’s love for us, but hardly ever focused on our love for God.  

And yet Jesus said in  Mark 12:30 that the foremost commandment was “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”  I would suggest to you that for the most part, most of us fail in that commandment.  We love ourselves first and then we probably love a whole list of earthly things, and maybe somewhere down on the bottom of the totem pole we love God.  That hierarchy is made evident by our day planners.  It’s evident by our checkbook register.  It’s evident by our to do lists.  Our lips may say we love God, perhaps even our Facebook page says we love God, but our daily priorities and activities say otherwise.

There is a second problem that hinders the church’s marriage with Christ.  And that is that we have misunderstood the definition of love.  We’ve misunderstood both Christ’s love for us, and our love for Christ.  We have misinterpreted what constitutes love.  The modern church in particular has adapted the world’s definition of love to the word, and as a result we have essentially “dumbed down” the Bible’s definition of love.  

I have talked about this misinterpretation of love so often that I feel redundant speaking of it again.  But it is germane to this passage, and it is essential to our relationship with Christ.  Let me reiterate briefly; love is not simply a feeling, love is not just an emotion, love is not an experience.  Love, in the best sense, is a commitment. It’s an act of the will.  There were four words in the Greek that were used for love.  Christ and the apostles consistently used the highest form of it; agape love.  So in the Bible love is presented as a sacrificial commitment, even to the point of laying down your life for another.  Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  That’s agape love.  Being willing to lay down, or better yet, lay aside your life, for the sake of another.  

That is true love, by the way. It’s being willing to lay down your life for the sake of the one you love. Love is not what you say, but what you do. That love was modeled by Christ when He laid down His life on the cross for us.  That sacrificial love is modeled by Christian marriage in Ephesians 5.  That is the love of a Christian, who puts the other’s needs above his own.  That is the mark of a sanctified believer, one who truly loves God, who has perfected love, because they were willing to lay down their prerogatives for the sake of honoring Christ.

Now it’s interesting to note that Jesus speaks quite often of love in this Upper Room discourse.  But notice that the emphasis is on our love for Him.  He certainly speaks of His love for the church, but He is emphasizing our responsibility to love the Lord.  Four times in this chapter alone Christ talks about our responsibility to love Him. In chapter 14, our Lord reminds us that it is those who love Him who obey His commandments; once in verse 15, a second time in verse 21, and again in verse 23, and then reverses it in verse 24.  Really four times makes reference to this idea of our love for God being that we obey His commands or word.

And I would also point out the placement of these statements about our love for God bracket certain promises of God.  For instance, look at how these three verses are laid out. Vs.14, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  Vs. 15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Vs. 16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”  

Now at first glance, you might think that these are unrelated bullet points.  Almost as if John is just giving us highlights of the conversation here rather than a word for word rendition.  And that may be true to a certain degree.  But I would suggest that there is a purpose in the way that he has arranged it.  Because I believe that love for God is the condition upon which these various promises are made.

For instance, look again at vs.14, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” We talked about last time what it meant to ask in Jesus’s name.  That His will being a condition for Christ doing what we ask of Him.  We ask according to His will.  His purpose.  His ministry.  But I believe after studying this passage that there is another condition, and that is that you love Him, and to love Him He said is to keep His commandments.  

If someone is not living according to Christ’s commands, then I don’t believe that God is under any compulsion whatsoever to grant our requests.  In fact disobedience is a hindrance to your prayers.  Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  You are either living in disobedience as a child of God and as such will receive the discipline of God the Father, or your disobedience is evidence that you are not a child of God at all. But either way, your disobedience nullifies the promise of God to answer your prayers.  Because that disobedience illustrates that you do not love God.  And if you do not love God, then that is evidence that you are not God’s marriage partner or you are in rebellion to Him.

I’ve said before that I have studied the latter part of James 5 for years, trying to find the secret to answered prayer as illustrated by James’s example of Elijah. The key verse being vs.16, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  I looked at it from the perspective of perseverance, from the perspective of faith, and just about every which way possible.  And then finally one day it hit me.  The key to effective prayer, the key to answered prayer, is the word righteous. 

In fact, when you look at the complete verse, that becomes clearer.  “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  The emphasis is on confession of sins so that your prayers are not hindered.

So back in our text, I believe that Jesus deliberately juxtaposes vs.15 about love and obedience between the promise of answered prayer, and that of the promise of the Holy Spirit.  Because I believe that love of God demonstrated by obedience is the key to the fulfillment of both of those promises.  

Jesus makes the connection between obedience and love over and over again. He obviously is not teaching that Christianity is composed of an easy believism, of lip service without obedience.  He is not teaching that God’s love for us is some sort of sentimentalism that winks at sin.  He is speaking of love as a commitment, even as a sacrifice of our priorities for the Lord’s.  There is a sense in which our God loves everyone in his benevolence and in the fact that He does them good. But His special love for His children is reserved,  our Lord says, for those who believe in Him, love Him, and manifest their love in the keeping of His commandments. Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me he will keep My words and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make our abode with him.”  There is a special intimacy that God gives to those who love Him.

Our love for God is the key to the Christian life.  And obedience and love are inseparably intertwined in this chapter. You cannot have one without the other.  Let’s look at these statements. Vs.15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  Vs.21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”  And then in vs.24 He says it negatively, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” Again and again, love and obedience are correlated by Christ, resulting in communion with God.

I often have people tell me that they are having problems in their Christian walk. And the problem they say they feel like God is far away.  They pray and they don’t feel like God hears them.  They don’t feel like God cares about their problems.  Notice how many times the word “feel” was used there.  But God’s presence or God’s response to our prayers is not dependent upon feelings.  It’s dependent upon obedience.  So when someone tells me that he doesn’t feel like God is close to them, I tell them that feelings follow obedience.  They rarely precede it.  James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”  As we get into conformity with God, then He will be near to us, and reveal Himself to us.  Feelings follow obedience.

Obedience is kind of like trying to get in shape.  We hear all the time of the great benefits of exercise.  We hear that you will feel so much better if you get into shape.  So we join a gym.  And we start to work out on an exercise program.  But let me ask you, does feeling good precede getting in shape or follow after you have gotten into shape?  I would suggest that getting into shape is often painful.  It’s arduous.  That’s why they call it working out.  And that’s why Paul said in Philippians that we are to work out our salvation through obeying.   Phil. 2:12

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”  

When you are obedient, then you will begin to experience the joy and peace of intimate fellowship with God.  John Calvin, the great Reformer said, “True knowledge of God is born out of obedience.”  As we obey Him, we come to know Him.   And out of that obedience comes a closer walk with God, out of obedience comes our sanctification, out of obedience comes our comfort, our fellowship, our assurance of His love for us.  As we love Him and keep His commandments, He comes to us and abides with us and makes His home with us as promised in vs.21 and 23.

So the key to Christ granting our requests is our love manifested by our obedience. And that obedience is tied to the next promise as well, that of the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper so that we might do those things which God has commanded us to do.  Vs.16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”

This highlights the major difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.  A lot of people think that the difference is that in the old covenant they were under the law, but in the new covenant we are under grace.  That’s not completely true.  It is true that we that are saved by faith are not under the penalty of the law, but under grace, that is the gift of righteousness procured by Jesus’s death on the cross.  But the commandments of God still stand.  Jesus said I did not come to annul the law but to fulfill it.  The difference is that in the old covenant we did not have the power to keep the law, but in the new covenant we have the power of the Spirit dwelling within us to help us keep His commandments.  That is why I think Jesus juxtaposes these three otherwise unrelated statements together.  He is showing the link which is obedience.

This new covenant promise is prophesied in Ezekiel 11:19, “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”  He repeats that promise word for word again in Ez.36.  

The same promise is made again in Jeremiah 31:33, “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

That’s the purpose of sending the Holy Spirit folks.  He is not some sort of experience.  He is not a feeling.  He is not an emotion.  He is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth.  And He is given to us that we might know the truth, and that we might be obedient to the truth.  He is given to lead us in the truth.  He is given to write the law of God upon our hearts, so that our desire is to be obedient, because we love the Lord with all our hearts and want to please Him. He gives us a new heart that is able to love Him, and is able to obey Him because our desires are changed.

Vs. 26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  So He is our teacher, our helper, that we might know the truth of Christ.  He will bring it to our remembrance so that we might keep His word.  That is why in vs.17 Jesus calls Him the Spirit of truth.

In chapter 15, you are going to see in the next couple of weeks that Jesus goes to great lengths to reiterate His commandments.  It’s important to realize that in the New Testament, every one of the 10 commandments is reiterated except one.  And that one that isn’t is the law of the Sabbath, because it is a ceremonial law.  And when the ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ, they were no longer necessary.  They were a picture of something to come, but once He had come, the ceremonial laws were no longer in effect.  But the point that Jesus makes is that the law of God is fulfilled in two positive commandments, as opposed to negative ones.  The negative commands say don’t do this, don’t do that.  But the positive commandments of Christ are to do something, first,  love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.  And He said all the commandments are fulfilled in those two.  

It’s also interesting to draw a correlation to the passage on love I referenced earlier, that of 1 Corinthians 13. In that chapter and the one preceding it, we see that love is a gift of the Spirit. Of all the gifts of the Spirit, love is the one that remains when the others cease.  Love is the greatest gift.   1Cor. 13:8, “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”  But the gift of love is going to endure, it will not cease, it will not fade away.  As it says in vs.13, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Well, Jesus is showing that the way to accomplish His command to love Him and obey Him is through the Holy Spirit. The Helper is given that we might do the works of God.  And He does that by leading us us in the truth.  John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”  

So then the Holy Spirit helps us love God, because we come to know Him through the word of God, of which the Holy Spirit is the author.  And He brings the word to our minds, that He might lead us in the truth.  So that we might know what to do, what His will is, what His commands are.  And then when we don’t do what we should, He convicts us so that we might repent and be conformed to Christ’s will.   John 16:8, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit.  And we limit the Holy Spirit.  That is why it is necessary to have a daily filling of the Spirit.  To confess your sins, and commit to love the Lord and be obedient to His will, so that the Holy Spirit may fill us with His power to do God’s will.

Next time we are going to continue in this chapter and really focus more on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  But for now let me just say that the Helper (or Comforter in some versions) comes from the Greek word Paraclete.  That’s the transliteration in English.  Greek it’s Paraklētos.  Klētos is a verb form of a verb kaleō which means to call, pará  means alongside like parallel – so to call somebody alongside.  That’s what the word means, somebody called alongside. 

And then there is another word, Állos which is used here.  It means another of the exact same kind; and Jesus uses that:  “I will give you állos Paraklētos.  “I will give you another exactly like I am, which is to say that I’m going to send you a Helper exactly like the Helper that I have been,” and that defines for you the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  We have the power of Christ in us, the words of Christ written down for us, and the mind of Christ ministering to us through the Spirit of Truth.  That we might be able to be obedient to the truth.  That we might know the truth, and the truth make us free.  Free from the penalty of sin, and free from the power of sin.  

Listen, we know that the devil is a deciever.  He loves to confuse.  He loves to twist doctrines.  And so there is an effort on his part to confuse two vital doctrines of scripture,  that of love and the Holy Spirit.  We see both of those doctrines perverted and confused in the church today to the church’s detriment. We need to know that love is evidenced by obedience to God’s will.  And we need to know that God has sent His Spirit that we might know His will and have the indwelling power of God to help us to do His will.  And in both of those doctrines, the flow is outward, not inward.  It’s not just about God’s love for me, but my love for God, manifested by my obedience.  And it’s not about how the Spirit of God makes me feel, or what manifestation of God I experience, but He helps me to manifest Christ to the world.  That is what discipleship is all about.  Loving God and loving one another.  We love because He first loved us.  And then we love one another because that is His command to us, and how we show that we love God.  And in both of them, the Spirit is the originator, and the supplier of our needs in all that we do.  As we yield to Him on a daily basis, then we will love God by obedience to God’s commands.  And then we will experience the blessings of God upon our lives.