In John 14:16-18 (Amplified) Jesus tells us, "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Stand-By, Strengthener) that He may remain with you forever. The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him; for He lives with you (constantly) and will be in you." Verse 18 goes on, "I will not leave you as orphans (comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless) I will come (back) to you."
Jesus was giving His final message to those He had walked with on earth, just hours before going to the cross. They didn't understand at that time how important this last discourse would mean to them. Jesus was about to entrust His whole ministry and mission to these men. It would now be incumbent to these men to carry on the Gospel and bring the people into the new covenant. All of the things Jesus said and did in His Own ministry, were now examples to these men to continue in.
Jesus told them in John 14:12 (Amplified) that, "I assure you, most solemnly, I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he himself will be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father."
The new covenant had not come into being and Jesus had not ye been glorified when He made this statement. Jesus was heading to the Father and He would destroy the hold satan had over mankind. God was going to give Him all authority, both in heaven and earth. The sin of Adam, over those who would believe, would be completely removed and through Jesus' Blood and sacrifice, men could be restored into right standing or righteousness with God.
The things Jesus spoke to His disciples, were beyond mans ability to understand without the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said that "He would come back to them," He was speaking of His presence through the Holy Spirit, as well as His return from the dead and from the Father's presence. Jesus' return from the dead and from His Father would be a temporary return. But, the Holy Spirit, in His place, would always be with them and us.
John 14:26 (Amplified) says, "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand-By) the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf), He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
The Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus was speaking about, was so important to that them that Jesus spent much time teaching about Him, before He left them. Without the Holy Spirit, these men would have returned to what they previously believed. These men were the product of the three and one half years of Jesus' ministry on earth and they were to carry on after His ascension. Many of Jesus' teachings, that would be so important to them, would have been lost to them without the Counselor reminding them and bringing them back to their remembrance.
The Holy Spirit knew every Word and every deed that Jesus spoke or did. He was "The Father in Him" Who was "speaking and doing" all the deeds Jesus did, according to John 14:10-11 (Amplified) which says, "Do you not believe that I Am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? What I Am telling you I do not say on My Own authority and of My Own accord, but the Father Who lives continually in Me does the (His) works (His Own miracles, deeds of power). Believe Me that I Am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believer Me for the sake of the (very) works themselves, (if you cannot trust Me, at least let these works that I do in My Father's Name convince you)."
We still labor over and struggle with these same statements today. "Doing His works and His miracles" is something men have struggled with for two thousands years. Most of the world have dismissed Jesus' statements altogether. We have taught and have been taught that this was only for the Apostles or the early Church. The disciples must have thought that once Jesus ascended, it would be all over for them, at the time He spoke this message.
We have access, through the New Testament, to the things they didn't know then. Read what the Holy Spirit revealed in 2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) to the Apostle Paul, saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No), even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint as a Man, Yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh). Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold! the flesh and new has come."
Although we have the Counsel of the Holy Spirit within us, we continue to struggle with our old sin nature that has been dealt with by Jesus' Blood. We argue over how saved we really are and we hardly ever view ourselves like the Father sees us, because we don't allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how complete our salvation really is.
2Corinthians 5:21 (Amplified) says, "For our sake He (the Father) made Christ (virtually) to be sin Who knew no sin; so that in and through Him (Jesus) we might become (endued with, viewed as being in; and examples of) the righteousness of God (what we ought to be, acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness)."
This is what the Father intended from the beginning. This is what we ought to be (not what we are going to be someday in heaven), but what God always intended us to be...in "right relationship, right standing and righteous before Him." Through Jesus, we are this again. We were "endued with and viewed as being" as righteous as Jesus, before God. This righteousness is a gift from God to us, that was granted through His Only Son.
Like any other gift from the Father, this is something we appropriate by faith in Jesus. It's already ours in the sacrifice, but without the Holy Spirit to reveal it to our spirit, we struggle to believe we are righteous or in right standing with a Holy God and Father. Jesus' disciples could never have imagined the full potential of what He was saying at the time of His departure, because the Holy Spirit had to reveal it to them.
We now know why Jesus said, "When He, the Holy Spirit comes, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I have told you." We still think as mere men and operate as mere men without the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. Recall what Paul wrote through the Holy Spirit in 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified), "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value)." Paul went on to say that we have such "knowledge of Jesus now by the revelation through the Holy Spirit that we no longer simply see Him in the terms of the flesh."
When thinking about Jesus, most of us continue to see Him in terms of the flesh instead of the
"Firstborn of many brethren." The new creation that Paul spoke about is the restoration of what Adam lost in the Garden of Eden. Now, through Jesus, we've been redeemed and restored back to what we ought to be in God.
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