ANOTHER COMFORTER
Monday – December 9, 2019, Kislev 11, 5780
Greetings dear friend and partners of this powerful ministry of God through us. The year is nearly spent. How did I spend this year? Was it profitable for me, my family, and the Kingdom of God or did I suffer loss? I don’t know about you but there have been times over the last two years when I thought briefly that the enemy had me by the throat and I was going down for the count. What about you? However, every time without fail our Lord showed me the way of victory and brought me out with a mighty Hand. He always gave me exactly what was needed to take the victory, to come up, and to come ahead. Our God is so good dear saints! If you are reading this on Facebook please take a moment to hit the “love” and “share” buttons. The pictures this week will be of various scenes, today is from the coast of Maine. Now let’s turn our attention to our Bible Study of the Book of John and read our primary Bible text aloud.
John 14:15-21 (KJV)
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
The last several days I have been focused on the connection between love and keeping (obeying, submitting to) the commandments of God. This is the opposite of rebelling against the will of God and walking in unbelief filled with fear. Jesus has a lot more to say along these lines. The whole Bible is filled with examples of people who loved and obeyed and lived in victory and those who did not and lived defeated lives filled with the curse, filled with lack. Before I move back into the love (agape) obedience line of teaching which is foundational to our walk with God I am going to start addressing the verses I skipped over previously. Let’s meditate on the following verses as we move forward.
John 14:15-16 (KJV)
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Before I move into verse sixteen, I want to comment on an aspect of the fifteenth verse that I did not touch on before. From time to time in these teachings I talk about the gender of a particular word to bring forward an aspect of the word or passage that sheds further light. The word “commandments” is feminine and plural. This tells us that keeping the commandments will be productive. It will be productive and bear fruit in our life if done in faith, in love (agape), and led of the Holy Spirit. Conversely unbelief, rebellion against the commandments of God will also bear fruit, the fruit of the curse. When we decide (conscious) to not do the commandments it is either because we don’t believe God will do His part or we want to satisfy our flesh more (led of the flesh and not the Spirit). The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, will lead us in the right direction if we ask Him and are committed to follow Him even when we are ignorant of the specific command (as baby Christians). We may fool others, but not ourselves or our God who sees our heart (mind) and is constantly aware of all that goes on in our minds (heart). Selah.
Notice that verses fifteen and sixteen are connected by the conjunctive “and” meaning that the thoughts that preceded the conjunctive are equal with the thoughts that follow. In other words, they are tied together. So just as love and obeying the commandments are inexorably connected so is the work of the Comforter in our lives inexorably connected to obedience. That is to say that disobedience, lack of faith, rebellion (all the same) will result in no manifestation of Jesus or the Father in our life (verse twenty-one). As we think about this in an honest fashion it may answer some questions for some of us about the absence of the manifestation of the glory (goodness) of God in our lives. Please be clear that the presence of the Holy Spirit (which is constant) and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit (Comforter) or Holy Angels are two separate issues. In our unbelief, disobedience, and rebellion both stand back, in our obedience (in love) both are hard at work on our behalf. Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow.
Until our next publication, as a Bible Teacher and Prophetic Voice I speak this blessing over each and every one of you, receive it, believe it, and speak over yourself and your family by faith in Jesus name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)
24 The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
26 The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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