He requires us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him as His representatives on earth, and as channels through whom His goodness can flow. The Bible exhorts us to care for the poor and needy, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, and share the good news that anyone can be forgiven and brought into the family of God. He comes up with the master plans and we, His vessels, carry it out, by the power of His Spirit. We are the Body of Messiah, He is the head. God laid out his ways of justice and righteousness in the Bible, and we are vessels to bring His mercy to a broken world. Jesus told his amazed disciples that they would “do greater things than these”, and now due to the sheer number of those carrying the Spirit of God in them, the extraordinary volume of good works happening all over the globe bringing help and healing to those in need is impossible to catalogue. Today there are millions, perhaps billions of vessels that God can use to pour out His goodness on the earth. Then the numbers started increasing exponentially. Instead of just one man (Jesus) full of God’s Spirit, suddenly there was a room-full of disciples empowered with that very same Spirit. All that the Father has is mine therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you”. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. But if I go, I will send him to you… When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. “ 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. It must have been bewildering to the disciples when Jesus assured them it was a good thing He was going away: We are God’s hands and feet on the earth. I heard someone say it’s as if we’re a glove for God, animated by the force inside to take on a whole new form. We are vessels through whom His Spirit can work. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His Spirit can empower us to live His way and operate through our lives. Of course, we still have free will and choices to make, but the Spirit of Jesus is in us. Jesus is promising a Helper just like Himself who will dwell with us and be in us. The word chosen was allos, another of the same kind-here’s 5 shekel coin and here’s another 5 shekel coin. Allos means another of the same kind, whereas heteros means another of a different kind. There are two different words in Greek which could have been used here: a llos and heteros. When Jesus said He would send “another” Helper, the word in Greek (which was the lingua-franca in Israel at the time of Jesus) used is ἄλλον (allon). You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. He is happy to dwell with us and start the lifelong journey of letting Him lead the way as Lord when we welcome Him into our lives. Anyone can stand righteous before God if they are willing to admit their sin and receive the forgiveness the Messiah purchased for us-anyone can become a dwelling place for the God of Israel. Not that I’m any better of a person that all the people around me, but I have been washed and made clean by virtue of the sacrifice of my Messiah and God’s Spirit lives in me. The place of God’s dwellingĪs I stood beside the Western Wall recently, among many others who were coming as close as they could to where that ark used to be up on the Temple Mount, I realized that actually I was carrying God’s Holy Spirit, the Shekinah presence of God, right there in their midst. This means that you are a glory-carrier, wherever you go. You have been forgiven, made pure, and now God’s Spirit lives in you. I don’t know how much time you’ve spent thinking about this, but if you have been born again, you are a vessel, a container, like the Ark of the Covenant.
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