| Thirst for the Holy Spirit |
| “But I am telling you the truth: it is better
for you that I go away, because if I do not go, the Helper will not
come to you.” (John 16:7). |
| Jesus said this when he spoke about his return to the
Father. He reassured his disciples that the Holy Spirit (Helper) would
come in his stead. Jesus did not promise his disciples food, clothes,
money or power. His sole promise was to send the Holy Spirit. This
was another first for me. For the first time, I was attempting to
understand the Holy Spirit. |
| So I asked Jesus, what is the use of the Holy Spirit
to me? |
| Around this time, my wife Binu used to beg for the
Holy Spirit and asked me also to pray. But I was unable to pray as
I never thought I needed the Holy Spirit. That was until Jesus pointed
out Genesis 1:26 to me. The verse said: “Then God said, ‘And
now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us.’”
I read it along with John 4:24, which said, “God is Spirit.”
So, if God is spirit and resembled man, man, too, is spirit. |
| The Word was telling me that I was a spirit! Jesus
was clarifying to me that no spirit wants anything worldly. All my
material requirements were not my needs, they were my wants. My real
need was the Holy Spirit because my real identity was the spirit;
my body was just a shelter. After death, my body would rot, but not
my spirit. |
| John 14:17 says: “He is the Spirit who reveals
the truth about God.” And in John 16:13 Jesus said, “When,
however, the Spirit comes, who reveals the truth about God, he will
lead you into all the truth.” So, until I had the Holy Spirit,
I would not know the truth about God and all my present views about
God were completely false. Only the Holy Spirit could lead my spirit
into all the truth. |
| Jesus made it clearer in John 16:8, “And when
he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong
about sin and about what is right and about God’s Judgment.”
So Jesus was telling me that I was not just wrong about God, my beliefs
about sin, right, wrong and judgment were incorrect. |
| Since my real identity was in my spirit, the knowledge
that lights my spirit should be 100 per cent correct. Otherwise I
could not enjoy my life in spirit, soul, mind or body. Jesus said
that the Holy Spirit would tell me not just about God, but also about
Jesus himself. John 15:26 says, “I will send him to you from
the Father, and he will speak about me.” So if my spirit did
not receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus also would not be revealed to me. |
| In addition to all this, the Holy Spirit would also
determine my worship. John 4:23 says, “But the time is coming
and is already here, when by the power of God’s Spirit people
will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship
that he wants. God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit
can people worship him as he really is.” |
| So, if I did not receive the Holy Spirit, I could not
worship or love the heavenly Father as he really is. Through these
words Jesus showed me why I needed the Holy Spirit and also the various
roles of the Spirit. He made it clear that my spirit needed nothing
but the Holy Spirit. From that moment onwards, I began to pray for
the Holy Spirit. |
