John 16:7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” NIV (New International Version) This episode is about The Holy Spirit and how He is our Advocate. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Advocate
John 16:7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” NIV (New International Version)
This verse was from Jesus. Jesus was talking to His disciples and was trying to reassure them. Before this verse Jesus was letting them know that once He was gone, “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God,” John 16:2 Jesus explained that He didn’t tell them this before because He was with them, but now He is leaving them to go to the One that sent Him. The disciples were understandably filled with grief over all that Jesus was telling them. This is when He tells them the verse above.
Jesus explains that if he does not go to His father, then the Advocate, aka The Holy Spirit, can’t come to you. Jesus tells them that there is so much more He wants to tell them, but that they wouldn’t be able to understand, or maybe more accurately, they wouldn’t be able to endure hearing it all right then. It was not just Jesus going to His Father that had to happen before He could send the Holy Spirit. It was how Jesus needed to go to His Father that allowed Him to send the Holy Spirit. It is only because Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then went to join his father in Heaven that we were sent the Holy Spirit.
Jesus needed to die for our sins and correct the brokenness that occurred when Adam & Eve ate that apple. God sent His only son to be sacrificed for us and that needed to happen in order for the Holy Spirit to be sent down to us. This was not something that the disciples could have truly understood before it happened. Jesus is trying to prepare them as best He can for what was to come in the near future. I think this whole chapter John 16 is a very good chapter. It is very informational. However, since the focus of this podcast is to focus on certain verses and not really whole chapters, I will talk mostly about this verse today. However, if you have a few minutes I recommend you read the whole chapter, there is a lot of good stuff in there.
Jesus is trying to explain that even thought the disciples will miss Him, it is better that He go because He is sending them a companion. He is not leaving them alone to figure everything out on their own. He explains in John 16:12-14 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. “ Jesus sent the Holy Spirit down so that He could guide the disciples. It says in the verse that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and that he would guide the disciples to the truth.
The Holy Spirit can do the same for you. Do you ever wish you knew what to do in all the different circumstance you find yourself in? Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t know what the truth was? The Holy Spirit is here for you. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and because of this He was able to send us an Advocate. Are you using this Advocate? Are you aware that you have one? The Holy Spirit is our advocate, that is what Jesus called Him. Here are some synonyms for advocate: champion, supporter, backer, promoter, protector, upholder. Here are some of the things an advocate will do: recommend, prescribe, commend, advise, favor, support, back, uphold, champion, and stand up for. Do these sound like things you would want done for you? Does an advocate sound like something you could use?
Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then went to join His Father so that we could receive the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. So, what are we doing with this Advocate? Are we aware that He is within? Are we asking Him for help? Are we listening to all that He has to say? When you are unsure of what to do, who do you usually turn to? Probably, hopefully, someone who is an expert in that subject. For instance, when I have a parenting question I would go to my mom. She was the oldest of 10 children and she is the mother of 11 children and is the grandmother and great grandmother of lots of other children. I don’t think there is anything that I could come up against that she has not seen before, so when I come up against something and I don’t know what to do, I ask for her thoughts. This is not a bad things. It is great if you have people you can go to when you feel stuck or are unsure of which way to proceed.
However, do you also go to the Holy Spirit and ask what He thinks you should do? I am betting that many of us would say no, we don’t do that. When I just asked myself why we might not do that the answer that came was because we can’t hear Him. If you call your mom, dad, sister, friend on the phone and have a conversation with them, it will be a two way conversation. You will talk and they will talk. You can both hear each other. However, when you have a conversation with the Holy Spirit its not always like that. I agree, its not always like that. However, I wonder how many of you know that it can be kinda like that. How many of you know that the Holy Spirit does talk back to you when you ask questions? Is this news to you? Have you tried this before and were discouraged with the lack of communication on the side of the Holy Spirit? If this is the case, I want to assure you that if you ask the Holy Spirit a question, He answered you.
So, if He answered you, why didn’t you hear it? That is a good question. I think sometimes we miss the answer because it was different than we expected, or because we just didn’t recognize it as an answer at the time. Also, I think sometimes we underestimate the Holy Spirit and we think that He can’t communicate with us. We don’t think we will hear anything so we talk to Him, but then we don’t listen for an answer because we assume we won’t get one. Do any of these things ring true for you? Have you ever asked the Holy Spirit, God, or Jesus, something, and then not listened for an answer because you couldn’t imagine how you would get one? Have you ever received something and then weeks, months, or years down the road you realize that was an answer to a prayer? These things are happening all the time. If we want to hear more answers, good or bad, then we need to expect answers. We need to ask questions, expectantly, and then wait for the answers.
I wonder if it would surprise you to hear that I know several people that hear God’s word frequently. They ask a question and then wait expectantly and they get an answer. The only thing that makes these people different is that they have asked God for this gift. They have spent time praying to the Lord and then asking Him to speak to them and giving Him the space to do it. You could do this too. You do not have to be extra holy to have the Holy Spirit guide you. He is already doing it. You don’t have to be a saint and be doing everything right in the world in order to hear the Holy Spirit answer your prayers. He is already doing it, you just have to listen.
There are many ways that the Holy Spirit guides us and answers our prayers. Most of these ways do not include an audible voice from the heavens. If this was how it happened, a lot less of us would miss it. Although we would all probably be freaked out and not know what is going on and the Lord doesn’t want that either. One way the Spirit guides us is with a small voice inside ourselves. You know when you are about to do something and you get a small voice inside that tells you whatever you are about to do is a bad idea, that’s the Holy Spirit. Another way is just a feeling you get. Sometimes you get a good feeling or a bad feeling, that is the Holy Spirit leading you and it is up to you to listen to that feeling or not. Sometimes you will ask the Holy Sprit something and instead of a voice, or a feeling, He will make something happen. For instance, you are asking the Holy Spirit to help you find a job, then you get a job offer from your dream job, that is the Holy Spirit.
Another way the Holy Spirit will communicate is through specific thoughts. For instance you ask the Holy Spirit a question and then the answer comes to your mind. He places the thought in your head. If I had to guess I would say that this way is a lot less common, but I don’t think that is the fault of the Holy Spirit. I think He would love for us all to have back and forth conversations with Him, but we don’t give Him that kind of time. This is also something that takes trust and vulnerability and those are not easy things to give. Why I say it requires trust and vulnerability is because you are asking the Holy Spirit a question and then you are beliveing that He is answering it with the thought in your head. However, you have no proof. As with most things involving trust, you can’t say for sure the thoughts you are having are from the Holy spirit. Why I say it involves vulnerability is because you are turning your thoughts over to the Holy Spirit.
I could go on and talk about the Holy Spirit for a long time because I just love Him and I know if people relied more on HIs guidance then the world would be a much better place. Also, our lives would be a lot less of a mess. If you need guidance in any area of your life, ask the Holy Spirit for help and then take the time to listen to what He has to say. If you want to hear Him, and you take the time to listen, you will hear Him.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing and we are so sorry that we spend so much time asking and so little time listening. Lord we ask that you help us all desire to listen more. Instill in our hearts a yearning to hear your Word. Help us to rely more on the Holy Spirit than we do on the things of this world. Help us to Hear the Holy Spirit and be guided by Him. We thank you Lord for all that you do for us. We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!