What Would Jesus Do?

Acts 1:5 “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now”

What an empowerment the Holy Spirit plays in our life. I wonder if the apostles were able to make sense of God coming to live with in them. I could imagine this would be hard to grasp. I figure this because today the Holy Spirit lives with in me and yet the concept still seems to amaze me at times. I think about what this must have been like, for they knew Jesus at this point very well, they had experienced God on the tangible level but never with in. Leading and guiding them, up until now their closest experience to a God within had been watching Jesus walk out the spirit filled life. They had to of seen in Jesus the guiding and leading of something greater then himself. For no man had done the things Jesus did. I am reminded back to a portion in scripture in John 14:16-17, where Jesus is revealing his relationship with the father and the promise of the Holy Spirit to fall upon his followers.  “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. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” What a revelation this must has been to the disciples. I back up a little bit in this chapter of John and am amazed at how Jesus plays out the role of the Spirit. Starting in verse seven, “If you have known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” At this point they ask Jesus to show them the father. And Jesus replies “have I not been with you so long? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Slowly I would imagine it is becoming more clear to Philip. But Jesus goes on to say, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” Jesus has revealed to the disciples his deity, but not only that he has just instructed them on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. They do not understand this yet, but he is about to explain it to them, after he gives them one more minor detail. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do: and greater works than these will he do.” I’m sure this sounded a little bit crazy to Philip, but its what Jesus says next that ties it all together. This brings us back to verse 16, Jesus introduces himself in the Spirit. He refers to himself in the Spirit as another Helper (or advocate, or counselor).  God in the spirit is what makes it possible for us to know God personally. We have been given the Spirit to guide and lead us as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is no longer: What Would Jesus Do? But now it is, God what would you do through me now, this very moment. The book continues on, we follow Jesus, but we do not study his every move to step exactly where he stepped, we simply allow him to take new steps as he now lives in us. I know this explanation does not do justice to the power the Holy spirit pours upon us, but I do hope I gave you a sense of the importance and realness of the matter and brought a deeper meaning to today’s verse.

Application:
I know God is constantly looking for a work to do through me to bring glory to his name. So today I will pray for the boldness of the Spirit and ask that God would give me an opportunity to exercise that.