Jesus first introduced the idea of “another Counselor”, the “Spirit of Truth” who will live inside the believer in John 14. Take a very careful look at what He is saying from the beginning of that chapter. {emphasis mine}
14:7
If you know me, you know the Father. From NOW on you do KNOW Him and
have SEEN Him.
14:9-11
how can you say, ‘show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in
the Father, and that the Father is in me?…it is the Father, living in
me, who is doing the work..believe on the evidence of the miracles
themselves
14:15-18
if you love me you will obey what I command. And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another {of the same kind} Counselor to
be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him
because it neither SEES him nor KNOWS him. But you KNOW him for
he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans:
I will come to you.
Notes:
at the end of verse 17, pause and consider: the only One they have
known, seen and been around has been Jesus. He already revealed to
them that they have seen and know the Father as well just by knowing
Jesus. Also, the Father is given credit for the miraculous work
Jesus has been doing when previously in the gospels this work has
been attributed to the “Holy Spirit”. )
At the end of verse 18, pause and consider: Jesus just told them
that the Holy Spirit who they know will be in them and immediately
after tells them that He Himself will be in them.
14:20
On that day you will REALIZE that I am in my Father, and you are in
me, and I am in you
14: 23
if anyone loves me he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him,
and WE will come and make our home with him.
The same disciple, John, goes on to write (1 John 3:24):
“The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them.
And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the
Spirit he gave us.”
Note: Jesus said if we obey, He and the Father come to live inside of us — in the same chapter that He said the Spirit will live in us.
Brother Paul is clear that we received ONE Spirit. (1 Corthians 12:13.) Jesus already told us God is Spirit and His worshipers must worship Him in Spirit and truth. Those are the type of worshipers the Father is looking for (John 4:23-24). So is the Father the One Spirit? Take a deeper look
This is what Jesus said of his relationship with the Father:
- “ I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
- “ I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one" John 17:22
How can they be one?
We know Jesus was the Word made flesh, so He wasn’t flesh before coming to earth but instead became man. When He was glorified after resurrection Jesus lost the earthly limitations He had taken on. Could it be that this is why Jesus said it was best that He go away so that the Counselor would come to them? Did this have to do with ridding himself of the earthly limitations?
This is what Paul has to say about Jesus
1 Corinthians 15:45,47
“So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit…The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.’
2 Corinthians 3:17-18,4:5
“ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit … For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
Colossians 1:27
“ …God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Jesus is the only way to the Father. He said so Himself. This must be the reason why Paul wrote to the Ephesians (2:18):
“For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
Jesus is our connection to the Father. Jesus is now Spirit, glorified with the glory He had with the Father before the world began (John 17:5) He is back in the Spirit state with the Father. Being in the same form- God. Since Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, it makes sense that the Father is another (of the same kind) counselor. From now on the Father wasn’t just going to be with them by proximity (by Him living inside Jesus) but because Jesus lives in us and the Father is in Jesus, the Father is also living in us (like nesting). This is why Paul goes back and forth in Romans 8
Vs 9 "Spirit of God lives in you….Spirit of Christ"
Vs 10 "if Christ is in you"
Vs11 "Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you."
The Holy Spirit is God the Father and Son living inside a believer. The Holy Spirit is God who is holy. God does not have a Spirit. God IS spirit and is holy.
2 John 1:9
“ Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
1 John 5:20
“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
The Father and Jesus are One. The Father is Spirit. Jesus was Spirit, made flesh, and made the life-giving Spirit when glorified (1 Cor. 15:45; John 17:5). We receive One Spirit. The same Spirit who was inside of Jesus and raised Him from the dead. The same Spirit that performed the miracles. The Spirit of the Son who cries Abba Father.
John 17:26
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you know. In order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them”
