New Covenant response

John 14:17-21 (ESV) 17even 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. 18"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

(NLT) 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

It is important that we view carefully these words of Jesus for it gives us the response that is expected in the New Covenant. Jesus is stressing in these passages the necessity of our respect for His Word for that response is the open door for God to do His works through His Church just as He did through Jesus while here on earth. There is actually a three step progression of response with a three step response from God. First, there is the love and obedience to Jesus' commands that results in Jesus asking the Father and the Spirit coming to abide forever in us. Second, in the verses above, love is based on the sure knowledge of the unity of the Father, Son and ourselves through the Holy Spirit and resulting in a possession of His commandments and keeping or guarding them within you. It is this second step that I want us to consider at this time.

How seriously do we regard His commandments. Is it something we keep in our selves with a sense of guarding as something precious and vitally important, or has this become to us a very good suggestion if we could just do it. In the culture of the world at this time, pregnancy is regarded as a choice to keep or to abort. Life does not seem to be important as something to be honored and treasured but something to be "fine if you want it." Love seems to have fallen into the same category. We love those it is convenient to love and pass over those not easy to love. If we follow Jesus, we must become "pregnant" with His Word and cherish the Life we are carrying. Love is the very essence of God. To become His workmanship, created in His image, we must give this covenant response to Him so the Holy Spirit can work in us the image of God. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, reveals the unity of Jesus in the Father, our selves in Jesus and God's Spirit in us. When this becomes our essence -- not just head knowledge, but who we are -- then Jesus will manifest Himself to us.

Judas (not Iscariot) who has followed Jesus and been a part of the ministry of healing and deliverance, asks a very human question. All he has known was the man seated before him who has been the one they have followed and been with constantly. Judas cannot understand how other people would not see him if he was with them. Unfortunately, our human concept does not grasp the vital truth Jesus is giving us here. Only by the Spirit can we understand that God will continue His work in us that Jesus began if we will see that God has cut a covenant in Jesus for us that will give us this opportunity to be One with Him. The manifestation of Jesus to us is vitally important to us. There is a portion of Scripture in John's letters that uses the same basic word - "manifest" - that I have been "keeping" for many years. I John 3:2 American Standard Version (ASV) Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.
In this version it says, "if He be manifested". When we first read this, it hit us that we had read this verse many times in translations that said "when" and had shared the common view that it meant His second coming. If we put this off to a distant time, we lose the work of God in us that will release His works through us to a dying world. We see Christians struggling to have faith and relying on their own experience or ability to work for God. We are to do His works in the same unity with the Father and Jesus that Jesus had with the Father through the Holy Spirit. I John 3:3 (NASB) And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Yes, there will be the change of having a body like His glorious body when He returns, but there is so much we need to overcome now and so much more we could walk in now if we just remove the blindfold of human understanding and let the Holy Spirit teach us and lead us into understanding Jesus' word to us.

Our covenant response to this new Covenant that Jesus cut for us opens the door to the same works Jesus did and the greater works for we are living in the day of the Lord when His glory will be revealed in His people. II Thessalonians 1:10 (NIV) on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. This is a great day to be living. We will see the world turning farther from God and we will see His people becoming one with Him, a Bride made ready for her Bridegroom, without spot or wrinkle. Let the Holy Spirit prepare you for this day and give to Him the covenant response of "keeping" His commands.