“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:12–13).
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26).
How could it be possible to be better for the disciples to have their master taken away from them?
“James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory”” (Mark 10:35–37).
In our human relationships and a lot of times because of our conditioning and immaturity we tend to bond, to look for a special relationship, to be favorites, to be closer. We tend to strive for a position. Like the disciples looking to see who would be closer to Jesus. With Pentecost that ends! Pentecost is the end of exclusion, the end of secret knowledge, the end of second-class citizens. Everyone has access to the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.
““Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more”” (Jeremiah 31:31–34).
I believe that Christ came as the Word made flesh. Like Moses and Israel received the Torah on Mount Sinai; when Christ came it was the New Covenant, and the Holy Spirit is the means that the Word is written in our hearts. I really want to believe this day to be the end of feeling second class citizens, to feel excluded or left out. With the coming of the Holy Spirit we are all included, and we can all learn, be reminded, be comforted, be equipped, and loved.
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