Jesus asks the Father to send the Spirit to do everything Jesus would do if He was with us physically.

“… and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…” (John 14:16-17)”

Do you sometimes imagine that the Christian life would be much easier if Jesus was literally, physically with you? The 12 disciples had that phenomenal privilege.

Frighteningly, in this part of John’s gospel Jesus tells His disciples that He is leaving them. They are panicking. How on earth will they carry on this ‘Christian thing’ without Jesus? Jesus says to them, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” The reason is that He is going to ask the Father to send them ‘another Helper’ who will be with them forever, the ‘Spirit of truth.’

So how is that going to stop us worrying? What will the Holy Spirit actually do for us? The key word that people often overlook is the word ‘another’. It means, ‘another just like the other’. In saying “another” Jesus is telling us what the Holy Spirit will do for us. He will do everything that Jesus did for His disciples when He was physically with them before He went back to the Father.

Having the Holy Spirit is even better than having the physical presence of Jesus because, unlike the physical Jesus, the Holy Spirit will be with each of us all the time, forever.

So imagine it. You wake up in the morning afraid. But you look down and there is Jesus dozing on the spare mattress. His presence assures you. No worries, the Holy Spirit does that for us now. He is with us right now.

Or imagine you start to doubt. Is this really all true? Well, you can just turn and ask Jesus as He sits on your lounge chair. Jesus would tell you the truth. No worries. The Spirit living in us assures us of the truth of God’s Word, after all, He is the ‘Spirit of truth’.

Or maybe you don’t know where to go or what to do? You could ask Jesus as He finishes His coffee, “Lord, where must I go today, what must I do with my life?” Jesus would tell you where to go and what to do. No worries, the Holy Spirit living within us leads and guides us through every moment every day.

Maybe you’re not sure if God really loves you? You could turn to Jesus as He helps with the dishes and say, “Lord Jesus, does the Father really love me?” Jesus would assure you of the Father’s love. No worries. The Holy Spirit who has been given to us according to Romans 5:5, lives within us and pours God’s love into our hearts.

No matter which we look at it, the Holy Spirit is ‘another’ Helper exactly like Jesus was. He does everything for us that the physically-absent Jesus would have done for the disciples when He was still with them.