THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12
Proverbs 1:20-23
John 16:1-7

The entrance of
Thy Word gives light.

“IF I GO NOT AWAY”

In the divine plan it was absolutely necessary for our Lord to return to the Father on completion of His ministry. He told the disciples so and this made them sad. The wisdom of this “Divine Strategy” was not immediately apparent to them. Therefore His words filled their hearts with sorrow. “How we wish and desire Thy physical presence with us always!” This was the disciples’ heart-cry, and perhaps ours too. If only Jesus were in our midst, everything would be right.

The disciples leaned heavily on the Master’s physical presence. They had grown to be selfishly dependent on His personal availability. He was like an external crutch, or even as a nursing mother to a group of babes. Such dependency was not in their best interests. The disciples must stand on their own feet, and this would not be except the Lord leave them. In their immaturity the disciples were saddened by the Master’s words. They had a hard lesson to learn, which they did and well.

All Christians must learn not to think of Jesus in terms of His visible presence. We must be weaned away from “external crutches,” and grow out of the “nurse-maid dependent” mentality. The Divine Strategy calls for all true disciples to enter into a higher and deeper spiritual experience: not a visible Christ but the invisible indwelling Spirit must come to each follower. But the visible Christ must first depart! This He did and as He promised, the Holy Spirit Comforter was sent from the Father and the Son. Now the Lord’s presence with His people was not subject to physical limitation. The Spirit came and filled all the disciples, indwelling each one -- no longer an external aid but an inner transforming, renewing and energizing Spirit.

Let us appropriate to ourselves our Lord’s promise: “I will send you the Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world ... but I must go away!”

THOUGHT: Does the indwelling Spirit of Christ live in me?
PRAYER: Lord, teach me the deep things of God.