The Daily Devotional Podcast

The Road to Abide - 6 | John 14: 15-21

• Waypoint Church

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This reflection shows that abiding is possible because Jesus has not left His people alone, but continues His presence through the Holy Spirit. It invites us to live with greater awareness that God is near, shaping our lives through relationship rather than distance.


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“May the Lord bless you and keep you — and may His presence guide you this week.”


SPEAKER_00

Today I am reading John fourteen, verses fifteen through twenty one. If you love me, obey my commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate, who will never leave you. 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. No, I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again you will know that I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and that I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. One of the disciples' deepest fears was that Jesus was leaving them alone. They had built their lives around his presence. They listened to his voice, watched how he lived, and learned by staying close to him. As Jesus continued preparing them for his departure, the uncertainty underneath their questions became more personal. What would happen when he was no longer physically with them? Jesus responds with reassurance. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. Jesus is not describing a replacement in the sense of something lesser or distant. He is promising the continued presence of God with his people through the Spirit. The disciples are not being abandoned, they're being drawn into a different kind of relationship, one no longer dependent on physical proximity. The presence they had experienced beside them would now dwell within them. Abiding is not simply trying to remember Jesus or imitate him from a distance. Its life lived in ongoing relationship with him through the Spirit. His presence is no longer limited to specific places or moments. And Jesus connects that relationship to love and obedience. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Obedience is not presented as a way to earn closeness with God. It grows out of relationship with Him. Love begins to shape how we live. The disciples feared losing the presence of Jesus. Instead, Jesus promises a nearness deeper than they yet understand. Before I close in prayer, here's a question to wrestle with How would my daily life change if I lived with greater awareness that God's Spirit is present with me? God, thank you that you have not left your people alone. Help me to grow in awareness of your Spirit's presence and to live in response to your nearness each day.