What’s Wrong With Our Feeler?

Jesus said in John 14:16-17 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you”.

    Jesus was talking to His disciples right before He was betrayed and arrested. He was about to leave them but promised them the Holy Spirit. The Helper. The Spirit of Truth. What an awesome promise, because not only was His Spirit going to abide with them, (just like He was there at that moment dwelling with them), but in them! In other words, His Spirit was going to become part of their very being. “A very present help” as the Psalmist said. Not a show up when I feel like it help. A right now help. And not for just a short while or sporadically, but FOREVER! And this Promise is for “as many as the Lord our God will call” Acts 2:39 and He calls all.

 Now, the word “abide” means not to depart – to continue to be present – to be held (kept) continually – to remain as one. This is what Jesus promised us. Not the world.

   I know sometimes we say we don’t “feel” Him. We have parts of our body that are there, doing what they are designed to do, and yet we don’t feel them. So just because we don’t feel Jesus in our lives doesn’t mean He’s not there. If he wasn’t there, then He lied when He said His Spirit was going to abide with us forever. And I know He don’t lie. He even said in His word He would never leave us or forsake us.

    So then what’s the issue? If we don’t feel Him, is there something wrong in/with us? Is our feeler stuck? Maybe the issue is actually our perspective of feeling Him. Do we not feel Him because we lack emotions like love, peace, comfort, contentment…? No, we have those. 

   Now, we don’t see air but we know it’s there. Why? Because it’s abiding in us and we are breathing. We don’t necessarily feel it all the time but our chest’s still rise. Jesus didn’t say we would feel Him, but that He would be in us. The feeling part is a bonus, not a necessity or confirmation. He just keeps doing what He promised to be doing in our lives; helping us to live as better Christians, giving us discernment for truth, and so much more. And yes, sometimes we don’t feel Him with our senses or even in our spirit, but rest assured He is definitely abiding in us. So our feelers aren’t stuck, maybe they need some adjustment.

Blessings!

Elder Steve Smith