His Living Presence in Us

Editorial by Jerry Lutz

What Jesus did to prepare His disciples for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is what He wants to do for us. He took a confused, disorganized band of followers, molded them into a unified movement and commissioned them to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth.

How did He do this? The answer is clearly stated in the opening chapter of the Book of Acts. Luke tells us that He first wanted them to fully understand that He was the leader of the movement: “Giving instructions through the Holy Spirit … He presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs” (Acts 1:2–3, NSRV).

In the days that followed the resurrection, before His ascension, Jesus lived and taught among the disciples so they would be assured that He was the same Lord who had called them into discipleship, ministered among them, and was crucified and raised back to life for them. But He wanted them to know something much more than this. He wanted them to know that He would continue to be with them through the Holy Spirit. This was not a new thought they were hearing from Jesus for the first time. Indeed, Jesus taught them about the Holy Spirit long before the crucifixion and, most poignantly, the night before He was crucified, according to John chapters 14 and 15, and elsewhere in the gospels. But hearing it from Jesus now, after His resurrection, gave new meaning and urgency to His teaching.

They had to know this; they had to be certain that after He ascended, He would return and be with them through the Holy Spirit, living and moving among them as He had been with them for the previous three-and-a-half years. They needed to know they would not be left alone to do what is humanly impossible. Telling it to the world could not be done without Him in them.

That’s what we need to know. Christ is alive! He is with us. The Holy Spirit is not some estranged, elusive power, experienced only by ancient Bible characters, but is the glorified Christ who dwells in us, as the apostle Paul makes so clear in many of his epistles. So, the remarkable “Acts,” not just of the apostles, are available to us! Let us pray earnestly for the outpouring of His Spirit on us and be willing to be used by Him as instruments of His blessing to others.