The Promised Gift

Promised gifts come with great anticipation as we wait with wonder for their arrival.  Surprised gifts come with no expectation or wait time to wonder when, where, and how the gift will be delivered.   Have you received surprised or promised gifts that impacted your life forever? 

Hopefully, this story will restore exceedingly great joy and awe for God, our good Father,  in your heart. His promised gift makes all the difference in our lives...if we accept and cherish it!

In the New Testament, Jesus told His disciples about a promised gift as He prepared for the cross and before He ascended to Heaven.  When Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples, he knew he would soon be put to death.  Realizing He needed to encourage and prepare them for life without HIm beside them, Jesus gave them hope with news of a never ending gift that would live inside their hearts as an inner GPS.  He promised to send the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine dining at the table, reclining, listening,  and wondering what events would unfold as Jesus humbly prepared their hearts for what was ahead?  Think of the twelve disciples’ reactions as Jesus explained the Promised Gift would empower them with hope and guidance.  This Gift of the Holy Ghost, would help them get through the difficult days ahead when Jesus would be crucified, buried, arise, and spend time preparing them to carry on the good news of a New Covenant of Love. Jesus would  walk and talk with them, showing His nail scarred hands to help them understand and prove (especially for doubting Thomas)  that He was the risen Christ who would be leaving them soon to sit by the right Hand of His Father in Heaven.

Jesus told His inner circle who would carry on the teachings of Christ and spread the Good News near and far, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And the Father shall give you another Comforter. The Holy Spirit will abide with you forever.  I will not leave you comfortless when I go to my Father and manifest myself to Him.

One of His beloved, Judas - not Iscariot, asked how He could manifest Himself to them and not to the world.  Jesus explained, “If a man loves me, he will keep my words and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.  He that loveth Me not, keepeth not my sayings, then the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”

Jesus knew this was too much information in their time of grieving His departure, so these words were meant to soothe their hearts as they can surely do the same for you and me…’for such a time as this’!  

“The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance.  In other words, the Holy Spirit will be our inner GPS that guides and nudges our hearts “to do” or “not to do” things that we might miss without His spiritual stirrings within our hearts.  

Jesus’ last words to his disciples before He ascended to Heaven told them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.  Ten days later, during Pentecost, the Holy Spirit arrived and the disciples were filled with amazing boldness to help them go forth in faith and share the Good News of Jesus Christ wherever they were led.

The Holy Spirit will come into our hearts and dwell when we BELIEVE in JESUS.  We are truly the new temple of God.  Let us be comforted ‘in these troubled times’ by God’s Word, Jesus’ example of living out loud lovingly, passionately, boldly...and the Holy Spirit’s guidance that lives without our hearts. Then, we will know we are connected to the Vine and victory in Jesus is yours and mine...and any of God’s children who invite Him into their hearts to walk with, talk with, and spend eternity with when their work here is done and they head Home!

Now, that’s a promised gift that brings happiness here and in Heaven forever and ever! Amen.