Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

4 June 2025

Reading From John 14:1-31

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

—John 14:15-21

     Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force; He is God.  Jesus refers to the Spirit using personal pronouns; He is not an “it.”  He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), be lied to (Acts 5:3-4), is to be obeyed (Acts 10:19-20), and we are to honor Him (Psalm 51:11).  An impersonal force could not fulfill the role of Advocate.  Furthermore this passage of Scripture is very Trinitarian in that Jesus says He is in the Father and the Father is in Him and that He is the Spirit.  This is echoed in II Corinthians 3:17-18 in which the Apostle Paul teaches us, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

     At this point in the disciples’ journey, they were still living in the Old Covenant where the Spirit would rest upon individuals and groups for specific purposes and set times.  In the New Covenant, which would be made available to them right after the atonement of Jesus, the Holy Spirit would dwell within every person who believes, repents, confesses and receives Him as Savior and Lord.  We become temples of the Holy Spirit when we are adopted by the Father through the blood of Jesus. 

     What tremendous power there is in the phrase, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”  It is this secret, unseen, spiritual connection we have with one another as children of God and with God Himself that makes us His eternal family.  It is a bond that can never be broken and provides us with the deepest sense of love, acceptance and belonging that we can ever and will ever know.  We are the Body of Christ. In Him we live and move and have our being.  By believing and living out the promises of God, we become partakers of His divine nature and our destiny is to enjoy perfect unity and harmony with the Father forever and forever. 

“Heavenly Father, thank You for sending us Your Son Jesus to live on Earth as our perfect example of life, love, and holiness.  He was fully man and fully God; the Son of Man and the Son of God.  May we follow His leadership by functioning in daily life by the power of the Spirit in submission to You.  Bind us all together in love and unity.  In Your awesome Name I pray these things, Amen.”

However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

—I Corinthians 2:9-10