113. Comforter Abide
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.
Jesus promises another Comforter; He promises that He will stay with us forever. The promises of the Holy Spirit and Jesus being with us go together. Is it the Son or the Spirit that lives within us? Both, of course; but the Holy Spirit draws attention to the Son of God and not to Himself. The Father and Jesus and the Comforter are one. We distinguish the persons only to describe the activity of God on earth in terms we can understand, but we cannot understand the Trinity.
The Paraclete, in Greek = one who is called alongside, Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, Helper, etc. The idea is that HS is with us and in us as everything we need to live a godly life by faith in Jesus. He is also called “another,” meaning that He will be just like Jesus the Son, another one like me. This third person of the Trinity is just like, or one with, the Father and the Son.
This promised HS will abide with us forever. Not only will He be with us until the end of the age, but also He will be with us forever. Indeed, He will never, ever, leave us. He may be quenched, He may be grieved, but He will not leave. It may appear to us from time to time that God is absent, that He is far away, that HS is not with us, but that cannot be because Jesus promised He would abide. This promise means that we can come back to Him, approach Him, find Him, and ask Him for He is not far from us. Not only is He not far, but he is abiding with us. Abide = stay, remain, live, dwell. The bond between my spirit and HS is exceedingly strong; the two of us are joined together as one.