You Were Never Meant to Obey Alone

What we learned in today's campus fellowship meeting

Scripture: John 14:15-30

1. If we love Jesus, we will obey his commands. And these are not just the commands like "Don't murder or steal". These are also the ones like "Don't lust or get angry at your brother". So most of the times we find our love for Jesus falling way too short...

2. How do we actually get there? Let's have a stepwise approach to this.

• Know his word by reading the Bible
• Let it go deep inside by memorizing and meditating on the word
• Treasure the word in your heart
• Listen to the Holy Spirit reminding you of the word when specific situations arise
• Act on it! That's obedience!
• And it's like a vicious cycle. The more you love the more you obey. The more you obey, the more you keep obeying and keep loving.

3. The Holy Spirit being given to the believers wasn't a new concept Jesus introduced. It had been promised to Gods people all through the OT.
Ezekiel 36:27: "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules".
If we obey all the commands and fail at one, we have still disobeyed, but the Holy Spirit who now lives in us is the one who now causes us to walk in his statutes, which was impossible for us without him.

Hence, John 14:16 isn't a new concept, but the fulfilment of an age old promise!
And that is why 4 times repeatedly throughout the passage Jesus says "If you love me, you will obey my commands" because he has given us the Holy Spirit to help us keep these commands!

4. God in his goodness will reveal himself to us in many ways so we will get to know him, but only if we truly love him will we really listen to him and obey him

5. Jesus says that it is far better for us to have the Holy Spirit living in us that Jesus present beside us physically in this age! This is because the Holy Spirit accomplishes more in us and through us than Jesus did in his lifetime.
This is a bit difficult for us to accept, but we pray God will open our eyes to understand this privilege that we have!
We also learn about the Holy Spirit, his role and his nature in our lives, as the person of the Godhead who lives in us and shows Jesus to us.

6. The devil never had any hold on Jesus, and as his little brothers and sisters, we are also free from any hooks of the devil.

God bless us all this week as we get to know the Holy Spirit more and love Jesus and obey him!