The Welcome Mat For The Holy Spirit
17 “The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.” John 14:17 Amplified Bible
The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Those who are of the world and have not accepted the sacrificial work of Jesus cannot welcome the Holy Spirit into their hearts. We understand this – if someone has not received Jesus into their heart then their spirit has not been regenerated or made alive again. There is no connection between that person and God because they have chosen to remain separated from the Lord. They are closed to the Holy Spirit and their own spirit remains severed from the Father, only seeing the things of this world and the things of the flesh.
It is unfortunate how seldom we as the Body of Christ bring the power and presence of the Holy Spirit from our spirit to our soul or hearts. Believers have the Holy Spirit in their spirit but don’t always welcome Him daily into their hearts. Yes, every person who is born again has the Holy Spirit within them. They would remain separated from God otherwise, without that Spiritual umbilical cord tying them to the throne room of God. All of us as believers have this connection, that Holy Spirit bridge connecting us to the spiritual world, yet we so often fail to make that connection from our spirit to our heart (or soul).
Jesus was speaking to the disciples in this verse but when He says, “But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you constantly…” He was not speaking to them but rather to us as believers in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. We know and recognize the Holy Spirit, and yet He remains distant and somewhat of a stranger to most of us. We should ask ourselves “how much more should I know Him” so that we can respond immediately to His leading as we hear from Him moment by moment.
We have the Spirit of Truth living in us every moment of every day but how many of those moments are we actually even aware of or recognizing Him? How many moments of the day today will we be looking and listening for His guidance, direction, comfort, and peace? Honestly, probably not enough.
The world cannot take the Holy Spirit into their hearts and yet we have the Holy Spirit permanently residing in us, will we welcome Him today? This is a daily decision we each must make, to throw out the welcome mat to the Holy Spirit.
J Todd Hostetler