“It’s better for you that I leave…”
In his book, The Holy Spirit: An Introduction, John Bevere writes about the promise of Jesus that appears in John 16:7, “It’s to your advantage that I go away… It’s better for you that I leave… If I don’t go away… If I don’t leave… The Helper and Friend won’t come. But if I go, I’ll send Him to you.”
John challenges us to put ourselves in the shoes of the followers of Jesus who heard those words. Their friend and leader is talking about leaving, and then says, “By the way, this is to your advantage…”
They had to be thinking to themselves, “If Jesus is leaving… If He’s going away… How could this possibly be to our advantage.”
But Jesus makes it clear: “If I don’t leave. The Holy Spirit — your helper, teacher, coach, comforter, advocate, intercessor, counselor, strengthener, standby and friend — can’t come…”
Jesus understood that if He had remained here in the flesh and I wanted to receive something from Him, I’d have to travel to the Middle East just to see Him.
I’d probably have to fly into Tel Aviv — which at that point would be the busiest airport in the world. I’d have to book transport to Galilee. Hotels would be booked over capacity.
Because there would be such a long line, I’d probably be limited to a max of sixty seconds with Jesus… My questions would have to be well prepared.
On top of that, because He would need to rest, He would have to limit His availability to maybe 14 hours per day. At this rate, Jesus would only be able to see 840 people a day if He only spent 60 seconds with each person. That means, it would take Jesus 1,190 days or 3.26 years to see a million people. [1]
But, because Jesus has made the Holy Spirit available to us, Holy Spirit — our helper, teacher, coach, comforter, advocate, intercessor, counselor, strengthener, standby and friend — can carry on billions of conversations at the same time with billions of different people all across this planet.
That’s one of the reasons why Jesus said in John 16:7, “It’s to your advantage that I go away…”
Let’s go back to the beginning…
The Holy Spirit shows up in the very first book and chapter of the Bible — Genesis 1:2.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
—GENESIS 1:2 NLT
The phrase “Spirit of God” is the Hebrew phrase, “ruach Elohim” which can be translated, “breath of God,” “wind of God,” and “spirit of God.”
It’s interesting that wind blows. But in Genesis 1:2, the wind or breath of God is “hovering.” The Hebrew word for “hovering” means “to brood, to flutter or to be moved, affected with the feeling of tender love.” [2]
To “hover” implies intentionality. One rabbinical commentary describes it like this:
“The Spirit of God was moving: the throne of divine glory was standing in space, hovering over the face of the waters by the breath of the mouth of the Holy One…and by His command, even as a dove hovers over its nest.” —Rashi, Commentary on the Pentateuch (Translated by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann) [3]
Does that picture of the Holy Spirit hovering as a dove ring any bells?
Eugene Peterson captures the same idea when he translates Genesis 1:2 in The Message like this:
God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
—Genesis 1:2 MSG
According to Peterson and according to ancient rabbis, the Spirit of God hovered over creation like a dove hovers over its nest – tenderly loving, protecting, nourishing and caring for it.
From the very beginning, God had great plans for this world. So, the Spirit of God hovered over this formless, empty, dark world like a dove hovers over its nest ready to bring design, substance, beauty and creation to that emptiness and chaos!
If you feel EMPTY… If you’re in a DARK place, right now…. If your life — your marriage, relationships, family, career — lacks direction, design, purpose and beauty — you need to know that the Spirit of God is hovering over you right now ready to bring God’s purpose and plan to life…
It’s in this atmosphere of the Spirit of God HOVERING, that God begins to SPEAK, and the Spirit of God and the Word of God bring to life the PLAN and PURPOSE of God.
The next time the Holy Spirit gets mentioned is at the creation of Adam… It’s the climax of creation. Check out Genesis 2:7.
Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
—GENESIS 2:7 NLT
When God leaned over this lump of clay and breathed, man became more than animated tissue, he became a spiritual being filled with the breath of God, the vitality and life of God and the very “Spirit of God”.
C.S. LEWIS described it like this 60+ years ago:
“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other…” ―C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The normal Christian life is a life filled with the Holy Spirit — filled with the breath of God, the life of God, and the very presence of God!!!
[1] John Bevere, The Holy Spirit: An Introduction, Location 538 – 552 of 3851, Kindle Ed.
[2] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7363&t=KJV
[3] Gerald Hawthorne, The Presence and the Power: The Significance of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus, Referenced in footnotes on p 142. C.K. Barrett also references this in his book, The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition, p 38. He also quotes Rabbi Joshua the son of Hananiah. “I was considering the space between the upper waters and the lower waters, and there is only between them a mere three fingers’ breadth…And the Spirit of God was brooding on the face of the waters like a dove which broods over her young…”