“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. (John 14:15-17)”
Today is the actual day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection. There are passages that talk about the work of the Holy Spirit but I like this one. The Holy Spirit is identified as my “advocate.” Advocacy is a big word these days and often I am prone to equate it with marches and riots. I am guessing that if the word “advocate” is dissected, “ad” implies adding and “voca” means voice. Advocating is using your voice for people who cannot speak for themselves because of poverty, ethnicity, education, finances or a myriad of other reasons. The powerless need an advocate to speak for them because they do not have social power or prestige to speak for themselves. It’s something like that.
It is not comfortable to see ourselves as powerless. Compared to another I pull out my credentials that I hope make me into a person of value. Compared to God, I come up short. By definition God is perfect and I am imperfect. Jesus says God will send an advocate, someone to give me voice when I have no right to voice, and who will also be with me forever. The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of truth.” The Spirit gives voice to the truth of my value before God. I am his child. He gives voice to my prayers when I do not know what to pray. His gives voice to truth, speaks truth to me, when I try to deceive myself. He teaches me truth when I am ignorant. He is with me when I feel abandoned and alone.
We often associate the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, or assisting us to worship the unseen God we are growing to know. That is important but let us focus today on his role as our advocate. He is in our corner, not just for worship but also in all the places of our life. Wow. Thank you, Lord.
On the Way to Wonder 