AN INWARD PRESENCE AND POWER

Jesus said to the Apostles, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere -- in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8 NLT)

It was something more than a glorified Jesus Christ in the heavens in which [the Apostles] believed.  In the beginning, John the Baptist had taught his disciples to expect from Christ the baptism -- not of water only, as in his baptism -- but of the Spirit.  Before His death, Jesus had sought to fill His disciples' minds with the expectation of this gift...  And that Spirit had come in sensible power upon them some ten days after Jesus disappeared for the last time from their eyes...  And this Spirit was the Spirit of God, but also, and therefore, the Spirit of Jesus.  Jesus was not then merely a past example, or a remote Lord, but an inward presence and power.  A mere example in past history becomes in experience a feebler and feebler power...  But the example of Jesus was something much more than a memory.  For He who had taught them in the past how to live was alive in the heavenly places and was working within them by His Spirit. 

-- Charles Gore (1853-1932)

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