When I first determined to live by the Greatest Commandment, to love God with all my might, I searched for how to do that. How do you go about loving God?

Was it all about church attendance and tithing and prayer and study of God’s Word? That is the easy assumption. That was definitely the assumption of those whose profession was full-time devotion to God: the Pharisees, the priesthood, and the scribes. They were, after all, the ones always touting the greatest commandment from the Torah, their version of God’s Word.

Yet Jesus spoke in judgment of and to these groups more than anyone during his earth ministry days. Hmmm.

And on the night before Jesus was about to be handed over by this very group to be crucified by the Romans, Jesus taught his disciples what they thought would be his last message to them, the answer to my question:

If you love me, keep my commands.

John 14:15 (NIV)

Be in the disciples’ shoes for a moment: Jesus has spent three years blowing your mind with demonstrations of His power and divine wisdom, offering this as evidence that He is the Son of God. They have gradually learned to trust him more than any Pharisee, priest or scribe; they have certified to themselves that Jesus is the truth. They love Him, and have become accustomed to obeying Him as they followed and trusted him on the dusty roads of Galilee. They have shifted their primary obedience from the religious ruling class to Jesus.

Now, He is doing his best to convince them he is about to be killed. And He says, if you love me, obey my commands.

How is that going to work, if you’re a dead man? Come on now, if you’re in their sandals, isn’t that what you’d be thinking?

Of course, Jesus was famous for reading their minds, for not only know but answering the questions that hadn’t made it out of their mouths yet. So the very next thing He says after, “If you love me, obey my commands,” is this:

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. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you

John 14:16-17 (NIV)

Jesus went on to tell them much more about the Holy Spirit, but this was his grand introduction to them on the subject, so to speak.

If you love me, keep my commands. AND I will ask the father to send you the Holy Spirit.

Here’s what I see, and for me, it cuts through all the noise I’ve heard over the years, the debate over the Holy Spirit — if He is still needed today and why, who gets to have Him, and how one finally convinces God he is worthy to be filled with Him:

The Holy Spirit is truly and freely given to those who set their hearts on loving God. Who have decided to live a life of personal obedience to Jesus Christ.

It has been argued that we don’t need the Holy Spirit now, like the first disciples-who-became-apostles did. That obedience to Jesus is a matter of obeying His commands in the Scriptures. That it’s all there for us. Hmmmm. Isn’t that what God the Pharisees in trouble?

Honestly, I didn’t connect these dots at first. I didn’t read John 14 and say, “Oh, okay, I need the Holy Spirit.” I was kind of thick and dull. I just knew one thing, I wanted Jesus to look at me and say, “This one really loves me.” and I asked the Lord to help me do that, however He could. And His answer was to send His Spirit.

Beloved, we weren’t designed to live face-to-face with a book, even the Bible. We were created to live face-to-face with, and LOVE, our creator God.

If you want to love Jesus with all your heart, obey His commands. HIS commands to YOU. If you want to receive, understand and obey those commands, ask Him for the Helper. Because you can’t do it alone.