Because the Spirit is sent by Jesus and sent from the Father, the disciples needed to take Jesus’ words by faith that the coming of the Spirit would provide everything they need. On the other hand, it’s a denial that the Spirit brings divine power into our lives that causes so much faithlessness in the Christian life. Think about what would happen if Jesus told the disciples that the Father was going to come to them? Wouldn’t that cause them to be overjoyed and bursting with confidence? That would certainly seem to be the case back at the beginning of ch.14, where Philip said an appearance of the Father would be more than sufficient for them.
Likewise, how would we assess our what if we were guaranteed to have the presence of God all of our days? In one sense we do!—through the gift of his Holy Spirit. But we push back on the sufficiency of the Father’s gift to us by saying: “I can’t always sense his presence; I can’t always discern his activity in my life.” Instead of living by our own sensations, we just have to go back to what the Bible teaches us about the Spirit and the fruit of his presence in our lives—As we submit to his control, he will sanctify us and make us useful for his purposes. It is the Spirit who the Father has ordained to help his people in this life. Just as Jesus was sent from the Father to fulfill a specific purpose, so also the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father to fulfill a specific purpose, namely to help us testify to him as we share the truth about his person and work, along with how he has transformed our lives.
Why then would we think we need something more helpful? Could you imagine making this request of the Lord—”Do you have anything else up there in heaven to help me out? I’m feeling very intimidated. I’m lacking a lot of confidence.” The Lord responds, “That’s because you’ve been walking according to the flesh in unforgiveness, or judgmentalism or jealousy or self-pity or self-reliance or fear of man. Repent from that as you walk by the Spirit and you will find a whole new level of confidence. You will speak more directly and with more resolve because you are actually believing it yourself and being a doer of the word gives you great discernment according to Heb. 5.”
Lastly, it seems that the following Proverb is very relevant for this discussion—Prov. 28:1 The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.