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“I have much more to say to you, more than
you can now hear. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all truth.” John 16:12-13
How many people do you
know who are willing to tell you everything about them? Every detail. Every failure. Every hope. Every
dream. Every piece of truth there is? And, if by some miracle you can actually name someone, every detail is glorious?
Everyone has faults. Everyone has moments in their life they would prefer to erase. Bad choices.
Moments of disobedience. Times of failure. It’s part of the human condition. Our sin nature that none
of us are immune to.
But the Good News is that Jesus came to bring forgiveness, healing, grace, and hope.
God, in His mercy and kindness toward us, forgives us and is able to transform us into people that are able to live above
our human nature by the power of His Spirit living within us.
In John 16, Jesus speaks extensively about the Spirit.
He calls Him the Counselor, the Spirit of truth. His role is to convict us of sin, teach us righteousness, and remind
us that the prince of this world (satan) has been condemned. Living by the Spirit is a powerful way to live, and Paul
tells us that living by the Spirit will produce much fruit in our lives, such as love, joy, peace, and self control.
But even more than this, these words of Jesus also tell us something else about the Spirit. In John 16:13, He says,
“When the Spirit of Truth comes he will guide you in ALL truth. He will not speak on His own, He will speak only
what He hears, and He will tell you what is to come.”
Then in verse 15, Jesus says, “He will bring
glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”
And in verse 16, He makes this profound
statement: “All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said, ‘The Spirit will take from what
is mine and make it known to you.’”
If you’re like me, you may find these words confusing when
you first read them, but remember that Jesus was speaking to those who weren’t yet familiar with the Spirit, and much
of the time they weren’t even quite sure who Jesus was. They knew the Father. They knew when Jesus spoke
of the Father, He was talking about Jehovah, the God of Israel they had learned about from their earliest days as Jewish people.
But here, and in other places throughout the Gospels, Jesus equates Himself with the Father. He claims to be
God, and this is what He was crucified for. That was His crime according to Jewish Law. But He wasn’t committing
blasphemy because He really was. He was ‘the image of the invisible God’, as Paul says in Colossians 1:15.
And what Jesus is saying here in John 16 is this: ‘The Spirit of truth is God’s Voice. The Father
will tell you all about Himself and His plans for you.’ In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, Paul says it this way: ‘No
eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him, but God has revealed it
to us through His Spirit.’
How exciting is that! We can hear what God has to say to us, and He wants
to tell us everything about Himself. He doesn’t want to keep any secrets from us. He has nothing to hide.
No dark corners. No skeletons in the closet. In fact, He is glorified when He reveals Himself and speaks the truth,
because He is glorious! He has good things to say. Things we need to know and understand. Things about ourselves
that He wants to bring out in the open so there can be forgiveness and healing. And things about His heart that will
cause us to love Him with all of our heart--because He is lovable!
He is love. He is mercy. He is truth.
He is grace. He is perfect. He is holy. And when we listen and believe and obey, we see just how glorious
He is.
I think we often live as if we’re waiting for God to speak to us. And sometimes we do have to
wait for specific guidance and answers to our prayers. But I think more often than not, we’re simply not listening.
He’s declaring His love, but we turn a deaf ear. He’s telling us what’s right, but we think our own
ideas and ways are better. He’s saying, ‘Trust me. Don’t worry. Do not fear for
I am with you.’ But we don’t believe. We don’t listen to the truth. We ignore Him.
Just how important is listening to God? If you look carefully in Mark 12 where Jesus is asked what the most
important commandment is, He includes listening to God right along with loving Him. And why? Because loving God
can’t happen if we’re not first listening.
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God...” Mark 12:29
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