The Switch…

To Joy (part 13)

Three things Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do in John 16:13. First of all, “When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” Secondly, that the Holy Spirit “will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears.” And thirdly, “he will tell you what is to come.”

On the first point, it sounds like Jesus’ teaching days are over. And there’s some truth to that, because after he was resurrected he didn’t do much teaching. His main reasons for appearing in person to his disciples, and to others, was to prove he was alive, and secondly, to explain that what had happened to him, his suffering and death, had all been predicted in their Scriptures. 

According to Jesus himself, the real teaching from that point on would be done by the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Spirit taught, then, would be all the truth they’d need. Which simplified life very nicely for his disciples: wait for the Holy Spirit to come and what they were alive for would be explained. Which is exactly what happened, first of all in the book of Acts when the Spirit came, and then in all the other books in the New Testament that came later, in the letters to the churches by Peter, James, Paul, the author of Hebrews and others. 

In the New Testament, then, we have all the truth we need to become what God made humans for. And the same principles apply to all, whether rich or poor, highly intelligent or very ordinary. And what simplifies this still further is knowing there isn’t “more” truth out there that we have to go looking for. Imagine having to read every book written to eventually find out what life is all about. Or that maybe a great philosopher of the past had the secret to life.

No worries on that score, because the Holy Spirit “speaks only what he hears.” The source of all that the Holy Spirit teaches is the mind of God, not some brainy human. The New Testament is a deep dive into God’s thoughts. That’s the truth the Spirit is guiding us into. Not the thoughts of man, but of God.  

And his thoughts include “telling us what is to come.” He details how evil works so we can see trends developing. But the joy too of knowing that, no matter how bad things become, one day God will solve all…(continues Wednesday)