John 16:12-13 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

With our human weakness and limitations, there’s only so much we can absorb at one time. It was without question a great comfort to Jesus to know that He didn’t have to instill everything into His disciples before the cross, or even before His ascension. It is important to recognize the various titles used for God’s Spirit. We most often speak of Him as the Holy Spirit, because that is the most common term for Him in the Bible, but here He is called the Spirit of Truth, and elsewhere He is called the Spirit of Jesus (Philippians 1:19) or the Spirit of Christ, (1 Peter 1:11) and of course the Spirit of God. (Genesis 1:2) In addition, Jesus refers to Him just before this, in verse 7, as the Counselor (Paraclete), which is a term He introduced in John 14:16, followed immediately by the title in this passage, the Spirit of Truth. God’s Spirit is all of these things, but we tend to try to put Him in one box or another and ignore His other activities and functions. That cuts us off from a lot of blessings! Here, Jesus is speaking of Him as the ultimate Teacher. We all encounter teachers of various sorts throughout life, but the Holy Spirit is the only one who can lead us into all truth. Actually, that’s a good tool for discerning spirits, because evil spirits are lying spirits, and the Holy Spirit never lies. A word of caution here, however: sometimes we aren’t in a position to know if something is true or not. I remember one time that I spoke something by the Holy Spirit that seemed totally impossible to those who heard it, but it was fulfilled in a way that they couldn’t imagine at the time.

This is of the utmost importance to me, all the more so because my primary gifting is that of Teacher. I must be constantly vigilant to allow the Holy Spirit, and Him alone, to speak through me. I am not to teach my imaginings as truth, but confirm things through the Bible before I teach them. Many times I have learned things as the Holy Spirit spoke them through my mouth. I must never think I am exempt from anything just because I’m the one who said it! I must remember that my capacity and my hearers’ capacity is limited, and both accept and give incremental teaching. It won’t be until heaven that we will “know fully, even as [we are] fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) It is significant, and a great blessing, that I was raised by a father who had absolute honesty as one of his core principles. I can’t communicate God’s truth with any trace of dishonesty on my part. I need to be so familiar with God’s voice, through being immersed in the Bible, that I will be able to distinguish immediately when He is speaking to me by His Spirit, and reject every other voice in my heart.

Father, You know this is how I want to be, and that I’m not fully there yet. Help me keep growing! Help me indeed receive all that You say to me, not distorting it by humanistic interpretations, and help me understand what of that You want me to share when and how, so that Your Word may go forth through me to accomplish Your will on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!