John 16: 13 – 14
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.
Jesus said that it was to our advantage that he go away because he was going to send the Holy Spirit (John 16: 7). I’ve got to say that when I read that for the first time I was really surprised and I had a hard time believing it. How can we be better off without Jesus here? As we continue to read chapter 16 we begin to understand what Jesus was conveying to us. The Holy Spirit is a powerful ally. He is a comforter and a teacher, a guide and a constant helper. I do not believe, however, that we (the church) have a revelation of the Holy Spirit. There is so much more about this third person of the trinity than we are experiencing.
Did you know that you can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit the way that we have relationships with Jesus and the Father? He will even speak to you. Well, I suppose that is really quite apparent if you think about it. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth so how would he do that if he didn’t speak to us? Furthermore, today’s message from Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will “speak” whatever he hears. So there it is in plain language. None the less, many times we do not embrace this idea of communicating with the Spirit.
So what is he disclosing? Jesus says that the Spirit takes what is Jesus’ and discloses it to us. That is his role. Jesus goes on to say that whatever the Father has is his so whatever the Father or Jesus have, that is what the Spirit is here to give you. Now I am thinking that is pretty huge. He is going to take whatever Jesus knows and disclose it to us. Is anyone hearing this as big as it sounds to me? The Holy Spirit is here to disclose to us everything that Jesus has and Jesus has everything that the Father has.
It seems to me that a worthy goal might be to get to know the Holy Spirit. We are missing out on too much and not taking advantage of the Father’s plan. To develop or further develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit is, I believe, as simple as talking to him. Tell him your desire to get to know him. Begin to communicate with him daily and give him your questions. He has been sent here to help us so let’s cooperate with his purpose. Get to know the third person of the Trinity.