Wouldn’t it be nice having a Guide to show us what is true or not? Disciples have that. This devotion looks at how the Holy Spirit teaches us the Truth of Jesus Christ.
Nuggets
- The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth.
- The Holy Spirit isn’t going out on a limb, premiering some new truth – He brings Jesus’ Truth.
- Sin entered the world on a lie.
When I got up yesterday morning, this post was the next one in the chute to be written. For some reason, I pulled up witnesses first.
I’d put truth first because you have to have something to witness to before you can go be a witness. But I guess God had a reason for wanting the other first. Let’s see if we can find out what we have to learn.
Let's Put It into Context
Bell defined truth as “… universally the reality as opposed to that which is not real.” He also noted “that sin extinguishes the love and desire for the truth.”
Getting Taught
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (Jn. 16: 13 NLT)
The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. Spurgeon cautioned us to not think that was just teaching. He likened it to being guided in a cave.
Adam was just talking this morning about the time we went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. If they would have let us, we could have just gone up and started exploring.
Oh, we probably would have had water, maybe a map if there was one. We would have taken a flashlight for sure — if the batteries worked.
But how much better it is to take a guide? “Now, watch out around this bend. The sides really drop off, so you want to stay in the middle of the path. Don’t go down that way, or you could get lost.” The guide tells us what to expect and how to react.
Isn’t it wonderful having Someone like that in life? Our Guide is Someone Who sees the past, present, and future. He knows what is best for us and has our best interests in mind.
Melvill told us what that guidance entails. He wrote that, “… when a man has once submitted himself to the teaching of the Holy Ghost, ‘the Spirit of Truth,’ guides him into truth, and leads him from one stage to another of knowledge, showing him, successively, the mysteries of redemption, and never allowing him to open the Bible without finding fresh matter for thought and for thankfulness. There remains much, very much, for this Spirit to teach.
But isn’t there times that we think that we open the Bible and don’t find refreshing. It is the same ol’, same ol’.
Usually when that happens to me, I am committing some sin that the Holy Spirit is giving me a nudge to confess. He does that by having me read lots of verses on the topic.
Christ’s Truth
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV)
The Holy Spirit isn’t going out on a limb, premiering some new truth. He brings Jesus’ Truth.
The only witnessing the Holy Spirit does is about how
- Jesus was born of a virgin — 100% God and 100% man.
- He never committed any sin.
- Jesus died on a cross so that His blood would pay the penalty for our sins.
- He rose from the dead on the third day.
- Right now, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God in heaven interceding for us.
But then again, the Holy Spirit pushes obedience to God’s laws and commandments, also. No, Jesus didn’t delete those. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Mt. 5: 17-18 NIV).
Accomplishment doesn’t come until the new heaven and earth show up (Rev. 21: 1). So, everything that was a sin back in Moses’ day is still a sin in Tom, Sally, and Elaine’s day.
Truth v. Lie
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn. 8: 44 CSB)
Why did Jesus have to go to such lengths for our sake? It is because sin entered the world on a lie. Sin is when we disobey God and break one of His laws and commandments.
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
Melvill gave us a good list of the lies Satan gives. He wrote, “… false notions of God, of ourselves, of happiness; false estimates of good and evil; false dealings in the intercourse of life.” And that just scratches the surface!
And that started the tug of war. Satan and his lies on one side — and God and His truth on the other.
This is what the Holy Spirit is fixing in us. He doesn’t do it by brute force but rather by finesse.
The Holy Spirit has to finesse. He is working with our free will. It has to be our free will.
The gradually is supposed to give us time to study it and meditate on it. If we don’t, God’s Truth is just going to stay on the surface. It will just be head knowledge.
We’ve got to work to see what God is trying to tell us. We have to make it our own.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
More than that, we have to let God’s Truth change us. It has to eliminate the sin in our lives and replace it with obedience.
Making the Connections
In reality, being a disciple means believing a lot of subjective things. Well, it isn’t cold, hard facts, so it isn’t objective.
Witnessing means we tell others about what is considered our perspectives and opinions. At least, that is what some to whom we witness may call it.
The thing is, disciples are dealing in fact. Yes, it may be above our comprehension level, but “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine’” (Isa. 55: 8 NLT).
Even better, God’s Truth does not change. It can’t because God doesn’t change. “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind …” (Num. 23: 19 NLT).
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
We are also considering what we would say if a non-believer asked us. Here is the worksheet again. What would you tell someone about God forgiving and forgetting sins?
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
Wilberforce reminded us that God doesn’t just download everything into our mind upon conversion. Instead, He uses the Holy Spirit to gradually reveal His Truth to us.
More than that, we have to let God’s Truth change us. It has to eliminate the sin in our lives and replace it with obedience.
Back up at the top, we talked about not finding fresh things in our reading. I said that was usually when I had unconfessed sin.
Usually, it was because I didn’t want to give up my unconfessed sin. Or, I didn’t think I could without God’s help — and that wasn’t happening yet.
During times like those, we need to open our hearts and minds. We’ve got to get our thoughts and feelings — and wants and desires — out of it. That let’s the Holy Spirit lead.
I love what Eyre said. He wrote, “The mind acquires, retains, hides up, and in a moment brings back past thoughts. This is a power of vast importance in a moral point of view. How well, then, that our minds should be stored with Divine truth. The Holy Ghost brings thence those things concerning God and so teaches us.
God’s Truth should be stored within us. That allows the Holy Spirit to pull it out when we need a nudge.
Have you ever thought about what a vote of confidence God’s giving us the a Holy Spirit was? God knew that we could change. He knew that we wanted the Guide.
That is how loving our God is. He knows what we need and provided.
Loving Father. You have provided so much for us. You give us life itself. Then You designed the plan of salvation to give us eternal life. You provide us a Guide through this life so that what we do is pleasing to You and to prepare us for our eternal life. Help us to be more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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