AUG 31

John 16:12-13
Memorise John 16:13
“for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

Jesus’ disciples were filled with sorrow when He told them that He would shortly have to depart from them. To give them hope, He gave them the promise of the Holy Spirit. During His earthly ministry, He had taught His disciples as much as He could. However, due to their spiritual immaturity and lack of understanding of deeper spiritual matters, there was so much more that they needed to learn (John 16:12). Hence, Christ assured them that His departure would be followed by the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Do note that this does not mean that the Holy Spirit was not active and present before the death of Christ – the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity is eternal and has no beginning or end. Rather, this refers to the prominence of each Person of the Godhead during different points in Man’s history. After Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Holy Spirit would now come to the forefront in the cooperative work of the Trinity in man’s redemption. What roles would the Spirit perform? Today’s reading tells us that “he will guide you into all truth” and that “he will shew you things to come”. Through the Holy Spirit’s illumination, all believers will be led into all truth. The natural man, by his own sinful self, can never hope to attain any knowledge at all of spiritual things. It is only when the Holy Spirit indwells the heart of a person that he can seek to know the things of God (I Corinthians 2:9-16). To the unbeliever, the Bible is but a collection of stories and wise sayings. But to the believer, we know that the Bible is so much more than that. It is God Himself speaking to His children, full of rich spiritual truths and instruction.

From this we learn of Jesus’ care for His disciples in pointing them to the Holy Spirit. Knowing that they had a need for much more spiritual instruction, He pointed them to the Holy Spirit as the source of this. Likewise, we are also to point others to the Holy Spirit. New believers especially, might tend to rely a lot on the wisdom of men when trying to understand the Bible. They rely on commentaries, or the exposition of God’s Word from pastors and preachers. Certainly these are all useful sources of instruction. But above all, they should be encouraged to search the Scriptures themselves, relying on the Holy Spirit’s illumination to be their teacher and guide. Every believer has the promise of the Holy Spirit; every believer should rely on the help of the Holy Spirit. Dear teen, may you also rely on the Holy Spirit, and be able to point others to Him and to remind them of the important role that He plays in their lives.

Thought: The Holy Spirit is promised not only to some, but to every believer.
Prayer: Lord, teach me the importance of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in every believer’s life.