“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
“Daddy”, cried the young boy as his father disciplined him with the leather strap that held up his trousers. “Why are you spanking me? Don’t you love me?” “I’m spanking you because I do love you”, was the father’s reply. To the child, the truth of this whole scenario remains completely elusive; he is simply unable to grasp this concept. The youngster must only trust that the father does have his best interests at heart.
Conceptually, this is true for our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Relaying truth from the Son to the Christian is the responsibility of the Spirit; we must trust the Spirit for the veracity of His message, just like we trust in the truthfulness of what God tells us. God works using the facilities of the Holy Spirit. We are able to understand truth this way, because left to our own natural devises our interpretation would be less than inspired.
The little boy in the story above is me. I’m lying prone on the bed with my limbs extended outward receiving my punishment with a less than enthusiastic response from my loving father who is trying his best to curtail the anger that he feels toward the sin that I just committed; I’m trying to believe that he actually loves me when he’s spanking me. Similarly, we have to trust that Jesus had to go away so that we could see Him again. While on the surface it doesn’t make much sense that someone has to go away so we can see them, if compared to other scripture the clarity of this passage shines forth brilliantly. John 14:3 states, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Many things is scripture seem to contradict one another on the surface, but when they are compared with other references and conceptually ideas they’re found to be consistently correct and true. All we can do is trust the Holy Spirit to lead us and be willing to accept His leading, making sure that we don’t get lead astray. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”II Timothy 3:16.
James Beeman
5/2/2005
John 16:13–16
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
“Daddy”, cried the young boy as his father disciplined him with the leather strap that held up his trousers. “Why are you spanking me? Don’t you love me?” “I’m spanking you because I do love you”, was the father’s reply. To the child, the truth of this whole scenario remains completely elusive; he is simply unable to grasp this concept. The youngster must only trust that the father does have his best interests at heart.
Conceptually, this is true for our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Relaying truth from the Son to the Christian is the responsibility of the Spirit; we must trust the Spirit for the veracity of His message, just like we trust in the truthfulness of what God tells us. God works using the facilities of the Holy Spirit. We are able to understand truth this way, because left to our own natural devises our interpretation would be less than inspired.
The little boy in the story above is me. I’m lying prone on the bed with my limbs extended outward receiving my punishment with a less than enthusiastic response from my loving father who is trying his best to curtail the anger that he feels toward the sin that I just committed; I’m trying to believe that he actually loves me when he’s spanking me. Similarly, we have to trust that Jesus had to go away so that we could see Him again. While on the surface it doesn’t make much sense that someone has to go away so we can see them, if compared to other scripture the clarity of this passage shines forth brilliantly. John 14:3 states, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Many things is scripture seem to contradict one another on the surface, but when they are compared with other references and conceptually ideas they’re found to be consistently correct and true. All we can do is trust the Holy Spirit to lead us and be willing to accept His leading, making sure that we don’t get lead astray. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 3:16.