The Spririt

When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. - John 16:13

Jesus says that He had to go so that the Spirit would come and guide us into "all truth".  That the Spirit would speak to us what He hears.  What does He hear and what is all truth?  It is Christ Himself.  Verse 14 says the Spirit "will glorify Me, for He will receive of Me and declare it to you."  Most importantly, the Spirit does not speak of "His own authority", but upon the authority of Jesus the Christ.

Without the Spirit, I am crippled to try to walk behind Jesus.  I am powerless to follow Him without His strength.  He alone has judged this world and condemned the "prince of this world" (v11).  If He is not within me in the presence of His Spirit, which has defeated this world and the powers of Satan, then how do I imagine I am able to conquer even a single minute?  My life must be Jesus or nothing, lest I be condemned.

Is there a part of my life not producing fruit?  I would say then that either Jesus isn't living there or it isn't supposed to be there at all.  The Spirit must have all access.  What within me separates me from God?  This "examination of conscience" as Russ would say, is vital to my knowing what I am to "die daily".  The Spirit will guide us to those things and call them out for us.  Paul said, "to die is gain" (Phil 1:21).  If I can die to those things within me that separate me from God, if I can "deny myself and take up my cross" (Luke 9:23), if I can put those things on my cross and have them crucified, then I can "follow Me" (v23).  Then "to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21) and that is what makes dying gain for there is no other gain but Christ.

Saturday evening my nephew was sick and felt terrible.  He had been this way for about 24 hours.  We were all going out to eat and leaving him there on the couch sleeping and miserable.  As everyone left the room to go, I reached out and touched him and prayed to God that He would heal Him before we get back.  And as confident as I have ever been, I believed he would be better.  When we got back, he was awake, sitting up, and he had color in his face.  He was talking, smiling, and felt much better.  By the next morning, he appeared well.

Today my neighbor is not well.  He has cancer and is undergoing the severity of treatments.  I pray that God will give me the confidence and surety of the Centurion, who simply said to Jesus if you will say for my daughter to be well, she will be well.  And just as Jesus declared about his extraordinary faith, may I have such faith in praying for Mike that Jesus would say for him to be healed and he will be healed.  I also pray that God show Mike how to have the faith of the women with the blood disease.  She believed that if she could even touch the fringe of his garment she would be healed.  I pray that Mike would believe as she did, that if he could simply touch Jesus, he will be healed.  I pray that he is seeking Him with his whole heart and that this experience is a new revelation and produces a new faith in who Jesus is for him and his family.