“When The Holy Spirit Comes”

Just hours before the crucifixion, minutes before the trial, Jesus had one last topic to talk with His disciples about. So many topics had already been discussed. So many lessons had been lived out. What could possibly remain?

What was the last thing your parents talked with you about before you drove away for college?

What was the last piece of advice you gave your son, your daughter, just before their wedding?

What topic did you consider to be so important you chose to squeeze it in just as the door of opportunity was closing?

For Jesus, that topic was the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had talked about the Holy Spirit during His ministry. He had claimed the presence of the Holy Spirit in His own life (Luke 4:18), had attributed His miracles to the Spirit inside Him and He had warned against blaspheming the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:28-32). He had said new birth and life come by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5 & 6:63), but He had not spoken very much about the work of the Holy Spirit or how He would engage in the spiritual lives of the disciples.

But now, with the final minutes ticking away and the purpose of His incarnation upon Him, Jesus used His final minutes to deliver a three chapter teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had not taught them about the Holy Spirit prior to this because, quite simply, He was with them. As long as He was with them, it was not time, yet, for the Holy Spirit.

If Jesus was born, “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), then, certainly, He was fully aware of the scheduled invasion of the Holy Spirit on the coming Day of Pentecost. Until then, there were other more urgent matters to be taught on.

But, again, we are now down to the final minutes and Jesus gives concentrated instruction on at least four things the Holy Spirit would do at the soon coming empowerment of the disciples. In short:

1) John 14:26 . . . he will teach you all things. . .

2) John 15:26 . . . he will bear witness about me.

3) John 16:8 . . . he will convict the world . . .

4) John 16:13 . . . he will guide you into all the truth. . .

While each of these topics is profound in its implications and power, I want to concentrate, in this study, on just the first and the last, . . . he will teach you all things. . ., and, . . . he will guide you into all the truth. . . (John 14:26 & 16:13).

What do these mean and how do we see them being worked out in our lives?

First off, “He will teach you all things.”

To “teach” is a profound privilege.

There is an old joke concerning teachers which says, “Them that can’t do, teach.”

That adage is most certainly not true about Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, both of whom are addressed as “teacher.”

Please be assured, the Holy Spirit is more than able to “do!!”

In fact, He is so very able to “do” that He is even able to accomplish His work while using such rusty, gangly tools as ourselves! He does His work in us, and He does His work through us.

In us, to cause us to look like Christ.

Through us, to effect change for the sake of the Kingdom.

Our verse states, “He will teach you all things” (John 14:26). A picture of “teach” would be that He sits next to us on the sofa, spreads the Bible on both our laps and, while reading it with us, explains to us what it means.

The Holy Spirit is that “Anointing” of 1 John 2:27 who, because of His abiding, living, communing inside every believer, He “. . . teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie. . .”

The Holy Spirit is our teacher.

When you read a Bible verse and something pops out at you which you have never seen before, it was the Holy Spirit who whispered in your ear.

When you learn Truth from a butterfly, a movie, an ocean boat ride (all of which have spoken to me at some point in my life), it was the Holy Spirit who taught you in that moment.

No matter the source, Truth, life-changing Truth, came from, and is the very embodiment of Jesus (refer to a previous post entitled “Truth And The Horse It Rode In On”). And when we are caused to see, understand and apply Truth, it is because the Holy Spirit, many times without our asking Him, chose to speak to us in terms we could understand.

Because He is our Teacher, we would be wise to learn all we can. Learn for the sake of implementing, but learn all you can!

When I was 20 years old I had the epiphany (was taught by the Holy Spirit?) that everything that has ever been learned has been written down somewhere. And if I will read, I can learn what someone else learned. Since that time I have tried to maintain a discipline and passion to do what had never come naturally to me before that time: read as much as I can on as many topics as I find of interest.

Read! Learn! To learn is to honor the Teacher! Make the Teacher’s life easier and work, a joy! Do not disrespect the gift of knowledge. Gain knowledge any where you can find it!

But always remember, getting knowledge is only half the equation.

I have read multiple books on how to skin and tan a hide. I know! Something of a left turn there, but stick with me! I had an interest in learning how to tan hides and Larry Bentley set me up with some very helpful books.

I read the books and learned as much as I could. But it wasn’t until I picked up a dead racoon on the side of the road (well, actually, Donna picked it up) that what I had knowledge of began the process of becoming experience.

The Holy Spirit will “will teach you all things.”

But there is more.

I recently read a book titled The Christ Key by Chad Bird (which was quite a good book). In there he talked about his experience of becoming “a talking head.”

He had dedicated his life to learning as much as he could about ancient languages, their relationship to the Bible and how to teach others the things he had learned. He spoke at conferences, wrote books, taught at the post-graduate level because, well, that is what talking heads do!! Talking heads know a lot, but in Chad’s experience, what he knew in his head failed to translate to how he lived his life.

He learned, at the cost of everything he held dear, that a talking head does not always translate to a changed life.

And we have all known a talking head. And, tragically, we have probably all been a talking head at one time or another.

The Holy Spirit is our teacher who sits with us, talks with us, communes with us, explains to us, but refuses to allow us to be satisfied with a head full of knowledge while our muscles are atrophied from disuse.

I cannot encourage you enough to learn everything you can. Get all the education necessary to hone every skill and gift God has granted you.

I have a cousin who, at 15 years of age, asked W. A. Criswell what he would recommend a young man do to prepare for ministry. Criswell’s response was, “Get all the education you can so you will be able to walk through any door that opens to you.” My cousin went on to obtain the youngest doctorate in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention when he was 22 years old.

My cousin had the knowledge, which opened some amazing doors. But it was the life he has lived which has most equipped him for effective ministry.

I once heard a pastor standing in a pulpit say to his congregation, “I have never really had any difficulties in life. I’ve never had marriage problems, money problems, job problems, children problems, health problems. I have really never had any real difficulty in my life.”

I was praying silently, “Father, you made the dumb speak. Please make this guy stop talking!!!”

In that moment he let all his people know he had never had his head full of knowledge translated into a walk of practical experience which would prepare him to help them in their walk with Jesus.

Friends, your head full of knowledge is a wonderful thing, and can bring an amazing amount of glory to Jesus, but not until it has been refined, made molten and molded into the shape of practical living in the furnace of lived experience. Which brings us to the second thing we are looking at that Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would do.

. . . He will guide you into all the truth. . . (John 16:13).

There comes a time to close the book, take our student by the hand and ask, “are you ready to go for a walk?”

That is exactly what the Holy Spirit does with us.

After He “teaches all things,” He closes the book, looks at us and says, “now, let’s go for a walk.” This is when He, . . . guide(s) you into all the truth. . . (John 16:13).

You have probably heard the advice to “never pray for patience. You will be given a boatload of opportunities to learn patience!”

There is truth in that. And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does with us. He “teaches” us all things. And then He lovingly, personally, “guides” us into the lived experiences of what we have just learned.

How many times have you found yourself experiencing something which had been addressed, directly, by Bible reading you had done just prior? That was the Holy Spirit walking you through, in practical terms, what He had been teaching you in theory out of God’s Word.

I had known, and taught, for years that God loves us, but continued to have difficulty with personal application in my own life.

I believed He loved me. . . but I KNEW He loved YOU.

All that changed at a time when we were going through some pretty severe tests. We felt, like that old Steve Camp song, that we were “Back in the Furnace.”

We were being disciplined, not because of blatant sin, because “discipline” does not always speak to sin in our lives. Biblical discipline carries with it the connotation of training in righteousness, equipping for action, instruction and even nurture.

Knowing we were experiencing the discipline of the Lord, it was in a dream through which the Holy Spirit chose to bring together the teaching of His Word and the guidance into all Truth. In my dream I was teaching a group of people one of those passages that applies to them, but not to me. (Pause for added effect). When, in my dream, I read to them that passage in Hebrews 12:6 which says, “. . . the Lord disciplines the one he loves,” I finally, for the first time in my life, believed, lived, experienced the truth I had long held in my head. God loves me!

The truth had long been in my head. I had carried it, and dispensed it to others, for years. I held it as an objective, eternally true piece of information, but it was lodged in my gray matter rather than where life matters.

It was in the middle of discipline the Holy Spirit did something else we were promised He would do: He will “. . . bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (John 14:26).

Friends, He cannot bring to our “remembrance” what we have not first, by diligent study, allowed to be put into our “remember-er.”

But it HAD been put into my “remember-er” and, when being guided through the very real and loving discipline of the Lord, the Holy Spirit reminded me of what I already “knew,” and, by it, strengthened my shaking knees.

The “ditzy blonde” routine may make for a humorous internet video but, truly, ignorance is never bliss!

To be willfully ignorant of matters of eternal life is tragic.

To be ignorant of what we claim to be a follower of is rank foolishness.

You would never sign an official document without knowing what was in it, but how often have we claimed to be Christ followers, while being content to live in ignorance of the requirements and privileges of the covenant we profess?

I challenged a congregation to study their Bibles for themselves in a sermon one time (not too kooky of an idea, I would think) and a long-time deacon of the church came up to me afterward and gave me his approach to Bible study.

“Ya know, sonny-boy, I started reading that book a long time before you did and there’s some place in there where it says, ‘eye has not seen and ear has not heard everything God has prepared for them what love Him.’ So, I figured that, since I ain’t gowanna understand it till I get to glory anyway, there’s no sense in wastin’ my time tryin’ to understand it now!”

This is a good example of why we should never throw things at a monkey in a zoo. They will throw back, and what they throw has longer lasting affect. In other words, I did not respond.

Psalm 103:2 tells us that, while the Children of Israel knew and experienced the works of God, Moses knew the ways of God.

The people saw what God did.

Moses knew why He did it.

The people saw God’s actions.

Moses knew God’s heart.

For those who are satisfied with the works of God, take a deep breath, drink a tall glass of refreshing water and be thankful for the myriad “mercies of God” (Ro 12:1) we are showered with every day.

But for those who want the life of Jesus more than the benefits of Jesus, for those who want His presence more than His presents, for those who would say with Moses, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here” (Ex 33:15), for those who just want Jesus, if you will listen closely you will hear the Spirit say, “come and sit for a while. Let me show you something. Come and listen to my voice. Come be still, for in just a little while, we will need to take a walk. And then, I will call you to come and follow me. But for now, come and learn from me. Come.”

So how are we to respond to this?

What is our response-ability to the teaching and the guiding of the Holy Spirit?

Psalm 32:8-9 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you” (NIV).

It has always been a sad picture, to me, of having to use a bit and bridle to force a “mule” (that is the Sunday School term) to “come to you.” How much “no understanding” does it take to fight “coming” to the one who loves you, who purchased you, who brings you apples, who supplies your hay and mucks your stall? How ignorant and self-willed do we have to be to fail to see the protection and provision granted us when we just “come to you”? And yet, the invitation to NOT be like that betrays the distinct possibility that we CAN be like that!

We have a friend who invited us to visit his office in the Chrysler building which overlooked one of the gargoyles in its view of New York City. It was spectacular! When we finished in his office he suggested we get some pizza at a nearby eatery. Pizza sounded good. Walking around downtown New York City, not so much.

We shared the sidewalk with those who had only themselves to listen to, busy people with busy lives, $2,000 Armani suits and a double parked Mercedes with 2 very large, very scary looking men standing on either side of it.

“How do those guys get away with double parking like that?”

“Oh, they are probably in the mob. They pretty much do what they want.”

Robert was scared! I mean, I’ve seen The Godfather!! I know how these things work!! I did not want to lose track of our friend and guide!!

Had our friend taken off faster than we could keep up, it would have been a terrifying journey. But he did not leave us.

If I had allowed myself to be locked up with fear, I would have been separated from our guide and surrounded by unfamiliar echos in the concrete canyon.

Why did I experience fear? Because I had never been that way before!

Why did our friend have no fear? Because he knew exactly where we were, where we were going, and speedy means of escape if such should become necessary.

How foolish would I have been to have planted my feet and refused to move?

How foolish would I have been to see our guide ahead of us, urging me to join him, but refusing to do it?

How foolish would I have been had I forced him to put a rope around my waist and drag me along with him?

We navigated the uncertain experience of New York City because we had a guide who knew where he was going, and whom we trusted.

How often do we see madness on the sidewalk next to us? But our Guide is not afraid.

How often do we see grime and crime on the sidewalk of life? But our Guide is not distracted.

How often do we see the infernal mob trying to look as terrifying as possible? But our Guide shows no fear!

How often do we freeze in place rather than simply following, simply trusting, simply obeying when He so gently, so graciously says “Come?”

This is our only proper response to the teaching and guiding of the Holy Spirit:

Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

~ By Robert E. Marshall, Streams in the Wasteland