Your 24/7 Companion – Day 8

We have had a look at the work of the Holy Spirit regarding the world. Today, we focus on his active involvement in guiding believers 24/7. “However, 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.”

The Holy Spirit will guide the believer into all truth, because he will only speak what he hears from the Father. He will guide us according to the will and character of God. With truth refers the truth about Christ and what impact it has on the believer’s life. If this truth forms the centre of your life, you sign up for a lifelong process of learning to distinguish between right and wrong, good or bad, and between the truth or a lie.

Unfortunately, today there are so many people with questionable teachings or who make awkward decisions with the excuse that “the Holy Spirit led me”, that it is very easy to become confused with all these “truths”. We should understand though, the Holy Spirit will never teach anything contrary to God’s word: “He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak.”

The Spirit will also tell us about things to come. He spoke to the disciples (and to us) about things like the nature of their mission, opposition, persecution and the eventual outcome of their endeavours. He revealed, to the authors of the Bible, that salvation could not be earned by keeping the law. He gave guidelines on how to live the new life in Christ, and revealed the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, which Jesus spoke about. Today, he still shines light on the choices that impact the course of our lives, on the word of God so that we can understand its full meaning, and how he wants us to be his hands and feet on earth – all for the Father and Jesus to be glorified.