A great preacher in our Convention once told the story of skiing in Colorado, and he noticed on the slopes some people wearing red vests. Wondering who they were, he went closer and read these words on them: BLIND SKIER. He was astounded. If you've ever been skiing or just watched other people ski, you know how hard it must be to ski with two good eyes, much less with no eyesight at all. He wondered to himself, "How do they do it?"
He went to a ski instructor and asked him how a blind person could ski? The answer was fascinating. Each blind skier is given a guide. That guide may ski beside, behind, or in front of the blind person—but always in a place where they could communicate with each other.
He was then told that there are two basic forms of communication this guide will use: the tapping together of ski poles to assure the blind person that the guide was there; and the speaking of simple instructions about what to do next. The guide may say, "Go right, turn left, stop, slow, skier coming up on your right." The only responsibility of the blind skier is to exhibit complete trust and immediate obedience to the instructions of the guide.1
Life is much like skiing downhill totally blind. We can't see even five seconds into the future. We can't see the struggles and the heartaches that may await us. We can't even see other "skiers" who might run into us.
But God has given His children their own personal Guide. Jesus said in v.13, "When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth." The word guide interestingly in the Greek language is a word that is used to describe someone who guides a person who is blind. It literally means "lead the way."
When God saves us, He does not leave us to grope in the dark; He enables us to walk in the light. Rom. 8:14 says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." The Holy Spirit lives within us, moves behind us, and goes before us.
The Holy Spirit has two ministries. He has a ministry to the sinner, and a ministry to the saint. In vv. 7-11 we see that the Holy Spirit has a convincing ministry, a convicting ministry, and a converting ministry to the sinner. But in vv. 12-15 we see He has a communicating ministry to the saint.
He has come to guide us, and more specifically to guide us "into all truth." Truth is the major concern of the Holy Spirit. In fact, both here in v.13 and in John 14:17 He is called "the Spirit of truth." When we learn about this aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit, we will understand that He is the only guide we need.
I. The Holy Spirit Guides Us to Receive the Truth
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." (v.12) Don't miss the blessing of that verse. I have told you before that with God timing is more important than time. When God leads, He not only leads in the right way, and He not only leads to the right place, He always leads at the right time.
There was a lot of truth that those apostles needed to learn, needed to record, and needed to pass on to us. But at that particular moment they were not ready for it. Now when Jesus spoke of the Spirit guiding into "all truth" there is an important word in the Greek language that is missed in English. In the Greek language it literally says, "the truth." What he was referring to there was the truth of the word of God.
The Holy Spirit has come to guide us into the truth about God, the truth about sin, the truth about salvation, the truth about life, the truth about death, the truth about heaven, the truth about hell. In other words, He has come to guide us into the truth that really matters.
Now that truth is found in the truth of the Bible. But we cannot understand the Bible, nor can we understand the truth in the Bible apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:12, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." That is, we have received the Spirit of God, that He might enable us to receive the truth of God, that is found in the word of God, that comes from the heart of God.
But Paul goes on to say in v.14, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Anybody can read the Bible without the help of the Holy Spirit, but nobody can understand the Bible apart from the Holy Spirit.
A little boy was writing a letter to a girl that he had a crush on. His mother said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm writing a love letter to my girlfriend." She said, "You can't write. Why are you trying to send her a letter?" He said, "That's okay, she can't read." Well, apart from the Holy Spirit, we can read what God has written, but we cannot understand it.
It is amazing to realize that in a river lies the incredible power of electricity. Rivers have been dammed up, and through the genius of engineers, dams have been built that has, in an incredible way, the ability to store electricity that can send hundreds of thousands of volts of power into households everywhere. If you were to go to the plant which is the source of this power, and follow the lines that come into the city, you would come to various transmission plants along the way that would be marked "Danger, High Voltage—No Trespassing."
There are hundreds of thousands of volts of energy available to your home and mine. But the only problem is, those volts sent in their own power would burn up our home. So knowing that, the engineers have built what is called transformers—not transmitters, but transformers. That trans-former breaks down that electricity into meaningful units of power that you and I can use.
The Holy Spirit is God's transformer. He takes the incredible truth of God, and in the right place, at the right time, in the right way, gives it to us in such a way that we can handle it, and we can use it to give us the power that we need to be all that we need to be for God. Because He acts as the transformer of divine truth, we can receive it.
II. The Holy Spirit Guides Us to Remember the Truth
Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus never wrote anything down? Several apostles and most of the prophets considered their message so important, they wrote it on paper so other could know about it. In fact, they were even told by God to do it. But even though Jesus believed his authority was supreme, and even though everything He said was straight out of the mouth of God, He never picked up a pen, and the reason was because He anticipated the reminding ministry of the Holy Spirit.
In John 14:26 He said, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." You see, how do we know that the disciples remembered correctly what Jesus said, and told us everything that He did say that He wanted us to hear? Well, it is because the Holy Spirit guided them to remember the truth.
Have you ever forgotten anything? You know the truth is, most people cannot even remember what I preached last Sunday. The truth is, a faulty memory can be a fatal flaw.
There is a story about a young preacher, fresh out of seminary, who was preaching his very first sermon, and it was a trial sermon for a church that was thinking about calling him to boot. Well, he wanted to start out with something that would be humorous and grab their attention. He remembered one time hearing an older preacher get up and say, "The happiest days of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife." Then he paused for dramatic effect, and added the words "my mother."
Well, this young preacher thought that would be just the trick to start out his message. The only problem was he forgot to tell his wife, who was a hot-tempered redhead, what he was going to say. So he got up, nervous enough as it was, and said, "The happiest days of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife." Well, at that moment, as he was in his dramatic pause, his wife got up out of the pew and began to make her way to the platform. At that point, he had a mental block, thought for a moment and said, "and to save my life, I can't remember who it was."
Well, the reason why we have a New Testament is because the disciples and the apostles were not allowed to forget what Jesus taught. But they were reminded of the truth that He gave, as well as truth that was to come. Think about this. In John 14:26 He promised the Spirit would teach the disciples "all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." That's the gospels.
In John 16:13, He said, "the Spirit will guide you into all truth, and whatever He hears He will speak." That is the epistles. But then the last part of v.13 says, "He will tell you things to come." That is the book of Revelation. So the Holy Spirit came to guide us into historical truth from the gospels; doctrinal truth from the epistles; and prophetical truth from the book of Revelation.
But these words were not only given to the disciples, they were also given to us. Because the Holy Spirit not only reminded them what to write, He reminds us of what they wrote. Have you ever been in a situation where at the right time God gave you a verse of Scripture? Maybe you were in a difficult time in your life, or going through a tough situation, and a verse of Scripture sprang to your mind. That was the reminding ministry of the Holy Spirit. Incidentally, that's why it is important to be in the word of God, and get the word of God into your heart. Because God can't remind you of what you've never read. But the Holy Spirit guides us to remember the truth.
III. The Holy Spirit Guides Us to Respond to the Truth
Remember in v.13 "the truth" refers to the Bible. You see, the Holy Spirit leads us to the scriptures, then He leads us in the scriptures, and then He leads us by the scriptures.
That is what Jesus meant when He said, "He will guide you into all [the] truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak." That is, He will speak only what God wants to say, and what God wants you to hear. That is found in the Bible.
The Holy Spirit is not an independent contractor. He does not speak on His own. When He speaks, He speaks what He hears from the Father and the Son.
Now there is a very important principle we can learn here about the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never lead you into any area or situation that will violate the word of God. That's why I know that the Holy Spirit never leads a Christian to marry a non-Christian. For 2 Cor. 6:14 says, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers."
That's why I know that the Holy Spirit would never lead a church to ordain a practicing homosexual, or, for that matter, a practicing adulterer to the ministry. Because the word of God makes it plain that homosexuality and adultery are sins, and the Holy Spirit, neither by reason nor by emotion, will ever lead you in such a way as to cause you to run head-on into the word of God.
If you're not experiencing the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life, the problem is not that the Spirit is not speaking. The problem is either one of two things: First of all, we're not hearing. Have you ever had the phone ring and you pick it up to answer it, but the TV is too loud and the kids are too noisy, and you can't hear what the other person is saying? Now the problem is not that the other person is not speaking, the problem is you can't hear him.
Well, that is what happens to us so often. We are so deafened by the noise of the world, we get so busy in mundane things, that we don't turn down the television, and we don't quiet the crowd, and we don't put down the newspaper and give ourselves the atmosphere that we need in order to hear the Spirit of God speak.
Acts 13:2 is an extremely revealing verse about the speaking of the Holy Spirit. "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" The Holy Spirit spoke as they "ministered to the Lord." If you only have a walk with Jesus on Sunday, don't expect to hear from the Spirit on Monday. But if you will take time everyday to minister to the Lord, to get into the Word, to speak with the Lord, you'll hear from the Lord and the Spirit will guide you.
But the other problem may be that we are hearing, but we are not obeying. Where there is no obedience, there will be no guidance. Acts 5:32 says, "We are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him." You see, the problem with most believers is not that we need guidance in what we don't know, it is that we are not obeying what we do know. The way to learn the will of God in an unknown area of your life, is to obey the will of God in the known area of your life.
The Holy Spirit will lead you to receive truth, and He will lead you to remember truth only if you are already determined to allow Him to lead you to respond to the truth.
IV. The Holy Spirit Leads Us to Reverence the Truth
"He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." (vv. 14-15) The Holy Spirit is not come just to guide us to know things. The Holy Spirit has come to guide us to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and to glorify Him.
Do you know what the phrase "in the loop" means? It means to be really in the inner circle, in the know of what is going on. Through the Holy Spirit God wants us to be in the "glory loop." Even now the Father is glorifying the Son as the only way to be saved; the Son is glorifying the Father by seeking to reconcile us to Him; and the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son and the Father by living in us, giving us the power to obey the Father, the faith to trust in the Son, and to do all of it so that we glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
That principle really helps me to remember something else about the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He will always guide me to do nothing more, nothing else, nothing less, and nothing but glorify Jesus Christ. You find a church that will make much of Jesus, and you'll find a church full of the Holy Spirit. But you find a church that makes much of the Spirit to the neglect of Jesus, and you won't find a lot of either Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
But that leads me to a practical question. How can we be guided by the Holy Spirit; how can we find Him that we might follow Him? Let me give you three simple steps.
First of all, we must acknowledge His leadership. Prov. 3:6 says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." You ought to begin every day by recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, and acknowledging His reality to you.
Secondly, we are to ask for His leadership. "You have not because you ask not." Everyday we should ask the dear Holy Spirit to lead us. Because as one person well said, "It is better to ask the Lord to direct your paths, than it is to correct your mistakes."
Finally, you should accept His leadership. That is, each day you should surrender your life to the leadership of the Spirit, asking Him to fill you and to help you to follow Him.
When a large ship enters a harbor, it takes on board what is called a harbor master. This is a man who knows that harbor; he knows the length of it, he knows the depth of it. He knows where the hazards are. He knows where the tides and currents are; what direction they flow in and how strong they are. When that harbor master comes on board, he takes control of that ship, and he gives order to the captain who steers the ship. He is an outside expert who is brought in to make sure that ship docks safely.
As we sail through the sea of life, we have been given a harbor master. He is the Holy Spirit. He knows the currents, the tides, the hazards, and the flow. If you will let Him guide the ship of your life, He will guide you safely through the hazards of earth, right into the harbor of heaven. Because He is the only guide you need.
1. Peter Lord, Hearing God, p.18.