Published by admin on 14 Aug 2009 at 03:35 pm
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
There is a lot of teaching available about the work of the Holy Spirit, but not a lot about the Spirit of Truth, so today I would like to explore some of what is written about that, starting in John 14:15-26;
Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Joh 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Joh 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Joh 14:22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Joh 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
Joh 14:25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The Lord Jesus spoke that it is not enough to hear the Word of God, but he that hears and keeps the Word is he who loves God. Many go to church each week and hear the sermon, thinking they have done their part by coming out to hear. But when the devil comes to try them, and he surely will, the overwhelming evidence shows they haven’t been “keeping” the Word, but hearing it only. Does that mean the Spirit of Truth is not at work in their lives? No, that just means they haven’t been listening to the point of applying the Word to their life.
We say we want the Holy Spirit to abide with us and in us, but unless we are actively obeying the Word of God, the Holy Spirit doesn’t abide, but merely comes to us, as in a visit. Think about it, how many times has the Holy Spirit given you a warning not to do something, but you do it anyway, and later wish you hadn’t? Or perhaps the Holy Spirit has urged you to do something, and you failed to obey. Either way, the Spirit of Truth tried to guide you, but if you didn’t obey, you failed to reap the benefits thereof.
One of the functions of the Spirit of Truth is to remind you of the Word of God that applies to your particular situation at the time. Many times I have had a scripture just pop into my mind that pertained to exactly what I needed to know in order to be victorious in a situation.
When you have symptoms of sickness upon your body, the Spirit of Truth’s job is to remind you of what God said about your healing. That’s where His job ends. Now, it’s YOUR job to apply the Word to your situation, because it isn’t the Holy Spirit’s job to do it for you. There is a part the Holy Spirit does, and there’s a part you do. Too many people just want to have the attitude, “Well, bless God, if He wants me healed, He will just heal me.” Sorry, that’s not how it works. He will tell you how to be healed, but you have to obey Him. You can sit on your sofa all day long saying God wants you healed, but if you don’t act on the scriptures, you’ll still be sitting there sick on your sofa until Jesus comes. Let me give you an example:
There were many sick people in Israel when Jesus was doing His earthly ministry. But only those who got up off their duff and went to Jesus were healed. What about the rest of them? They stayed sick because even though they might have heard about the healings that Jesus was doing, they didn’t want to be healed bad enough take action. But the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years was another case. She heard, she came, and she was made whole. In fact, she was so determined to have her healing that she came up in a crowd behind Jesus and touched His garment, and she was instantly healed, and Jesus never even saw her coming, nor did He lay hands on her. She literally took her healing! And that same attitude works well for us yet today. I know, because that’s what I did when I was dying of cancer in 1993.
Matthew 11:12 says, And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For a long time, I didn’t understand that verse until I read Mark 5, then I saw that you get nothing from the Kingdom of God by being passive. Wars are not won by being on the defense, but are won by going on the offense. Nobody becomes an overcomer by being passive, and God doesn’t want you to just sit around waiting and hoping that someday His blessings will just fall out of the sky and land on you. The Word says if you SEEK God you will FIND Him. He has made Himself available to you, but you must seek Him. How do you do that? By studying and APPLYING the Word of God to your life, by praying and seeking a relationship with God. Again, the job of the Spirit of Truth is to remind you of the Word of God in you. However, if you don’t put any Word in you, there’s nothing in there for the Spirit of Truth to remind you of, is there?
Here’s another example of the work of the Spirit of Truth:
2Ki 5:1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2Ki 5:2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
2Ki 5:3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
2Ki 5:4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
2Ki 5:5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
2Ki 5:6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
2Ki 5:7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
2Ki 5:8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
2Ki 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
2Ki 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
2Ki 5:11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
2Ki 5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
2Ki 5:13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
2Ki 5:14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Naaman wanted to be healed, and went to the Prophet Elisha. So far, so good. But Naaman wanted to be healed on his own terms. Don’t fail to see this: God wants to bless you, but He has His own way of doing things, and if we want the benefits of His mercy, we must do things His way. So, when Elisha sent his messenger out to tell Naaman to go dip seven times in the Jordan, Naaman went away mad, as you can see in verse 11. The Spirit of Truth led Naaman to Elisha, then spoke through Naaman’s servant saying “My father, if the prophet had bid the do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean?
You see, the Spirit of Truth was trying to get healing to Naaman by the way of Elisha, but Naaman wasn’t ready to submit to God’s way of doing things just yet. The Spirit of Truth then pleaded with Naaman through his servant, and finally prevailed, and Naaman was healed. But what if Naaman still refused to go dip in the Jordan seven times? He would have went home still a leper, simple as that.
Has God been pleading with you by way of the Spirit of Truth, but you have ignored Him? If so, repent, submit yourself, obey, and be blessed. The Spirit of Truth is there to serve you and show you the way to God’s blessings, but He can’t guide you if you won’t follow. John 16:13 says, 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 shew you things to come.
The Spirit of Truth will not lie to you. From there, it’s up to you what you will do with that information. But the first thing you need to do is to stop listening to the lies of the devil, for he will say you’re going under, not over, you will never be healed, you’ll always be poor, and so forth. The Spirit of Truth is speaking to you right now, and I hope you’re listening. God has a good plan for your life, both now, and in the future, and if you will obey His Words, it will come to pass, just as He says.
julie on 14 Aug 2009 at 5:33 pm #
AMEN ! Blessings, julie
mathew on 30 Oct 2009 at 3:02 am #
Dear
Please do pray in jesus name for my mother kidneys to function normally my mother is on Dialiassis and also do pray for my daddy bone swelling which is paining please do pray in jesus the son of God name this is mathew from india