The Spirit of Truth

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” John 16:13

Truth, it seems, is hard to come by these days. There are hard issues that we need to grapple with. Traditional values are being re-written in our society and it challenges what we as Followers of Christ should value. We are experiencing changes of policy concerning a variety of issues in our government and, consequently, many of us are experiencing these changes in our schools and places of work. How are we, as Christians, supposed to respond to these changes? What should be our course of action?

It may seem like to much to think about, especially with all the other pressures and problems we’re experiencing in life. However, God has not left us alone in these matters. He has given us the Holy Spirit whom will lead us into “all the truth”.

This problem with truth is really not a current issue. Followers of Jesus have dealt with this from day one. And when heresy and cultural and political pressures were weighing on the early Church this is what the Apostle John wrote:
“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie – just as it has taught you, abide in him.”

When deceit was overwhelming the Church at that time, the Apostle John reminded them that they have an anointing – the Spirit of God. The Spirit teaches us and shows us the truth. Truth is simply defined as “the actual state of a matter”. Therefore truth is obvious; rather, truth is in plain sight. The problem is that we often don’t want to see the truth and want to view things our own way. We want to overlook the truth of a matter so that we can do as we please rather than do as we should. So the Spirit comes to “remove the vail” so to speak. He ushers us through the maze of our emotions, fears, desires, etc. into the wide-open field of reality.

The problem is that truth is costly to us. More often than not, walking in truth and standing for the truth is going to have some negative effects on us. There will be people around us who do not want to walk according to truth and will, therefore, bully those who do, in an attempt to silence them.

In conclusion, when you’re faced with hard decisions because of new – and often imposed – policies in government, school, work, etc., and want to know the truth about these things – listen to the Spirit. The Spirit will teach you, but be prepared, because those who seek the truth must also have the courage to walk in it.