“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:13–15
Let me point out two important things here about the Spirit’s desire for our church:
- The Holy Spirit desires to glorify Christ (v. 14).
- The Holy Spirit desires the church to reach the lost (Acts 1:8).
You could say that these two are radically interconnected. This is the very will and purpose of the Spirit being sent from the Father and Son to fill the church.
Two difficult questions
I need to ask a couple of difficult questions. These are hard to ask and perhaps harder to answer, but I need to do so to faithfully lead us into the will of the Spirit: Do you want what the Spirit wants? Do you want to glorify Christ and do you want people to become Christians?
If your answer is no, I recommend you speak to a brother or sister in Christ, one of the leaders of our church, or an elder. The great thing about the Spirit is that he convicts us and gives a wonderful gift called repentance. You could stop right now and simply repent if you’re convicted. And if you’re convicted, rejoice because the Spirit is already at work within you!
If your answer is yes but you aren’t living to glorify Christ and see people become Christians, why not? What’s stopping you? We are given God’s power—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead—so that we would be his witnesses. What’s keeping you from saying “yes” to the will of God and saying “no” to grieving the Spirit? Resolve right now, in the power of the Spirit and in the grace of God, to start making life decisions to become more obedient to the Spirit’s will.
I know these are hard questions, but God’s love is like that. When Jesus walked this earth he asked a lot of questions and told a ton of stories to get people to think about what following him looks like. He draws us out and wants to meet us where we are. The Father wants to cleanse and renew us, and promises he will conform us to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).
Let’s yield
I want our church to depend on the Holy Spirit more and more. I want the Holy Spirit to have free reign as we say yes to him and no to fear.
Christians, our life together has one great goal: To know Christ and make him known. The Holy Spirit absolutely and without question wants this. So let’s yield ourselves to his will and let God be God, in us.
