Louise Gevers

"The Helper will come – the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father and he will speak about me." John 15:26 GNT

When Jesus knew that His time was near to return to the Father, He tried to prepare His disciples for it by using a metaphor of hope to help them: “When a woman is about to give birth, she is sad because her hour of suffering has come; but when the baby is born, she forgets the suffering, because she is happy that a baby has been born into the world.” (John16:21) This is true.

Truth is vital to life. Through it we are empowered to know who and what we can trust, and what will bring us good, whereas deception is destructive and brings harm and danger. Jesus embodies the truth and sends the Spirit to His people to reveal the truth about God, which equips them for service in spreading the Gospel and saving others from deception.

Truth was vital to Abraham. He is known as the friend of God, but according to Jewish tradition his father, Terah, was an idol maker. The story goes that one day Abraham was in charge of his father’s store when a man walked in wanting to buy an idol. When Abraham asked him how old he was, the man answered, “Fifty years old.” Abraham exclaimed, “You are fifty years old and want to worship a day old statue!” At which point the man left, ashamed.

In Isaiah, God ridicules the people who make idols. “Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth. The maker of idols hasn’t the wit or the sense to say, ‘Some of the wood I burned up. I baked some bread on the coals … and the rest of the wood I made into an idol. Here I am bowing down to a block of wood!” (Isaiah 44:18-19). His people need never be ignorant or deceived as we can trust the Holy Spirit to bring the truth to us, as the Helper that Jesus sends from the Father.   

His hour of suffering, which would bring great sadness to the disciples was soon to come, but “their grief would be for a limited time because they would see Him again and would “be filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no-one can take away…” (John 16:22) the truth would set them free.” (John 8:32) Their sadness would be forgotten just like the mother forgets her sadness after her baby is born.

Jesus had to return to His Father so that the Holy Spirit could come in power in a way that He could not. While He was there physically, Jesus was limited to being in one place, whereas the Spirit was unrestricted and would have a far greater influence on the lives of Believers. He would transform them and make it possible for the truth to take them far to spread the Gospel.    

Prayer: Gracious Spirit, I am so grateful for Your constant presence in my life and that I am free because of the truth You reveal. You forever help us and point us to what is true, right and good and brings glory to God.  Amen