If we are going to enter into the fullness of the kingdom of God, we need a guide. It is uncommon ground. If we are going to be sent by the Father to build the kingdom of God in new ways, we need someone to walk with us, someone who knows the way. And the good news is that we have a guide.

In John 14:26, Jesus says…

26 "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 that I said to you.”

We do not get to have the physical Jesus with us, but we do have One just like Him, the Holy Spirit. It would have been amazing to sit at Jesus feet, ask Him questions, and take in all His teaching. But, there is no reason to look at what we can not have when we have something just as real and just as amazing. We have the Holy Spirit living in us.

How can it be just as good? Go back and read John 14:26 one more time. It says that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that Jesus said. In essence, it will be just like having Jesus here physically. The Spirit will give to us everything we could have received from the physical Jesus.

First, Jesus says that the Spirit of God will teach us all things. The Holy Spirit is God, in the same way that Jesus is God, and He will be our teacher. Teaching in the day of Jesus was not like our experience of teaching, especially in the Western world. The most common form of teaching today, is a lecturer in the front of a classroom and students sitting at desks or in an auditorium listening, occasionally asking questions. In Jesus day, teaching almost always followed a Socratic method, with the teacher asking open ended questions of the students and lengthy discussions to help guide the students to toward mastery of a subject.

Our privilege today is to dialogue with the Spirit of God dialogue regarding all things. “All things” means just what it says. The Spirit us all things. He can teach us on any topic He decides, as He receives it from the Father. Nothing is excluded. We can read books and listen to teachers, but regarding the truth of the kingdom, the real mastery of truth comes from the Spirit. He must teach us in order for us to truly understand, personalize, and walk in the kingdom.

This is what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 2:12-14…

12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

In practice then, when we have exhausted the limits of our human thinking regarding Scripture, we should always ask the Spirit of God to be our teacher and to reveal to us the secrets of the Kingdom. It is important that we do our best at digging into Scripture to understand what we can, and it is just as important to spend time in conversation with the Spirit about what it means for us.

Second, Jesus says that the Spirit of God will bring to our remembrance everything that Jesus spoke. This promise was first spoken to the disciples. They had walked with Jesus and heard His teaching. The Spirit would later guide every word they would record in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Even beyond the inspired writings of the story of Jesus life, the Spirit would remind them of His teaching as they needed it in the building of the kingdom.

This promise is also to those of us who believe in Jesus today. How important, then, to spend time reading, memorizing, studying, and meditating on the words of Jesus, as recorded in the Bible. Not only can the Holy Spirit teach us about what Jesus said, He can also bring His words to our remembrance whenever we need them for life in the kingdom.

In John 15:26, there is a second mention of the Spirit’s role regarding Jesus. It says…

26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me…”

Jesus continues to describe exactly how the “Helper” will come along side of us to help us. Jesus identifies Him as the Spirit of truth. Then Jesus says, “…He will testify about Me.” “Testify” is a courtroom term. Think of the Spirit, under an oath of speaking on the truth, testifying about everything He knows about Jesus.

We have an opportunity to know Jesus better today than if we would have walked with Him throughout His whole life. How much does the Spirit know about Jesus? Everything. The Spirit is God and Jesus is God. They are one. Therefore, the Spirit knows everything there is to know about Jesus and He openly shares that with you and me.

Simply put, we have no limitations in our lives in the kingdom. We have access to everything we need to know to live life to the fullest, to live an abundant life.

Jesus reiterates this one more time in John 16:13…

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

Jesus chose to describe the role of the Spirit in these specific terms, “He will guide you into all truth.” Again, “all truth” means just what it says. When we are trying to understand Scripture, He will guide us to the true meaning and often the deeper meaning. When we want to understand what is in Scripture for each of us personally, He will guide us to that truth. When we want to understand what is going on in our lives or in the world, He can guide us to the truth about our circumstances.

In fact, Jesus says that the Spirit will go beyond guiding us to the truth about Scripture and the truth about what is happening around us or in us. Jesus says, “He will disclose to you what is to come.” God exists outside of time and He knows the end from the beginning. Therefore, the Spirit can disclose to us what is going to happen in the future.

When I was first learning to hear from the Spirit about future things, God gave me a simple example. My wife, Michelle, and I were driving home from the mountains when the traffic on the highway came to a complete standstill. We waited for about 20 minutes without moving and then began to discuss the possibility of going back up and taking another route down to our home in Denver, Colorado. This would have added a couple of hours to our trip home.

Since we had just learned about this concept that the Spirit could disclose what is to come, we decided to pray and ask God what was going to happen. When we asked God and began to listen, I heard from the Spirit that the traffic would start moving in 15 minutes. I immediately set my phone alarm to 15 minutes and we waited to see what would happen.

At 13 minutes, there was no movement. At 14 minutes, there was still no movement. At 14 minutes and 50 seconds, still no movement. Right at 15 minutes, the traffic began to move, and from that point all the way home, it was clear sailing. How amazing, that God would begin teaching us this truth in such a simple and yet, practical way.

What a privilege to be in such a close, daily, moment by moment relationship with God, the Spirit. He is our teacher. He is our reminder. He is our testifier. He is our truth. He is our guide. And He is our revealer of things to come.

WORSHIP: Spend some time in thanksgiving. How amazing that God loves us so much that He would not leave us alone. He sent Jesus to die in our place so we could have abundant life forever. Then He sent His Spirit to live inside us, to be closer to us than our own breath. Ponder these truths and worship the Almighty God who loves us and wants to be with us.

PRACTICE: Take some time to reflect on today’s truths. If you have any concerns about today’s teaching, write them down. After writing them down, turn them into questions to be asked of God, to be asked of His Spirit. Spend some time asking the Spirit to answer your questions and to give you clarity.

MEDITATION: Meditate on each of the roles of the Spirit covered today: teacher, reminder, witness, truth, guide, and revealer of things to come. For each of these meditate on what it means to you personally and use this time to dialogue with God. Spirit, what do you want to teach me? What do you want to remind me about Jesus? What do you want to testify about Jesus? What truth do you want to guide me through? What do you want to disclose to me about the future?

ABIDING: Go back and read through this teaching one more time. Ask the Father if there is anything in these passages specifically for you. Write down anything you hear from Him. Spend some extra time listening to see if He has anything more to say to you or if there is a deeper teaching for you today. Write down whatever you hear. Ask the Father if there is someone, He wants you to share this with and follow through with His assignment.