All the wonderful promises that Jesus made before His death must and will be fulfilled. But there is one GREAT promise that has not yet been fulfilled, and many Christians think it never will be. They are wrong! He will not fail.
That great promise is in John 16:13: "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." We usually think of the Holy Spirit as giving us happy feelings or of giving great power in witnessing and producing baptisms; we think that understanding "all truth" is of lesser importance. But over 200 times the Bible speaks of the importance of truth. In ordinary life, law courts, juries, judges, seek constantly to know the truth. Jesus says that it is so important that "the truth shall make you free" (8:32).
In His same promise that the Holy Spirit will guide us "into all truth" Jesus promised, "He will show you things to come." The wording is very similar to the opening of the Book of Revelation, "the revelation ... of things which must shortly come to pass" (1:1). The Book of Revelation was the fulfillment of Jesus' promise! And yet Christian people go in all different directions in understanding what Revelation is saying!
Likewise, there is confusion in understanding Daniel's prophecies; yet God commanded the angel, "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision," and later the angel said to him, "I will show thee the truth" (8:16; 11:2). Paul spoke of his message as "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5). There is as much division in understanding that as there is in understanding Daniel and the Revelation!
What can bring about a unity and clarity of understanding these important truths? Surely when that great fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4 begins to "lighten the earth with glory," the message that calls every sincere person "out of Babylon" will be a message of pure, unadulterated truth. We pray daily for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. An excellent place to begin finding the answer to that prayer is in honest, sincere, and humble listening to the Bible to permit it to tell us what the truth is in all these controverted areas. Jesus did not promise, "The Holy Spirit will TRY to lead you into all truth," or "He wishes He could lead you into all truth." No, He said He WILL do so. As surely as I write and you read this, so surely is the Holy Spirit right now "leading" us into the truth that will bind us together in loving harmony of belief. Let's listen to Him!
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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