Trusting the Spirit

John chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. I can remember many, many years ago, reading that passage to an elderly man who was quite sick, before giving a communion.

And if he had had the strength to do so, he would have thrown me out of his house. He was really ticked at me. You know, what are you trying to tell me? Are you trying to tell me that I'm going to die? And it was really foolish on my part to read that passage to him, because for him, as for many, many other people, that passage in John 14, 1, 2, and 3 is the funeral passage.

I go to prepare a place for you, and I'll come and take you to myself. And immediately, everybody thinks of funerals and about their own or their loved one's death. And yet, when Jesus spoke those words, I'm quite sure he had no intention that those words should be the ones that are used at a funeral for the last 2,000 years.

That those words are the opening, the introduction of one of the most vital discourses that are recorded in Scripture, one of the most important teachings he ever gave, a three-chapter passage of the Upper Room Discourse, John 14, 15, and 16, which are equally important, just as important as the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, Jesus describes exactly the life of radical faith to which he calls us. You are the light of the world, now come on, get that bushel off and let it shine. And then, in the remaining verses of that discourse, he tells us exactly how this is to be.

He calls for a life of radical faith, radical holiness, and radical love. In this passage, John 14, 15, and 16, he tells us how this can be. Rich, deep, clear teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit that we need to take in and soak in and really make part of our lives.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. He's not just talking about coming for us when we die. He's not just talking about coming for us at the resurrection.

He is especially talking about coming for us now. I've prepared a place for you, now I'm taking you to be where I am. I'm taking you in behind the veil.

I'm taking you into the very presence of the Father where you can live and move with supernatural life and power. And that he does in our lives, not after we die, not just at the resurrection, but right now. Helpful to take along with this passage a couple verses from Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 and following, but God who is rich in mercy out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places.

Past tense, all done. How does he make us alive with Christ, raise us up with him and cause us to sit with him in heavenly places? By the power of the Holy Spirit, by visiting us in the spirit and raising us up and making this actual in our lives now. Now in John 14, 15 and 16, Jesus describes how he comes and takes us to this place he's prepared before the Father's throne.

Speaks to us, guides us, lives in us, gives us utterance, causes us to live as sons and daughters of God. For example, in John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, the Spirit of Truth, for he is with you.

The Spirit of Truth is with them already in the body of Jesus and he will be in you. Just as he's in me, he will soon be in you, he says. John 14, 18, I will not leave you desolate, I will come to you.

How will he come to us? Through the Holy Spirit. John 14, 25, these things I have spoken to you while I'm still with you, but the counselor, 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 have said. I go to prepare a place for you.

When I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And he does this through the power of the Holy Spirit moving in the body now, not after we die, now. John 16, 12, I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all 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. The apostolic believers took these promises as something very, very clear. They were not vague mush for them.

They were clear. And although they were not written down at that point, it was from mouth to mouth or from mouth to ear, word of mouth. It was talked about and thought about and prayed about from the time Jesus left until the time the Spirit came, really from the time he spoke those words in the upper room.

When the Spirit came, it was exactly fulfilled as he promised. The Spirit began to guide them into all truth. The Spirit gave them utterance.

The Spirit anointed them with power. The Spirit enabled them to live and move as sons and daughters of the kingdom. For then it was clear-cut, the Spirit is here and he's the one who rules the church now, and he's going to show us what we need to know.

And this became very practical. And if you read the book of Acts, you see how practical it was. Example, they had been told by Jesus to take this gospel also to the Gentiles.

All these believers were Jewish. And theoretically that sounded okay, from Jerusalem into Samaria, which was half Gentile, and then on to the uttermost parts of the earth. But somehow they never got around to it.

Finally, the Spirit began to speak to Peter with the episode with Cornelius. The Spirit gives him a vision. He says there's some men coming downstairs, go and go with them.

So Peter obeys the Spirit and he goes to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea and he proclaims the gospel. The Spirit falls. Wonderful.

Sits down and eats with them. But word gets back to Jerusalem, among some of the other believers, that Peter went to the house of a Gentile and actually sat down and ate with them, and then had the audacity to come back and corrupt us. And so Peter has to defend himself.

Listen to his defense in Acts chapter 11, verse 11 and following. Peter is talking. He says at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.

And the Spirit told me to go with them without hesitation. Notice the next words he speaks. These six brethren also accompanied me.

So notice he didn't go off half-talked as a lone ranger disciple all by himself. The Spirit told me to do this, this, and this. Everything he did was in company with the body.

He takes these six men, seven men now, go over to Caesarea to the house of Cornelius the Gentile. We entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, send to Joppa and bring Simon, call Peter.

He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard this, they were silenced. All the critics were silenced and they glorified God saying, then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life. Notice, the Spirit told me to go and I went.

The Spirit fell on them just as he fell on us at the beginning. And this was enough to convince the believers in Jerusalem that it was all right. They were serious about being guided by the Holy Spirit.

They believed the Spirit would guide them. And so he guided them, spoke to them and gave them power. Ah, you say, but it doesn't seem to work like that anymore.

The voice of the Spirit doesn't seem to be as clear as it was in those days. If the voice of the Spirit is not as clear in the body now as then, it is only because we really find it hard, we say, to believe the promise. The promise, let not your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself.

That where I am, there you may be also. Today, in this place, right now, the Spirit of God comes to fulfill that and bring us in behind the veil, before the throne, so we can hear God speak. What we need to do is trust the Spirit, trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us, instead of forever, impulsively, taking things into our own hands.

One more example from the book of Acts. We've looked at this passage, must be five times over the spring and summer. Let's look at it again.

First, a few verses of Acts chapter 13. Now, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manion, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

How did he say that? No doubt through prophecy, but he spoke, and they accepted it as from him. Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

See, they didn't formulate a plan and then ask God to bless it. They waited upon the Lord. They worshiped the Lord in fasting and prayer and praise and worship until the Spirit made known his plan.

Separate Saul and Barnabas for the work to which I called them, and they sent them out. Now, the same Spirit is still Lord of the body, and he is quite capable of speaking to us, giving us utterance, guiding us, and giving us power. All we need to do, all we need to do is to learn to trust him.

We need to learn to trust the Spirit basically in three areas. First, we need to trust that the Spirit will guide us, but we also need to learn to trust, number two, that the Spirit will guide us. He will guide us into all truth.

He guides us into all truth by bringing us inside the veil before the throne of the Father. Practically, for instance, we need to believe that the Spirit will teach us to pray. We don't know how to pray.

Paul says the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, sighs too deep for words, and he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So, we go into a room, shut the door, open our mouth, and pray. Lord God, you're going to have to give me the words.

Spirit of the Lord, show me. Many of us have long since given up that God would ever give us a prayer light, and the reason is we don't trust the Spirit will show us. Things get dull.

It gets hard. I don't know how to pray. Other people seem to be able to do it.

Do it. Go into your room, shut the door, and trust that the Spirit will guide you, and he will. He will.

We need to learn to trust that the Spirit will give us utterance. Lunchtime comes. A man sits down right by you, and all the time you're trying to eat your lunch, he's spilling his guts.

Instead of saying, why don't you call the crisis center? Talk to him. Open your mouth and believe that the Lord will give you something, and he will. Many, many, many, many opportunities are lost because we're afraid to open our mouth when we should, and also, of course, because we never shut our mouths when we should.

We need to believe that the Spirit will give us vision. Without vision, we don't know where we're going. We have to have some idea which road we're supposed to take, how we're supposed to go from here.

Trust that the Spirit will show. You know, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will guide you with my eye.

Trust me. I will guide you if you'll trust me. We need to trust that the Spirit will give us power.

Many, many times we're dealing with situations which are absolutely overwhelming. You know, we say, oh man, the guy's hopeless. You can't say that, even though it seems like he is.

We have to believe that the Spirit will give us power to say or do something redemptive and begin, open our mouth, say something, stretch forth your hand, do something, and the Lord will come in with the power. We need to trust the Spirit in our own lives, but secondly, we also need to trust that the Spirit will guide our brothers and sisters. Some of us get over the first time.

Now we believe that the Spirit will guide us, but we think now we have to guide everybody else. You know, if I think I'm the only Spirit-filled person around, oh yes, other people are Spirit-filled, but not quite as full as I am, so I have to meddle and mess with everybody else's heart. See, the other man's heart, the other woman's heart is a holy arc of God.

I have no right to touch it. If I reach out to touch the arc, I die, and I have to treat that person with respect and step back and let the Spirit move. Don't misunderstand me.

I believe that when we're used by God to bring somebody to faith, of course we're going to disciple this person. We're going to spend time with them, call them on the phone, go places with them, open scriptures to them, you know, be a brother or a sister to them, but there comes a point where we also have to wean them. And if you're still nursing this person spiritually for 20 years, you know, there's something sick that you're creating.

You know, we have to learn to sometimes even push them away and learn to let the Spirit guide them. Don't let them hang on you all the time. Now they have to learn to walk on their own two feet under the Spirit.

In the book of Revelation it talks about the Nicolaitans, the teaching of the Nicolaitans. As far as I know, I believe the teaching of the Nicolaitans is this tendency, this predisposition we all have to want to dominate other people and never let go once it's time for me to let go and let the Spirit guide. Now how different was with the Apostle Paul? Paul goes into the city of Corinth, 500,000 people, preaches in the synagogue, gets kicked out, they meet in a hall.

18 months later, magic. He leaves and there is a body of believers that stands on its own two feet. He doesn't have to send a telegram to Jerusalem, send us a couple preachers.

And over there in Antioch, we need some administrators. These people can't make it without our help. The minute you do that, you're getting a clergy class right off the bat.

No, no. Paul left, trusting that the same Spirit that guided him, guides them too. And he was willing to let them make some mistakes.

You know, he wasn't all the time breaking down their neck and say, wait a minute, you might do that wrong. Give him a chance. Paul let people learn and he believed that the Spirit was able to guide them and he did guide them.

Thirdly and finally, we need to also believe and trust that the Spirit will prepare the way out there in the world, that he will convict, he will bring people to repentance. From John 16, 7, Jesus again is speaking. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment.

Of sin, because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no more. Of judgment, because the ruler, the prince of this world is judged.

Meaning, the convicting is done by the Spirit. He may convict people through us, but he does the convicting. This relieves me of a tremendous burden, this ridiculous burden that I think I have to bring that man to repentance, that I have to put the fear of God in this woman.

Absolutely impossible. You don't bring anybody to repentance. I don't bring anybody under the fear of God.

The Spirit does. What we need to do is faithfully get out there and speak and live the Kingdom of God. And if we will do that, the Spirit will convict.

Believe that before you ever get to that stranger, the Spirit of the Lord is working in that man or woman's heart and will be working while you speak. Before you ever pick up the phone to talk to your cousin in Colorado, the Spirit will be working on the other end. Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. One day, indeed, he is to take us to glory. Meanwhile, he is already here to take us through the veil into the presence of the Father to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Believe in God. Believe also in me, he said, by believing that the Spirit will guide you, that the Spirit will guide your brothers and sisters, and that the Spirit will convict the world. And you will see mountains move and chains break.

You will see the hand of God working with power in your life and the lives of others as never before. Let's just take some time in silence, complete silence. Let's not have any prayers or anything else for a while.

Let's just have some silence.