The Spirit Of Truth Is Speaking To You!

The Spirit Of Truth Is Speaking To You! 

John 16:13-15 " When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

This verse talks about the Holy Spirit, the gift the Lord sent us when Jesus went to heaven.  In this verse, it talks about various aspects of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came to us for several reasons.  This verse first discusses that it is the Spirit of truth and that He will guide us into all the truth.  This is important because it reminds us that we can trust what we hear from the Holy Spirit.  This verse reminds us that what we hear from the Holy Spirit comes directly from the Lord.  The Spirit is not speaking on His own; He is telling us what He heard the Father say.  

It also says that He will declare to us what will come.  This is important because it reminds us that we have someone on our side.  We can ask the Holy Spirit questions, and He will answer.  This doesn’t mean that we will never be taken by surprise or that we will know everything that will happen to us throughout the day.  This means the Holy Spirit can prepare us for what is coming if we allow Him.  In order to allow Him to help us prepare for what is coming, we need to set aside time to listen to Him.  We need to pay attention to what He says and not just listen and then let it go.

Our prayer group sets aside a time each week when we are quiet and listen for the words of the Holy Spirit.  We record these words.  We then type everything that was said, and we give those notes to the Discernment team.  This team then discerns what we think the Lord’s call, proclamation, promise, and directive was for that month. We then put this information from the Holy Spirit onto a bookmark so that our whole group can remember the words that were said and we can incorporate them into our everyday lives.  We can use these words to strengthen us and prepare us for what is to come. For instance this is the latest bookmark: “My call to each one of you is very personal. It is not a

message for everyone. It is intimate, personal, all-loving, and all-consuming. From the beginning, I spoke, and my Word created new life. I speak again today through my holy Word to each of your hearts. I create new life. I renew, replenish, and fill you with grace and mercy that I wish you to share with others. I watch over you, my children. I break the sword of the enemy who would come against you. I will defend you in battle. I have sent you the power of the Spirit, and he will give you all that you need to do what you have been called to do. You are the anointing I send to the world. Be not afraid. I am with you. My Spirit will speak through you the words that I wish to say. When I say you can, don’t tell me you can’t. Smile that today I send you.”

These words were spoken to our prayer group over the course of a month.  We recorded them because we did not want to forget them.  However, we receive many words each week, and it would be difficult to remember all of them.  This is where the discernment team comes in.  There are four of us on the team, and we all read through all the words given that month on our own and come up with what we think the Lord wants everyone to remember.  We then come together and see if we have chosen the same things.  Most of the time, we have at least two people who picked the same thing for each category so we will go with that.  Occasionally, we all pick different words; if that is the case, we will pray and ask the Lord to lead us to the one He wants us to use.

I think if you were to look at the four categories we use to make our bookmarks, it might give you a better idea of what sort of information the Holy Spirit gives us.  The first thing we look at is the call.  What is the Holy Spirit calling us to do?  I am sure the Holy Spirit is calling you to something as well.  Do you know what that is?  What is your calling?  What is the Holy Spirit calling you to?  Are you taking the time to listen to that call?  Are you writing down the things you hear? God has a plan for each of us and sends the Holy Spirit to tell us what that plan is.  

The next things we look at is proclamation.  While you are listening to the Lord He will tell you things about Himself.  These tend to be “I am” statements about who He is and what He is doing.  For instance, in the bookmark above, the Holy Spirit told us, “From the beginning, I spoke, and my Word created new life. I speak again today through my holy Word to each of your hearts. I create a new life. I renew, replenish, and fill you with grace and mercy that I wish you to share with others.” Do you see how the Lord is proclaiming who He is and what He does?  He is reminding us that He created everything.  He is also telling us that not only did He create everything with His words, but that he is speaking those words into our hearts as well.  He is letting us know that He creates new life.  He wants us to know that He is filling us with grace and mercy so we can share it with others.

The third thing we look at is His promise.  Did you know the Holy Spirit can share God’s promises with you?  It’s true that God is still making promises, or maybe He is reminding us of promises made long ago that we have forgotten about or did not know about.  Either way, they are promises we can count on.  In the bookmark above, the promise is, “I watch over you, my children. I break the sword of the enemy who would come against you. I will defend you in battle. I have sent you the power of the Spirit, and he will give you all that you need to do what you have been called to do.” God is promising us that He is there watching over us.  He is promising that He will break the sword of the enemy who will come against us.  The Lord is letting us know He will defend us in battle.  He is reminding us that He sent the Holy Spirit to us, and with that Holy Spirit comes power.  He is letting us know that if he is calling us to something, He will give us all we need to complete that call.  We are not on our own; He is there with us!

The last thing we look at is directive.  What is the Lord directing us to do?  We usually have a lot of directives to choose from, as I think the Lord wants us to be out in the world doing things for Him.  He wants us to love others and bring them to Him.  The directive in the bookmark above is, “You are the anointing I send to the world. Be not afraid. I am with you. My Spirit will speak through you the words that I wish to say. When I say you can, don’t tell me you can’t. Smile that today I send you.” In this directive, the Lord is assuring us that the Holy Spirit will speak through us and give us the words the Lord wants us to say.  He is telling us he anointed us and that He is with us and will give us all we need for that anointing.  I love that the Lord knows us so well.  I love when He says, “When I say you can, don’t tell me you can’t.” Isn’t that just like us?  I don’t know about you, but I tell the Lord, I can’t often.  When I feel He is calling me to pray over complete strangers in the streets, I tell Him I can’t.  When He tells me to do things that are way outside my comfort zone, I tell Him I can’t.  

That line definitely convicts me.  It reminds me that God is with me and who am I to tell the Lord what I can and can’t do?  Didn’t he create me?  Doesn’t He know every hair on my head?  So, why am I telling Him what I can and can’t do when He is the one who created me?  He knows what I can and can’t do much better than I do.  What I should be saying is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I think the purpose of me going over our discernment process with you today is so that you can start to recognize when the Holy Spirit is talking to you.  Now that you know some of the various ways He talks to you, maybe you will start to recognize His voice a bit more.  Maybe you can differentiate what He is saying, and I hope it will help you put His words into action.  

Hearing the voice of the Lord is a gift from the Holy Spirit, and it is one that can increase with practice and decrease if ignored.  If the Holy Spirit is constantly talking with you and you are ignoring all He is saying, I am not sure if He will continue to talk with you.  When you make time to listen to the Lord, He will always talk with you, as He loves when we listen.  When He talks with you, write down what He says and refer back to it.  I sometimes find myself reviewing my prayer journal and what the Lord said to me.  However, I do not do it as often as I would like.  Every time I do, I wonder why I don’t do it more often.  It is so beneficial.  I hope this episode encourages you to pay a little more attention to the Holy Spirit's voice and the different types of words He might give you.  He is speaking to you, and His words are straight from the Lord.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we pray that we can all hear your voice.  We pray that it brings us fruit in our lives. We pray we can hear it and apply it to our lives.  We ask you to help us, Lord. Help us not just to hear it and forget it but to remember it and apply it to our lives. We love you, Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again on Monday.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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