Say What God Leads You To Say

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Reading: John 16:5-16 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2016&version=NIV Reflection: In this passage we see that Jesus will send us the Holy Spirit once He returns to the Father. In this sense, it is better that Jesus leave because unless He returns to God, the Spirit won't come for us. We also learn that the Holy Spirit not only convicts us of guilt and convinces us of truth, but that the Holy Spirit does not speak on His own authority. More specifically, the Holy Spirit doesn't even decide for Himself what we should be told. Jesus clearly states that the Holy Spirit only passes along to us what He hears from the Father. Thus, the Word that comes to us is not something the Spirit decides on His own to state, but what the Father decides that He should say. In other words, the Spirit is not to use His own words, under His own authority, with His own agenda when He witnesses for God...He speaks what He hears. This is significant for us as well. You see, the Holy Spirit fills and empowers each of us. He gives us the words to speak when we testify for God. However, the words He gives to us come directly from the Father. Thus, when we speak we are actually sharing the words that have come from God, through the Spirit, to us. This also means that when we witness we don't speak with our own authority or with our own agendas. We are to say what the Spirit gives us to say, no more and no less. When that word is heard, and faith and conversion and growth come to people, it isn't because of our unique skills in oration. It is because the words come with the authority and agenda of God. So, we can let go of our need to try to gain specific results. We simply speak the words God has given and trust in His authority to produce the results He desires.