Guided by The Spirit...

 "When the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you"  John 16:13 

Today’s gospel reading has a remarkable promise that Jesus makes to his disciples… When the Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you to all truth! This is an   important truth to remember as we navigate through life ! Believers can count on the guidance of the Spirit of God!

Here are a couple of notable examples from Scripture…some   before the Spirit was fully given!

LUKE 1: 39- 45:  Elizabeth was a god fearing woman who for many years was not able to bear children. When it seemed that it would be impossible, she is able to conceive and is full of joy. On her 6^th month she receives the unexpected visit of her young cousin Mary who also is with child.

As Mary greets her something happens to Elizabeth, her child suddenly moves and she says is a loud voice: 

"Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you are carrying…who am I that the mother of my Lord shall come to me"

This utterance, this prophetic speaking of truth is the work of the Holy Spirit! Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit and was able to recognize that she was in the presence of her Lord

NO THEOLOGICAL MEANDERING BY EXPERTS but the utterance of a simple woman under the leading of the Holy Spirit what defines this most beloved of Christian teaching about Mary and about her son…Mary is Theotokos, mother of God! The Spirit of truth will lead you to truth!

St. Paul would later speak in these terms….

1 CORINTHIANS 12:3 "...No one can recognize Jesus as Lord but by the power of the Holy Spirit..!

 1 CORINTHIANS 2:9: "...Things that no eyes have seen, nor ears heardnor have come into the thoughts of men are those that God have prepared for those who love him….and he  has revealed them by his Spirit..." !

LUKE 2: 25-35:  Simeon was a holy man, a priest who often prayed for the future of his nation, he saw that it was governed by evil men, under the control of a foreign power and in his prayer we are told by Luke the Evangelist that it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah of Israel. 

One day when at the temple he feels drawn to one of the many couples there…one that had come bringing their newborn child. Mary and Joseph. He took him in his arms and blessed him!

Has it ever happened to you that you just happened to be at the right place, at the right moment for something in particular? Have you ever felt  a premonition or an inspiration, the need to call someone, to visit a particular person, that you have been thinking of someone and suddenly they call or you unexpectedly run into them….Is it a coincidence or the very leading of the Holy Spirit? When the Spirit has come, He will guide you!

ACTS 10-11, Peter was led by the Spirit to go with three random men to the house of a gentile, a non Jew…something largely forbidden by his religion! Once there as he speaks about Jesus the Holy Spirit comes upon them and Peter, quite astonished hears them prophesy and speak in tongues, a gift previously given only to Jews…! 

He was led by the Spirit to be a witness! The action of the Holy Spirit at a gentile’s home in Cesarea, brough a change which humans , religious ones would have been hesitant to make! That day it became clear that all were included in the family of God.  

Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.” 

Am I being led?

Blessings

Seraph