John 16:13, commentary and pictures

When Christ was about to leave His disciples, He promised that the Holy Spirit as Comforter and His representative would come to continue His teaching and lead them into all truth, speaking only what He receives from the Father and Christ and making known things to come. That promise was fulfilled after His ascension when the Spirit descended at Pentecost upon the waiting disciples, recalling His words, revealing the Father and the Son with certain knowledge, and giving power that converted thousands. The guiding work was not limited to apostolic days but continues through the whole gospel age to believers now and to the end of the world. He guides progressively into ever-unfolding truth, opening Scripture as its only true interpreter, convicting of sin, forming Christlike character in obedience to God's law, and always glorifying Christ rather than Himself. This guidance is given to humble, obedient seekers who diligently search the Word with prayer, and it never contradicts Scripture but is tested by it, leading away from error and deception into unity, holiness and peace.

Setting and Original Promise

The promise belongs to the last discourse in the upper chamber before betrayal, crucifixion and separation, spoken alone to the faithful disciples after Judas withdrew as words of comfort, counsel and prayer. It mingled dark warnings of future trials with bright hope, for Christ plainly told of the difficulties they would meet in the world because He knew every phase of experience and conflict before them and was grieved that they must pass through manifold afflictions and great temptation to lose faith. It was given to strengthen faith and courage, to prepare them for coming work and trial so they would not fail nor be discouraged in the dark troubled future, with the changeless strength, consolation, hope and courage of the Holy Spirit ever within reach as they bore faithful witness as Christlike representatives to an apostate world while not being of the world. The truths spoken there were not fully understood until after the resurrection, but once understood they were imprinted on mind and heart, repeated to stay one another in disappointment and trial, and carried by testimony throughout the world where through all ages they continue to comfort the desponding and give peace and hope to believers. Christ thereby assured them He would not leave them ignorant, for the Spirit of truth would guide them into truth and show what was to come, and John 14 through 17 are of highest value for every soul consecrating life to God's service.

He said He had many things they could not yet bear, speaking to them as depositaries of sacred truth only as far as they could comprehend it, because former teaching had molded their ideas so they would misinterpret a fuller unfolding. Their minds were confused and molded by rabbinical traditions, maxims of scribes and Pharisees, and earthly temporal ideas, with failure to understand the spiritual nature of His kingdom and the value of the Scriptures, so they could not keep His lessons distinct and many lessons were almost lost upon them. He had opened a vast tract of truth yet left many things unsaid that they could not comprehend, and many things He desired to teach before He went away failed to be understood. The verse means that in the right time after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension the Holy Spirit would open many things, give better understanding of what had been tried to be told, recall sayings to mind, open both what was said and what was left unsaid, and still continue to reveal sacred truth and more fully impart truth. At Pentecost the Spirit revealed the Father and the Son and strengthened the appointed witnesses so adversaries could not gainsay them, unfolding truths that gave faith and assurance in the teachings of Scripture and certain knowledge that Christ though clothed with humanity is the Son of God and indeed the Messiah.

That promise was fulfilled when, after Christ passed within the heavenly gates and was enthroned amidst the adoration of angels, the Holy Spirit descended in rich currents upon the waiting praying disciples before the New Testament was written or a gospel sermon was preached. Christ's ascension was the signal that followers were to receive the blessing and wait before entering work, and Christ was glorified with the glory He had with the Father from all eternity. The coming revealed God in power to His church as Heaven poured out long-restrained riches of grace, serving as Christ's representative to enable bold witness to His divinity, death, resurrection and exaltation. Under that influence penitence and confession mingled with praise for sins forgiven, thanksgiving and prophecy were spoken, the gift of matchless love was grasped, minds were illuminated to fully understand and continue the work Jesus had left, and the Spirit newly edged with power cut through unbelief like a sword so thousands were converted in a day and witness spread through Jerusalem. The Pentecostal outpouring was Heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished, sent as token that He had as priest and king received all authority in heaven and on earth and was the Anointed One over His people.

The work of teaching, reminding, enlightening, warning and comforting was not limited to apostolic days or to Pentecost but extends to the church in all ages and continues throughout the whole gospel dispensation even after the close of the canon to the end of the world. It was spoken not only to the first disciples but also to believers now, given as Heaven's richest gift and mighty power waiting to be poured upon God's people to equip them as workers who go and bring forth remaining fruit and serve as witnesses. The same Spirit who sustained the patriarchs, gave Caleb and Joshua faith and courage, made the apostolic church effective, helped Waldensian Christians prepare the way for the Reformation, and strengthened pioneers of modern missions and Bible translation still guides God's church today into the way of salvation through Christ. He moves upon hearts, and those who respond become witnesses communicating to others the light that made the way plain, exalting the standard of God's law and preparing the way for the second advent, and as they let light shine they receive more and still more of power so the earth is to be lightened with glory. He may give individuals light and instruction apart from what is recorded in Scripture, but this remains in harmony with God's word, and great things were foretold for the church through this endowment, though the promise is given too little attention and remains insufficiently fulfilled.

The verse belongs to John 13 through 17, which plainly outline God's will to be believed as God means it and lived out in practical life before fellow ministers and in every home. In this context that will is connected with the gospel's gift of life and union with Christ begun in this life and lasting through eternity, showing how to receive grace, with conditions that must be met to be counted among His people when He comes in glory. Its instruction is given to cure dissension and seeking the highest place, and lived out it answers Christ's prayer, produces unity with one another and with Christ and the love that withstands Satan's assaults. It gives strength instead of weakness to those who would be strong co-workers with Christ against the enemy's determined efforts to ensnare them, and enables them to stand the test in the shaking time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken.

Spirit Speaks What He Hears

The Spirit of truth promised here is the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ. He is Christ's representative and heavenly teacher and guide, sent to the world and to His church at Christ's ascension as His crowning gift to take His place. He is the soul of Christ's life, the efficacy of His church, and the light and life of the world, bringing with Christ a reconciling influence and power to take away sin. What He does is make real in hearts and lives what Christ made possible by His death on the cross, guiding, blessing and leading the disciples into all truth and revealing things to come so believers are made complete in Christ.

He does not speak of Himself or on His own authority or independently, but whatsoever He hears, that He speaks. He receives truth from Christ and the Father and communicates only what He receives, making known what belongs to Christ and thereby glorifying Him. He proceeds from the Father, and His teaching comes through people imbued with the Holy Spirit and sanctified in speech, leading them to Christ's teachings and revealing coming events rather than to claims that draw minds away from plain truth. This reassured the disciples that they would not be left helpless when Jesus departed, and this guiding work is entrusted to faithful workers who give both reproof for sin and encouragement to all who forsake sin and are converted.

Just what the Holy Spirit is in nature has not been revealed, cannot be explained, is not essential to define for salvation, and remains a mystery too deep for human understanding. The verse does not give a definition of His nature, for that remains what people cannot fully define after being unable to bear all Christ wished to tell them. Gathering Scriptures to construct and sustain an explanation goes beyond what is revealed and puts a wrong construction upon them, leading minds to dwell on an obscure point, diverting from Christ and present vital truth, increasing obscurity and confusion, not strengthening the church, and hindering oneness through sanctification. On such high mysteries silence is golden, while what is essential is piety, devotion, and sanctification of soul, body, and spirit, knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ and believing on the Son for everlasting life.

The Comforter is the Spirit of truth, not deception, and His work is not to praise, flatter and exalt men. There is no genuine comfort in falsehood and false theories are a deceptive perversion of truth, but truth brings comfort and hope, and through truth people share in peace that surpasses understanding. His work is to define and maintain truth, first dwelling in the heart as the Spirit of truth and thus becoming the Comforter, since comfort and peace are in truth. The validity of truth is impressed by the Spirit on receptive hearts, not by the presenter's power or influence, working through the Scriptures by speaking to the mind and impressing truth upon the heart. Thereby He exposes error by its right name and expels it from the soul, shields those who have not resisted its evidence from delusive doctrines, silences voices that oppose the truth, and keeps those under His influence calm and steadfast rather than fanatical or extravagant.

Guided Into All Truth

When he comes he guides Christ's disciples and representatives into all truth, continuing Christ's own instruction after his departure, opening truths they could not yet understand, reminding them of Christ's words, renewing the mind and illuminating the understanding, and sustaining them through persecution, sorrow and rejection so they are not left helpless or alone. Through the Spirit Christ makes clearer to those who believe what he inspired holy men to write, and this guidance brings about the unity for which Christ prayed, with believers receiving sanctification through obedience to the word and the Spirit of truth. After crucifixion and ascension the Spirit gives a fuller grasp of what Christ taught and reveals coming events, makes known what belongs to Christ, and through him Christ lives in the believer while future events are discerned through prophecy and understood. The Spirit is the means by which God's word is understood, and through him its truths continue to unfold to God's people.

That guiding is progressive and ever-learning, with truth continuing to unfold and neglected truths revealed, familiar passages gaining new meaning, and redemption's truths appearing in fresh beauty while rooted in what was revealed. No one person or generation receives all the light God intends to give, so reform and growing understanding continue from age to age as people are able to bear it. The Spirit opens God's word, illuminates its teachings and helps apply them, impressing on the mind the vital truths on which salvation depends and making the way of life plain, so that Scripture's treasures are understood and appreciated through his illumination by those who approach reverently, earnestly and prayerfully trusting in Christ. His illumination is the way understanding of God's word is gained, continuing even in this life.

The truth into which he leads is the great principles of righteousness embodied in God's law and word, which is holy and just and good and a transcript of divine perfection. Opened by the word and the Spirit together, it convicts of sin, sets the standard of righteousness before the mind, turns affections from earthly things, fills the soul with desire for holiness, and by obedience forms a holy Christlike character in harmony with its principles, as Christ kept his Father's commandments and always did what pleased him. This is Bible sanctification, accomplished only through faith in Christ by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God, working through God's word as the means of sanctification to enable understanding of truth and knowledge of sound doctrine for those who seek to do his will. In leading into full truth he speaks not from himself, and if people are willing to be molded his leading brings sanctification of the whole being, taking the things of God and impressing them on the soul and making the way of life so plain that none need miss it.

He guides by taking the things of God and of Christ as they fall from his lips and conveying them with living power to the tender, contrite, obedient soul emptied of self, stamping truth from the sacred page upon the mind and making it a living principle. The guidance is kindled only at the altar of God with holy fire, and only divine light reveals human littleness and incompetence and the perfection and purity of Jesus Christ, so that beholding Jesus creates desire to become like him and viewing his righteousness creates hunger and thirst to possess it. The Spirit is given without measure to those who ask in earnest prayer in humility and simplicity as a little child asks an earthly parent, for God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who earnestly desire it than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children, and those who by faith stand upon the promises and plead his pledged word receive him. Such guidance produces submission and self-surrender of the will that admits truth in its sanctifying power, transforming the entire being, heart, soul and character, guarding against masterly temptation, putting self-importance in submission to Christ, and giving a celestial torch that reveals personal incompetence and leads to submission to Christ's yoke and learning his meekness and lowliness. So molded through the gospel into the image of its Author, the soul receives the image and superscription of the divine, takes a perfect impress of the Author of truth, reveals the gospel by living the truths professed and expressing the perfect image of the Author, until Christ is formed within as the hope of glory.

That guidance makes human ministry effective beyond human strength, for the Spirit works through human agents and messengers, convicts as to what is truth, impresses truth on mind and character, opens hearts and opportunities, and empowers preaching so thousands are converted. He alone can convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, and through him people may be joined to Christ and become partakers of his nature, which equips Christ's co-laborers to help the world recognize God's truth and the reality of the eternal world. He takes what Christ said and makes it a living principle in hearts open to receive it, so that through this guidance they come to know both the Father and the Son, and as truth is presented simply from Scripture or through remembered experience he enlightens the understanding, gives clear testimony against sin, and brings what was not understood into living conviction and spiritual reality with the will brought into harmony with God. God's Spirit makes his word a living, powerful force in human minds as people faithfully use their abilities, its influence coming from divine power working with human effort and not from the human agent's learning or intelligence, so all praise belongs to God, while God supplies the efficiency and power and responsibility rests with the human worker who must depend on Christ, seek God's power and use the means he provides to uplift fallen humanity. When young people arise and obtain knowledge of the word and its converting power and give what Christ commanded in a Thus saith the Lord with the works and words of Christ as sure evidence, his abiding presence is with them to the end of the world with Pentecost-like power bringing thousands to faith.

The same Spirit barricades human minds and leads them into all truth, disciplining and restraining those who submit, checking evil, enabling discernment of righteousness from unrighteousness and truth from error, silencing opposing voices, keeping souls from Satan's deceptive power in days of snare and delusion, and establishing them against devices that would ensnare every soul not established. Without his divine teaching people are vulnerable to deceptive spirits and evil angels who lead them into error, especially about how sinners are accepted by God, and his influence also enables good works so people cannot justify themselves by their own efforts. This heavenly anointing is necessary to be on guard against Satan's devices and to stand against deceptive teaching on every side that turns the truth of God into a lie, meaning being Bible readers obedient to the Scriptures, settling every question however inconvenient by the law and the testimony, letting the inquiry rise from every heart what is truth, availing of every means and facility for learning what is truth, and seeking for truth as for hidden treasure with assurance that light shall shine more and more unto the perfect day. He guides and shields those who have not resisted truth's evidence amid deceptive doctrines, silences other voices and leads people to hear the True Shepherd and receive knowledge of God and the Saviour, so that when the heart treasures this truth Christ is formed within as the hope of glory. Since time is very short while the angels hold the four winds, the Spirit of truth must energize and fully establish souls in truth to make God the strength against Satan's devices, for every soul is to be tested and every defect of character unless overcome by God's Spirit will become a sure means of destruction through Satan's advantage, while those energized by the Spirit can do the work appointed for them with God working with their efforts, though as long as Satan has power upon minds in probationary time, minds not barricaded stay open to his working and among those who claim to be children of God there will be stern conflict of good against evil because the church militant is not yet the church triumphant.

Showing Things to Come

The Spirit lifts the veil of the future and shows things to come, opening God's purposes and plans and solemn coming events to the disciples as depositaries of knowledge. Through prophecy future events are discerned and understood, and this understanding sustains believers amid abounding iniquity, trials and temptations that come through the devices of the synagogue of Satan. When the Spirit of truth comes He guides Christ's representatives and people into all truth, speaking not of Himself or on His own authority but whatsoever He hears, making known what He receives from Christ. Through the Spirit Christ lives in the believer, guiding, comforting and sustaining His people as divine help for work beyond human strength, illuminating minds and strengthening hope and assurance while leading others from unrighteousness and darkness to righteousness and truth. He receives what belongs to Christ and reveals it to the disciples, glorifying Christ, and the disciples did not take in or comprehend Christ's promise to be with them always to the end of the world until the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. He has left nothing unsaid that concerns salvation, giving full and willing help in time of need, which should make hearts glow with love to the Saviour, and His followers are not left helpless but provided with power for salvation and overcoming. Dwelling in people He checks evil and enables them to distinguish righteousness from unrighteousness.

One office of guiding by showing the future is given in large measure through the prescribed channel of the gift of prophecy as an endowment of the church. By this gift comes divine illumination to speak of past events with greater minuteness than existing records and to read the future with more than human foresight. It draws from the heavenly fountain and from the throne of grace, where Christ sits as merciful High Priest sending help and assistance to the many sons He is bringing to glory.

This showing includes help to understand what was not grasped at first about Jerusalem's overthrow in relation to the second advent. The disciples did not yet understand how Christ's warnings about Jerusalem's overthrow related to His second advent, but the Spirit's guidance would bring back His words to their minds and help them understand, so that those living later could recognize the general warning and apply it to its proper time and to the dangers surrounding the second advent. In care and love God sends heavenly leading into all truth to arouse His professed people who are not building for eternity from stupor and to prepare them for the coming of the Lord. This leading includes knowing the time of night and the great events about to take place revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and John. It is given to faithful watchmen who diligently and prayerfully search the Scriptures and follow the light already given, and is not entrusted to unfaithful learned doctors of divinity and popular ministers of the gospel.

In the last days the Spirit's power is given in large measure to the faithful who are preparing to stand in the day of God and hastening the second advent of Jesus Christ. To these faithful ones Christ gives special communications and talks with them as He talked with His disciples before leaving them, imparting the Spirit and power of the coming One. God keeps lines of communication open with the world and through His appointed agencies speaks to the people He is purifying, warning and encouraging them. He gives straight, clear, decided testimonies freighted with light for the time, so truth shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day amid Satan's great power, continued apostasy and abounding iniquity, and despite Satan's effort to close every avenue through which people receive truth and make counsel of none effect. Those who listen and receive light can understand further truth, for a disciple is an ever-learning learner and no one should think there is no more to know, while those who shut themselves off from it lose the light they have received until truth becomes indistinguishable from darkness. Satan snares by leading to self-satisfaction, self-esteem, self-confidence and contentment with present knowledge, so that coming events are met without the special preparation needed to pass through every difficulty, and the more self-satisfied a person is the less of the Holy Spirit he has and the less earnestly he seeks to be guided into all truth. Unless he humbly searches, makes the word of God his counsel, keeps pace with the Leader guiding into all truth, and has truth planted in the heart by the power of the Spirit, he will be left behind, blinded, confused, and drifting away from Christ, piety and principle. That same guiding of the Spirit rested on the apostles when they stood in their appointed places to do their entrusted work, making them mighty in word and deed, enabling them to write the Gospels, tracing with accuracy the events they had personally witnessed, preserving the truths Christ spoke and revealing future events.

Glorifying Christ Always

The Spirit glorifies Christ by receiving what belongs to Christ and showing it to believers, for He does not speak on His own authority but speaks only what He hears from Christ and the Father. In doing so He takes the truth as it is in Jesus and makes it known through human messengers throughout the world, presenting the words that fell from Christ's lips in rich assurance and making Christ known in His purity and righteousness and in the salvation found through Him. He fills believers with Christ's abiding love, links their hearts as one, writes His name upon hearts, and makes them living witnesses for the Saviour, so that even the bitterest persecutors when converted testify for Christ and the gospel goes rapidly. He is thus the source of continual light and strength to God's people, while God's Word remains the assurance and guide for those seeking wisdom, since human wisdom apart from God cannot take its place and rejecting the light given is refusing the Spirit's guidance.

As Christ came to glorify the Father by revealing His infinite love and demonstrating oneness with Him in all His works, so the Spirit came to glorify Christ by demonstrating that Christ and the Father are one. The outpouring in the apostolic age was the former rain, and the latter rain will be more abundant. True disciples follow the same pattern by becoming so assimilated to Christ that His great love to the world and their oneness in and through Christ is manifest in them.

He does not draw attention to Himself but directs the world to Christ as Creator and Redeemer, coming from the Father to glorify Christ. Therefore human workers are to be hidden and Christ alone is to hold the world's attention, and when the Spirit guides, the words spoken are given by the Lord and not from self. At Pentecost this was seen when the Spirit worked through Christ's disciples to make truth effective in human hearts, opening hearts and opportunities, helping convince the world of sin through the gospel, empowering preaching so that thousands were converted. Being thus guided into all truth requires an earnest desire to know what God wants and asking Him with a heart submissive to learn, because one man's mind and judgment alone is incapable of carrying God's work rightly and will lead into false paths unless the Spirit controls the mind and teaches the person.

Through truth He brings comfort, hope, joy and peace, for He is called the Comforter because truth brings comfort and hope, and its validity is impressed on receptive hearts by the Spirit and not by the presenter's power or influence. There is no genuine peace in falsehood, but through truth believers share in peace that surpasses understanding, as the heavenly guest also convicts of sin, softens hearts, reveals God's love, and brings joy and peace to those who yield to His guidance and power. Christ's presence gives His trusting followers joy that appears in life and character, bringing new light in darkness, and this joy is not disloyalty but what God requires of those connected with His work. After Jesus returned to heaven the Spirit of truth comforts and strengthens disciples and guides them into truth to help them obey Christ's teachings, whose words are a light for each step when followed, so that the soul's life is kept healthy as truth continually strengthens and sanctifies it.

Scripture Illumination and Testing

The Holy Spirit is the Bible's only interpreter and the effective teacher of divine truth, promised to remain with Christ's servants and guide them into all truth. Without His aid preaching cannot quicken conscience or transform life, but He opens the Word, illuminates its teachings, helps apply them, brings words to remembrance, and guides in understanding the way of life revealed there. Through studying Scripture under that guidance each person can learn duty directly from God for himself, rather than relying on pope, church tradition, or human authority as final. The Bible so opened is a perfect revelation of God's will and a sufficient rule of faith and practice, with the only true authority the voice of God speaking through His Word. That same guidance is necessary for rightly interpreting the testimony of science and discerning the deepest truths in God's works, so that under the direction of the Omniscient One people learn to think God's thoughts.

Because the Spirit inspired Scripture His guidance never contradicts it, never sets aside searching the Scriptures, and always leads to the written Word and the great moral standard of righteousness. Claims to be led by the Spirit must therefore be tested by the whole Word and by God's law, which is truth and righteousness. Teaching that turns people away from obedience, opposes plain Bible teaching, rejects God's law, or leads away from truth is false and does not come from God but from the spirit of error. The Spirit and the Word agree, and His influence is also known by its fruits in leading to sober, righteous, godly living with increasing wisdom and piety rather than into wild or fanatical behavior. Those who value God's wisdom above deceptive teachings are guided as they test everything by the Word.

He is promised as guide in research of God's Word to diligent, earnest, prayerful students, for the promise made to the first disciples who failed to understand belongs also to believers now. The Bible should never be studied without prayer, but before opening its pages enlightenment should be asked, and it will be given, since the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Such study gives no weight to human customs or traditions, sinks deep as a miner for hidden treasure, compares scripture with scripture, depends on God's Word with heart, mind and soul, and walks in light received. Then the Spirit takes truth from the sacred page where God placed it for every soul He created and stamps it upon the mind, revealing the things of Christ, giving fresh spiritual nourishment, impressing truth on hearts, and making the Word effective in life. This is the privilege of being taught by the greatest Teacher, calling attention to the world above lost from view and bringing it again within vision, establishing faith, preparing to meet opposition, bringing more light from the Source of all light, and enabling thousands now in error to come to knowledge of the truth and understand duty.

He alone enables believers to distinguish truth from error and sin from righteousness, to recognize where light shines and deception lies, to stand in trial, and to reject fanatical extravagance. Those willing to be instructed, who revere God, walk in His way, listen constantly for His voice, wait on Him, confess and forsake sins, and obey the Scriptures settling every question by the law and the testimony, receive divine illumination with the heart impressed to understand Christ's mission. Those under that influence are calm and steadfast, not fanatical or extravagant in thought, word or deed, shielded from delusive doctrines with opposing voices silenced, guarded against devices that turn God's truth into a lie, and assured that light shall shine more and more unto the perfect day as they seek truth as hidden treasure. Those guided and controlled by pride and selfishness who refuse the light that would lead into all truth are instead guided by the power of darkness into deeper darkness daily. Resisting light until truth is indistinguishable from darkness brings loss of discernment, so that the Spirit's work may be mistaken for fanaticism and error.

He guides into all truth even before guidance is asked, so that as people read publications and search the Bible they are led to understand truth and see its harmony, and receiving it brings grateful joy.

Seeking and Living Guidance

Guidance into all truth is given to those who sincerely seek to know truth and to understand and do God's will, who faithfully follow the light already received and diligently perform daily duties, revering God and waiting on the Lord. It is sought by continual prayer and searching of the Scriptures, prayed for at every step because no one knows how to direct life rightly without it, with God's Word taken as wisdom, and by self-denying search with prayer and fasting and meditation on the Word, especially on judgment. Such seekers need not remain deceived but are led to understand doctrine and receive greater light, while those who turn from available light or neglect to seek it are left in darkness.

It comes to humble, trusting, contrite, obedient souls that feel their poverty and lie low at Christ's feet, yielding will and way at the throne of grace, seeing full incompetence and the dignity and glory of Christ, and depending on God rather than human ability. To such the Saviour commits guidance, taking the things of God and of Christ as they fell from His lips and conveying them with living power into the tender obedient heart, molding believers through the gospel into the image of its Author until they live what they profess. This leading is into certainty of all truth, not into uncertainty, assured to one who seeks preparation of heart, grasps the promises by faith and keeps living connection with God, giving clear views and the surest, most effective knowledge of truth through revelation of God's Word. It breaks the fatal delusion of settled confidence in which souls think themselves Christians merely because they assent to truth, which shuts out searching and personal application, and it produces submission that admits truth in its sanctifying power to transform heart, soul and character and sanctify the whole person, body, soul and spirit.

He leads by mercy and not by force, seeking in tender love and compassion to win each soul to surrender and to have faith and obey, bringing Christ's words of peace and instruction with power into the obedient heart so it is transformed into Christ's image, but never compelling service. This stands opposite to Satan's work by falsehood, threats, persecution and compulsion. The Spirit continually convicts but does not force truth upon those who neither seek nor desire it, so each person remains free to obey or disobey, can quench and resist the Spirit, and is responsible for the choice whether to accept or reject sacred truth. When the light of truth comes through a message of mercy, accepting that message is accepting Jesus, while rejecting it increases guilt, especially where greater light and evidence have been given; yet when one snared in error has light flashed into the soul, beholds true condition, humbles himself, becomes converted and accepts truth, the Spirit guides him to the best and highest good, rescuing from destructive belief in falsehood and forming the correct faith on which destiny in this life and the life to come depends.

The promise does not belong to the prayerless, lukewarm, self-sufficient and contentious, lifted up with no felt need to keep the heart, maintain personal piety, practical piety and spiritual-mindedness, and plead in secret and vocal prayer for enlightenment. It is not received by those who assume present knowledge is enough and no further preparation is needed, who take doctrine from associates, who refuse candid prayerful investigation, who oppose light not understood, or who from pride refuse to admit error when evidence is shown. A disciple is an ever-learning learner who must keep learning, especially to meet coming difficulties in the last days, seeking truth earnestly and humbly, reverencing the Bible, fasting and praying on the knees, asking for truth as it is in Jesus, studying for self and opening the heart for God to write truth upon its tablets. Self-satisfaction, self-esteem, self-confidence and contentment with present knowledge hinder guidance, for the more self-satisfied a person is the less of the Holy Spirit he has and the less earnestly he seeks; unless he humbly searches, makes the Word his counsel, keeps pace with the Leader and has truth planted in the heart by the Spirit's power, he falls behind, left blinded, confused, drifting from piety and principle, unable to meet solemn coming events without special preparation.

Believers must look to God Himself as Chief and Instructor, asking the Holy Spirit's guidance daily and expecting to be led and controlled by it, with will and conscience kept open to His quiet promptings speaking to the listening mind. They are not to be educated to look to men, depend on men, trust in men, let another mind direct choices, or be led this way and that like dumb animals with minds trammeled, harnessed and driven by human hands. Spiritual guidance is to come from the Lord as chief counselor, not from domineering human authority over another's experience, for no man is to assume God's prerogative to rule, coerce and oppress purchased souls; church organization is to be respected but not made a galling yoke. The Holy Spirit alone guides into all truth, and human understanding and ability cannot know and follow truth without Him.

Those so led have truth in their own hearts as a living principle and all-pervading influence, not shut up to self but communicated and made known to others, bearing living testimony that leads souls from error's darkness to the fountain of the water of life, with the precious Word eaten and no listless sleepy witness. Guidance was already at work before prayed for, and as truth is received its teachings are seen as a harmonious whole, the Bible becomes new and brings grateful joy, with enlightenment that keeps followers from walking in darkness while learning continually from Christ amid advancing work, unexpected opportunities and growing difficulties. Jesus comes to guide as the Spirit of truth whose divine illumination is to be followed above human ideas and worldly advice, for resisting His work leaves souls unable to discern or value moral power. Those willing to be shaped are led by Christ their great Leader, given understanding to discern Him as Counsellor with counsel and knowledge for God's work, and brought to sanctification of the whole person and power to become sons of God united to Christ, walking after the Spirit, abiding in Him, conveying truth by word and work in unity, advancing from victory to victory and hastening His work through parents, teachers, schools in union with heaven, and messengers of differing minds expressing the same storehouse of grace.