“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” John 16: 12-15

My oldest son took a year between high school and college to live and work in China. He learned a fair amount of Chinese in the process, being surrounded by people who didn’t speak much English. He was once in a store trying to purchase something and the clerk didn’t understand anything he was saying until the other clerk said, “He’s speaking Chinese stupid!” The guy he was talking to assumed that my son couldn’t speak Chinese so he ignored the fact that Jon was speaking his own language.

I suspect that this is not unusual for us, especially when it comes to God speaking to us. Many of us assume that God does not directly speak to us and as a result, we don’t hear His voice when He does. But according to Jesus Himself, He does speak to us.

In today’s passage, Jesus is explaining to His disciples that He will soon be leaving them but that when He does, He will send to them the Spirit of Truth - The Holy Spirit. Seven times in these verses Jesus talks about how the Holy Spirit will speak to us, guide us in truth, speak what He hears, tell us what is to come, take the truths of Jesus and make them known to us. 

We are familiar with speaking to God in prayer, but perhaps many of us are not as familiar with the fact that God also speaks to us. Often, it comes in a still, small voice where we feel compelled to do something, or comes when we are reading the Scriptures, or praying and something pops into our minds that we ought to respond to. I assume that all of us have had that experience from time to time.

Like the clerk in the store with my son Jon, the question is not whether God speaks our language - He does - but rather, whether we are sensitive enough to hear His voice when He speaks. I will often say to God in my morning devotions, “Lord if You want to speak to me today, please help me hear your voice.” It is often the competing voices around us, along with the busyness of our lives, that keeps us from hearing His voice. And if we sense God’s prompting in our lives, let's be courageous enough to act on it.

PRAYER

Father, I am amazed that out of the billions of people on this planet that You would want to talk to me through Your Spirit. Give me ears to hear and a mind that is attentive to Your promptings. And when I sense that You are speaking, give me the courage to respond in obedience. Amen.