Just before His arrest, Jesus was giving final instructions to His disciples. He said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (John 16:13). 

One of the indicators the Spirit of God is at work in our lives is our willingness to be led by the Spirit. This leading will bring us to the discovery of truth – all truth regarding all matters of life. The truth is something we need help discovering. We need to be guided along the path of revelation. The phrase “he will guide you” that Jesus used in John 16:13 can be interpreted as an image. It is the image of a scout who knows how to lead a person through unfamiliar and, at times, hostile territory. 

Jesus also said the Spirit will tell us about the future. The Spirit guides us along a path of revelation into the future based on what Father has disclosed. This is not always a joy-filled journey. On a personal level, it will confront our assumptions and at times, dramatically adjust the course of our lives. That kind of revelation will not always align with what people have been taught or assumed to be true. It will also disrupt some of our relationships and the plans of hell.

Accepting the guidance of the Spirit will require humility on our part. This is especially important for anyone who has walked with the Lord for a long time and has assumed they had the life of faith all figured out. When a fresh revelation of truth arrives and is used by the Lord to expand our understanding of His Kingdom, we need to be willing to accept that guidance or we will not be rightly positioned to navigate the future when it arrives. We cannot make that journey alone guided only by human wisdom and reasoning. We need God’s help.