The Holy Spirit – Day 14

Do you sometimes worry about forgetting something? People often wonder how the Bible came to be written and how all the information could have been reliably gathered together over so many hundreds of years. In the text today we have a vital clue to the answer to this, which shows a crucial aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus assures His disciples that the Holy Spirit will teach them and remind them of every bit of His teaching.

Remembering is an important aspect of life which affects our sense of wellbeing. Remembering happy moments delights us and keeps us buoyant through tough times, but traumatic memories are distressing and leave long-lasting effects. There needs to be a balance between having enough memory to function efficiently each day, but not so much that it creates its own anxieties. The number of things to remember each day can be overwhelming, which sometimes leads us to forget important things, compounding the stress. We are always trying to keep up.

The disciples had a similar problem. They could not always keep up with what Jesus did and taught while He was with them; they constantly misunderstood what He was saying. On one occasion, early in His ministry, after Jesus had overturned the tables of the money changers and had driven everyone out of the temple, the Jews had demanded that Jesus perform a miracle to prove His authority to do such a thing: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” was His answer (John 2:19).

The Jews scorned Him as they thought He was referring to the physical temple which had taken forty-six years to build; the disciples obviously did not understand either. John 2:22 reveals this: “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

Jesus’ resurrection has utterly fulfilled this prediction, proving His claim to be God, which is fundamental to our faith. Do we understand how important it was for the Holy Spirit to remind them of Jesus’ words?

He does the same for us. When we are facing a problem or a temptation, He reminds us of Jesus’ words which convict us of what is right and He guides us into the truth: “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment …” (John 16:8). Through each experience we grow into mature Christians, guided by the truth that the Holy Spirit inspires.