Scripture tells us we have an Advocate to counsel us, comfort us, and even convict us. What is unclear is what that looks like. What should we expect? How do we know?
Understanding the work of the Holy Spirit is challenging for many of us. We sense things. We have a gut feeling. Someone feels near. Is it intuition? Is it something more?
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin,because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the 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. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16 7-15 NIV).
Early on in my faith journey, I knew to trust my intuition but I didn’t attribute it to the Advocate until my sophomore year of college. It was spring semester. The lecture was over and I walked straight to the Registrar’s office and applied for a transfer to the Twin Cities campus of the U of MN.
I returned to my apartment and told my roommates my new plan. They asked why. I didn’t have an answer. All I could say was, ”I just know I need to be in the cities.”
Over that summer, there was a resignation at my home church and a friend looked at me and said, ”You’re going to apply for the job, aren’t you?” A chill ran down my neck. Until that point I had never considered working in ministry. If I hadn’t moved, this job wouldn’t have been an option. I instantly new that was why I had put in for a transfer and it let to 20 years of ministry in churches.
The Advocate was my counselor and guide. I learned to lean into and trust my guide. It gave me confidence in decisions. I wanted to know God more.
Do you trust the Advocate? Have learned how to listen to the guidance? Share your experience here and breathe life and bring hope to others.