JOHN 16:12-15 INDESPENSIBLE INTERNAL GUIDANCE

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 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 bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 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.

The wonderful thing about gyroscopes is that they not only measure but maintain the orientation of a vessel. Whether ships at sea or rockets in space, gyroscopes are at work. A magnetic compass can measure where you are compared to magnetic North, which is an external reference point and not accessible everywhere on earth and in space. Such a compass also has no function in maintaining a specific orientation. The gyro-compass works from within the vessel regardless of external conditions and can keep the ship on course.

The direction of our lives is always to be toward God, through obedience to his will. We are to maintain our orientation by following Jesus, who is the perfect manifestation of God’s will. But Jesus knew that we would have difficulty in following him, or having him serve as our external point of reference. The distance of time, changing cultures, and prevailing attitudes in the world would cause us to lose sight of him and become disoriented. In order to maintain our orientation throughout the experience of this life, Jesus knew that we would need more than a moral compass.

With the Holy Spirit, God gave us a spiritual gyro-compass that is permanently programmed for orientation toward the Father. The Holy Spirit that communicates with our conscience and our spirit to inform us of our need for God, our misdirection (sin) in life and the necessity for reorientation (repentance). But more than that, the Spirit empowers us in all those areas, as well as revealing to us more and more the true nature of God. The Holy Spirit is working in the world. We connect to the Spirit through the promises we make at baptism and live into throughout our life. This is an important and constant need, for like a ship whose gyro-compass is not connected to the navigational system, if we do not stay connected to the Spirit we will quickly lose our way.

Come Holy Spirit and fill my heart with the knowledge of God and guide my feet along the path of perfect obedience to his will. Amen.