What You Need Most!

John 14:15-17

Richard Tow 5/15/16

I. What do you need more than anything else?

Someone may answer, “I need a healing more than anything else. Pastor, you have no idea how much I have suffered because of this affliction.” Another person is saying, “I need a job. I would like to have a job. My creditors would like for me to get a job. My landlord would like for me to get a job. I think Solomon may have been right when he said, ‘…money is the answer for everything” (Eccl 10:19 NIV).” But someone else says, “I need a spouse; I can’t carry this load by myself. I need someone to love me and partner with me in life.” Of course, we could go on and on talking about houses, cars, vacations, etc. All of those are legitimate needs that God cares about. If you care about it, God cares about it. He is actually more interested in your wellbeing than you are. He cares for you with the heart of an infinite God; you care about yourself with the heart of a finite human being. All those things should be taken to the Lord in prayer with the knowledge that God hears and answers those prayers.1

But today I want to get down to the one thing you need most. As Jesus was about to lay down His life on the cross and leave His disciples, He talked with them about the one thing they needed most. Follow with me as we begin reading in John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”2

Of course, you know Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. In verse 17 Jesus refers to Him as

1. “the Spirit of truth”

Without Him people cannot come to a knowledge of the truth.3 They may get a lot of facts and figures in their heads. But the spiritual reality that supersedes this material world is something that must be revealed to the heart by the Holy Spirit. You did not really know that you needed to be saved until the Holy Spirit convicted your heart of sin and of your need for righteousness that only comes through Jesus Christ. John 16:8 “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” These are truths that can only get in the heart by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember the day when this blessed third person of the Trinity brought the light of Jesus into your life? Can we not appreciate our utter dependence on the Holy Spirit for our initial experience in God?

As “the Spirit of truth” He makes known unto us the revelation God has given in His Word. This book is a closed message to those who are not enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The natural man can read this book and all he finds is a bunch of contradictions. The more he analyzes it the more confused he becomes. But the Holy Spirit can open the eyes of our understanding so that it becomes clear as day! Remember what Jesus said in His prayer in Luke 10:21 "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes….” It’s not an intelligence issues. It is an open heart issue. The simplest person can know God; and the most brilliant atheist can miss it altogether. Why?

because spiritual truth does not come through human analysis and brain power.4 It comes by revelation from the Holy Spirit. This is one reason He is what you need more than anything else. Without the Holy Spirit we are just the blind leading the blind. Without the Holy Spirit we are just groping in the dark.

Paul talks about this in 1 Cor. 2. Mere human flesh cannot comprehend the things of God.

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But (1 Cor 2:10) “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.” (Through the Spirit of truth). “For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”