John 16:7-11 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

In the same vein as in John 16:13-15, the verses above speak of the promise of the Counsellor, the Comforter and the Spirit of Truth. These are all names for the same Person and the same fulfilment. This is the greatest promise made by Jesus when He was on earth.

He said that it was to our advantage that He went back to the Father but that He would not leave us alone. He could not continue to abide by us because His Mission was a temporary one to bring the Word of God to mankind and try and make us turn back to the Father by adjusting ourselves to His Word.

Seeing that His disciples, and by extension the generality of mankind did not understand Him as is pointed out in John 16:12 “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now…”, He now promised that He would send the Spirit of Truth, A Comforter and A Counsellor to abide with us forever, John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever…”

We cannot have two counsellors. Jesus needed to go back to the Father and be united as One with the Father but He promised that He would not leave us desolate, John 14:18 but that He would send us Another to replace Him Who will be with us for ever.

We would not be left alone but will always have support and guidance. This Comforter and Spirit of Truth will guide us into all Truth and will Teach us all things and will take from Jesus and show it to us and will not speak of or from Himself but speak what He hears – John 16:13-17.

Now this must not be confused with the promise in Luke 24:49 which was the promise that He would send Power from on High to the disciples when He told them to tarry in Jerusalem and await the promise of the Power. This was the Power at Pentecost which imbued the disciples with Power from On High so that they would have the strength to fulfil their destinies.

For centuries unfortunately mankind has fused these two distinct promises into one thereby missing out on the most important promise in John 14 and John 16 which were meant to be direct fulfilments of a NEW TEACHING brought by ONE promised by Jesus.

He will guide us to all righteousness and reprove the world of all sin and bring on the judgment. So this is a promise of a personal fulfilment of the coming of a Spirit of Truth Who is also a Counsellor and a Comforter Who will fulfil all these roles.

This Counsellor will bring a NEW TEACHING that takes from Jesus and glorifies Jesus and guide us into all Truth. This is the promise of a NEW TEACHER called the Spirit of Truth and the Counsellor or the Comforter Who will abide with us forever.

The NEW TEACHING of this Counsellor and Comforter will be a consolidation and extension of the Teaching of Jesus as Jesus could not tell all He wanted to tell us at that time because mankind would have been unable to understand Him – John 16:12.

All the secrets and knowledge of Creation will be explained by this Counsellor or Comforter or Spirit of Truth in this NEW TEACHING. If we accept and adhere to this NEW TEACHING then the world would be reproved of all sin since we would no longer be victims of the darkness because through knowledge we know how to avoid all the traps laid by the darkness.

This new TEACHING will show us the way out of darkness so that at last we would be able to free ourselves from its clutches.

Therefore we must be on the alert and on the lookout for this new TEACHER as promised by Jesus. This new TEACHER is also from God and will fulfil all the promises mentioned by Jesus in John 16:7-14.

The way to the recognition of this NEW TEACHER will not be through conventional organised religion but through the innate spiritual alertness of each individual. Conventional organised religion has never yet shown itself to be reliable guide on these matters.

It is therefore imperative that each individual should exercise the little lamp of spiritual intuition left to us by God to use in the recognition of this NEW TEACHER. May we be granted to do so. Amen.