¹³ “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

Combined with the perfect recall Jesus told the disciples about (John 14:26), the promise of “all truth” provides the basis of what we call “apostolic authority.” As mentioned before, Jesus appointed them as His authorized and official witnesses (Acts 1:8), and the early church took their teaching as authoritative: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teachings” (Acts 2:42).

Notice, in our passage today, the Spirit does not do His work independently, but conveys the message, presumably, of God the Father. There is no divergence between the members of the Trinity, but perfect harmony—the Spirit, the Son and the Father all working together, each in His own distinct role, never any variation in purpose or thought. Today, the Spirit acts as the primary agent of the Godhead working in the world. So even when Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20), He was indicating that His presence will be in and through the Spirit.

Christians interestingly struggle in addressing God. Do we exclusively pray to the Father (Matt 6:9, Rom 8:15, etc.)? Is it appropriate to pray to Jesus, the second person of the Trinity? The apostle John seemed to think so, if Rev 22:20 is any indication, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Paul likewise thought so, when he wrote about those “… who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours” (1 Cor 1:2). And certainly praise is to be directed to the Lord Jesus, as seen in the angels’ example in Revelation 5:13.

Non-Christians are amused that we Christians sometimes sound confusing when we believe in one God, yet at times pray to “The Father” and at other times pray to the Son. Indeed, if we are careless, we might find ourselves erroneously thanking the Father for dying for us, when in fact, God did not die as the Father, but God the Son did die for us. So we Christians need to be mindful of which member of the Trinity we are addressing.

But what about the Holy Spirit? While the Spirit helps us pray “with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26), we do not find specific teaching or example in Scripture directing believers to pray to the Spirit. Yet if the Spirit is God, how could it be a bad prayer to address Him directly? Yet, the normal practice encouraged in Scripture is to pray to the Father, in Jesus’ name through and with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Come Lord Jesus, make Your presence known in my life through Your Spirit.