The Spirit of Truth

By Doug Cook

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” (John 16:12-13)

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2)

As an apostle, I say the same thing Jesus and Paul did, although I’m only addressing that tiny remnant “that have ears to hear.”  I have many hidden mysteries of the Word to show you, but you cannot receive them yet because you don’t have the Spirit of Truth to “guide you into all truth.”  The only difference between the people Jesus was speaking to and the Christians Paul and I speak to is, in our times, we have no excuse.  This Spirit of Truth was not available to believers when Jesus was speaking these words because He had not been glorified yet, but since the day of Pentecost He is available to every believer with an open heart who is willing to receive Him.

Who is this Spirit of Truth

John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:”

John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

According to these verses the Spirit of Truth is the Comforter “which is the Holy Ghost.”  He is known throughout scripture as God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and the Spirit of Truth.  They are all one in the same Spirit and He comes directly from God the Father.  It says in this passage the Spirit will testify of Jesus and “teach us all things.”  We can not get to know Jesus intimately without the help of the Holy Spirit’s intimate testimony of Christ.

Please note in the opening verse of this exposition; Jesus himself said we could not receive the things He wanted to say without the Spirit of Truth guiding us.  Jesus could speak it, but we would be unable to receive it without the help of the Holy Spirit.  And this is the whole reason for this dissertation… stressing the absolute necessity to have the Holy Spirit residing is us as part of us so we can understand the deeper meaning of the truths written in the Word of God we are incapable of comprehending without intimately knowing the Spirit of Truth.

1Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: (Spirit of Truth) for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  Look closely at what this scripture says.  If someone tells you something that has been revealed to them by the Spirit of Truth, and we don’t have the Spirit of Truth residing in us, it will sound foolish to us.  Even if Jesus himself were speaking the words, The Bible says “but ye cannot bear them now,” and we would not be able to receive the truth because it would sound like “foolishness” to us.  The “natural man” he is speaking of here is not only the unsaved but someone who is born again with the Spirit of Christ residing in them, but has never received the baptism or indwelling of the Spirit of Truth so they are still operating in the natural (carnality).  They might have a hefty amount of bible head knowledge keeping them puffed up, but they are unable to spiritually discern the hidden wisdom and truths throughout the many scriptures, some of which they know well enough to quote.

John 14:16-18 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;  Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”  Jesus prayed the father would send us the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, that He would abide with us and we would know Him and that He would dwell with us and in us.  Which God answered on the day of Pentecost when the Comforter fell on the disciples with cloven tongues of fire.  This is a very intimate type of knowing as a husband would know his wife.  The Bible says when a couple get married the two become one flesh.  This is how we should KNOW the Holy Spirit because if He is dwelling in us, we are therefore both inhabiting ONE flesh.  Before we can “spiritually discern” anything we are reading in the Bible, the Spirit of Truth must be intimately taking up residence within us as a part of our body, soul and spirit evidenced outwardly by our ability to speak in tongues.

Romans 8:9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”  You need to look closely at the depth of truth that is being revealed in this verse.  Most “Christians” don’t understand there are two spirits being referenced here in Romans chapter 8 which is about operating in carnality or in the Spirit.  It says we are NOT operating in fleshly carnality if…..IF…..the Spirit of God (Spirit of Truth) is intimately dwelling within us (baptized in the Holy Ghost).  Without being stated, the understood converse to this statement is that if we DON’T have the Spirit of Truth dwelling in us, we are still operating in carnality of the flesh.  He did not say we were not saved if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit within us, he only said we would be operating in carnality without Him.  Romans 8:6 says, “for to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”  The second part of verse 9 declares if we don’t have the Spirit of Christ, we are not saved.  Two different spirits, Spirit of Christ and Spirit of Truth (Holy Spirit) are being referenced in this verse.  Both need to be intimately dwelling in us for us to be born again AND operating “spiritually” in our knowledge of Christ.

Romans 8:10 “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.”  The apostle Paul goes on to say that if the Spirit of Christ be in us (we are saved) our body is still dead because of sin, but our old spirit has been replaced by the Spirit of Christ and our spirit is alive (eternal life) because of Christ’s righteousness dwelling within us.

Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Then Paul goes back to referencing the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus couldn’t raise Himself from the dead, so it had to be God’s Spirit he is talking about again, NOT the Spirit of Christ.  So Paul says if…..IF…..the Holy Spirit dwells in us He will make our mortal bodies alive (quicken) because the Spirit of Truth dwells in us.  The Spirit of Christ has already made our spirit alive, but the Spirit of God makes our mortal bodies alive, which enables, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38-39)

In these three verses in Romans 8, Paul is very distinctly showing the difference between the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God (Spirit of Truth, Comforter, Holy Spirit) and the need to have both of these Spirits taking up residence in us to be able to walk in the spiritual light of discernment all sincere believers should be walking in.

John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”  To support the reality of two separate spirits dwelling in us, Jesus himself said WE (He and the Father) will come into us and make their abode with us.  The words “WE” and “OUR” is plural – meaning more than one.  If there was only one Spirit, then why did He say “we” and “our” instead of “I” and “my?”  He said we because both His and the father’s Spirits will come and make their abode in us IF we love Him and keep His commandments.  That is called God’s “conditional” agape love based on (IF) our obedience.

Brothers and Sisters, we get the Spirit of Christ when we surrender our lives to Him, cast our flesh off our throne, and make Him Lord and King of our lives.  But we must also have the Spirit of Truth taking up permanent residence within us before we can ever hope to discern things in the spiritual.  I didn’t say this, it was Paul and Jesus that said it.  This is why every believer must diligently seek the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to work in a full and complete salvation discerning spiritual things in the Bible that can only be revealed to us by the Spirit of Truth.  The Bible discloses it is a free gift available to any true believer who earnestly seeks it.  ”…how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13)  We must sincerely desire and ask our Father for this gift as scripture says.

Acts 8:14-17 “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God , they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:  (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)  Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”  Phillip, the evangelist, was down in Samaria preaching Jesus and getting people saved and water baptized in the name of Jesus, like all evangelists aspire to do.  But when the apostles heard about all the salvation’s, what was the very first thing they did?  They went to Samaria to make sure all the new converts also received the baptism in the Holy Ghost.  They knew the baptism in the Holy Ghost was a separate experience and how desperately every Christian needs the Spirit of Truth to empower them to walk like Jesus walked.

The apostles had a lot of head knowledge about Jesus and were already saved and water baptized after Jesus’ death and resurrection, but they were hardly able to do any ministry the first fifty days until the Holy Spirit fell on them on the day of Pentecost.  In fact, Jesus told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they received the Spirit.  After receiving the Spirit of Truth within them, they began speaking in tongues, started boldly preaching and got three thousand people saved all in the first day.  By their own experience, they completely understood the necessity of having God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within and empowering the work of their own ministry.  That’s why they straight away went to Samaria to make sure all the new Christians received the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.  I doubt there were scarcely any believers in the first century church that didn’t have the Spirit of Truth dwelling within them because of the importance the apostles put on it as part of the complete salvation experience.  Jesus himself didn’t start His own ministry until the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the river Jordan after John baptized Him.

If you look at the church Now-a-days there are not many that have a true indwelling of the Spirit of Truth because of the deceived preachers trying to use all their theological head knowledge to prove Christians don’t have to speak in tongues.  If Jesus Himself needed the Spirit of Truth to begin His personal ministry, how is it that so many leaders and factions in the church are so easily deluded into believing they can understand and teach biblical truth without Him?  Numerous preachers are unable to discern the bible spiritually and they reproduce themselves in churches and whole denominations which are now full of carnal Christians lacking the power to walk like Jesus walked because they have never been directed to the Spirit of Truth.

Who has the Spirit of Truth

I used to believe that if someone didn’t speak in tongues they had not yet received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  But I no longer use that as absolute evidence to determine the presence of God’s Spirit within them, although tongues are a definite outward expression that they probably have the Spirit of Truth residing within them.  Some believers have actually received the indwelling of the Comforter but are unable to speak in tongues yet, usually because of some religious spiritual baggage left over from previous deceived denominations they were part of who preached against tongues.  Conversely, demonic spirits can partially mimic speaking in tongues so there is a small number of so called “Christians” using tongues that are entertaining spirits that are not from God.  So speaking in tongues is not a fail-safe test to know if someone has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, although most of the time it is a fairly accurate assessment.

After years of ministering the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to dozens of believers, I now use one dependable test to determine the presence of the Spirit of Truth residing within a believer’s heart.  I look for their ability to receive a truth from the Word of God that can only be spiritually discerned, and after receiving it, walk in it.   If they cannot understand a spiritual truth out of the Word and they think the person is speaking foolishness and just cannot see what they are trying to reveal to them, then the Holy Spirit is not residing within them. 1Corinthians 2:14 plainly says they cannot receive spiritual truth because they can only see things in the natural.  We could try to describe the truth ten different ways but Jesus says they still couldn’t see it because they don’t have access to the Spirit of Truth to lead them.

A friend and brother in Christ, after reading one of my articles, made the statement to me, “I disagree with you, but I don’t know why.”  I very much appreciated the honesty and the humble way he responded and I completely understood what he was saying because we had previously discussed the fact he had never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  I didn’t try to discuss the point of the thesis any further because it would have been unprofitable.  The Bible says he couldn’t understand because what I had written was revealed to me by the Spirit of Truth and could only be understood by someone with the same Spirit dwelling in them.  I refuse to condemn this brother in any way, but for now I must accept the fact this brother in Christ will not be able to understand me on many biblical issues until he is able to receive revelation from the Spirit of Truth.  He is my brother in Christ so praise God for the differences and thank God he is not just like me!

I have ministered the baptism of the Holy Spirit to some believers who were in our previous fellowship and I can say without fail, within a very short time, I saw those begin understanding truths they were reading in their Bibles that they had never seen before.  They were speaking words of wisdom that I had not taught them previously so I knew they were getting it straight from the Spirit of Truth.  We always took time to pray together in our fellowship and I noticed their prayers also were deeper and more meaningful after their baptism of the Spirit.  You could tell they had been spending time in their prayer closets speaking in tongues.  They were also more able to receive and understand the spiritual meat I was teaching in our bible study time.  One young lady even began to give prophetic words after receiving the Holy Spirit.  It definitely made a huge difference in every one of their lives.

1John 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”  What is the anointing John is talking about that abides in us?  What is the anointing that teaches us all things and is Truth?  According to Jesus in the very first verse of this dissertation it’s the Spirit of Truth that guides us into all truth.  And this passage says if we have Him abiding within us, we don’t need any preacher to teach us as long as we are continually searching and studying the Word because the Spirit of Truth will make the Bible come alive to us and show us things even most ministers now-a-days can’t understand.

How to receive the Spirit of Truth

I have many believers that ask “what do I need to do to receive it?  There is not a predetermined plan of performing certain religious rituals to receive the Holy Spirit.  I have ministered it in many different ways according to each person and where they are with the Lord in their walk.  In the Bible, Jesus “breathed” on the disciples after His resurrection and said “receive the Holy Spirit.”  They waited in Jerusalem for a few weeks then He fell on them on the day of Pentecost.  As you saw in one of our earlier scriptures, the apostles laid hands on the people of Samaria and they received the Holy Spirit.  I have put some people on their knees in a submissive position, some I have done some standing up, and some laying hands on them.  Decades ago I was in my bedroom all by myself listening to a cassette tape teaching on the baptism of the Holy Spirit from a teacher who was kicked out of a “Baptist” church for speaking in tongues.  He said a prayer at the end of his teaching and I received the baptism from that tape recorded teaching.  It’s about having your heart prepared and in a position to receive, not performing some kind of religious rituals and traditions.  I usually encourage brethren to study their Bibles to make sure they understand it is a gift and it is available to every Christian that sincerely desires all the Lord has to give us.  There have been a few that came seeking the Holy Ghost with a controlling attitude like “I want it, so give it to me NOW.”  They didn’t say this, but you could tell by their assertive approach, and they usually didn’t receive anything because their heart was in the wrong place. 

When I received the cassette tape from that minister long ago, he also included a page of advice that warned me that after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit I would become more dangerous to the Devil because of now being endued with the power of the Holy Spirit and that tribulation and persecution against me would increase.  The evil one is not worried about carnal Christians yoked to denominations all their lives, it’s the ones seeking all God has that can do damage to his evil kingdom.  I appreciated the warning he gave me because he was absolutely right.  The persecution has steadily increased ever since that day and most all of it comes through the church system from puffed up “Christians” and pastors that are in carnality and can’t accept biblical truth.  Therefore, I will also issue the same precaution to those few remnant with ears to hear seeking the Spirit of Truth.  “Your enemies will be they of your own household,” and the closer you get to the Lord the more blood family, “Christians,” and pastors will forsake you, calling you a sinner, a heretic, arrogant, prideful, full of yourself, and any other religious label they can think of to place on you.  Because of these “Christians” frail insecurity with their own relationships with the Lord they place labels on others endeavoring to belittle them in a desperate attempt to somehow elevate themselves above others.  So you see, being endued with the power of the Holy Ghost directly from God is not for the faint of heart.  “The kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”  If you’re not prepared for excommunications from other “Christians,” you are probably not prepared for the Spirit of Truth.

John 16:2-3 “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.  And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  Jesus warned us this harassment would come from the sectarian church members who don’t intimately know Jesus or the Father. People in the church systems have branded people heretics and burned them at the stake for centuries and most all of those that lost their lives were the ones that were absolutely right with the Lord.  It was the people who judged them that were completely deceived.  Like Solomon said “There’s nothing new under the sun,” and the heretic hunters are still alive and active today as much as in medieval times and they are deeply entrenched in the church system of unbiblical sectarian denominations, from small home groups to mega buildings, and they are handsomely dressed in sheep’s clothing.  Any attempt to show them the truth is an exercise in futility.  All we can do is pray that God will remove the blinders from their eyes before it’s too late for them.

The Lord “…worketh all things after the counsel of His own will:” It is God who brings these judgmental “Christians” to persecute us because it facilitates developing our patience and enables us to practice loving the unlovable.  The Lord uses their ignorance to build our characters to be more like Christ.  The way I look at it is consider it all joy that we have been counted worthy to suffer all this persecution from the church-as-usual denominational natives for the cause of Christ.  The Spirit of Truth will empower you to do what Paul had to do, what Stephen did in acts 7, and what Jesus did on the cross…turn the other cheek and say, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Realize that when “church goers” and pastors judge you to be a “heretic,” first they are revealing their absolute ignorance of what a true biblical heretic is and secondly they are inadvertently  placing you in the company of some of the Godliest people throughout history, including Jesus.

When I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit I was very young in the Lord.  For two weeks it felt like God just completely took over my entire being.  It was like living in heaven and being in God’s presence constantly.  You could have done anything evil to me and I would have smiled and turned the other cheek joyfully.  But after two weeks life went back to normal except I began understanding scriptures like never before, which never stopped.  I discovered later that I really needed that two week experience because at the time I was attending a “mega” denominational church that taught against tongues, and when my first persecution hit, the second pastor in command at this huge church told me “We all receive the Holy Spirit when we get saved,” I was able to resist this false doctrine from this denominational pastor because by my two week experience, I absolutely knew it was a separate occurrence, just like the bible teaches.  I have ministered to others who didn’t have any “visit to heaven” kind of feelings like I did; they just began getting more revelation from scripture.  However, they didn’t have to clash head on with deceived pastors trying to talk them out of it like I did.  The experience is different for each individual so don’t expect bells and whistles and fireworks.  Just believe by faith you have received it.  However, you can expect your circle of “Christian” acquaintances to diminish as you become more like Christ.

 The Lord led me to publish an article recently about the true Sabbath, which I obeyed, knowing that very, VERY few sincere believers would be able to see the truth of what scripture was saying about our true rest in the Lord.  Yet every believer desperately needs to understand resting/trusting in our Lord every day.  The ironic thing about this is that most Christians will think this critique is foolishness also because they don’t have the Spirit of Truth.  They need the Holy Spirit to discern what I am saying about needing the Holy Spirit, but they can’t understand what I’m saying because they don’t have it.  It’s a “Catch 22” situation…You can’t because you won’t, yet you won’t because you can’t.  However, I must plant the seeds so there is opportunity for growth.  The decision to push beyond carnal knowledge is between each individual believer and how close they want their relationship with the Lord.  It’s like the old saying; you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force him to drink.

Amos3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”  I do not operate in the office of a prophet, but brothers and sisters the prophets and the Word have spoken.  The judgments of God are beginning; the economy is crashing right before our eyes and will likely get bad enough soon enough to begin affecting every one of us in some way.  Marshal Law will also be coming to our land in the very near future.  All these things have been told by the prophets yet most deceived denominations don’t believe in prophetic voices any more to warn the brethren, even though the office of a prophet is very much active within the true remnant church.  Most all the “churches” recently have put their trust in a man (Donald Trump) instead of THE man Christ Jesus.  This is not fear mongering to get you to accept something; it’s revealing what the prophets have already said since some pastors refuse to utilize the prophetic ministry to warn you.  We are in the last days and things will get very bad very shortly and every one of God’s people will need the help of the Holy Spirit within them to direct them through this tribulation and to not fear the coming persecution.  The Lord has a plan for each one of us, but to know your individual plan you will need the Spirit of Truth to not only understand it but empower you to walk in it.

Romans 11:29 “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (irrevocable).”  There are a number of believers that have received the baptism of the Spirit of Truth yet are still operating in carnality, by and large still trapped in their factious religious sect, refusing to exercise the power the Lord has given them for fear of rejection or being shunned from their man made sectarian group.  According to the verse above, the Lord will never take this gift away from them.  However, during these times of God’s judgment it will be worse for those that have been given a gift and refuse to use it than for those that never received it to begin with.  Gifts are given to individuals by the Holy Spirit to be utilized for ministry to the whole body of Christ, not just so we can display them as some kind of merit badge.  If you don’t plan on using this gift strictly for God’s will and His glory only, whatever the price you have to pay, then I would strongly suggest reevaluating the reason for your salvation in the first place before seeking the baptism of the Spirit of Truth.

Your servant in Christ