Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me (John 14:19).

John spends three jam-packed chapters (14-16) reporting what Jesus said to His disciples during the last evening they would spend together. The disciples’ minds had to have been on overload, alternately distressed at Jesus saying He is leaving them, confused about what that means, and encouraged by His promises that their “grief would turn to joy” (16:20). Then Jesus prays a lengthy, beautiful prayer for them and future believers - truly holy ground as God talks to God (John 17). How could they remember it all? How would they ever hear Him again? It seems so hopeless.

But Jesus had promised them: “I will not leave you as orphans…the Father will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth” (14:18a, 16-17). The Holy Spirit continues Jesus’ presence with them. He promised the Spirit “will teach you all things” (14:26). The Holy Spirit did come, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, and the book of Acts is filled with the fulfillment of Jesus' promise that the Spirit would “remind them of everything I have said to you” (14:26).  Jesus also promised, “The world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me” (14:19). That had to have made no sense to them, but they learn throughout Acts to see Jesus with Holy Spirit eyes. 

I want that vision, too, Lord.

I love reading and studying literature, including the research involved in analyzing it. If I’m not careful, I can let my study of Scripture resemble literature analysis: cataloging symbols in the book of John or tracing themes throughout the prophets. The danger is letting my study remain a list of facts. If I don’t let the Holy Spirit animate my study, all I have is Biblical knowledge. Without Holy Spirit eyes, I look but don’t see. I hear the Word, but I don’t listen. All I have is “book learnin’” (and a lot of notes) with no Holy Spirit power to do what Jesus promised His disciples: to translate knowledge into “testifying” (15:27) for Jesus, into conviction of sin (16:8), into “bringing glory to Jesus” (16:14). 

The Holy Spirit’s job is to make the Word come alive in us, to make application to our lives, to empower us to obey it. The disciples had Jesus with them, teaching and talking, but so do we: the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, continues speaking to us through the written Word, continues leading and guiding us into all God’s truth. Just as the disciples needed the gift of the Holy Spirit to remind and empower them, we do, too. Lord, help us see with Holy Spirit eyes.