Do I know where Jesus is going in my life, so I can follow Him there all the way to eternal life?  

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."  9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”

INSIGHT:  Let’s look deeper than just the glorious fact that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and to eternal Life.  Jesus had just explained He will be leaving soon (back to heaven) and assuring the disciples that they know the way to where He is going.  They replied by saying, “No, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” To take the way, to find the truth, and to enter the Life, which Jesus said He was, the disciples had to do more than just acknowledge this as a doctrine.  They were still decades from the end of their lives, and needed to be able to do His Will, following Him, in the way, by the truth, to the very end, to finally enter the Life. 

Haven’t there been times for us, while trying to follow Jesus, where we said, “Lord, I have no idea where you’re going in my life right now, or how to get where you want me to go.”  Right here is our greatest obstacle in following God and why Jesus so often said, “Why is my language not clear to you?...Do you still not understand?…Are you still so dull of understanding…How long shall I put up with you, etc.?”. The disciples are saying, v.9 “Show us the Father” (i.e, let us see Him with our natural eyes), and Jesus is saying, “How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?” Here is God’s monumental challenge, trying to get human beings to understand His heavenly kingdom and His spiritual priorities.

Through Jesus, we can see that God is always first thinking and speaking about the spiritual reality, while we earth dwellers are always first thinking and speaking of the earthly natural reality.  We must love and follow God into this Life, but we speak a totally different language and cannot understand or follow Him without the Interpreter of His Words (Holy Spirit).

While living in India with my 2nd spouse in 2016, I needed her to interpret for me everywhere we went.  Without her being with me all the time, I would have been totally lost and in great danger.  One time near Charminar in Hyderabad, a shop owner yelled out to some men to chase me down and perhaps to steal my video camera.  I was not aware of the danger because I didn’t understand the language, but my driver and spouse both did.  Just imagine the trouble I may have found myself in, in India, had I offended her, so that she stopped interpreting for me. 

Dangers abound, imagine not having, or losing the Holy Spirit’s interpretation, guidance, and warnings for your life.  This is why we must, through faith, obedience, and righteous living, continually cultivate the presence of our Interpreter, the Holy Spirit. Let us not offend or grieve Him, lest we find ourselves in grave danger of being confused in the way, not hearing the truth, or missing the Life.

The apostle John said in John 3:31, “the one who belongs to the earth, speaks as one from the earth.  The one who comes from heaven is above all.  He testifies to what he has seen and heard but no one accepts his testimony.” The reason those you love cannot understand that Jesus is the only way and truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father or heaven apart from Him, is because of this spiritual language barrier.  They have no Interpreter (Holy Spirit) of God’s language to them. 

It's not just sinners, without the Spirit, who are vulnerable to misinterpretation of God, so are we who are born again.  If God gives us a promise, or guidance, and we interpret it only through our five senses and our natural human understanding, we will likely end up very frustrated at God.

Are you walking daily, with the Interpreter, in the way, by the truth, and into the Life?