He has been looking for a man for eleven years and has not found one.
Not a friend. He has friends. He is looking for the other thing: somebody who knows the book properly, who would sit with him regularly, who would answer the questions he actually has instead of the ones he is expected to have.
He has tried. He asked one man years ago and it fizzled out because they were both busy. He went to a class and it was not that. He has sat under good teaching and taken things from it and it is not the same thing and he knows it is not.
And the eleven years of looking have had a side effect he did not intend: they have become the reason he has not started. The search is a legitimate thing to be doing, and it can be described honestly to anybody who asks, and it occupies the exact place in his life where reading would go.
There is a night in John where a room full of men were about to lose the best teacher there has ever been, and Jesus told them what the arrangement was going to be afterward.
The situation, which matters
The whole passage is spoken on the last night, to men who are about to lose Him, and they are not handling it well. He says so, and this is the King James Version:
But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. (John 16:6-7)
It is expedient for you that I go away.
That is an extraordinary sentence and it is worth not hurrying past. He says it is better for them that the teacher leaves. Not equally good. Better.
The reason is that a different arrangement is coming and the two cannot run at the same time.
So the promise about the guide is not a consolation prize handed to men who lost their teacher. It is presented as an upgrade, by the teacher, on His way out.
You are not in a worse arrangement than the men who had Him in the room and you were never given the lesser version. John 16:7 says it is expedient for you that I go away, and it is the Holy Spirit named in that same verse who is the reason it is expedient.
What the guide does
Then the sentence itself.
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 16:13)
He will guide you into all truth.
Guide is a leading word. It is not a lecturing word. A guide goes with somebody through terrain the somebody is actually walking through, which is a completely different relationship from being told about the terrain afterward.
He shall not speak of himself. He does not have His own agenda or His own material. He carries what He hears.
And two chapters earlier the same promise with a different verb:
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. (John 14:26)
Bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
That verb is worth noticing, because it means the material is not new. The Spirit's teaching in that verse is bringing back what was already said, which means a man who reads a chapter and forgets it has not lost it in the way he thinks.
You have a guide who goes with you through it and you were never going to be handed the terrain in a report. John 16:13 says He will guide into all truth and John 14:26 says He brings all things to remembrance, and it is that same Spirit who does both.
What this does not mean
This is the point where a man could take a wrong turn, and this site does not take it.
The same New Testament that says the Spirit guides also says God gave people to the church, and it says so in the plainest terms:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12)
He gave. Teachers are a gift in that sentence and the giver is named.
So this is not an argument that a man should stop looking or that teachers are unnecessary. It is an argument about what he is waiting for and what he is not waiting for.
He is allowed to want a man. Wanting one is right. What is not true is that the reading has to wait until he has one, and John 16:13 is the reason it is not true.
You have permission to keep looking and you were never required to wait until you find one. Ephesians 4:11 says God gave teachers and John 16:13 says the Spirit guides into all truth, and both of those are in the same book without contradiction.
The verse that is usually misused
And one more, because a man in this position has usually had it thrown at him from one side or the other.
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. (1 John 2:27)
Ye need not that any man teach you.
That sentence is in a letter that is itself teaching. John is a man teaching them while writing it, which settles what it cannot mean.
What it does mean is what it says in the second half: the anointing abides and it teaches. The dependency is broken, not the relationship. A man is not helpless without a teacher present, and that is a different claim from saying teachers are useless.
The difference matters practically. A man who believes he cannot read without help does not read. A man who knows the anointing abides reads, and then has better conversations with the men he does find.
You have an anointing that abides in you and you were never left helpless between teachers. 1 John 2:27 says the anointing abides and teaches, and it is the Holy Spirit who is that anointing rather than a substitute for one.
So read a whole one, out loud, tonight, without waiting for anybody.
He told frightened men that His leaving was better for them, and the reason He gave was that a different guide was coming and the two arrangements could not run at once.
You are not on the wrong side of that promise and you have not been waiting for the right thing. The written word says he will guide you into all truth in John 16:13, spoken to men about to lose the best teacher there has ever been, and it is the Holy Spirit named in that same verse rather than a man you have not found who does the guiding.
And the teaching that is promised is not new material. You have all things brought to your remembrance and you were never going to lose what you read and forgot. John 14:26 says the Comforter brings all things to remembrance, and 1 John 2:27 says the anointing abides and teaches, which breaks the dependency without touching the gift of teachers.
Nothing here promises you stop wanting a man. The man who gave up looking says he took three questions to somebody a year later. What is promised is that the guide was given precisely to men losing one, and you were included in a promise made on that night (John 16:7, John 16:13), and it is His Spirit rather than a teacher's availability who makes reading one chapter out loud a receiving.
Declare this over yourself
Say it out loud. You are in Christ and Christ is in you, so the authority to speak over your own condition is genuinely yours, handed to you and never invented. On the night He left, Jesus told frightened men that His going was better for them because a guide was coming, so speak to the search that has become the reason you have not started: you have standing to address it because Scripture addressed it first and did it without contempt for anybody you have asked. An ambassador carries the King's word and never his own opinion, so say what God has said and leave the outcome to Him. Every line below is John 16:13 and John 14:26 handed back in your own voice, and it is His Spirit, not the patience behind your saying, that makes saying it a receiving.
- Search for the right teacher, you are not what stands between me and this book. The Word of God says the Spirit of truth will guide me into all truth, and He said it to men losing the best teacher there ever was.
- Verdict that I cannot read this alone, you are finished in the name of Jesus. Scripture says the anointing abides in me and teaches, and that was written by a man in the middle of teaching.
- Father, You said it was expedient that You go away so the Comforter would come. I receive what Your word says in John 16 and John 14, and I am reading one whole chapter out loud tonight without waiting for anybody.
John 16:13
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