25" “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”"
John 16:25-33
The time referred to in 25, in which Jesus is to speak to the disciples plainly of the Father is surely the Pentecostal era - i.e. the time in which the Spirit will be given then. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that when He utters one of the profoundest and, in some ways, most mysterious truths in the whole Upper Room discourse (18), the disciples can say, 'Now speakest Thou plainly....now we are sure....by this we believe...'. Many, to us, simpler statements had appeared to puzzle and mystify them, yet this profound utterance concerning the real meaning of His coming into the world (28) seemed, somehow, to 'click' with them, and they got through to a place of spiritual awareness and faith. This bears witness to the mystery of the Holy Spirit's working. There are times when we may be listening to the Word and comparatively straightforward truths go right past us without our seeming to have the spiritual equipment to grasp them. Then, suddenly something of a new dimension of depth is uttered and, without warning, the whole thing glows and fills our mind, illuminating and enriching us, and we are through to a position of faith and assurance. This is how it was with these men, and it is an evidence of our Lord's earlier word about the Spirit guiding them into all truth. Even then, before our Lord had gone to be with the Father, the Spirit - though not yet given in the fullest sense - must certainly have been at work in that gathering, to bring such an illumination to their minds and hearts. As such, it is analogous to Peter's experience at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:16ff) when, in an amazing flash of illumination, he burst out with his confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.