Father, thank you for the blessings of this day. We are grateful for them. Help us not to think them too small.
Thank you for your Holy Spirit, living inside of us. What a gift!
Help us today to know You more with the help of Your Spirit. Help us to know Your goodness, Your love for us, and Your faithfulness to us.
Father, for each of us today with a special concern or request, I pray Your Spirit will reveal Your heart.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen!
As Jesus taught His disciples in the days leading up to His crucifixion, He made them a promise. He promised to pray to the Father for them, asking Him to send a Helper who would be with them forever. This Helper is the Holy Spirit of God. (John 14:16-17)
Jesus taught that the Spirit of God would come and live within their hearts, teaching them, comforting them, and empowering them as they shared the good news of Christ to the world. If you want to be the bold believer God made you to be, you must understand the role of the Holy Spirit in your life.
As believers, the Spirit of God lives inside of us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
The Spirit lives within us for a purpose. He is there to change us, to make us look and live more like God.
It is an awesome thing to imagine: the Spirit of God that moved over the waters at the creation of all things now living inside of us. It is beyond understanding, unimaginably more than we could ask or think, and yet it is true!
Let’s look at some of what the Spirit is doing to make us more like our Father:
Borrowing from the lyrics of today’s worship song – “Spirit of the Living God” by Meredith Andrews – the Holy Spirit changes what we see. This is the Holy Spirit leading us into right knowledge and understanding.
In John 14:26 Jesus says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Since the Holy Spirit knows the mind of the Father, He knows the Father’s will and desires for us. He can teach us the things of God, leading us to know the Father better and walk more closely with Him.
The Holy Spirit also changes what we seek. This is a reference to our values. As the Spirit takes us deeper into the heart and mind of God, our values change. The things that are important in life change. We begin to walk in ways that reflect the values of the Father, rather than according to the desires of the flesh.
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” (Galatians 5:16-17)
So as we walk by the Spirit, allowing Him to change us, we become more godly, which is to say, more like God. And we know that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it!
Our worship song today is “Spirit of the Living God” by Meredith Andrews. As you listen and worship, think about these things:
- Thank the Spirit for His presence and His work in your life.
- Ask the Spirit to teach you in the ways of the Father.
- Ask the Spirit to make you look and live more like your Father every day.