Day 16

Take a moment to pause, be still, and prepare your heart and mind to receive God’s word. 

Today’s Scripture:

The Work of the Holy Spirit

⁵ “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. ⁶ Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. ⁷ But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate^[a] won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. ⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. ⁹ The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. ¹⁰ Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. ¹¹ Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

¹² “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. ¹⁴ He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’

John 16:5-15 NLT

My kids get a huge kick out of watching my phone display navigation apps when we drive around. They like to pretend that there are heroes and monsters at incoming intersections, and laugh heartily when nearby cars have the little animated avatars.

But as it turns out, I’d be totally lost if I didn’t have these apps. This is no laughing matter, kid! If you ever want to see your toys again, the Lord knows that we need this thing to get us home!

When it comes to our faith in Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. A lot can be understood about the Spirit by the names given in Scripture. The Spirit is called our “Helper,” “Comforter,” “Advocate,” and “Counselor.” Have you ever had a moment where you felt like it wasn’t you speaking, but God speaking through you? That’s the Spirit!

We lean into the Spirit to guide our learning, inform our repentance, and comfort us in the midst of hardship.

Reflect

How has the Spirit guided your thinking in the past week? Have you learned new things about God? Have you been convicted of things that need to change?

Pray

Acknowledge the Spirit and ask for guidance. Go around the circle and have each person ask the Spirit for help with a specific prayer request (yours or someone else’s).

Family Moment

Make a mind map of the Holy Spirit. Start by writing “Holy Spirit” and circling it. When you think of the Holy Spirit, where does your mind go from there? This is a great way to explore how the Spirit is interacting with the lives of those that don’t totally understand this yet.