A Helper for All Occasions
JOHN 16:7-15 

The Holy Spirit is a very practical Helper who assists us in every aspect of our lives. When we pray, He intercedes for us according to the Lord’s will (Rom. 8:26). Because of our limited knowledge or self-centered desires, we sometimes ask for the wrong things, but the Spirit takes our petitions and aligns them with the Father’s will. Although you may think your prayer wasn’t answered, in reality, the Holy Spirit just straightened out your request in order to give you what was best.

God’s Spirit also helps us understand His Word (John 16:13). In fact, no one can comprehend the Bible unless the Spirit illumines his thinking. If you come to the Scriptures with a clean heart, a submissive will, and a dependent attitude, He will enlarge your spiritual senses to see the truth and understand His thoughts.

Perhaps one of the Spirit’s most under-appreciated works is His conviction of our sin (vv. 8-11). Although it’s unpleasant and sometimes painful, we should never want Him to stop, because this is the way He gets us back on track after we have strayed. But He doesn’t just point out our wrongs; He also empowers us to do right. True righteousness is achieved only by relying on Him to transform us and carry out His work through us.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much we need the Spirit. Though we acknowledge that salvation is accomplished by Christ alone, how many of us feel as if living the Christian life is now up to us? But self-reliance is a recipe for failure. Only when you know you can’t, will you find He can

Faith in Every Sense

His fruit was sweet to my taste.

Song of Songs 2:3

Faith is described in a variety of ways in the Bible. It is sight: “Turn to me and be saved.”1 It is hearing: “Hear, that your soul shall live.”2 Faith is smelling: “Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia”;3 “your name is oil poured out.”4 Faith is spiritual touch. By this faith the woman came behind and touched the hem of Christ’s garment, and by this we handle the things of the good word of life. Faith is equally the spirit’s taste. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”5 “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”6

One of the first performances of faith is hearing. We hear the voice of God not only with the physical ear, but with the spiritual ear; we hear it as God’s Word, and we believe it as such; that is the hearing of faith. Then our mind looks upon the truth as it is presented to us; that is to say, we understand it, we perceive its meaning; that is the seeing of faith. Next we discover its preciousness; we begin to admire it and find how fragrant it is; that is faith in its smell. Then we appropriate the mercies that are prepared for us in Christ; that is faith in its touch. Then follow the enjoyments, peace, delight, communion, which are faith in its taste. Any one of these acts of faith is saving. To hear Christ’s voice as the sure voice of God in the soul will save us; but that which gives true enjoyment is the aspect of faith whereby we taste and see that the Lord is good. In this way we receive Christ, and He becomes, by inward and spiritual apprehension, to be the precious food for our souls. Here we learn to sit under His shadow “with great delight”7 and find His fruit sweet to our taste.

1Isaiah 45:22

2Isaiah 55:3

3Psalm 45:8

4Song of Solomon 1:3

5Psalm 119:103

6John 6:54

7Song of Solomon 2:3

The family reading plan for August 25, 2011

1 Samuel 17 | Romans 15