Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

 February 12– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“He will give you another Comforter, that he may remain with you forever.” 

—John 14:16

The Great Father revealed himself to believers in ages past, long before the coming of his Son, Jesus. He was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the God Almighty. But then Jesus came, and the ever-blessed Son in his own uniqueness was the delight of his people’s eyes.

At the time of the Redeemer’s ascension, the Holy Spirit became the head of the present age, and his power was gloriously manifested in and after the Day of Pentecost. He, the Holy Spirit, remains at this hour the present Immanuel– God with us. He lives in and with and among his people, making them alive, guiding them, and governing over them.

Is the presence of the Holy Spirit recognized as he ought to be in your life? We cannot control his working; he is sovereign in all he does. But are we sufficiently anxious to obtain his help or sufficiently careful that we do not provoke him to withdraw his aid? Without him we can do nothing, but, by his almighty energy, the most extraordinary results can be produced. Everything depends upon his manifesting or concealing his power.

Do we always look up to him both for our inner life and our outward service with respectful dependence? Do we not too often run before his call and act independently of his aid? Let us humble ourselves this evening for past neglects, and let us now entreat the heavenly dew to rest upon us, the sacred oil to anoint us, the celestial flame to burn within us.

The Holy Spirit is no temporary gift but remains with his saints forever. If we seek him, we will find him. He is jealous, but he is pitiful; if he leaves in anger, he returns in mercy. Condescending and tender, he does not weary of us but awaits to be gracious still. Sin may hammer my heart unto a hardness, void of love. But let supplying grace come to me, dropped from above. [M&E]