April 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"He will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:15).

Devotional

The Holy Spirit is the Great Conveyor of Christ to the soul. Placing himself between the Fountain and the believer, he purposes to convey every blessing and to supply every need by taking the things of Christ's mediatorial fullness and bringing them into your blessed and holy experience.

Having gone before to prepare the soul for this blessing by discovering its poverty of state and creating its poverty of spirit, he now takes the atoning blood and applies it to the conscience; he takes the justifying righteousness and wraps it around the soul; he takes the sanctifying grace, and conducts it into the heart.

In a word, he reveals Jesus to the mind and testifies of Christ to the soul—how divine he is, therefore able to save; how loving he is, therefore as willing as he is able; how gracious he is, therefore stooping to our lowest circumstance; how tender he is, therefore not trampling upon our weak faith, nor despising our little grace; how sympathizing he is, therefore not turning away his ear or withdrawing his heart from our tale of sorrow or our burden of grief.

Oh, what a Glorifier of Christ is the Divine Spirit! Everything that you truly know of Jesus, all that you have inwardly experienced of his grace, has been by his teaching and conveyance. He has conducted you to the Fountain; he has led you into the robing-chamber of the King; he has anointed you with the "oil of gladness" (Ps. 45:7); he has made your "garments fragrant with myrrh, and aloes, and cassia; out of the ivory palaces" (Ps. 45:8); he has opened the treasury, taking the precious, glorious things of a precious, glorious Christ and spreading them out before your longing eyes in all their vastness, suitableness, and freeness.

How often, when the soul has hungered, he has broken to you the Bread that came down from heaven! How often, when it has thirsted, he has smitten the Rock and satisfied you with its life-giving stream! How often, when guilt has distressed you, he has sprinkled anew the peace-speaking blood. How often, when sorrow has oppressed, and difficulties have embarrassed, and dependences have failed, and resources have become exhausted, and creatures most deeply loved have most deeply wounded you, he, the tender, loving Comforter, he, the blessed Teacher, he, the great Glorifier of Jesus, has given to you some new and appropriate and precious view of your Immanuel. And in a moment the storm has passed, the waves have stilled, and peace, serenity, and joy have shed their luster on your soul.

One glimpse of Jesus in deep tribulation, one glance in heart-rending bereavement, one discovery of his countenance when all is dark, and dreary, and desolate, one surprise of his love when the heart sinks into loneliness, one touch of his cross when it is depressed, and bowed, and broken by sin—oh, it is as though heaven opens its gates and you go in, where neither tribulation, nor bereavement, nor darkness, nor loneliness, nor sin, is ever known again forever!

Spirit of God, who moved of old
upon the waters' darkened face,
come, when our faithless hearts are cold,
and stir them with an inward grace.

Thou who art pow'r and peace combined,
all highest strength, all purest love,
the rushing of the mighty wind,
the brooding of the gentle dove.

Come, give us still thy pow'rful aid,
and urge us on, and make us thine;
nor leave the hearts that once were made
fit temples for thy grace divine.

Nor let us quench thy sev'nfold light;
but still with softest breathings stir
our wayward souls, and lead us right,
O Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

(Cecil Frances Alexander, 1823–1895)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.