September 7 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" (Acts 19:2).

Devotional

What the church of God needs as a church we equally need as individual Christians—a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit.

Why is it that you are not more settled in the truth?

Why are your feet not more firmly upon the Rock?

Why are you not more rejoicing in Christ Jesus?

Why is his pardoning blood not more noticeably applied to your conscience?

Why is the seal of adoption not more deeply impressed upon your heart?

Why is "Abba, Father" not more frequently on your lips, and with stronger, sweeter accent?

Why are you, perhaps, so yielding in temptation, so wishy-washy in purpose, so feeble in action, so wavering in pursuit, so cowardly in the day of adversity?

Why is the glory of Jesus so dimly seen? Why is his preciousness so little felt? Why is his love so imperfectly experienced?

Why is there so little close, secret interaction between God and your soul—so little searching of heart, so little confession of sin, so little dealing with the atoning blood?

Why does your conscience so much lack tenderness, and your heart so much lack brokenness, and your spirit so much lack contrition?

And why do you so seldom resort to the throne of grace? Why do you feel prayer itself to be so much a duty and so little a privilege? And, when you do pray, why is it so hardly marked by the humble brokenness of a penitent sinner, the filial boldness of an adopted child, and the rich anointing of a royal priest?

Ah! Let the small measure in which you have received the Holy Spirit's influence supply the answer. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Have you received him as a Witness, as a Sealer, as a Teacher, as an Indweller, as a Comforter, as the Spirit of adoption?

Or rather, have you not forgotten that your Lord is alive and exalted upon his throne to give you the Holy Spirit—and that more readily than a father is to give good gifts to his child? Have you not forgotten that he is now prepared to throw back the windows of heaven and pour down upon you such a blessing as shall confirm your faith, resolve your doubts, annihilate your fears, arm you for the fight, strengthen you for the trial, give you an unclouded view of your acceptance in the Beloved, and assure you that your "name is written among the living in Jerusalem" (Isa. 4:3)?

Then, as you value the light of God's countenance, as you desire to grow in a knowledge of Christ, as you long to be more "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Cor 15:58), oh, seek to enjoy to a larger degree, the presence, the love, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Christ has gone up on high to give to you this invaluable blessing! He says for your encouragement, "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24).

Come, O come, thou quick'ning Spirit,
God from all eternity!
May thy power never fail us;
dwell within us constantly.
Then shall truth and life and light
banish all the gloom of night.

Grant our hearts in fullest measure
wisdom, counsel, purity,
that we ever may be seeking
only that which pleaseth thee.
Let thy knowledge spread and grow,
working error's overthrow.

Show us, Lord, the path of blessing;
when we trespass on our way,
cast, O Lord, our sins behind thee
and be with us day by day.
Should we stray, O Lord, recall;
work repentance when we fall.

Holy Spirit, strong and mighty,
thou who makest all things new,
make thy work within us perfect
and the evil foe subdue.
Grant us weapons for the strife
and with vict'ry crown our life.

(Heinrich Held, circa 1664; tr. by Charles W Schaeffer, 1866, alt.)

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 2011.