February 7 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…" (John 16:13).

Devotional

New and enlarged views of the Holy Spirit will mark a regenerate mind. When you receive the Holy Spirit as a quickener, you begin to feel the need of him as a teacher, a sanctifier, a comforter, and a sealer.

As a Teacher, showing you more of the hidden evil of the heart, more knowledge of God, of his Word, and of his Son.

As a Sanctifier, carrying forward the work of grace in your soul, impressing the Divine image more deeply on your heart, and bringing your every thought and feeling and word into sweet, holy, and filial obedience to the law of Jesus.

As a Comforter, leading you, in the hour of your deep trial, to Christ; comforting by unfolding the sympathy and tenderness of Jesus, and the exceeding preciousness and particular fitness of the many promises with which the Word of truth abounds for the comfort of the Lord's afflicted.

As a Sealer, impressing upon your heart the sense of pardon, acceptance, and adoption; and entering himself as the "the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory" (Eph. 1:14).

Oh! what exalted views do you now have of the blessed and eternal Spirit—of his personal glory, his work, his offices, his influences, his love, tenderness, and faithfulness! Your ear is opened to the softest whisper of his voice; your heart expands to the gentlest impression of his sealing, sanctifying influence. Remembering that you are "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:19), you desire to walk accordingly—lowly, softly, watchfully, and prayerfully. Avoiding everything that would "grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. 4:30), resigning every known sin that would dishonor and cause him to withdraw, the one single aim of your life becomes to walk so as to please God, "that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 4:11).

Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwell
by faith and love in ev'ry breast;
then shall we know and taste and feel
the joys that cannot be expressed.

(Isaac Watts, 1709)

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.