Daily Devotional For Friday, July 18, 2025
Good morning Southsiders! It is Thursday and ”This is the day the Lord has made and lets rejoice in it” (Ps. 118:24). Believe this: God loves using ordinary people in extra-ordinary ways if they will trust Him, rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit and give Him the glory and credit. Jesus loves to help us as His children. To make this point, Jesus said these words in Luke 11:11-13:
“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? (12) Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! (13) So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (NLT).
If you look at the context of Jesus’ words here, Jesus is teaching about prayer. Jesus says that if we depend on the Lord to provide, He will and as we grow in trusting Him, He will provide even more to us. A coiled up scorpion looks like an egg. If a son asks his father for an egg, and the father instead gives him a coiled up scorpion that looks like an egg, that would be a very sadistic joke. So, if we who are sinful and evil know how to give good gifts to our children, our heavenly Father knows the best gift to give His children – the Holy Spirit.
This means many things to us, but one thing it definitely means is that when we are going through a hard and painful time, when we go to our heavenly Father for help, He does not send us just comfort. He sends us what Jesus promised in John 14:15-19:
“If ye love Me, keep my commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; (17) even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also” (KJV).
Do you see the gift? God does not send us comfort, He sends Himself as the Comforter. The Holy Spirit Himself comes and dwells in you and He personally comforts and guides you. The same is true when you need advice. I think way too many Christians ask everyone for advice except the Holy Spirit Who lives in them. Jesus gave us a promise about this in John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (NASB). The Holy Spirit personally will give you the advice you need IF you simply ask Him.
In addition to this, the Holy Spirit gives us many gifts. If you need wisdom, ask Him. Look at James 1:5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (NASB). er and love and discipline” (NASB). Look at Ephesians 1:17, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (NASB). If you need power to get through anything, you already have it through the Holy Spirit. Look at Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .” (NASB). Look at 2 Timothy 1:17, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (NASB). In addition to this, the Holy Spirit has fruit He wants to produce in you. Look at Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (NASB).
What does all this mean? The Holy Spirit is your personal Helper, Counselor, Comforter, Guide, Adviser and Empowerer. If only more Christians believed this and lived this, can you imagine how our churches, communities and the cosmos would be? Do you get what Jesus promises in John 14-17? He promises every believer, every disciple, and every Christian that God the Father delights and enjoys being our Helper, Guide, Counselor, Comforter, and Advisor. God the Father is not begrudgingly doing this. He delights in doing this.
And Jesus promises the believer that if they will rely on prayer, not their own personal self, God will even do more than they can imagine. Look at John 14:12-14, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. (13) Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (NASB). Jesus says a believer who prays will do greater works that Jesus did when He was here. Do you believe that? Don’t give me the “church answer.” Do you really believe it? Then live it.
Our heavenly Father longs for a people who will trust Him only, lean on Him only, pray to Him consistently and about everything so that He can use them to impact our world in such powerful ways they never thought possible. My observation of the modern church is that we are not living this. So, this means we are missing it because we are so caught up in the American dream of self-reliance and self-sufficiency and self-determinism. But there is a better way – God the Father’s way through the empowering presence of the power, presence and person of the Holy Spirit. Instead of depending on our feeble selves, we throw ourselves on the mercy of our heavenly Father.
Assignment: Reflect for a moment. Would you say that your life is characterized by a desperately hungry and thirsty for the indwelling presence, power and person of the Holy Spirit? Would you say the church you attend is desperately hungry and thirsty for the indwelling presence, power and person of the Holy Spirit? Why would you settle for a Christian faith based on your abilities and a church with its limited resources? For the next week – fall before our heavenly Father multiple times a day and night. Plead for Him to give you that kind of power in and through you that enables you to accomplish things for His glory that you could never do on your own. God the Father created you for more than struggling through the Christian faith on your own to accomplish His will and purpose in this world.
Scripture To Meditate On: Isaiah 11:2, “And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, I know that apart from You I can do nothing, but through Your indwelling Holy Spirit all things are possible. Please forgive me for living a self-reliant, self-serving, self-sufficient, and a self-determined life. Lord, I come to You pleading to You to turn on the power of Your indwelling Holy Spirit for You to accomplish through me what You desire. I will give you all the glory and credit. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly