The Holy Spirit
It is July 20, 2026, and I just finished writing a devotion on pride (I have no idea when it will be published on the website). As I wrote that devotion, I mentioned that pride had been invading my thoughts recently. After I finished and submitted it for publication, I went to the HHCC website to see what devotion had been posted for today.
Today's devotion is titled “No. 1,” and it also is based on Pride (more or less). I wrote that after hearing a Christian artist explain that his young child thought he could do better when she heard her daddy had the #1 song. Pride is a complicated emotion, which is even more obvious to me now that God is working on me. If you’re interested, I encourage you to read both the July 20 devotion and yesterday’s devotion.
Today, I want to talk about the Holy Spirit. Just yesterday, Patrick, in his sermon, shared that he was once chastised for not referring to the Holy Spirit as a person (a personhood of God). So, let’s read a couple of passages on who the Holy Spirit is.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” - John 14:25-26 ESV
“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” - Romans 8:23-27
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” - Genesis 1:2
“Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” - Psalm 51:11
These passages, and more, give insight into how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. He really is the “Helper.”
But my question is: when do you know it’s the Holy Spirit? Yesterday, I also heard Patrick and Richardo talk about the Holy Spirit’s influence on them (specifically, being led not to listen to music on their commute to church). For the longest time, these kinds of statements bothered me in a “how do you know for sure” kind of way.
I’m firmly convinced the Holy Spirit influences what, when and how I write these devotions, but saying this outright always seems kind of presumptuous to me. I’ve never seen a burning bush or heard God’s clear voice in my head like Moses. I guess what I’m worried about is saying that God was involved with this or that happening, but it was really my own sinful desires surfacing. Maybe a practical example is that I’m still growing in my faith and I’m worried one of these musings will be outright wrong. Maybe part of my faith walk is letting go of my worry that I might wrongly credit the Holy Spirit and depending on the Holy Spirit to lead me not only in what I’m doing for the glory of God, but also in how to recognize that influence.
Patrick ended his message yesterday with the suggestion of “Just Do It.” (It wasn’t exactly this, but my mind translated it into the Nike slogan. Sorry, Patrick!) He also talked about turning over to God those things we try to avoid letting go of as part of our sanctification process. Putting the pieces together is hard until they fall into place.
