Monday
John 3.5-7 “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
New beginnings cannot happen without radical change. Jesus is describing the new creation of the human heart, mind and will, by an inner transformation of our identity. We become God’s children because we are born again because born of God. This is John’s way of saying that to believe and trust and follow Jesus as the Son of God, is to be made a new person, born of God by the Spirit of God; or as Paul would day, “if anyone is in Christ – new creation happens!” (2 Cor. 7.17)
Tuesday
John 3.8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
God can’t be pinned down to our categories. The work of the Spirit is as invisible and mysterious as the wind blowing through a forest. And when we are once touched and made new by the Spirit, we too are called to a freedom of movement that is at the call and calling of Jesus. There will always be something incomprehensible about the love and grace and mercy of God, and how the Spirit shapes our lives in ways we cannot predict or control. That’s the adventure of discipleship!
Wednesday
John 4.24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Truth lies at the very heart of John’s Gospel. The work and ministry of the Spirit of truth leads us into the truth of who Jesus is. Jesus even says “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” So when it comes to our worship and service to God, what is essential is “truth in the inward parts”, integrity, a complete connection between what we believe and what we do. God sees to the deep core of who we are, and we are called to live up to the truth that we are born of the Spirit, children of God.
Thursday
John 14.15-16 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.”
These words were spoken to disciples dreading a future without Jesus. Two things will keep them faithful and keep them going. Love for Jesus, shown in their willingness to live into and out of Jesus’ teaching. And the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit who will make Jesus real and present with them. The words Paraclete, Counsellor, Comforter – they are all attempts to translate this ministry of coming alongside to strengthen, to guide, and yes, to make possible the very obedience that marks out every disciple of Jesus as a follower of the truth as it is in Jesus.
Friday
John14.26 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
The Spirit is sent in the name of the Son. The triune love of God is expressed and expressly shared by the generous outgoing gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to educate the Church in the truth of all that Jesus means as the gift of the Father’s love. It is the Spirit who guides us in our reading of Scripture, deepens our understanding of our own hearts, and sends us into the world. The Spirit of Truth opens our eyes to interpret the culture we live in, empowers us to embody and speak the truth that in Jesus is the fuller life we crave, and who is the guiding luminous light we need, who tells us the God’s honest truth that sets us free.
Saturday
John 16.12-13a “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
Just as with the disciples, there are truths we are not yet ready to hear. They couldn’t know what it would be like when Jesus was crucified, then risen, then no longer with them. But when that time comes, the Spirit who is the guiding comfort of God, will bring them to trust and peace. And we cannot know all that lies ahead of us, but we have Jesus’ promise of the Spirit who is ahead of us as the Counsellor-Comforter.
Sunday
John 20.21-22 “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.””
The Holy Spirit is not mere gift, but gift that brings purpose, responsibility and mission. The Spirit is the breath of Jesus in the church, the source of energy and life. That energy is to be expended in becoming the living, loving community of Jesus in the world. In Jesus was life, and the life was the light of all people. That life is now flowing through the Body of Christ, energising the community of the Spirit, overflowing with the Father’s love to a God-loved world.
Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew;
that I may love as Thou dost love, and do as Thou wouldst do.
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