The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity — co-equal with God the Father and Jesus the Son — who acts as a divine presence, helper, and transformer in the world and in the lives of believers.
We depend on the Holy Spirit's presence every day. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. 🙏
✦ Father, Son, and Spirit — and the Seasons
A second morning on the Normandy coast, and Spurgeon brings three readings that move from the Trinity to the heart to the year itself. The Spirit applies what Christ has done. Peace flows when fellowship is unbroken. And the soul has its seasons, just like the fields.
It is October — autumn outside the motorhome window. Spurgeon ends today in autumn too: the fruit ripe, the harvest gathered, and a new year beginning that will never end. 🙏
"Let us always remember that Christ on the cross is of no value to us apart from the Holy Spirit in us. In vain that blood is flowing unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience. In vain is that garment of righteousness completed unless the Holy Spirit wraps it around us and dresses us in its costly folds. The river of the water of life cannot quench our thirst until the Spirit offers us the cup and lifts it to our lips."
"You, O Father, are the source of all grace, all love and mercy toward us. You, O Son, are the channel of Your Father's mercy... And You, O Spirit, are the one who enables us to receive that divine power which flows from the fountain — the Father — through Christ the channel, and which, by Your work, enters into our heart, and there lives, and brings forth its glorious fruit. Magnify, then, the Spirit. There has never yet been a heavenly thought, a holy deed, or a consecrated act, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, that was not worked in us by the Holy Spirit."
"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you."
"And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."
✦ The Cup Lifted to Our Lips
Spurgeon gives one of the clearest pictures of the Trinity in the whole journal: the Father is the fountain, the Son is the channel, and the Spirit brings the water into the heart. The blood flows, but the Spirit's finger applies it. The robe is finished, but the Spirit wraps it around us. The river runs, but the Spirit lifts the cup.
Le names it plainly: the Spirit is co-equal with the Father and the Son. Spurgeon agrees — it would be a grave offense to try to place one person of the divine Trinity above another. We owe as much to the Spirit as to the Son. He is not a force or a feeling. He is God — present, helping, transforming.
And because He is a Person, He can be grieved. Paul does not say do not exhaust or do not break the Spirit — he says do not grieve Him. Only love can be grieved. The Spirit who seals us unto the day of redemption is tender, and Le's word is the right response: we depend on His presence every day. Not once a week. Every day.
This has been the thread all week. October 3 — the Advocate who teaches, reminds, and stops the mule's foot. September 29 — the intercession understood after many years, because the Spirit turned on the light. Every holy thought Le has written in this journal, every "timely," every "wake up call" — the Spirit worked it in her. Magnify, then, the Spirit. 🙏
"The believer enjoys, in favored seasons, such closeness with the Lord Jesus as fills the heart with an overflowing peace. There are sweet words that Jesus whispers in the ears of His people, and there are love-visits He pays to them, which a person would not believe even if they were told about it... All doubtful thoughts are banished then, and we can say, 'I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine.'"
"But how is it that our peace is not more constant? The only explanation of our frequent loss of peace is that our communion is broken and our fellowship is damaged. Otherwise, our peace would be like a river, and our righteousness like the waves of the sea. Live near the cross, and your peace will be continual."
"O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."
✦ Peace Like a River
Spurgeon is honest: peace comes and goes. And he gives only one reason for losing it — not circumstances, not the road, not the house still unfound, but broken fellowship. When communion is whole, peace runs like a river.
And here Le's word meets Spurgeon's: broken fellowship is grieved fellowship. When the Spirit is grieved, the river runs low. When He is honored and welcomed, peace flows again.
October 4 — Le said it first: No effort of your own but to stay close to Him. Spurgeon says the same thing about peace that Le said about love. Stay close, and love grows. Stay close, and peace continues. Live near the cross. The address that matters is not a town in Normandy or Brittany — it is the foot of the cross. 🙏
"The things that are seen are pictures of the things that are unseen... God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible world is the silver setting. The very seasons of the year find their match in the little world within us.
We have our winter — bleak, howling winter — when the north wind of the law rushes against us... when our soul is locked fast like a river bound with ice. Thanks be to God, the soft south wind breathes upon our soul, and at once the waters of desire are set free. The spring of love arrives — flowers of hope appear in our hearts, the trees of faith put out their young shoots, the time of the singing birds has come...
That happy spring is followed in the believer by a rich summer... Then comes the believer's autumn, when the fruit grows ripe and the fields are ready for harvest. The time has come when the Lord will gather together His 'pleasant fruits' and store them in heaven — the feast of gathering is at hand, the time when the year will begin anew, an unchanging year, like the years of the right hand of the Most High."
"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come."
✦ The Soul's Autumn
Winter — the frozen river, every hope frosted over. Spring — the south wind, the Spirit's breath, the ice breaking. Summer — graces in full bloom. Autumn — the fruit ripe, the fields ready, the Lord gathering what is His.
Notice who breaks the winter: the soft south wind breathes upon our soul. That is the Spirit again — the same breath from the first reading, the heavenly wind that breathes on dead souls so they may live. Spurgeon ties the whole day together: the Spirit applies the blood, the Spirit keeps the fellowship, the Spirit brings the spring.
Seven months of this journal — from Valencia in March to Normandy in October — have passed through every season. And autumn is not an ending. It is the feast of gathering, and the start of a year that never ends. 🙏
"We depend on the Holy Spirit's presence every day. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God."
Le · Grandcamp-Maisy · Normandy · Live near the cross, and your peace will be continualMagnify the Spirit
Co-equal with the Father and the Son. The Father is the fountain, the Son the channel, the Spirit lifts the cup to our lips. Do not grieve Him.
Peace Like a River
Peace is lost only when fellowship is broken. Stay close — live near the cross — and peace will be continual.
The Soul's Seasons
Winter's ice, spring's south wind, summer's bloom, autumn's harvest — and then a year that never ends.
The Spirit's week: Since October 3, the Holy Spirit has been in nearly every entry — teaching, reminding, illuminating, stopping the foot. Today Spurgeon names Him plainly: the One who lifts the cup to our lips.
Le's confession of faith: Today Le wrote a creed — the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, co-equal, present, helper, transformer. And then a daily discipline: depend on Him every day, and do not grieve Him. The doctrine and the devotion in two sentences.
Love and peace by the same road: Le's word on Sunday — stay close to Him — returns today in Spurgeon's mouth: live near the cross. Nearness grows love. Nearness keeps peace. There is no other method.
Autumn on the coast: The leaves outside are turning, and Spurgeon speaks of the believer's autumn — not as decline, but as harvest. The fruit is ripening. The gathering is a feast. 🙏