May 9

You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst. — Neh 9:20 BSB

When we are completely emptied of ourselves—when our knowledge proves to be ignorance, our wisdom turns out to be folly, our righteousness is revealed as filthy rags, and our strength becomes weakness—then we begin to long for the teachings of the Holy Spirit. We must go through trials and purging before we can appreciate and receive the treasures of grace. Once we have been well-exercised and tested in our souls, we start to long for the Holy Spirit to shed the love of God in our hearts, to visit and guide us, to overshadow us with His presence, and to drop His holy anointing into our hearts.

Before we are brought to this place, we don’t truly understand the personhood of the Holy Spirit. We lack the internal evidence that He is God and struggle to worship and adore Him as the third person of the Trinity. But when we come to realize that we know nothing without His teaching, feel nothing without His grace, and are nothing without His work, we begin to hunger and thirst for His guidance. We find ourselves waiting quietly in worship and expectation for the dew and unction of the Spirit to refresh our conscience.