HOLY HELPER
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Holy Spirit, open my mind to receive God’s truths—and enable my heart to respond.
Read JOHN 14:25–31
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, 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. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
Reflect
How do you define peace? In what ways do you secure it in your life?
In all my jobs, my favorite tasks have involved mentoring others. I love helping people to reflect one-on-one or befriending them, writing guidance notes, supporting people in difficult meetings, contributing ideas—and so on. So, I find it encouraging that these are exactly the sorts of activities Jesus attributes to the Holy Spirit. His title for the Spirit—‘paraclete’—is hard to translate, but it means someone who is called alongside: a helper, mediator, or intercessor. Our word ‘advocate’ conveys the idea of someone pleading another’s case or promoting a cause. Here, though, Jesus describes the Spirit’s role primarily as a teacher, reminding the disciples of Jesus’ words after his death (v. 26).
Alongside the Holy Spirit, ‘whom the Father will send in [Jesus’] name’ (v. 26), Jesus promises the disciples his gift of peace (v. 27). ‘Peace be with you’ was a popular greeting—and the resurrected Jesus used it.1 The peace Jesus promises here, however, is more than a sound bite. It’s a concrete knowledge of being effectually blessed and held by God, regardless of one’s circumstances.2 It’s this peace that the disciples would need following Jesus’ death and which we need today. Jesus demonstrates this peace himself in his conviction that ‘the prince of this world’ (v. 30) has no hold over him, and in going to his suffering and death under no compulsion but purely out of love and obedience.
The phrase ‘He has no hold over me’ (v. 30) literally means ‘in me he has nothing at all.’ Jesus promises that he and the Spirit are ‘in’ us (vv. 17, 20). Take comfort that, as you remain in him and are filled with him and with the Spirit, there is no room left for the evil one to take hold.
Apply
‘Breathe on me, breath of God, / fill me with life anew, / that I may love what thou dost love, / and do what thou wouldst do.’3
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for the peace you offer, regardless of any circumstance that consumes me. Holy Spirit, help me stand in Christ alone, confident in his purposes, knowing I am held fast by his love.
1 John 20:19. 2 Morris, 584. 3 ‘Breathe on me, Breath of God’, Edwin Hatch, 1878.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Encounter with God is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.