THE WORLD CUP "PROPHECY"
- Kaloma Smith
- 6 days ago
- 9 min read
Five Days With the Person Who's Had Your Back Since Day 1
5-Day Devotional · Just Ask · July 2026
Amazing family,
Did you watch the World Cup final on Sunday? Spain beat Argentina the same way they did in 2010. And all tournament long, people were turning to actual animals to tell them who'd win. A whippet named Winston has been predicting the winners by choosing a bowl of treats. A goldfish in Toronto makes its daily picks from the tank, and a pygmy hippo in Thailand choosing between watermelons marked with team flags.
I admit, I fall for it too sometimes.
When the animal gets it right, we say: "wow, it's written in the stars." And when it gets it wrong, we say: "well, they're just animals, what do they know?"
I'm not trying to embarrass anybody. That hunger to hold onto something is real. We have kept the experiences and removed the person of the Holy Ghost. We've witnessed doors opening when it should've stayed closed. A job that came through against the odds. And, we credit it to a force because a force is safer than a person.
Family, let me tell you: A force will never sit you down and tell you the truth about what's wrong. You don't pray to a force. You pray to a person, and that person has been moving in my life and yours whether we called Him by name or not.
This week, I invite you to sit with that instead of reaching for the quick answer. Five days, one question from a few different angles. By Friday you won't need the hippo to predict your future.
WATCH THE FULL MESSAGE
DAY 1 - MORE THAN A FEELING
John 14:16-17 · NRSVUE
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you."
Have you ever had a moment where something shifted and you could not explain it? A door opened that should have stayed closed. A situation resolved itself in a way that made no sense. You called it luck, good energy, or the universe working in your favor. But what if it was never a force at all?
We live surrounded by spiritual language that has quietly had the Spirit removed from it. Horoscopes, manifesting, good vibes. The hunger behind all of it is real. Nobody is faking the need to hold onto something bigger than themselves. But a force cannot speak to you. A force cannot comfort you at 2 a.m. A force does not know your name. The Holy Spirit is not a feeling or an energy field. He is a person. He has been navigating your life, opening doors, protecting you from trouble you had no business avoiding, and working in you long before you thought to ask Him to. The credit you handed to the universe? It belonged to Him.
This week, we are going to spend five days getting to know who He actually is. A Person who has been present in your life all along.
We have kept the experiences and removed the Person of the Holy Ghost. So many of us, we felt something real. We handed the credit to a force, a thing, something ephemeral, because it's safe. You don't have to call on a force at an inconvenient hour. You don't have to follow a force. The universe has no commandments. — Pastor Kaloma Smith
Reflection
When you look back at moments in your life that felt like more than coincidence, what would change if you recognized the Holy Spirit as the one at work in those moments?
Prayer
Holy Spirit, thank You for being present in my life even when I did not recognize You. Open my eyes this week to see You clearly for who You truly are. Amen.
DAY 2 - NOT A FORCE
Romans 8:16 · NRSVUE
"It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
There is a reason people are drawn to crystals, horoscopes, and manifesting. It is not foolishness. It is hunger. The desire to connect with something greater than yourself is wired into you by God. The problem is not the hunger. It is where we have been trying to fill it. A force makes no demands. Energy has no commandments. You do not have to change for a good vibe. But a person? A person can speak, lead, correct, and love you in ways a force never could.
Scripture gives the Holy Spirit a full resume. He is the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, the Spirit of adoption. He speaks. He teaches. He convicts. He bears witness with your Spirit that you belong to God. These are not the actions of an energy field. These are the actions of someone who knows you deeply and is personally invested in your life.
You were not designed to white-knuckle your way through life alone. You were built to be in relationship with a God who is present, active, and personal. The Holy Spirit is not waiting for you to generate enough faith or good energy. He is already at work. You do not pray to a force. You pray to a Person. And that Person is listening.
You don't get on your knees for force. Nobody kneels for energy. You do not beg the universe. You do not pour your heart out to good vibes. You get on your knees because somebody is there. You don't pray to a force. You pray to a Person. — Pastor Kaloma Smith
Reflection
In what areas of your life have you been relying on your own strength or looking to substitutes, when the Holy Spirit has been available to you all along?
Prayer
Lord, thank You that Your Spirit is personal and present. Help me to stop reaching for substitutes and to turn toward the One who truly knows me. Amen.
DAY 3 - BUILT TO RECEIVE
Ephesians 3:16 · NRSVUE
"I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit."
Think about the last time you felt completely drained. Not just tired, but empty in a way that sleep could not fix. You kept going, kept managing, kept holding it together. But underneath, the battery was nearly dead. Our culture has a solution for that: optimize. Manage your time better. Build better habits. Find your rhythm. And while none of that is wrong, it misses something essential. You were never designed to generate your own power. You were built to receive it.
Paul writes to a church in Ephesus, asking God to strengthen them through His Spirit in their inner being. Not on the outside where everyone can see. In the inner soul. God is not interested in a surface-level fix. He wants to start from the inside out. Many of us have learned to hide our pain behind how we dress, how we talk, and how we show up. But the Holy Spirit is not fooled by the exterior. He goes straight to the place that actually needs tending.
You are not weak because you need to be filled. That is not a flaw in your design. That is your design. The invitation today is simple: stop trying to generate what only God can supply, and let Him fill you from the inside.
You can't optimize your way to full. You've never designed to generate your own power. You were built to receive the power. That is not the weakness. That is our wiring. — Pastor Kaloma Smith
Reflection
Where in your life are you exhausting yourself trying to generate strength that God is already offering to supply?
Prayer
Father, I confess that I have been trying to run on empty by my own effort. Strengthen me through Your Spirit in my inner being, starting right where I am today. Amen.
DAY 4 - GUEST OR RESIDENT
Ephesians 3:17 · NRSVUE
"And that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love."
There is a big difference between a guest and someone who actually lives with you. A guest keeps their shoes on. They do not open the cabinets, adjust the thermostat, or rearrange anything. They are polite, but they are not really home. A lot of us have invited God into our lives the way we invite a guest. He is welcome to visit during Sunday mornings, during a crisis, or when we need something. But the rest of the house? That stays ours.
Paul prays that Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith. That word dwell does not mean visit. It means to settle in, to make a home, to be fully present. God is not asking for the guest room. He is asking for the whole house.
Here is why that matters practically: God is most effective in your troubled times when you have spent your peaceful times with Him. When the hard moments come, and they will come, you do not want to be guessing whether He is there. You want to know it from years of walking closely with Him. The relationship you build with Him today is the foundation you will stand on tomorrow. Start now. Open the whole house. Let Him settle in.
There's a difference between a guest and a resident. A guest keeps the shoes on. A guest doesn't open the cabinets, doesn't touch his thermostat, doesn't clean up, doesn't fix anything. They'll walk around, say this nice, but Christ settles inside of us. — Pastor Kaloma Smith
Reflection
If you are honest, which rooms of your life have you kept closed to God, and what would it look like to open them to Him this week?
Prayer
Lord, I do not want You to be a guest in my life. Come and settle in fully. Every room, every corner. I trust You with all of it. Amen.
DAY 5 - ROOTED AND READY
Galatians 5:22-23 · NRSVUE
"By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things."
Nobody gets through life without wind. Jobs are lost. Relationships break. People you love die. The question is never whether the storm will come. The question is whether you will still be standing when it does. The Holy Spirit does not promise you a life without difficulty. But He does promise you roots. When you are rooted and grounded in love, when Christ has settled into the whole house of your life, the trunk holds even when the branches bend hard.
Every counterfeit leaves you doing the heavy lifting. Your horoscope gives you a forecast but no power. Manifesting asks you to generate what you do not have. But the Holy Spirit does the lifting for you. He strengthens you in ways nobody else sees. He empowers you to love the person you genuinely cannot stand in your own strength. He moves into the places you cannot reach yourself and does the work from the inside out.
This is what you have been looking for. Not a force, not a feeling, not a system. A person who is already present, already working, and already for you. Give Him the whole house. Stay rooted. And when the wind comes, you will not be swept away. You will be standing.
He empowers you to love the person you cannot stand in your own strength. He strengthens you that nobody sees. He moves Christ into it. He roots you so deep you can stand in any way. He floods you with love too big to measure, and he hands you the power for actual living. — Pastor Kaloma Smith
Reflection
When the last hard season of your life hit, were you drawing from a deep well of time spent with God, or did you feel like you were starting from scratch?
Prayer
Holy Spirit, root me deeply in Your love so that when the storms come, I am not shaken. Do the work in me that I cannot do for myself. Amen.
A Prayer for the Week Ahead
Standing On Something Real
Lord,
This week showed us how much credit we have been handing to luck, to timing, to a universe that cannot love us back. We named the substitute for what it is, and we are still standing here, ready to call You by Your actual name.
So send us into this week done managing the drain. Done asking You to marry us while we never make room to date You. Done treating the whole house like it still belongs only to us. Move in fully. Touch what needs touching.
Let every generation that comes after us inherit a family that knew how to kneel, not to a force, but to You. Amen.
The Conversation Continues
3549 Middlefield Rd. is not a building where you perform having it together. It is where the rest of the conversation happens, the parts too specific for a phone screen, with people who will actually pray with you instead of just for you.
Come sit in it this Sunday. 3549 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto · Sundays at 10:00 AM.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kaloma
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