“If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him?” Luke 11:11 (Amplified)
Why is it that the majority of philanthropists the world over always keep a significant portion of their wealth back as inheritance for their own children? It is because they understand that however much you dilute it, blood will always be thicker than water and that your family is the only way of expressing and perpetuating your genes. While you may love and help your neighbour’s child, you are only legally responsible and thus bound to provide for your own.
In the same way, while God’s love for the world is unconditional and undoubted and He expresses this love by causing rain to fall both on the good and the bad, there are still some things that are kept within the family. God’s gift of His Son Jesus Christ and our acceptance of that gift will result in salvation and eternal life. It is also the stepping stone to the greater things God has in mind for each of us. Hence, rejecting God’s gift means that we disqualify ourselves from enjoying eternal life as well as the other goodies that derive from it. God’s only gift that is open for appropriation by the world is His gift of salvation. After this, the next greatest gift He has in mind for those who have received eternal life is the gift of the Holy Spirit in all of His entirety.
The Holy Spirit is God’s spiritual seal that identifies us as belonging to Him and thus serves as a warning to our spiritual detractors not to mess with us. He also serves as guarantor of God’s promise to take us to heaven at the end of our earthly sojourn. His abiding presence and impact in our lives is tangible proof that heaven is neither a fluke nor the product of our over-exercised imagination. However, that is not the only benefit of His presence in our lives, for He is also the power of God for prosecuting God’s kingdom agenda in the world. His operation makes God the Father and God the Son known to the world through us and thus proves that God is real.
So, do you have this gift of the Holy Spirit in your life and if you do, how much? If you are yet to experience the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which represent the second stage of His relationship with us, the first stage being when the trinity comes into you to make their abode in your heart, God enjoins you to ask for His presence today. Nevertheless, this is not the end of all that He has for you, as His desire is not just to be present within you but to fill you up so that you can be all that He wants you to be. As the adjective describing Him implies, the Holy Spirit is God’s gift. This means that He can be received but not earned. You are free to ask for His abiding presence, but understand that this is still a transaction of God’s grace.
The Holy Spirit is God’s gift of grace and is reserved only for His children. If you are already a Christian, you are patently qualified to ask for the baptism and in-filling of His Spirit. So ask today and you life will never be the same.
Prayer:
Father, your word assures me that you delight to give your Spirit to those who ask. I ask that you fill me with your Spirit today so that I may live your life and do your works in Jesus name. Amen.