SCRIPTURE: Luke 11:5-13
“How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)
‘God, please fix my marriage, please heal my cousin’s friend’s nephew, please help me pay my bills, please give be safe travel, please help me find a job, please let me get into that University, please…’
These are common prayers we hear at church, and the people who pray them are very sincere.
But I have never heard anyone pray, ‘God, please give me Your Spirit.’
God wants us to ask for daily needs (Matthew 6:11), but I wonder if we’ve missed something important.
There are the circumstances of my life, and then there is the condition of my heart.
The heart is where I live, choose, feel, respond, deal with life, etc.
If I do not have the Spirit in my heart, I will not be able to handle the circumstances that come my way.
We spend more time asking God to change our circumstances, than to change, strengthen or use us.
We were created to live life with God, with God’s Spirit in us, helping us.
It’s because we’re separated from God, and God’s Spirit, that our life circumstances are so challenging.
A better prayer, the best prayer, the prayer God will not refuse, is for His Spirit.
In turn His Spirit helps us deal with our marriages, health, finances, or purpose and place in life.
“How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)
This is a prayer God cannot, and will not refuse… and it’s what we really need more than anything else.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
God, if I think of the things I’ve prayed for recently, I realize I’ve been handing you my grocery list. What I really need, what I really want, is Your Spirit living in and leading me, helping me to be all that You made me to be.
My prayers for the Holy Spirit, are often for guidance and direction. They seem less dramatic then praying for the anointing or baptism of the Holy Spirit but the direction of our life, is determined by our day to day decisions – and so not dramatic, but as we follow the Spirits leading, still life changing.