"...give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him."

Barely any time to really blog this month due to explosive growth with HomeLife Academy. However, in my spare time I'm still working through perhaps the best book I've ever read on the Holy Spirit: Forgotten God, by Francis Chan. He must be one of the most humble teachers I've ever read. (But more on that later.) For now, this week, I read the following scripture and saw something new! Jesus said to His followers:

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Right, heard that first bit before... Ask, Knock, Seek, etc. Sure. Memorized that one at age 5.

But wait a second!! The conclusion of Christ's message here is this..."how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"   The HOLY Spirit!? Wait a second Son of God! You mean we're supposed to ASK for the Holy Spirit?? Is that just a one time deal, or multiple times. Can you clarify?

This is amazing. Though we are evil we still know how to give good gifts to our children. That's true. So "how much more" will God give His Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!! That's good news for sure. And we're not just asking, and knocking, and seeking for something unimportant. We're asking for God Himself; for MORE of HIM! And how does He give us MORE of Himself? 

By His Spirit. 

We get to have God Himself living right inside of us!!! Is that amazing or what??? Do we really believe that? That God would make a way into the human heart by His Spirit and live and move through us?? This is not the stuff of fairy tales. It's reality! It's God's goal in us. ALL of God's movements through the first Covenant, through Christ, and through the resurrection point to this fact: God wants to make HIS home in US!!! That's crazy! That's crazy talk I tell you. 

But don't take my word for it. Just go to Bible Gateway.com and put "Spirit" in the search. Whoa! Jesus Himself spoke of the Spirit multiple times. And the writers of the gospels described a Spirit-filled Jesus... multiple times. And Paul wrote letters where He declared the essential place of the Spirit... multiple times. The more I study this the more I become convinced of the Spirit's importance. The Spirit with us is really what give us hope. HE, the Spirit of God, gives us hope. Without Him we are alone. This hope begins with our very own study and our very own prayer. And it begins with believers talking about and praying together for the Spirit as well. I don't think Jesus was just telling us this ask, seek, knock thing to make us grin a little. And he wasn't suggesting that "IF" we ask for the Spirit God will give Him to us. Christ was saying we NEED to ask, seek, and knock. And we NEED to ask for the Spirit. It seems to me that is the only conclusion we can draw. 

But I know what you're thinking (if you've made it this far in this post). Any concentration on the Holy Spirit can only lead to theological disaster. Just look around, you say. And you're right, there is a great deal of confusion about the Spirit. All I can say is I highly recommend a complete study of the Holy Spirit in scripture for yourself and read this book by Chan. It's good. It's balanced. But mainly.... read the Bible! It's all in there. And it's very, very exciting.