Luke 11:13 – “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Jesus says these words after responding to a request from one of His disciples on how to pray (Luke 11:1). He gives some principles on how to pray and an illustration through telling a story to imprint images in the minds of those who listen. All of this is summed up in the Holy Spirit being given to those who ask, seek, and knock.
Jesus’ principles on how to pray:
- You have a Father in heaven with whom you are engaging.
- He has a kingdom coming on earth as in heaven (cf. Matthew 6:10).
- While we wait, He gives us daily bread.
- He forgives our sins as we live in forgiveness. Living in forgiveness is how we position ourselves to be led out of temptation and delivered from evil.
The story:
- A person had a friend who came to him on a journey, and the person had no bread to give his friend.
- The person seeks out a local friend, knocks on his door in the middle of the night, and asks for bread to give to his friend who arrived from a journey.
- The friend in the house wants to avoid getting up and helping at that inconvenient time.
- Though the friend does not want to help, the friend will rise to give what is needed because of the person’s impudence.
- The story’s purpose: God is not like the friend who did not want to get up. We are not inconveniencing God when we need something, especially when helping others.
The principle from the story, connected back to how to pray, is that the foundation of all our asking, seeking, and knocking should be built on fellowship with God’s Spirit. We do not ask for His Spirit because we do not have the Spirit but because we want to engage with the Spirit’s leadership each day. We are strengthened with God’s might through the Spirit to abide in Jesus (Ephesians 3:16-17). Through fellowship with the Spirit, we have access to God’s kingdom, which includes His nature, which fuels His kingdom, and the resources that come from it. Through fellowship with the Spirit, we are pointed to communion with Jesus as our bread (His body broken) and as forgiveness (the cup of the new covenant in His blood for the forgiveness of sins). Through this communion, His power leads us out of temptation.
A simple example: I wake up in the morning and ask for the Holy Spirit’s leadership. The Spirit points me to the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection and that I abide in Him. Throughout the day, various temptations come in my thoughts to look down on those around me, to judge by outward appearance, to assume what others are thinking about me or someone else, to allow worry to creep in about finances, etc. The Spirit will convict me and remind me of the way of love, that God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance; He is my Provider, and I do not need to say things or live in a way that garners man’s praise and likewise I do not need to fear man’s rejection for decisions I make in sincere desire to love others.
Father, thank you for giving us Your Spirit and Your unending desire to do this, day by day and moment by moment. I want to fellowship with Your Spirit daily so that I am abiding in Jesus and allowing Jesus to live in and through me. I do not want to live in unforgiveness and be susceptible to temptation that leads me into bondage in various internal ways and distances me from what I most want: closeness with my Maker.