Message #11 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series
"The Deeper Life of Prayer"

by Kaye Johns

Jesus taught us, in Luke 11:13, "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!"

In Matthew 7, Jesus taught that our heavenly Father would give much more than an earthly father [Matthew 7:11], but here in Luke 11, perhaps as much as a year later, He adds "how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit...." In the sequence of His teaching on prayer, why would Jesus have waited to introduce the idea of asking for the Holy Spirit? Perhaps because He knew that when His disciples were first taught how they should live [Matthew 5-7], when they were just learning what it means to have a daily, consistent prayer life [Matthew 6:6-13], they couldn’t appreciate how impossible it would be without His Spirit’s help. A year later, they could realize how important a gift the Spirit would be.

That is equally important for us today. God’s Spirit is only free to live in and through us as we surrender self and give Him room. We are capable of grieving and quenching Him, and we must deal with these issues if we are to ask for and receive Him in fullness every day. We simply cannot reach deeper dimensions of prayer, or of our life with the Lord, without His Spirit.

Pray with me now -- Father, may Your Spirit fill us to the full measure every day, for we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

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