November
4, 2003
THE
GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
"If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Luke 11:13, NKJV).
Our heavenly
Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask Him than an earthly parent good gifts to his or her children!
Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be
given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will
be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who
seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened"
(Luke 11:9, 10).
The Holy
Spirit is a gift of God to those who ask and who really want
what God has to offer. What are the benefits of the Holy Spirit?
To name a few: "The Holy Spirit
will teach you" (Luke 12:12), "If
you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father,
and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with
you forever-- you know Him, for He dwells with you and will
be in you... the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive...
The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in
My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance
all things that I said to you" (John 14:15-17,
26), "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22, 23), "Do
you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have from God" (1 Corinthians
6:19), "Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
Only
by the indwelling of the Spirit of God can we live the Spirit
led life. Only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can we
receive the fruits of the Spirit. God lives with us and dwells
in us by the gift of His Spirit. Jesus told a woman living
in adultery, "Whoever drinks of
this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water
that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water
(Holy Spirit) that I shall give him
will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life" (John 4:13, 14).
Only
as we allow the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in us can we receive
the benefits of God's presence in our lives. "When
He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into
all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but
whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things
to come" (John 16:13).
The Holy
Spirit is the gift of God's presence in our lives. Do not
grieve the presence of your Creator. He loves us with a passion,
and His purpose of sending Jesus into the world was to rescue
us from His archenemy and the enemy of the human race.
May His
blessings, peace and presence be yours today.
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