Giving good gifts

What is the favorite gift you ever gave someone else?

Every now and then I manage to give my wife or one of my kids something that they really like. I love seeing the joy in the face of someone I just gave something they love. I also like to give others good things. I always try to give someone something that will help them, something that will make their lives better. I never want to give someone I love something that would somehow hurt them.

Taking this a step further, as a father, I desire to give my son what he needs to succeed. If he needs help and I can provide the help, I am glad to do it. I want my son to succeed in life, especially in the things I ask him to do. If he needs a pencil to do his schoolwork, I will gladly get him a pencil. If he needs help lifting the trash bag out of the trash can so he can take the trash out, I’ll gladly help him.

If my daughter is hungry and asks for an apple, I’ll gladly get it for her. If she can’t reach something she needs I’ll gladly get it for her. If she is trying to carry something heavy and asks for help I am glad to help.

How willing is God to give us the Holy Spirit?

11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 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 11:11-13 NKJV

Luke 11:11-13 gives us a great example of what is referred to in Jewish thought as the “qal wahomer” principle.

Kal va-homer (sometimes written “kal v'chomer“ or “qal wahomer”) (Heb. ‘light and heavy’).
- Principle of determining Jewish halakhah: it means that what applies in a less important case will certainly apply in a more important one. The phrase has come to mean an inescapable conclusion. (Encyclopedia.com)
- all the more so; surely, used to indicate if an earlier premise is true, the second will certainly be. (Jewish English Lexicon)

In other words, if we fallen, selfish, sinful human beings are willing to give good gifts to our children, then surely, your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

Unless you believe that human parents are more loving than God, you realize that this is one of the great promises of the Bible. God wants us to have the Holy Spirit. God wants to give us good things.

Then, how come we don’t feel like we have the Holy Spirit?

The Purpose of Prayer

Part of our frustration likely arises from a misunderstanding of prayer. I grew up in the city of Salvador in Brazil. There I experienced a mixture of Christianity/Catholicism and Candomblé (Wikipedia) the whole thing is very complex but suffice it to say that the lines between what the Bible teaches and pagan rituals are very blurry in the culture. People would pray to the God of the Bible, to the saints, to the spirits, and whoever else would help them get what they want. In this confusion, the same approaches would be carried over from one religion to the next as part of the culture. (Example: Bom Fim)

I share this because though I no longer live in Salvador, or Brazil I find that we all struggle with separating culture from biblical teachings. The culture is the natural and easy way, it is what everyone is doing, and it takes a special sensitivity and attention to what the Bible is teaching to allow the scriptural text to challenge our culture, regardless of what denomination we belong to.

What this means in a practical sense is that though we pray to the God of the Bible in the name of Jesus, our approach can be similar to a pagan approach. Here’s what I mean. In pagan religions, you have to appease the gods, bribe them, get their attention, and somehow manipulate them to do your bidding. You have to offer the right sacrifice, pay money, say the correct magic words, wear the right clothing, etc. The God of the Bible is our Lord and Creator. We do not bend God to our will, we submit to His. I understand that God wants what is best for me and I know that the best possible life I can live is one that is in accordance with His plans for my life.

This changes everything.

The true purpose of prayer is not to change God but to bring about a change in me so that I will desire both to will and to do His good pleasure. And even that change is brought about by God. So prayer is more about coming to God so that He may shape our lives and bring us into harmony with His will for us.

for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
- Philippians 2:13 NKJV

Fasting and prayer are about humbling myself before God and submitting to His will. My acts of service are an expression of my life for God and for those around me, they are not an attempt to purchase God’s favor and somehow make Him more likely to give me what I want. I trust God to give me what I need and what is best for me in the best possible time. My time in prayer is about me learning about God and investing in that relationship and it is not about me telling God things He does not already know.

So why do I need to pray? The way I see it is to partner with God. God is interested in a relationship. As I pray I learn to pray and as I begin to ask for the right things. When I begin to witness more answers to prayers it is not that God now loves me more, but it could be that I am finally asking for the right things, or that I have matured enough to handle the responsibility of what God is entrusting to me. (I do not claim to have all the answers but this is where I am currently in my understanding of answered prayers.)

What about the Holy Spirit?

What jumps out at me is Jesus telling His followers to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit. Why should we ask for the Holy Spirit? When I read the Bible I realize that the Holy Spirit brings with Him everything I could possibly need.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
- Acts 1:8 NKJV

But 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 14:26 NKJV

11 “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
- Luke 12:11-12 NKJV

Do you believe that the passage of time has weakened Jesus’ promises regarding the Holy Spirit?

Do you think that God is restricting the flow of the riches of His grace towards us?

Could it be that the fulfillment of the promise has not been experienced as it might be, because the promise has not been appreciated as it should be?

Perhaps we don’t experience more of the Holy Spirit because we don’t ask for Him. We fail to think about the Holy Spirit, to talk about Him, and to long for Him so we fail to experience Him. This neglect on our part causes spiritual declension and death. We begin to major in minors and the divine power which is crucial for spiritual growth and would bring all other blessings with it gets neglected though offered by God in abundance.

When we pray for the Holy Spirit we become more aware of our great need of Him. When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are reminded of our mission, our purpose, our reason for living. I can pray and ask for health. I can ask God for money, a promotion, a degree, a spouse… these requests are not bad. I am not saying that you should never pray for those things. But if that is all you pray for could you be missing something more important?

Could you be praying for God to increase your strength and your speed, power, and influence, but be missing direction from God regarding what to do with your strength, speed, power, and influence?

Imagine you are walking and asking God for a fast car, and and fuel, all the while you’re headed in the wrong direction. God doesn’t give you a car, and you continue to lack fuel. Then you begin to wonder if God really exists. Maybe you begin to pray to other gods. Maybe you don’t get an idol or change religions, but slowly your business becomes your god, your degree becomes your god, your relationship… you get the idea. Slowly you replace God with things on earth that you think might get you what you want.

Maybe you begin to think God doesn’t love you or God doesn’t want you to have a fast car or fuel, or perhaps God hates cars… all the while, the main problem is that you have not learned from God the direction you should go. Maybe once you’re headed in the right direction you will have the fastest car and the best fuel possible, because now you are achieving what God has prepared for you to accomplish.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
- Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

Have you ever imagined how many times Joseph might have prayed to God to take him back home to his family? Yet all those no’s were because God had a plan to make Joseph the ruler of Egypt. (The Bible does not say that Joseph ever prayed to go back home, this is speculation on my part) This gives me peace when God answers my prayers with a NO. I just have to trust that God knows better and He loves me even more than I love myself. God will not withhold anything good from me.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32NKJV

This is why we should pray for the Holy Spirit. He will teach us how to pray and give us all that we need to succeed in the path God has set for us.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
- Romans 8:26 NKJV