AP Jesus said, ‘Everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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!’ (Luke 11:10–13). What exactly are we to ask for?
Ed A common suggestion is that Jesus was referring to the ‘spiritual gifts’—miraculous powers, which were given to believers in the First Century to assist with the spread of the Gospel and the cultivation of the community (1 Corinthians 12).
In the early church, different believers were given different gifts, such as healing, prophecy, teaching and miracles. It’s not certain whether all believers had them. The apostles, to whom Jesus was speaking in Luke 11, had already received the power of healing (Luke 9).
Only God Himself and the apostles were able to give people these gifts (Acts 8:14). They appear to have been discontinued when the community was established and the New Testament text completed around the end of the First Century (1 Corinthians 13:8). So it seems as though, when the Lord told us we must ask for the Holy Spirit, he was referring to something more than the spiritual gifts.
The Holy Spirit is God’s power. In the Bible it is used for many things, including inspiring people to write the Bible: ‘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 that I have said to you’ (John 14:26). The Bible is sometimes referred to as the “spirit word”.
There are two ways of life—the way of God, and the way without God. These two ways are called the ways of the flesh and the spirit: ‘You… are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him… If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you’ (Romans 8:9–11). The way to obtain God’s spirit is by reading and absorbing His word in the Bible. As Jesus said, ‘It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life’ (John 6:63).
If we’re followers of Christ, it’s essential that we have the Holy Spirit at the centre of our lives. It’s our guide, it leads us to life. But it doesn’t come naturally to us, we need to seek it prayerfully. ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him’ (James 1:5).