The Greatest Gift

Luke 11:13 KJV 1900

13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

repeats the question, there is a difference. Instead of speaking, as then of giving good gifts, He says, 'How much more shall your heavenly Father give THE HOLY SPIRIT?' He thus teaches us that the chief and the best of these gifts is the Holy Spirit, or rather, that in this gift all others are comprised. The Holy Spirit is the first of the Father's gifts and the one He delights most to bestow.

The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the gift we ought first and chiefly to seek.

We can easily understand the unspeakable worth of this gift. Jesus spoke of the Spirit as ‘the promise of the Father,’ the one promise in which God’s Fatherhood revealed itself. The best gift a good and wise father can bestow on a child on earth is his own spirit. This is the great object of a father in education- to reproduce in his child his own disposition and character.

If the child is to know and understand his father,

if he is to enter into all his will and plans,

if he is to have his highest joy in the father and the father in him,

—he must be of one mind and spirit with him. And so it is impossible to conceive of God bestowing any higher gift on His child than this, His own Spirit.

God is what He is through His Spirit; the Spirit is the very life of God. Just think what it means-God giving His own Spirit to His child on earth.

Or was not this the glory of Jesus as a Son upon earth, that the Spirit of the Father was in Him? At His baptism in Jordan, the two things were united-the voice, proclaiming Him the Beloved Son, and the Spirit, descending upon Him. And so the apostle says of us, Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. A king seeks in the whole education of his son to call forth in him a kingly spirit. Our Father in heaven desires to educate us as His children for the holy, heavenly life in which He dwells, and for this gives us His own Spirit from the depths of His heart.

It was this which was the whole aim of Jesus when, after having made atonement with His own blood, He entered for us into God's presence, that He might obtain for us, and send down to dwell in us, the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of the Father, and of the Son, the whole life and love of the Father and the Son are in Him; and, coming down into us, He lifts us up into their fellowship. As Spirit of the Father, He sheds abroad the Father's love, with which He loved the Son, in our hearts, and teaches us to live in it. As Spirit of the Son, He breathes in us the childlike liberty, devotion, and obedience in which the Son lived upon earth.

The Father can bestow no higher or more wonderful gift than this: His own Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Sonship.

This truth naturally suggests the thought that this first and chief gift of God must be the first and chief object of all prayer.

For every need of the spiritual life, this is the one thing needful: the Holy Spirit. All the fullness is in Jesus, the fullness of grace and truth, out of which we receive grace for grace. The Holy Spirit is the appointed conveyancer, whose special work it is to make Jesus and all there is in Him for us ours in personal appropriation, in blessed experience.

He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; as wonderful as life is, so wonderful is the provision by which such an agent is provided to communicate it to us.

If we but yield ourselves entirely to the disposal of the Spirit, and let Him have His way with us, He will manifest the life of Christ within us. He will do this with a Divine power, maintaining the life of Christ in us in uninterrupted continuity.

Surely, if there is one prayer that should draw us to the Father's throne and keep us there, it is this: for the Holy Spirit, whom we as children have received, to stream into us and out from us in greater fulness.

In the variety of gifts, the Spirit has to dispense, He meets the believer's every need.

Just think of the names He bears.

The Spirit of grace reveals and imparts all of the grace there is in Jesus.

The Spirit of faith teaches us to begin and go on and increase in ever believing.

The Spirit of adoption and assurance, who witnesses that we are God's children, and inspires the confiding and confident Abba, Father!

The Spirit of truth, to lead into all truth, to make each word of God ours in deed and in truth.

The Spirit of prayer, through whom we speak with the Father; prayer that must be heard.

The Spirit of judgment and burning, to search the heart, and convince of sin.

The Spirit of holiness, manifesting and communicating the Father's holy presence within us.

The Spirit of power, through whom we are strong, allows us to testify boldly and work effectually in the Father's service.

The Spirit of glory, the pledge of our inheritance, the preparation and the foretaste of the glory to come.

Surely, the child of God needs only one thing to really live as a child: to be filled with this Spirit.

And now, the lesson Jesus teaches us today in His school is this:

The Father is just longing to give Him to us if we will but ask in the childlike dependence on what He says: 'If ye know to give good gifts unto your children, HOW MUCH MORE shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.'

In the words of God's promise, I will pour out my Spirit abundantly,’ and of His command,

‘Be ye filled with the Spirit’ We have the measure of what God is ready to give and what we may obtain.

As God's children, we have already received the Spirit. But we still need to ask and pray for His special gifts and operations as we require them.

And not only this but for Himself to take complete and entire possession; for His unceasing momentary guidance.

Just as the branch, already filled with the sap of the vine, is ever crying for the continued and increasing flow of that sap, that it may bring its fruit to perfection, so the believer, rejoicing in the possession of the Spirit, ever thirsts and cries for more. And what the great Teacher would have us learn is, that nothing less than God's promise and command may be the measure of our expectation and our prayer; we must be filled abundantly. He would have us ask this in the assurance that the wonderful

HOW MUCH MORE of God's Father-love is the pledge that, when we ask, we do most certainly receive.

Let us now believe this. As we pray to be filled with the Spirit, let us not seek for the answer in our feelings.

All spiritual blessings must be received, that is, accepted or taken in faith.'

Let me believe that the Father gives the Holy Spirit to His praying child. Even now, while I pray, I must say in faith: I have what I ask; the fullness of the Spirit is mine. Let us continue steadfast in this faith.

We know that we have what we ask on the strength of God’s Word.

Let us, with thanksgiving that we have been heard, with thanksgiving for what we have received and taken and now hold as ours, continue steadfast in believing prayer that the blessing, which has already been given us and which we hold in faith, may break through and fill our whole being. It is in such believing thanksgiving and prayer that our soul opens up for the Spirit to take entire and undisturbed possession.

It is such prayer that not only asks and hopes, but takes and holds, that inherits the full blessing.

In all our prayer, let us remember the lesson the Saviour would teach us this day: If there is one thing on earth we can be sure of, it is this: the Father desires to have us filled with His Spirit, and He delights in giving us His Spirit.

And when once we have learned thus to believe for ourselves, and each day to take out of the treasure we hold in heaven, what liberty and power to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit on the Church of God, on all flesh, on individuals, or special efforts! He that has once learned to know the Father in prayer for himself, learns to pray most confidently for others too. The Father gives the Holy Spirit to them who ask Him, not least, but most, when they ask for others.

'LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY.'

Father in heaven! Thou didst send Thy Son to reveal Thyself to us, Thy Father-love, and all that love has for us.

And He has taught us that the gift above all gifts which Thou wouldst bestow in answer to prayer is the Holy Spirit.

O my Father! I come to Thee with this prayer; there is nothing I would—may I not say, I do—desire so much as to be filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The blessings He brings are so unspeakable, and just what I need. He sheds abroad Thy love in the heart and fills it with Thyself. I long for this. He breathes the mind and life of Christ in me, so that l live as He did, in and for the Father's love. I long for this.

He endues me with power from on high for all my walks and works. I long for this. O Father, I beseech Thee, give me this day the fulness of Thy Spirit.

Father! I ask this, resting on the words of my Lord: 'HOW MUCH MORE THE HOLY SPIRIT.' I do believe that Thou hearest my prayer;

I now receive what I ask: Father! I claim and I take it: the fulness of Thy Spirit is mine. I receive the gift this day again as a faith gift; in faith I reckon my Father works through the Spirit all He has promised. The Father delights to breathe His Spirit into His waiting child as He tarries in fellowship with Himself. Amen.

Luke 11-5-8

Our Lord gave his first teaching to His disciples in the I Sermon on the Mount.

It was nearly a year later that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. In answer He gave them a second time the Lord's Prayer, teaching them what to pray. He then speaks of how they ought to pray, and repeats what he formerly said of God's Fatherliness and the certainty of an answer. But in between, He adds the beautiful parable of the friend at midnight, to teach them the twofold lesson,

that God does not only want us to pray for ourselves, but for the perishing around us, and that in such intercession, great boldness of entreaty is often needful, and always lawful, yea, pleasing to God.

The parable is a perfect storehouse of instruction regarding true intercession. There is, first, the love which seeks to help the needy around us: 'a friend is come to me.' Then the need which urges to the cry I have nothing to set before him.' Then follows the confidence that help is to be had: which of you shall have a friend, and say, Friend, lend me thee. Then again the perseverance that takes no refusal: because of his importunity.'

And lastly, the reward of such prayer: 'he will give him as many as he needeth.' A wonderful setting forth of the way of prayer and faith in which the blessing of God has so often been sought and found. Let us confine ourselves to the chief thought: prayer as an appeal to the friendship of God, and we shall find that two lessons are specially suggested.

The one that if we are God’s friends and come as such to Him, we must prove ourselves the friends of the needy; God's friendship to us and ours to others go hand in hand.

The other is that when we come thus, we may use the utmost liberty in claiming an answer.

There is a twofold use of prayer: the one, to obtain strength and blessing for our own life;

the other, the higher, the true glory of prayer, for which Christ has taken us into His fellowship and teaching, is intercession, where prayer is the royal power a child of God exercises in heaven on behalf of others and even of the kingdom.

We see in Scripture how Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Elijah, with all the holy men of old, proved that they had power with God and prevailed through intercession for others.

It is when we give ourselves a blessing that we can especially count on the blessing of God. It is when we draw near to God as the friend of the poor and the perishing that we may count on His friendliness; the righteous man who is the friend of the poor is very specially the friend of God.

This gives wonderful liberty in prayer. Lord! I have a needy friend whom I must help. As a friend, I have helped him.

I have a Friend in Thee, whose kindness and riches I know to be infinite. I am sure Thou wilt give me what I ask. If I, being evil, am ready to do for my friend what I can, how much more will Thou, O my heavenly Friend, now do for Thy friend what he asks?

The question might suggest whether the Fatherhood )of God does not give such confidence in prayer that the thought of His Friendship can hardly teach us anything more: a father is more than a friend.

And yet, if we consider it, this pleading the friendship of God opens new wonders to us.

That a child obtains what he asks of his father looks so natural that we almost count it the father's duty to give.

But with a friend, kindness is more free and dependent, not on sympathy and character but on it. The relation of a child is more that of perfect dependence; two friends are more nearly on a level. And so our Lord, in seeking to unfold the spiritual mystery of prayer, would fain have us approach God in this relation too, as those whom He has acknowledged as His friends, whose mind and life are in sympathy with His.

But then we must live as His friends. I am still a child even when a wanderer, but friendship depends upon conduct. ‘Ye are my friends. If ye do whatsoever, I command you.’ ‘Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; and the scripture was fulfilled that saith, And Abraham believed God, and he was called the friend of God.

It is the Spirit, 'the same Spirit,' that leads us that also bears witness to our acceptance with God; '

likewise, also,' the same Spirit helpeth us in prayer. It is a life as the friend of God that gives the wonderful liberty to say:

I have a friend to whom I can go even at midnight. And how much more when I go in the very spirit of that friendliness, manifesting myself the very kindness I look for in God, seeking to help my friend as I want God to help me. When I come to God in prayer, He always looks to what the aim is of my petition. If it be merely for my own comfort or joy, I seek His grace, I do not receive. But if I can say that it is that He may be glorified in my dispensing His blessings to others, I shall not ask in vain. Or if I ask for others but want to wait until God has made me so rich that it is no sacrifice or act of faith to aid them, I shall not obtain.

But if I can say that I have already undertaken work for my needy friend, that in my poverty, I have already begun the work of love because I know I have a friend who will help me, my prayer will be heard.

Oh, we know not how much the plea avails: the friendship of earth looking in its need to the friendship of heaven: He will give him as much as he needeth.'

But not always at once. Faith is the one-way man can honor and enjoy his God. Intercession is part of faith's training school.

There our friendship with men and with God is tested. It is seen whether my friendship with the needy is so real that I obtain for them what I need. It is also seen whether my friendship with God is so clear that I can depend on Him not to turn me away and therefore pray on until He gives.

O, what a deep heavenly mystery this is of persevering prayer.

The God who has promised, who longs, whose fixed purpose it is to give the blessing, holds it back. It is to Him a matter of such deep importance that His friends on earth should know and fully trust their rich Friend in heaven. He trains them, in the school of answer delayed, to find out how their perseverance really does prevail and what the mighty power is they can wield in heaven, if they do but set themselves to it.

There is faith that sees the promise, embraces it, and yet does not receive it

Hebrews 11:13 KJV 1900

13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:39 KJV 1900

39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

It is when the answer to prayer does not come, and the promise we are most firmly trusting appears to be of no effect, that the trial of faith, more precious than of gold, takes place. It is in this trial that the faith that has embraced the promise is purified and strengthened and prepared in personal, holy fellowship with the living God, to see the glory of God. It takes and holds the promise until it has fulfilled what it had claimed in a living truth in the unseen but living God.

Let each child of God seeking to work the work of love in his Father's service take courage.

The parent with his child,

the teacher with his class,

the visitor with his district,

the Bible reader with his circle,

the preacher with his hearers,

each one who, in his little circle, has accepted and is bearing the burden of hungry, perishing souls,—et them all take courage. Nothing is at first so strange to us as that God should really require persevering prayer, that there should be a real spiritual needs-be for importunity.

To teach it to us, the Master uses this almost strange parable:

If the unfriendliness of a selfish earthly friend can be conquered by importunity, how much more will it avail with the heavenly Friend, Who does so love to give, but is held back by our spiritual unfitness, our incapacity to possess what He has to give.

O let us thank Him that in delaying His answer, He is educating us to our true position and the exercise of all our power with Him, training us to live with Him in the fellowship of undoubting faith and trust, to be indeed God’s friends. And let us hold fast the threefold cord that cannot be broken: the hungry friend needing the help, the praying friend seeking the help, and the Mighty Friend, loving to give as much as he needeth.

'LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY.'

O my blessed Lord and Teacher, I must come to Thee in prayer. Thy teaching is so glorious, yet too high for me to grasp.

I must confess that my heart is too little to take in these thoughts of the wonderful boldness I may use with Thy Father as my Friend. Lord Jesus! I trust Thee to give me Thy Spirit with Thy Word and to make the Word quick and powerful in my heart. I desire to keep Thy Word of this day:

Because of his importance, he will give him as many as he needs.’ Lord! teach me more about the power of persevering prayer. I know that in it, the Father suits Himself to our need of time for the inner life to attain its growth and ripeness so that His grace may indeed be assimilated and made our very own. I know that He would fain thus train us to exercise that strong faith that does not let Him go even in the face of seeming disappointment. I know He wants to lift us to that wonderful liberty, in which we understand how He has really dispensed His gift dependent on our prayer. Lord! I know this: O teach me to see it in spirit and truth

And may it now be the joy of my life to become the almoner of my rich friend in heaven, to care for all the hungry and perishing, even at midnight, because I know MY FRIEND, who always gives to him who perseveres, because of his importunity, as many as he needeth. Amen.