Five Operations of the Holy Spirit Part 12
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. (Acts 5:32)
The above verse is speaking of the giving of the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ. There is a principle here. When we are obedient to God we become eligible to receive the Holy Spirit. The deeper we grow in obedience the greater becomes our eligibility for receiving the power of the Holy Spirit.
Total obedience throughout difficult trials and testing makes us candidates for the fullness of the power of God. It is not that we earn spiritual rewards; rather it is a case of doing and becoming exactly what the Holy Spirit leads us to do and become.
The more willing and obedient we are, the more we are eligible for the answer to our prayers when we pray for power. It is the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man that avails much.
One of the most astounding examples of obedience to God is that of the offering of Isaac. Abraham was walking in the paths of peace and prosperity, delighting in his son, Isaac, the child of the miracle. Who would imagine that the same God who gave Isaac after such a long wait would now require that Isaac be returned to Himself?
The broken-hearted Abraham brought his only son to the place of sacrifice in one of the most remarkable acts of obedience to God to be found in the history of mankind. Notice that the outcome of Abraham's obedience was that which always follows the empowering of gifts and ministries: the multiplying of Christ, dominion over the enemy, and Divine blessing increased on the nations of the earth.
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:17,18)
First there must be absolute obedience to God, which is an important aspect of receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. A second important aspect is our persistence (importunity) in asking for the power of the Holy Spirit.
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. (Luke 11:5-8)
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1). Jesus taught them the familiar "Lord's prayer" and then the role of persistence in obtaining the power of the Holy Spirit for ministry.
Notice that the seeker came at midnight, a symbol of the fact that the greatest need for the gifts and ministries will be present during the dark hours that are just ahead of us. Notice also that the seeker came on behalf of a hungry friend. So it is that the virtue needed to help others can be supplied only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The world is full of people who have "come to us in their journey." They are famished. We have a "wealthy Friend" who has all the "food" that is needed. We ourselves, in our fleshly efforts, have nothing—absolutely nothing—to set before the spiritually impoverished of the earth. Our Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, is able to send down the Holy Spirit.
It is He who gives of the Divine Nature to meet the needs of the spirit, soul, and body of each person who will receive. When we ask, God does not answer right away. He is "in bed with His children," the saints of past ages. Why should He stir Himself? Why should He trouble Himself to send down food to meet the needs of the peoples of the earth?
What did Jesus teach us to do? Keep on asking. Keep on asking. Keep on asking. Ask! Ask! Ask! We give up too soon. We become weary. We must persist in prayer until God answers.
Have you ever given up on God? Perhaps you stopped just one day before the answer was to have come in abundance. This was not God's fault, it was your fault. Jesus taught us about asking and receiving. Jesus informed us that even the bonds of our friendship with God are not enough to obtain the answer.
Obedience alone will not do it. The elder son (as he himself testified in the parable of the Prodigal Son) never had the fattened calf slain for him. He could have eaten the fattened calf, but he never asked. Yet he had been faithful in all his father's house (Luke 15:29).
"Because of his importunity (persistence) he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."
We are living in the midnight hour. People on every side, inside and outside the Church, are perishing for lack of what the Holy Spirit alone can provide. Will we believe Jesus and beseech God without ceasing until we receive the empowering of gifts and ministries? Or will we choose to not believe Jesus and turn away from the endless requesting of God for the anointing of the Holy Spirit?
The choice is ours. Let us choose to believe Christ and to beseech God night and day, day and night, from now until Jesus returns if necessary, to pour out on us the heavenly power of the Holy Spirit so we may have an abundance of provisions with which to nourish the perishing people of the earth.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Luke 11:9)
We must ask, and keep on asking, and keep on asking. The promise is that the Holy Spirit will be given to us. Our asking requires a seeking also, because in the process of asking we are looking for the will of God. Ours is not an insistence that our own will be done but rather a plea for help for those around us who have needs that we desire to satisfy and cannot satisfy in our own strength.