The Holy Spirit in Jesus’ Ministry

KEY VERSE: “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?” —Luke 11:13

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Matthew 12:22-28; Luke 11:5-13

ONE of the great joys of parenthood is the privilege of giving gifts to your children. This is no less true of God, the father of all, who, in our text, reminds us of this fact, and emphasizes that he, being perfect and all-wise, is able to give the very best gifts.

To his children of this age God offers a most unique and valuable gift—that of the Holy Spirit. This is a gift for which it is proper to ask. As a matter of fact as our text implies, it is imperative that we do ask in recognition of our vital need of being filled with the Spirit. But we should not expect a miraculous answer to our prayers for the Holy Spirit. The miracle-working power of God has already operated in furnishing us with his written Word, the source of his thoughts for all the new creation class. It is true, of course, that God still uses his unlimited power in shaping his providences for us that we might be brought into contact with his Word. But in asking him for his Spirit, we must not expect that God will miraculously fill our minds with his thoughts.

When we ask God for his Holy Spirit, we must cooperate with him in the use of the provision he has made whereby we might be filled. We must go to his Word. If we could but fully realize, when we open the pages of the Bible and read its wonderful messages, we are looking into the mind of our Heavenly Father, and there discovering his will for us, and his thoughts toward us. The hours spent in the study of his Word are hours spent with God. David wrote that God’s thoughts to usward are more than can be numbered. (Ps. 40:5) Those we are informed of are all in the written Word, put there by the power of the Holy Spirit, that in studying it we may be filled with the Spirit. Paul wrote, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”—Rom. 15:13

In Ephesians 3:19, Paul describes being filled with the Spirit as being filled with all fullness of God. Obviously, God does not personally enter into his people, but his Spirit does, his holy mind which he has caused to be mirrored through his Word. Paul also speaks of Christ dwelling in our hearts. We will quote this whole revealing passage. “That he [God] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth [human] knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”—Eph. 3:16-19

Again, in Colossians 1:8-11 we read, “Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power [Spirit], unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”

This is a remarkable summary of many of the things which result from being filled with the Spirit. It means to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. If we are thus filled, we will walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Also, we will be fruitful in every good work, the fruit of the Spirit being abundantly manifest in our daily lives. Being filled with the Spirit also results in an increasing knowledge of the Lord, through the Word of truth, which, in turn, will lead to our being strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power. This power, this strength of the Lord which is the daily portion of the Spirit-filled life, enables the Christian to be patient in trial, and longsuffering in the face of every difficulty—not merely in the sense of enduring what cannot be changed, but with joyfulness.

Indeed, this Holy Spirit of truth with which every Gospel Age child of God may, and will, be filled if he is living up to his privileges, is a precious gift from God.

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