Prayer and Promises

So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” — Luke 11:13, BSB 

Asking for the Holy Spirit is connected with receiving this gift. 

The Lord desires to employ the church as a channel through which to communicate His bounties. If His people would keep the channel open, receiving the spiritual and temporal gifts of His grace, and imparting them to the needy, there would be no sick ones neglected, no orphans crying for food. 

Those who ask because they wish to impart to others will not be disappointed. God will reward those who come to Him in earnest faith… He will do much more graciously than we suppose if we will come to the footstool of His mercy. He urges His sovereignty as a reason for His great and merciful bountifulness in supplying the demands upon Him. He pledges Himself to hear our prayers, declaring that He will hear them. 

The Lord reads the hearts of all men. He selects from His subjects those He can use, choosing material which can be worked. He selects the most unpromising subjects, and through them magnifies His own wisdom and power… He hews and polishes the rough stones He has quarried out of the world. He works through men who realize that they must submit to the axe, the chisel, and the hammer, lying passive under the divine hand. Through those who voluntarily submit themselves to Him in all matters, who seek Him in faith and hope, He works out His plans. 

Throw open the windows of the soul heavenward and close them earthward. The Lord has made His church the repository of divine influence. The heavenly universe is waiting for the members to become channels through which the current of life shall flow to the world, that many be converted, and in their turn become channels through which the grace of Christ shall flow.

My brethren and sisters, keep the temple of God pure and holy, that He may use it to the glory of His name. God will enlarge His faculties and multiply His gifts to you as you make use of them to gather souls under the bloodstained banner of the Redeemer. “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”… the way is open for your spiritual life to be reinforced with new power. “Ask, and ye shall receive.” 

—  Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, August 12, 1901 

Father God, I come to Your throne of mercy asking for Your Holy Spirit. I open my soul heavenward and submit myself to be worked by You. Thank You for being so gracious to me in both the temporal and spiritual gifts of Your grace, help me to impart these gifts to others. Give me Your wisdom and power, make me a channel to share Your grace with others that Your name may be glorified. I claim the promise to ask, and I will receive!