The Gift Of The Holy Spirit
Q. I have two questions about this verse: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” My first question is,why Jesus imply to ask the Holy Spirit from God,if the Spirit is already sealed in us by God when we first believed?
My second question is: I heard charismatics use this verse to justify the theory of the ” Baptism of the Holy Spirit”,also their notion that we have to “fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit fully” ever and again to live effective and victorious christian lives.What are your thoughts on this?
A. You’re referring to Luke 11:9-13. Since the gift being given to those who are asking is the Holy Spirit, and since the Holy Spirit is given to everyone who asks for salvation, and since the promise was given in the context of the Ask, Seek, Knock teaching we can assume that the Lord was speaking of the salvation experience.
At the moment of salvation we’re sealed with the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell within us. We don’t ever have to ask for Him again. As we learn to listen to the Spirit’s promptings and yield our lives to His guidance He will empower us to achieve victory over our sin nature. No so-called infilling is necessary for this. He’s always there ready to help. We only have to listen and obey.
Once in a while we may face a situation that requires a short burst of extra-ordinary power, perhaps when we’re offering a prayer for healing or deliverance, or to bring an important message to the Church. In these cases the Holy Spirit will know of our need and will “come upon” us to provide the necessary power. When that happens we can sense the difference, as if He’s taken charge of us and we’re just along for the ride. Afterwards we know that we weren’t acting in our own strength, though we may feel like all of our energy is gone.
