The Person of Prayer

Luke 11

When asked by his disciples to teach them to pray, Jesus gives them what we refer to as the Lord's Prayer. However, he continues with a statement about asking and receiving, knocking and the door being opened. I guess I never noticed that the end of this section has something specific that the asker will receive; "...how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask."

In a section on prayer, Jesus says, "Ask for the Holy Spirit." This has been my experience. One year I determined as a New Year's resolution that I would be more of a person of prayer. Over the next year or two, I encountered the Holy Spirit's presence in my life. It's as if God took my resolution as a prayer and said, "Okay, if you want to be more of a person of prayer, let me introduce you to THE Person of Prayer."

What a Gift

I was reading 1 Corinthians 2 this morning and was once again blown away by the gift of the Holy Spirit. In this second chapter we are told that the Holy Spirit searches the depths of God to know him(self) completely, is the vehicle by which God reveals/imparts himself to us, and then does the job of interpreting the spiritual truths of God (or better said, the spiritual truth who is God). The result is that the mind of Christ develops in us.

Imagine a teacher who does all the research on, oh...let's say brain surgery, until she completely understands all about it. She then somehow is able to internally plant all the raw information into our minds, and then supernaturally makes us know how to apply the information so that anyone around us would say, "hey, look, a brain surgeon."