Basic HTML Version
The Promise is For Us, November 23
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
.
We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the
disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed the Spirit’s power
at that time, we need it more today. All manner of false doctrines, heresies,
and deceptions are misleading the minds of men; and without the Spirit’s
aid, our efforts to present divine truth will be in vain.
God desires to refresh His people by the gift of the Holy Spirit, baptiz-
ing them anew in His love. There is no need for a dearth of the Spirit in the
church. After Christ’s ascension the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting,
praying, believing disciples with a fullness and power that reached every
heart. In the future, the earth is to be lightened with the glory of God. A
holy influence is to go forth to the world from those who are sanctified
through the truth. The earth is to be encircled with an atmosphere of grace.
The Holy Spirit is to work on human hearts, taking the things of God and
showing them to men.
Christ declared that the divine influence of the Spirit was to be with
His followers to the end of time. But the promise is not appreciated as it
should be, and therefore its fulfillment is not seen as it might be.... Minor
matters occupy the attention, and the divine power which is necessary for
the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other
blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered in its infinite plenitude....
My brethren and sisters, plead for the Holy Spirit. God stands back of
every promise He has made. With your Bibles in your hands say, “I have
done as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, ‘Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’”
(
Matthew 7:7
). Christ declares, “What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (
Mark 11:24
).
“Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do...” (
John 14:13
).
[335]
346