Day Ten – Pleading for the Spirit “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 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!” (Luke 11:9-13). Praise • Praise God that He delights to give us His Holy Spirit, as a father delights to give to his children. • Praise God for the Holy Spirit’s work as the: Comforter, Teacher, Equipper, etc. • Praise Him for ways you have seen the Holy Spirit work recently in your life, the church, or our world. Confession • Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and convict of sin. “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). Confess the sin and accept God’s forgiveness. • Ask forgiveness for often not appreciating the promise of the Spirit and pleading for it in our lives. • “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). How have you ignored or quenched the Spirit’s leading in your life? Ask forgiveness specifically. Supplication and Intercession • Claim the promise of the Holy Spirit in Luke 11:9-13. • Pray for a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. “…Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:19). • Pray for a closer connection with God and for the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in your life and in the lives of all Seventh-day Adventists (Galatians 5:22-25). • Pray for the early and latter rains to be poured out (Hosea 6:1-4, 10:12, and Joel 2:23, 28). • Pray for a spirit of prayer to be poured out on God’s people (Zechariah 12:10). • Pray for revival and reformation for the world-wide church (2 Chronicles 7:14). • MTTC: For God’s Spirit to work powerfully in the 630 cities around the world. • Plead for the Spirit to empower us for witnessing and to bring unity among us. • Ask God to help us to persevere in asking for the Spirit so that we can receive Him in full. • Join with another person or two to intercede for your five and those on an intercession card. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives and to be given to them in a mighty way. • Pray for other requests that are on your heart. Thanksgiving • Thank God that when we do not know how to pray, “the Spirit helps our weakness…and intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). • Praise Him in faith for the miracles He is creating in answer to your prayers. Ellen White on the Promise of the Spirit The lapse of time has wrought no change in Christ’s parting promise to send the Holy Spirit as His representative. It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the riches of His grace do not flow earthward to men. If the fulfillment of the promise is not seen as it might be, it is because the promise is not appreciated as it should be. If all were willing, all would be filled with the Spirit. Wherever the need of the Holy Spirit is a matter little thought of, there is seen spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and death. Whenever minor matters occupy the attention, 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 infinite plenitude. Since this is the means by which we are to receive power, why do we not hunger and thirst for the gift of the Spirit? Why do we not talk of it, pray for it, and preach concerning it? The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who serve Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. For the daily baptism of the Spirit every worker should offer his petition to God. Companies of Christian workers should gather to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely. Especially should they pray that God will baptize His chosen ambassadors in mission fields with a rich measure of His Spirit. The presence of the Spirit with God’s workers will give the proclamation of truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give. ~ Acts of the Apostles, page 50. Ellen White on Luke 11:1-13 See also Christ’s Object Lessons, “Asking to Give,” pages 139-149. We must show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Often He delays to answer us in order to try our faith or test the genuineness of our desire. Having asked according to His word, we should believe His promise and press our petitions with a determination that will not be denied. God does not say, Ask once, and you shall receive. He bids us ask. Unwearyingly persist in prayer. The persistent asking brings the petitioner into a more earnest attitude, and gives him an increased desire to receive the things for which he asks… Our prayers are to be as earnest and persistent as was the petition of the needy friend who asked for the loaves at midnight. The more earnestly and steadfastly we ask, the closer will be our spiritual union with Christ. We shall receive increased blessings because we have increased faith. Our part is to pray and believe. Watch unto prayer. Watch, and co-operate with the prayer-hearing God. Bear in mind that “we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9. Speak and act in harmony with your prayers. It will make an infinite difference with you whether trial shall prove your faith to be genuine, or show that your prayers are only a form… There are many who long to help others, but they feel that they have no spiritual strength or light to impart. Let them present their petitions at the throne of grace. Plead for the Holy Spirit. God stands back of every promise He has made. With your Bible 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.” We must not only pray in Christ’s name, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit… Such prayer God delights to answer. When with earnestness and intensity we breathe a prayer in the name of Christ, there is in that very intensity a pledge from God that He is about to answer our prayer “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20. Christ has said, “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, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:13. And the beloved John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks with great plainness and assurance: “If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” 1 John 5:14, 15. Then press your petition to the Father in the name of Jesus. God will honor that name. ~ Christ’s Object Lessons, pages 145-147.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 08:02:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015