December 4, 2022 - Luke 11:13

Shedd takes the promise of Luke 11:13 – “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” – and applies it spiritually. If we, as sinners, are to know God, to love him, to live for him, and to receive his promises, the work of the Holy Spirit “is as indispensable, in order to spiritual life, as food is in order to physical . . . sinful man as much needs the influences of the Holy Ghost as he does his daily bread.”

Why do we need the influences of the Holy Spirit, Shedd asks. In the first place, we need the Spirit to convince us of the reality of the eternal world. Yes, there really is an eternity that will be inhabited, though many do not believe it to be so. We need to be convinced of this reality. In the second place, we need the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin. On our own, we no more think of ourselves as sinners before a Holy God than we think of eternity. Someone says, “But I just cannot believe these things.” Jesus responds, “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

If you believe and I believe and we together pray,

The Holy Spirit must come down and set God’s people free,

And set God’s people free, and set God’s people free;

The Holy Spirit must come down and set God’s people free. –Traditional Zimbabwe verse