“AND I SAY TO YOU, ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN TO YOU; SEEK, AND YOU SHALL FIND; KNOCK, AND IT SHALL BE OPENED TO YOU. 10 FOR EVERYONE WHO ASKS, RECEIVES; AND HE WHO SEEKS, FINDS; AND TO HIM WHO KNOCKS, IT SHALL BE OPENED. 11 NOW SUPPOSE ONE OF YOU FATHERS IS ASKED BY HIS SON FOR A FISH; HE WILL NOT GIVE HIM A SNAKE INSTEAD OF A FISH, WILL HE? 12 OR IF HE IS ASKED FOR AN EGG, HE WILL NOT GIVE HIM A SCORPION, WILL HE? 13 IF YOU THEN, BEING EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS TO YOUR CHILDREN, HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM?”
We have to be very careful these days, who we listen to. There are preachers who will stand and tell people that if we believe in Jesus all we have to do is ask God, and He will give us money and expensive cars or homes, and just about anything we want.
Of course, they usually add that first we have to send them money and then God will give us all these things.
Not true. Just because a man rents a hall and dresses in a nice suit and wears lots of jewelry, that doesn’t mean he speaks for God.
But the words of Jesus are always true (Hebrews 13:8), and if we pay close attention to what He is saying we will learn the truth. GOD’S TRUTH!
If you read verses 9 through 11, you might say that those preachers are right when they say we can ask for ANYTHING and get it. But Jesus wasn’t talking about “things”.
Things don’t last. Things can sometimes cause us more trouble by having them than we ever had not having them. Things will pass away, or we’ll pass away and cannot take things with us. But Jesus promised something better; something eternal.
Look at verse 13.
He says it at the very end of His statement. God, the perfect Father, gives His Holy Spirit “TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM”.
Read the eighth chapter of Romans, and think about this. The gift of the Holy Spirit comes through simple faith. That is, believing that Jesus died to pay for our sins and that He rose again. That’s it!
We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to give money to a preacher. We don’t have to be good enough. We can’t earn it. We can’t be good enough. And that preacher; he needs God’s forgiveness just as much as we do.
Jesus said “to those who ask Him”. It is the only requirement; and it is enough. Money goes away. Cars run down. Houses burn or eventually fall down with age. Debts take our money. A crash can take our car. A storm can take our house. But the Holy Spirit comes to us for eternity, and nothing will make Him leave us; nothing can take us out of His hand.
He cares, He comforts, He gives strength to do God’s will, He makes us more like Jesus; He prepares us for living in Heaven...all for the asking. When Jesus says, “So I SAY TO YOU, ask, and it will be given to you”, He means it!
(Mark 8:36,37)
