“Master, would you teach us to pray?”
“Sure. Approach God as your Father, and align yourself with His agenda. Ask Him to fulfill all your needs: provision, forgiveness, and guidance. Just ask, and He’ll give you all these things. He’ll also give you the Holy Spirit, if you’ll ask.”
“Ok, I was with you, right up until the ‘Holy Spirit’ part. Where did that come from?”
Sometimes, when Jesus answers a question, there is a part of His answer that seems to come out of nowhere. Like His reference to the Holy Spirit here.
This week, we want to return to Luke 11 where Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray like Him (Luke 11:1-13). He began by giving them His basic structure for prayer, followed by a hypothetical situation through which He assured them that the Father would answer all of these requests. We looked at these pieces before Christmas.
Now we want to return to the last piece — another hypothetical situation which emphasizes God’s goodness, but which culminates with this unexpected reference to the Holy Spirit.
So, is this just a random example of God’s goodness, or is Jesus indicating that there is more going on than simply learning a spiritual discipline?
To answer this, consider all the references to the Holy Spirit in Luke. What things accompany His presence? Be sure to check out the surrounding context.
- Luke 1:15
- Luke 1:35
- Luke 1:41
- Luke 1:67
- Luke 2:25
- Luke 3:16
- Luke 3:22
- Luke 4:1
- Luke 4:14
- Luke 4:18
- Luke 10:21
- Luke 12:10-12
Is there any connection between the things in these verses and the things that Jesus tells the disciples to ask for in Luke 11:2-4?
What implications might this have in helping us understand the depth of our dependence on God?