HOW MUCH MORE (T.D. JAKES)

An earthly father can be very biased. Sometimes he is stubborn, and sometimes he gives for all the wrong reasons. Jesus made it very clear--if the child asks for one thing, the Father will not give another. He then asked a question:

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 11:13).

     The emphasis is on "how much more."

     God knows that we need the power of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts function only as the Holy Spirit empowers the child of God. As you ask and seek, remember that God knows your motives. He endues you with the power of the Holy Spirit to give you victory over satan, to make you joyful, and to enable you to function in the gifts of the Spirit.

     God wants you to have the power of the Holy Spirit. He gives us a simple, three-step approach: ask, seek, and knock. Take the Word as authoritative. Be like the woman who had lost her precious coin. She wanted it so badly that she searched with a candle and swept her house clean.

     Old Testament types have their fulfillment in the New Testament. Daniel wrote about a fourth man in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrew children; Moses spoke of the rock that followed the children of Israel; each Israelite household killed a lamb for their Passover. All of these were types of Christ.

     The Holy Spirit is likened to wind or breath.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8).