Last updated on January 19, 2023
Last time, we talked about what and how to ask when we go before the Father. Today I want to wrap up our ASK series by talking about God’s way of answering, the role of the Holy Spirit in our asking, and answering the questions when asking doesn’t “work.”It’s gonna be some good, hopeful stuff! Let’s dive in.
His way of answering
Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:7-12 CSB
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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? “
Luke 11:11-13 CSB
Two different tellings of the same story from Jesus’s life. Lots of promises here, straight from the mouth of the Messiah.
Ask – it will be given
Seek – you will find
Knock – and the door will be opened
EVERYONE who asks receives…finds…door opened
That is the generosity and desire to answer that comes from the Father to us!!
Jesus goes back to talking about how we, as people, would handle requests, this time not from a friend knocking on the door in the middle of the night, like we talked about last time, but from our own children.
Even we, as selfish as we are, wouldn’t fail to grant what our children ask if what they ask is good for them. We certainly wouldn’t give them what is bad for them. Yet the Father is so much more pure-hearted toward us, his children, than we could ever be toward ours.
In another example from Jesus’s life, he encountered a man with leprosy, a debilitating and ostracising skin disease, especially in those times when medical treatment with antibiotics weren’t available. In this encounter, we see a man who believes Jesus can heal him, but is unsure if he’s willing to do so. Read what Jesus says (and does!):
While he [Jesus] was in one of the towns, a man was there who had leprosy all over him. He saw Jesus, fell facedown, and begged him: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the leprosy left him.
Luke 5:12-13 CSB
How glorious he is in his grace and mercy toward us! He is willing! And he is able even more than we believe he is able. Beyond what we can imagine in our wildest daydreaming (or night dreaming, for that matter). Paul understood this when he said:
Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us — to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21 CSB
And that same able-power works in us! He gives us good gifts! He gives us the Holy Spirit whose power works in us! Should we not glorify (describe and represent as admirable, worship) Jesus because of this?
Holy Spirit Asking
But how does the Holy Spirit work within us when it comes to asking? Let’s take a look at a couple passages that are going to circle back to some of what we’ve already said in this series about alignment with Christ and then how the Spirit works within us.
Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things. Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.
1 John 3:18-24 CSB
Do you see the interconnectedness of this?
Cause: When we love not in word and speech but in action and truth
Effect: We will know that we belong to the truth, because we will have evidence to reassure our own hearts before God whenever we try to condemn ourselves.
Cause: If our hearts don’t condemn us
Effect: We have confidence before God
Effect: We receive whatever we ask from him
Cause: When we are keeping his commands (believing in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and loving one another)
Effect: We are remaining in him, and he is remaining in us
Effect: We have proof of this mutual remaining in the presence of the Holy Spirit within us and pouring out of us, producing more belief and more love in action and truth and continuing the cycle.
Dizzy yet? I am. This is the life-conversation of walking in faith with our God. Amazing stuff. Holy stuff. Humbling stuff.
In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27 CSB
The Holy Spirit is living in us. So when we have something to ask, and we don’t even know how to put it into words, or when we try and those words are all just a big jumbled mess, the Spirit, himself, intercedes for us.
I find such refreshment in this because it means we don’t have to have it right all the time. We don’t even have to know what to ask! The Holy Spirit, working his power within us knows 1) what we are trying to ask and 2) what we need to ask. Then “he who searches our hearts,” that is, the Father, also knows the mind of the Spirit. They are part of each other, both being united with Christ in the triune person of God. The Spirit knows God’s will. God knows the mind of the Spirit. The Spirit lives in us and knows our hearts. God searches our hearts.
He knows. They know. They get it. Even more than we get it. So no matter how our asking comes out, or even if it can’t even come out at all because of the depth of need we are experiencing, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with the Father, “with unspoken groanings.” So even when I can’t ask on my own behalf, or don’t know how to ask on behalf of others, the Holy Spirit takes my trying to ask and makes it amazing and perfect before the Father.
So ask, Friend. Even if you don’t have the words. Even if it’s too big to even look at. Ask. Even if it’s embarassing. Even if you think you should already know the answer. Even if you’re doubting at the same time you’re asking. Ask. He’ll listen. He wants to be generous to you. He wants your questions. All of them. He sees you. He knows you. He loves you.
When Asking Doesn’t “Work”
I can’t wrap up a post series on asking without covering an issue sure to be on our minds:
“Oh yeah? Well I asked for x and God never came through. What about that?”
Let’s visit with James, the brother of Jesus, and the leader of the Jewish church in Jerusalem in the first century. In his letter to the Jewish believers scattered around and facing persecutions for their belief in Christ at the same time that they were trying to come out of the Jewish religious patterns of the day, he addresses this exact issue.
What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
James 4:1-3 CSB
It comes down to motive. James says, “You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” When we ask, are we checking our motives? Truly checking them and doing our very best to remove our own self-focused desires for physical pleasure, great possessions, or power? Or are we asking with a humility and a purposeful consideration of what Jesus would want his name tied to…for us and for the world?
This is not to say that our personal desires are bad and we should never ask for what we desire. James says, “You do not have because you do not ask.” However, we should remember that God is a good Father and will not give us a scorpion or a snake or a stone, even though we might ask for it. He will only give us what is good for us. Which means sometimes, out of love for us and a desire for our good, he will tell us “no” or even “not yet.”
I find such security and freedom in this. It means I can ask really and truly anything. I don’t have to be in a right place before I ask, although turning my heart toward God and remaining in him increases the likelihood that my desires match his. His Spirit is in me, changing my prayers into the right ones. My Father who loves me and knows me and knows the plans he has for me is only giving or restraining for my good and the good of the world.
The Creator of your soul WANTS to talk to you. He wants you to ask all your questions. Questions we all have (Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there suffering in the world if youre so good?) and questions we think no one has except us, in our unique little experience of life…and death.
And oh, he has answers! The true, radiating in your soul, answers. He is not keeping things from you, He desires for you to know the truth. About himself, about you, and about his passion and compassion for you. And as you discover it, that truth sets you free (It’s in the Bible. Check it out.) And those whom the Son (that’s Jesus) sets free are free indeed.
You see, when your reservations are eliminated because you have asked your questions, been brave and challenged what you tried to accept but couldn’t, deep down, then you will be free. Truly free to live an abundant life in Christ. Even as so many followers of The Way before you have walked into the most dire of circumstances with certain hope, certain confidence in the One they knew, because they didn’t hold anything back from Him. Even their taboo questions, even their deepest wounds. Because Jesus has the true, satisfying answers for them. And those answers must come from Him to you. Not from anyone else, and not from yourself, either.
May this post series be a challenge to you who, like me, have questions, desires, and deep needs you’re afraid to ask or even think about.
Ask him. He’s listening.
Share Your Story
What is the biggest obstacle for you in asking? Have you ever wondered why your asking didn’t “work?” What thoughts went through your mind? How did you deal with those thoughts? What conclusions did you make. Did this discussion of the Holy Spirit working in our asking impact your perspective on coming to the Father just as you are?
Share with us below in the comments!
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