"Father, give me a hunger for Your Holy Spirit." (Part 1)

We need the Holy Spirit desperately. We have forgotten His purpose and power. We have pushed Him to the side to depend on our own strength, talents, and gifts. All while the world is dying, without hope, and lost. We need the Holy Spirit to revive us, fill us, empower us, and teach us.

Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is just like JESUS! The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, Helper, Teacher, Empowerer, and Convincer.

John 14:16-17 (NKJV)
¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:18 really sums up the heart of the Father here..."I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."

Wow! Thank You Jesus! Jesus was comforting the disciples that He wasn't going to leave them high and dry. He wasn't going to leave them feeling abandoned or drowning in the deep end...He was sending His Spirit to remind them of everything He taught and did, and to empower them to do even greater things! (John 1:50)

John 14:26 (NKJV)
²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

I truly appreciate what Pastor Jack Hayford says about the Holy Spirit being our Teacher. He says, "As a teacher, the Holy Spirit's help is not so much an academic process as one of inward instruction. He teaches us what to do and say at the important times. He helps us keep our life - our conduct and our standards - in accordance with what Jesus wants and what the Bible says." (Jack Hayford; Spirit-Filled: The Overflowing Power of the Holy Spirit; page 35.)

Yes and amen! The Holy Spirit is our Teacher to lead us on the right path, right in Jesus' footprints. He is not a crutch to lean on but a Comforter to be dependent on. I'll say something a little radical here. Why don't we just allow God to POSSESS us with His Spirit? Give Him free-will and control in our lives! I'm serious. I want God to own me, possess me, seal His Name upon my heart. Yes, I am saved by grace through faith so therefore my Name is written on His Hand and I am His. But I want it to continually go deeper. Down to every motive, emotion, thought, and breath of my lungs!

This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He fills us.

I realize I could be rustling some religious feathers or pushing over some religious cows but listen, we NEED the Holy Spirit to fill and empower us.

We can't fully realize His Kingdom without being filled.
We can't fully witness for Christ without being filled.
We can't fully worship Jesus without being filled.
We need to be filled up, baptized in, and overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
Let me stir the hunger for the Holy Spirit a little more.

Acts 2:38-39 (NKJV)
³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Check this out. The prelude to versus 38 & 39 are of the disciples, and those praying in the Upper Room, being filled with the Holy Spirit. Thousands of people gather to see what the commotion is all about, and they hear the miracle of tongues of fire, and the Gospel being preached by Peter. Those listening to the message ask, 'how then can we be saved?'

Filled with power now from the Holy Spirit (and with more boldness and confidence than ever before) Peter declares to them verses 38 & 39. Not only are these verses revealing the way to be saved and forgiven...but also to be totally transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Here it is: Repent (John 3:3), be Baptized (Matthew 28:18-19), and Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

I can't agree with you more that the Holy Spirit is with every believer to stir up a hunger for more of God, and to convict and guide us. But the real question is, is every believer FILLED with the Holy Spirit? I'm not trying to paint a picture for you as to what this looks like. Your denominational background or doctrinal preference may be in opposition to this belief. But let me challenge all of us with a simple prayer to pray...

"Father, give me a hunger for Your Holy Spirit."

You can't argue with the fact that with the Holy Spirit we can testify and witness more effectively to the world of Jesus Christ; we can heal the sick, raise the dead, give sight to the blind. We can grow closer to the Father and fully worship Him. We can receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12). We receive Comfort, Truth, and Guidance from the Holy Spirit. Don't you want Him to be in you and overflowing from you???

All in all, let me simply encourage you to pray that simple prayer and then let God (who by the way is the best Father and gives the best gifts) fill that hunger.

"Father, give me a hunger for Your Holy Spirit."