BREAD FOR THE ASKING

Certainly if people aren't desperate about finding God there's nothing that can be done to make them see. God Himself won't impose His glory on them - not now.

But we're running across people these days who are desperate. What do you do when someone looks you in the eye and cries from the depths of his heart, "Salvage me!" - as happened to some of us a week or two ago. The man was giving utterance to a cry we're all hearing from many hearts: "Salvage me!" Are we up to it? Are we up to being the fishers of men Jesus promised to make us?

Here's a fish jumping out of the water and crying,

"Catch me! Take: me out of this bondage!"

Are we doing it in the name of the Lord?

The telephone rings. It's a friend who hasn't been able to sleep for three nights. She's terrified and confused and crying,

"Help me!"

We're inclined to say, "Well, I'm no psychiatrist I can't give out tranquilizers!"

- and dismiss it!

But is there nothing we can do? Nothing?

Healing books are a dime a dozen. There are healing gospels abroad with answers for everything. Words – plenty of words. But when we come across people with broken hearts and wounded lives, who open their hearts and cry for help, who say to us,

"You're a servant of the Lord. You have His authority. Do something 'for me!

Help me!"

Then it's either put or^-shut up.

When this happens; and it will happen, there is only one place to turn:

And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 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 11:5-13

The issue is: Are we bothered enough by these cries for help to go to the Father and ask until we get some real bread? Or, are we giving them the styrofoam bread of empty words,

empty promises?

The bread, of course, is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus actual in human lives.

"Ask, and it shall be given you, Seek, and you shall find,

Knock, and it shall be opened....

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!"

We go next door and pound on the heavenly Father's door for the Holy Spirit. Not so that we can be elevated in a spiritual experience, or so that we can prove to our friend how anointed we are. We beg and plead with the Father for the Holy Spirit

- so that we can, in fact, feed this hungry man.

If the Spirit should fall upon your assembly or mine with special power, it's not so we can go home and talk about what a wonderful service we had, or how moved we all were, what peace we felt, (praise God for all these things), but so that we can now go out and give that sin-ravaged soul the bread of life, which is Jesus.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us so that we can genuinely help these people who are coming to us

- by opening their eyes to the reality of Jesus,

- touching them with the life of Jesus,

- drawing them to the cross of Jesus,

- where they can find that peace they're looking for.

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8

The Holy Spirit comes so that we can be Jesus' witnesses with such effectiveness, such power, that these people we serve will know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they have been in the presence of the Lord.

In this connection we ought to be clear in our minds about several things:

1. Every genuinely hungry soul who comes to us can be satisfied.

Never mind how messed up,

how hopelessly tangled in evil,

how numb his mind,

how wasted her body. If you hear a cry coming from their heart be sure of this: there's bread for the asking. We can get what they need.

Of course, it may be necessary to trim some of the clutter out of our lives so that we are single-minded and undistracted enough to go get the bread,

to be importunate,

to pester,

to take no rest, and give God no rest in this matter until this God-hungry sister or brother begins to get a glimpse of the Lord Jesus.

There may be a lot of people pulling on us who are really after something other than the bread of God. We may or we may not be able to help them. But for the ones who are pulling on us for the bread of God, there is bread for the asking at the Father's door.

2. Don't get discouraged if the miracle is not complete in five minutes.

Jesus opened blind eyes instantly, but it took time to bring Peter to a place of steadfastness. Think of yourself. How long did you fight and wrestle inside before you opened your heart and received mercy? So with that struggling soul; as long as the hunger is there, keep seeking bread for them. And when the hunger seems to diminish, still keep seeking bread for them.

When the man pestered his friend for bread he didn't get it right away. He had to be aggressive,

to keep asking;

pleading.

And when the bread came it didn't come because he was his friend but because he was a pest.

"I know he has bread. I'm going to keep this up until he gives me what I need."

3, Make sure the bread we're giving them is fresh.

We're tempted sometimes to pull out stale insights, spout the same clichés we've used for years. Are we giving bread from the hands of God? Or, are we pulling something out of our stale, religious storage bins?

If it's going to be fresh, it's going to have to come fresh from God. The answer you used on that man at work last week isn't going to fit your hostile brother-in-law. Don't give your brother-in-law something canned or dehydrated. Get something fresh from God just for him.

4. We need to learn to intercede.

"A friend of mine has come on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.......

"He needs Your bread, Lord."

Our basic ministry is intercession – for all of us. The main thing we're here to do is pray for people. Intercession is not some side issue. It's the main thing! If we are that royal priesthood, that kingdom of priests we are declared to be in scripture, we are called to the priestly work of intercession.

"Lord, something for this friend!"

"Lord, pour out life an this discouraged woman!"

"Lord, fill that man with your light!"

"Touch her with your peace!"

You may think you're just uttering words, but they are words which are the work of God in your heart. And they are Spirit and life because their source is Jesus Himself.

"Oh, but I've been praying for a cousin for five years and nothing's happened."

How long was somebody praying for you before something happened?

5. We need to know that God is faithful.

He will give us whatever we need to feed that hungry one, which is to say that He will give us the Holy Spirit afresh. He will drench us, and the one for whom we pray, with life from above.

If earthly fathers for all their evil try to be faithful to their children, how much more faithful is the heavenly Father ..... faithful, always, to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

There is only one question:

Are we desperate enough to ask? Really ask, importunately, aggressively.

"God, make us as desperate to ask you as these desperate souls who are asking us."

"Lord, I'm asking for the Holy Spirit not so that I can feel good or so that I can rise to the third heaven.

I'm asking for the Holy Spirit so I can feed the desperate ones who are coming to me.

Lord, answer my cry, give me your Spirit."

- AND HE WILL!