refuse to follow where He leads. Let us pray that we may be willing to follow that leadership, and when we can truthfully say, "Thy will be done," our difficulties will be over and our life will be what the Spirit wishes. Mark you, the Spirit LEADS but he will not FORCE. When we fail or refuse to follow the leadership of the Spirit, we make our failures in life and sometimes wreck our usefulness. What about the parable of the three loaves in Luke 11 where Jesus said that the Father would "Give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" That parable FIRST TEACHES the Lord's DISCIPLES to pray, but, beginning at verse 10, He broadens the lesson to include "EVERY ONE WHO ASKS" and says in that connection that just as certainly as a father will give his children what they need when they ask, so the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask for the Holy Spirit. What sense would there be for one who ALREADY HAS THE SPIRIT to ask for the Holy Spirit? Every one of God's children already has the Spirit, for if "ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST HE IS NONE OF HIS" (Rom. 8:9). This shows that an UNSAVED MAN MAY ASK FOR SALVATION and be saved, and thus, filled with the Spirit. Then once enjoying the personal presence of the Spirit, he is insured of the leadership of the Spirit, for "AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD." We get SALVATION, which includes receiving the Spirit, by asking for salvation. For Romans 10:13 says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." When we receive the Spirit at the time we believe, thus being saved, that insures us the LEADERSHIP of the Spirit ever afterwards. In Acts 19:2, Paul asks those Ephesians, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost (Spirit) when ye believed?" (Revised Version) which indicates that all believers RECEIVED THE SPIRIT WHEN THEY BELIEVED. The HOLY SPIRIT COMES INTO YOUR LIFE AT THE TIME YOU ARE SAVED. You get salvation WHEN YOU ASK FOR IT (Rom. 10:13) and also John 4:1-10, where Jesus told the woman at the well if she would ASK HIM, He would give her "the water of life." ONCE SAVED, ONCE HAVING RECEIVED THE SPIRIT, we are assured from that moment on we are LED BY THE SPIRIT, for AS MANY (just as many) AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT ARE SAVED people. Why then ASK for what you already have? Having the Spirit, you are assured of the LEADERSHIP of the Spirit, because every child of God is led by the Spirit. Better beware of the man who comes before an audience (for instance a Baptist Association) and asks that all engage in prayer for the leadership of the Spirit before we vote on a matter, for nine times out of ten, he has what he wants already written out and in his pocket to spring on the assembly so soon as he gets them to think they are LED BY THE SPIRIT. Selah! We already have the leadership of the Spirit. Why ask for it?
Heavenly Father Ben M. Bogard, Baptist World, 7-73 Matthew 6:9, Our Father, which art in heaven."
When we address God in prayer and call him Father, what do we mean? Matthew 13:38 says some are "the children of the wicked one." In Acts 13:10 we read where the Apostle Paul called Elymas, the sorcerer, the child of the devil, saying, "0 full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil." In John 8:44 Jesus said to the Pharisees that they were children of the devil: "Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." In I John 3:10 we read: "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." Nothing is plainer than the fact that the Bible teaches wicked men are not the children of God. It therefore follows that an unsaved man should not address God as Father in prayer or in any other way.