“Suppose one of you has a friend who visits your home at midnight, and out of courtesy and love for him, you ask him if he has eaten. If he says he hasn’t, and you look into your refrigerator and see that there is no food there or in the rest of the house, what do you do? You go to your neighbor.” (Luke 11:5)

Now, this is very rare. Hardly anyone would go to their neighbor at midnight and wake him up to ask food for their friend, but this person does. He goes, knocks at his neighbor’s house, and says, “Please lend me three loaves. I’ll return it tomorrow, but lend them to me now. A visitor has come to my house, a very good friend of mine, and I've got no food for him.” Now, the man inside the house tells him to not disturb him or his children because they are all in bed, “You're disturbing us at midnight, waking us all up, and you keep on banging at the door.” But this person will keep knocking and won’t let his neighbor sleep till he gets what he needs.

The Lord says, “Even if this neighbor doesn't give you anything because you are his friend, because of your persistence and because of your shameless knocking, he will get up and give you as much as you need.” What a lovely expression this is, “As much as you need.”

I remember when I sought for baptism in the Holy Spirit - for the power of the Holy Spirit to be an effective teacher of God's Word - to have utterance. I was a very shy person when I became a Christian and began to share God's Word. I knew I needed the power of the Holy Spirit, and if I got the power of the Holy Spirit, I'd be transformed into another person. And that's exactly what happened. If you seek God like that for the mighty supernatural anointing of the Holy Spirit not for yourself, but for others, and you keep on knocking, saying, “Lord, give me bread to feed these people (we saw this expression in Luke 11:8),” then God will give you as much as you need (Luke 11:13). I'm referring to the Holy Spirit here. Jesus made it clear what we're supposed to ask God for. “Give me the power of the Holy Spirit to serve others. My needs are met, we've gone past Luke 18, now I'm thinking about the needs of others.” That's a true Christian.

Very often, people seek for the power of the Holy Spirit to get some tickle down their spine, some electric shock or feeling, some speaking in tongues, or something for their own benefit. We need to seek for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be able to bless other people. I remember when I sought God for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was to serve other people, and even if God gave me the gift of tongues, it was to keep myself fresh, because the Bible says that he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. I wanted to edify myself so that I’d always be fresh when I'm serving other people. Therefore, even the gift of tongues was to benefit others, to keep myself fresh and to build myself up. No gift of the spirit was for my own personal edification, but rather for personal edification that led to the blessing of other people.

We need to remember that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are meant for others. The fruit of the Spirit benefit me. If I have joy or peace, that benefits me, not you. But, if I have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, whether it be prophecy or healing or any other gift, those gifts benefit others. We need both of these. You need to ask God, and you need faith.

“If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give what is good (especially the Holy Spirit and all His good gifts) to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13) We need to have faith that we're coming to our Father. We're not coming to the CEO of some company, who is so distant that we have to approach him through a secretary. We’re coming to our Heavenly Dad, and what will He deny us? There’s absolutely nothing good that He can ever deny us. If God doesn't see fit to give us something, we can be absolutely sure that it’s not good for us.

The Apostle Paul once had a sickness in his body which he called a thorn in the flesh. He prayed three times for it to be removed (2 Corinthians 12). God didn't remove it, and he realized that it was for his good, because it kept him humble and broken. God always gives us what is good, and when God is good to us like that, tremendously good to us, what should we do? We need to be good to other people.

“Lord, I want you to give me that which will help me meet the need of these people whom I have to serve.” When you have a burden for the people in your church, to lead them to a Godly life, to lead them to do all that Jesus commanded, to lead them to live according to the standards of the Sermon on the Mount, you will ask for the power of the Holy Spirit, you'll ask for a prophetic word from heaven that will meet the need of those people and deliver them from the clutches of the devil and bring them to a Godly life. And if you love them enough, you'll be persistent. 

Don't you think that this person, who went to his neighbor’s house at midnight, loved his visitor? He must have loved him so much that he was determined to get him food that night. Most of us, if we didn't have food the night the visitor came, would tell him, "I’m sorry, but we have no food, so let's go to bed now, I'll get you something in the morning.” But this man loved his hungry visitor so much that he said, “I’m going to get you something tonight, even if I have to be shameless before my neighbor.” It’s a wonderful picture of going to God with persistence and saying, Lord give me the gifts of the Holy Spirit to serve these people.