"You will never be accepted until you have been rejected. You will never ascend until you descend. The promotion is proportional to the depth of the pit. Why? We must learn to die in to self in order to live for G-d. Every vestige of self-pity, self-promotion, self-righteousness, and self-serving must be removed so that we can truly really love and live freely for the L-rd. The lives of Joseph, Moses, and Messiah Yeshua all demonstrate this truth. How we respond on the way down and what we do when we get there will determine how far we will rise. Look up, believe, and trust in G-d for its time to start ascending!"-Rabbi Jason
The Gift of the Holy Spirit.
"... how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (11:13b)
Here Jesus uses the title "Father in heaven." But where we would expect Jesus to say that the Father gives good gifts to his children (as he does in Matthew 7:11), Jesus tells him that the Father will give them the Holy Spirit if they ask him. Wow! In the Old Testament the gift of the Spirit was sparse and sporadic. The Spirit was upon Moses and Samuel, upon Saul and David and the prophets. And one time the Spirit came upon the Seventy Elders who were to assist Moses. Moses says wistfully on that occasion, "I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!" (Numbers 11:29). Moses' longing is answered in Jesus Christ who gives us his Spirit.
Read more...