There are several reasons that you should have confidence in your surrender to Holy Spirit. These reasons are outlined by Jesus.
First you need to know that Jesus talks about the ministry of Holy Spirit more than any other topic in Scripture, other than the kingdom. If you understand that the kingdom is effectively how we function in partnership with Holy Spirit, then you can recognize that Holy Spirit and His influence is actually the most talked about subject in all of the gospels, especially in the book of John. As a matter of fact, He is an integral part of the new covenant. Everything Jesus is doing and saying is in some way connected to getting us into the life flow of Holy Spirit.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV
[26] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Notice that the promise of Holy Spirit is tied directly to the new covenant, just like salvation is. Also notice that His Spirit is ‘the cause’ that causes us to walk in His statutes and judgments. This verse is not a reference to the law. It is a reference to us becoming love, just like how Jesus and our Father are Love. The Holy Spirit causes us to take on the nature of our Father.
Knowing His purpose is one thing, but how do we know we can trust that what we are experiencing is of God and not just our imagination, or something worse?
Jesus has already answered that question. Remember the ask, seek, and knock passage? This is actually referenced in two different gospels. The reference in Matthew does not include a verse tying in Holy Spirit. I believe the reason that Matthew does not include a reference to Holy Spirit is because God is saying that He can be trusted with anything you ask Him. The passage in Luke adds a connection to Holy Spirit. This demonstrates that God is specifically saying that if you ask for Holy Spirit, you can trust that God will give you what you asked for, and not something else. In the last section, I did not post all the verses together because I wanted to specifically focus on a couple of them in this section. Now, let us look at the statement of Jesus in its entirety.
Luke 11:9-13 NKJV
[9] “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [10] For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. [11] If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? [13] If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Take a close look at verse 13 and notice how Jesus is specifically saying that Holy Spirit is the best gift. This is not something I’m just inferring because Jesus says “how much more.”
Now looking at versus 11 and 12, notice how Jesus is saying that good fathers don’t give bad things to their children. Many people in the body of Christ have suggested that some who have received the Holy Spirit have actually received a demon. This is slander. If I’m asking Father for the Holy Spirit, yet I get a demon. Then Father has failed to be good. This can never be. If I am asking for Holy Spirit, if I am surrendering, believing that God is good enough to give me what I asked for, then Jesus is actually saying that the Father is obligated by His goodness to make sure I get a good gift and not a scorpion. God the Father can be trusted. Ask yourself, if you ask for the Holy Spirit and end up getting nothing more than your vain imagination, doesn’t that make Jesus a liar? Can you trust the Father to make sure that you get the good gift?
Notice that Jesus references a stone, a serpent, and a scorpion. A stone represents that which cannot produce fruit. The serpent and the scorpion both represent demonic influences. God is good. Never doubt that if you ask Him for the Holy Spirit‘s influence, that you would be led astray. That would make God the Father a bad father.
The same can be said about leaning into the flow of Holy Spirit. If you ask Father to teach you how to surrender to the flow of Holy Spirit, do you really believe that He would let you be led astray? We should trust the Holy Spirit more than we trust our own interpretation of Scripture.
John 16:12-14 NASB
[12] “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. [13] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. [14] He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose to you.
If you can’t trust Him to explain scripture to you, then can you really say that He is guiding you? Or is it that you’re being led by your own intellect? We need to learn to hear the voice of God. Many pastors prepare messages that contradict other pastors, yet each one believes that their specific insight was given to them by Holy Spirit. But, if you ask them what His voice sounds like, or if you ask them how they hear God, they will either not be able to answer the question, or they will give you some obscure line of reasoning. Those that actually listen to God find that they agree with others that listen to God. They even have the same doctrines. It is because their doctrines don’t come directly from Scripture. Their doctrines come from the Holy Spirit as He speaks about scripture.
If you ask Father to talk to you, do you believe He will give you a burdensome stone? Do you believe He will let a serpent speak to you? Do you believe He will let you fall under the delusion of the sting of a scorpion? Remember that these verses in Matthew are in reference to the goodness of God, and Matthew does not include Holy Spirit. Also remember that Luke does include Holy Spirit, and Holy Spirit leads you into all truth and will speak to you.
Let us step away from the delusion that God will not talk to us. We are His children, and if we ask him to speak, we can be assured that His goodness will demand that we receive of His kindness. Those that trust God should never be afraid that they will be led astray because they chose to trust. I know that if I ask God to explain something, even if I get it wrong today, God will make sure that I come to a full understanding at some point. He has obligated Himself to give what is good when it is asked for. I may fail in my own hearing, but He will never fail to make sure I get what I asked for, because I chose to trust Him and surrendered my own understanding to His Lordship.
Remember that Jesus also said that every word should be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. This means that we should definitely allow every word we hear to be confirmed by those who hear well. Especially as we are first learning to hear God speak.
One might say, “what if the baptism is not for everyone?” Our scripture verses answers that question as well. In the analogy, Jesus is speaking about children who are asking for food. They are not asking for a toy. Holy Spirit is the life of God and the method by which we find our ChristLikeness. Would God really choose to withhold something so important from you? If a child asks for food, and the father gives him nothing, then he is a bad father.
Our Father is a good father. Instead, He tells us to ask, seek, and knock. This requirement to pursue the Holy Spirit is there to get us past our resistance, our fears, and our doubt. The people who do not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, have only failed to seek long enough to move them past their flesh and their need to control. The big difference between food and the Holy Spirit is that when you get food you can feed yourself. God will not force feed anyone. But you cannot feed yourself Holy Spirit. We must surrender to God and He will feed us the bread of Life.
God will also not force feed us transformation. Transformation is really nothing more than us surrendering our identity for His identity. It is surrendering our righteousness to walk in His righteousness. God will not force anyone to change their opinion about themselves. But if we are to walk in the righteousness of Christ, a change of our opinion about ourselves is exactly what is necessary. If you ask Him to speak, He will tell you who you are, but you probably will need to tarry.
Some have been stung by the scorpion and are afraid that this is what Papa will do. Some of us have been trying to eat rocks, and that identity has produced fruitlessness in our life. Some of us have to drop the rocks, repent of our fruitless identity, so that we can receive the true bread of God. Some of us have to deal with this fear of the scorpion sting or the serpents bite, and repent from believing that this is what we find if we surrender.
When our identity is the same as the one Christ has, our whole tree will be good, and producing good fruit is easy for a good tree.