If you are a product of the 1960’s, you grew up watching some incredible cartoons. There’s nothing on television today that remotely comes close to cartoon shows like The Jetsons or The Flintstones or cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny or Woody Woodpecker or Top Cat or Tweety Bird or Magilla Gorilla!
One of my all time favorites is the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear. If I close my eyes, I can still see him looking at his Jellystone Park sidekick, Boo Boo, and saying, “I’m smarter than the average bear.” Yogi snatched many a picnic basket as he showcased his brilliance.
Whether you are a Yogi Bear or an average bear like me, here is a truth found in God’s Word that is so simple to understand. In praying with boys and girls to receive the infilling or baptism in God’s Holy Spirit, you don’t have to be smarter than the average bear to know that you know that you know that God ALWAYS wants to pour His Spirit into our children. Luke 11:13 makes His will known.
“Even though you are bad, you know how to give good things
to your children. How much more your heavenly Father
will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11:13 (New Century Version)
It’s so plain. It’s so simple. Even Yogi would know that it is God’s unequivocal will to ALWAYS baptize EVERYONE (and this includes children) who asks to be baptized with His precious Spirit.
I love what Charles Finney stated in his Revival Lectures:
“God says he is more ready to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, than parents are to give bread unto their children. Here we are bound to believe that we shall receive it when we pray for it. You have no right to put an if, and say, “Lord, if it be your will, give us thy Holy Spirit.” This is an insult to God. To put an if into God’s promise, where God has put none, is tantamount to charging God with being insincere. It is like saying, “O God, if thou art in earnest in making these promises, grant us the blessing we pray for.”
Are you smarter than the average bear? If not, don’t be discouraged. Luke 11 tells us to give our brain a break. No thinking is required. When you pray with a child to receive this gift from heaven, they can and will be filled to overflowing. It’s just that simple. So, go ahead and allow the children to ask. Rest assured. They will be filled with the Holy Spirit!
