If your favorite influencer advertised an app that could actually give you peace, love, and joy, would you download it? Oh, and it could help you quit sinning and get to know Jesus better. Wouldn’t you want that app?
Here’s the secret—you don’t need an app. You need heaven’s best gift—the Holy Spirit.
A Box of Wind
The issue is that the Holy Spirit is invisible—like the wind. You can’t see Him, touch Him, hear Him, or download Him onto your phone.
How do you get a gift you can’t see? And how do you even know if you’ve received the gift? I mean, if you gave me a box of wind for my birthday, it would look and feel like an empty box, right?
But wait—think about it for a moment. If you really could give me the wind in a box, as soon as I opened it up, I would feel a rush of air. I might not see your gift, but I would certainly feel its effects and know what you’d given me.
The Effects of the Spirit
The same principle applies to the gift of the Holy Spirit—you might not see it, but you’ll surely feel its effects.
Jesus explained the working of the Holy Spirit like this: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
The effects of the Holy Spirit in your life are unmistakable. He will give you actual “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23). Those things are very different from the anger, stress, hero worship, anxiety, pride, foul language, addiction, etc., that fill our lives when we function without the Holy Spirit’s power.
Getting the Gift
That all sounds great, but how do you get the Holy Spirit? Jesus gives us a clue in Luke 11:13: “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!”
Your heavenly Father is eager to give you the Holy Spirit because He loves you dearly. But God won’t ever force His best gift on you. That means you need to ask for the Spirit. If you do, He will gladly give you the Spirit as your helper and guide.
Need the assurance that God wants to give you the Holy Spirit? Check out these Bible promises.
How Badly Do You Want the Spirit?
Do you remember begging your parents for things when you were little? If you wanted something badly enough, you annoyed your parents incessantly about it—am I right? Sometimes, your strategy worked because they realized you truly wanted whatever it was and decided it would be good for you.
The story of Pentecost shows us that if we really want the Holy Spirit, we need to be just as persistent in asking for Him. Jesus had already promised to send the Spirit to the disciples (Acts 1:5), but they didn’t sit around and doom scroll. Instead, they spent the next ten days in earnest prayer—repenting of their sins and asking for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:12–14).
Make Room
It’s not that God doesn’t want to give you the Holy Spirit. It’s that there isn’t room in your life for everything. Like, you might have to skip rock climbing during finals week to make sure you can pass physics.
If you want the Holy Spirit to live in you fully, then you need to be willing to give up anything that is taking up too much room. This includes sin—anything you’re purposely choosing that ignores God’s desires (Acts 2:38). This could include things that are good to do but are taking a lot of time and aren’t leading you closer to God.
You also need to be willing to obey God, for “the Holy Spirit… [is] given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32). Obedience to God’s commands isn’t a jail sentence. It’s the path to true joy and freedom!
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Imagine having supernatural peace during your worst anxiety attack. Or genuine love for your annoying little sister. Or joy that doesn’t depend on Instagram likes. This isn’t wishful thinking—it’s what the Holy Spirit does in real teenagers every day. The question isn’t whether God wants to give you His Spirit. The question is: How badly do you want Him?
Tonight, before you go to sleep, try this: Ask God to show you one specific thing that’s crowding out space for His Spirit in your life. Then ask Him for the courage to let it go and let the Holy Spirit in. The disciples waited ten days in prayer—but your breakthrough might be just one honest conversation with God away.