Christmas Gifts
Ah, it’s Christmas again! There’s no snowflakes or frosty air down here in Texas, so that old-fashioned Christmas feeling is not quite the same as it was as a kid in New England, but then Christmas isn’t about snow or Santa and Christmas trees either. We may have over-commercialized Christmas so that it doesn’t have that same old feeling it used to, but it’s still Christmas.
I have always believed that God honors this time with that certain feeling in the air that is different from the rest of the year. True, Jesus was not born in December. I believe the Bible points to the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles as the day he was born, and the Festival of Lights or Hanauka for when he was conceived (see http://www.revivalfire.org/articles/ ), but I’m not so sure that celebrating the exact day is all that important to God. If it was, wouldn’t He have told us?
Neither am I worried about Christmas trees being a form of idolatry. Or Santa and the elves, or tinsel, or Grandma’s fruitcake from last year. This is Christmas. Do we have to make an intense, super-spiritual controversy over it? Can we just enjoy it for what it is and celebrate the birth and advent of our Savior?
Since we’re talking about getting in the Christmas spirit of things, how about giving and receiving gifts? I have some gift requests from God that I would like for Christmas. He may not be able to fit them under the tree, and He may have trouble trying to gift wrap them, but here is my list:
Lord, I would like wisdom, understanding, and knowledge – the knowledge of Your Word so that I can believe the right things and know the truths that are buried in it, the understanding to be able to know how that knowledge fits into everything, and the wisdom to know how to use it to win souls.
Of course, that comes from reading the Bible every day, so Lord, along with that, I need an intense hunger to read the Bible like a starving man eating the Bread of Life. And while you’re at it, could you also make me so thirsty for intense, prevailing prayer that I can’t breathe without it?
That’s just my Christmas stocking-stuffers. I have some other requests for the big presents under the tree. Let me start with the Anointing. I need that Presence on me so that it is dripping off me wherever I go. I want to be immersed in it, saturated, swimming in it. So much so that when I pray with or over anyone, they will feel the tingling of your touch when I pray. I want them to know you are not only real, but that they can have a real and immediate access to you on a deeply personal level.
And for my next present (can I have another one, Lord?), I want power. I mean real, Holy Ghost power – unprecedented power – power to raise the dead and heal the sick on whomsoever I lay hands on. But most of all, I want the power to preach your Word under the anointing of the Holy Ghost so that it will pierce hearts, set them on fire, and inspire a generation to rise up and shine a Light in this world.
I also want authority to cast out devils with one word. I don’t want to argue with them. When I say, “Get out!”, I want them to get out! Authority like that only comes from the fear of the Lord, so please heap that on me also. Since the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and James says that if we ask for wisdom, You’ll give it liberally, then pour it out on me also, Lord!
(Do we have room for one more? This is the most important one, Lord, so we have to make room for this one.)
In return, I don’t have much to offer. All I can give is myself, weak and faulty as I am. I give you my pride and desire for recognition, my gluttony and lusts, my fears and darkness, my suspicions, accusations, and hatreds – all the ugly stuff that I can dredge up from the dark recesses of my heart. Lord I give you what I am and all that I have. I will do whatsoever you ask and go wherever you send me – I just have one final request:
Dear God, please, in the name of Jesus and everything that is holy and good, please, please, please … send revival.