Monday, May 29, 2017

With Enough Faith You Think You Can Ask For Anything And Get It - Well, That Is Not Exactly Correct



In that day you will ask in My name…for the Father Himself loves you… —John 16:26-27

{CHAMBERS}  ““In that day you will ask in My name…,” that is, in My nature. Not “You will use My name as some magic word,” but— “You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.” “That day” is not a day in the next life, but a day meant for here and now. “…for the Father Himself loves you…”— the Father’s love is evidence that our union with Jesus is complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that our lives will be free from external difficulties and uncertainties, but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, we too can be lifted by Him into heavenly places through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that He can reveal the teachings of God to us.[…] Jesus said that because of His name God will recognize and respond to our prayers.”

{ELGIN} I am certain that you have heard of the term, “Name it and claim it.”  The idea being that you can have anything you want, all you have to do is ask for it. And if you don’t get what you want, then it is because you do not have enough faith.  Frankly, I can see how people could interpret verses in the Bible that way.  “Faith like a mustard seed.” (Matthew 17:20)  “Ask anything in My name.” (John 14:14) But, those verses must be counter-balanced with “You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:3-4) The idea being that maybe you don’t get what you ask for because what you ask for is to satisfy your flesh and not to bring glory to God at all.  When Jesus prayed in the Garden, He asked if the Father would “take this cup” from Him, yet not Jesus’ will but the Father’s will be done.  We tend to forget that the Bible is a spiritual book.  It is God’s revelation to the world.  There is nothing in it that does not have spiritual context.  It describes how man relates to man, how God relates to man and how man relates to God.  Jesus did not come so that man could prosper in material things.  There are many, many saints who are impoverished.  That does not mean they lack faith.  But if you have a “fleshly” view toward God’s provision that is what you think it means.  We are not “blessed” because we enjoy the excesses that this country brings.  We are blessed because we have salvation through Jesus and a child of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:3-14)

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