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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