"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."
John 15:7
We wanted to wrap up our first week of moving on God's promises with one final abiding promise. The first month has been all about abiding in Christ, and I know for me personally, it has been something that I am going to continue whether we're focusing on that promise or not! John 15 is actually a great place to go to for a better understanding on exactly what it means to abide. Jake actually brought up this passage of scripture during week one when we first started talking about abiding in Christ. It is only fitting that we come full circle.
This is a scary promise to move on, but this is exactly the kind of promise that I was tired of standing on. I feel like people love to believe in this passage, believe that God always hears and answers our prayers, but they also love to give God an escape route. "Yes," too many people say, "I 100% believe that God will answer this prayer...but if He doesn't it's just because He has something bigger." or "His answer is no." and the excuses go on and on.
I don't believe that is the case though. The Creator of the Universe doesn't need a way out of our prayers! We don't need to give Him an exit strategy. The danger in giving excuses to God as to why He may or may not answer our prayers is that we start to think that way. Instead of trusting Him 100% we end up trusting Him 90%, then that turns to 80%, then 70 and so on. I am done insulting the Lord with that kind of thinking! What promise does the Bible say He has ever broken? NONE OF THEM! So why are you going to put anything less than 100% trust in Him? I'm done doing it!
There is a very thin line that must be carefully walked here though. This is not a prosperity gospel that we are believing in. Yes, I believe that God wants to, and does, bless the sock off of those who follow Him. Far too many people attribute this to only financial or worldly blessings. "Well, John 15 says I get whatever I ask for in the name of Jesus...so I'd like a Ferrari, two summer homes in the Caribbean, and sixteen million dollars." I don't think that's how it works.
The key to this, as has been the key to all of the promises we have moved on this month, is ABIDING. Take week one for example: we had to walk a dangerous line in keeping that promise. If we stopped focusing on abiding in Christ, and turned our attention instead to the outcome of abiding, that we cannot and would not sin, then it is no longer Christ that we are following, but a horrible form of legalism - following rules to get closer to God. The same goes with this promise. The goal is abiding in Jesus Christ through all things. Staying connected to the True Vine spoken of in John 15. Realizing that Jesus is correct when He says in verse 5, "apart from me you can do nothing." The outcome of the promise, that God will give us everything we ask for CANNOT EVER become the focus. That would make God to be our servant; just a little footman at our beck and call.
I believe that when we abide in Jesus Christ - when we let the Holy Spirit invade our lives and take over everything, that Jesus Christ answers 100% of our prayers. Why would He say it if He didn't. Yes, sometimes the answer is no. Yes, sometimes He has something bigger. When we are plugged in to the True Vine though, He reveals His plan to us. Jesus Christ tells us in verse 15 that He no longer calls His disciples servants, but friends, because He is revealing to us His Father's business.
We can have 100% confidence that God will answer every single prayer we ask of Him, without any hesitation or need of a way out, because as we abide in Him, He will make His will known to us. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me." The Lord gave Paul a "no" answer, but He also let Him know why.
When we abide in Christ, we walk every moment of our lives in the Father's will, we speak every word in the Father's will, we pray every prayer in the Father's will. Those are the prayers that are answered.
So pray BIG this week! Pray the boldest prayers you have ever prayed! But make sure that you are abiding in Christ when you do it. When we ask for things that are in the will of the Father, they are always answered! There is no "better plan" than His plan.
It's your turn now! MOVE!
I read your post with great interest. Thanks for your thoughts; let me add a few.
ReplyDeleteProper understanding these (and similar passages Jn 14:13, 15;16, 16:23, etc.) can be helped when we consider the relationship we have with our own sons (and daughters). When our children are young, we don't always give them what they want, but we do give them what is best for them, even when they protest and fail to understand our intentions. When they get more mature, it would be easy and truthful for us to say to our son, "Look son, if you learn and adopt my values for yourself; If you learn to think how I think, and how I act in any given situation, and you are willing to set aside your own personal will and agenda and conduct yourself as my faithful representative, then I will confer on you the same authority and resources that I have to carry on our family business. If you are unsure in any situation, you can always ask me how I would do this-or-that and I will surely help you along. I love you and I trust you."
The promise you are focusing on is better understood when we look at how Jesus applied it:
I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. John 5:30 NKJV
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 6:38 NKJV
When this promise is looked at as a means of flesh-fulfillment, our Loving Father would not be righteous to grant us that which harms us or others. C.S. Lewis points out that too often we ask for temporal things, things that bring us immediate pleasure and fail to see the eternal and valuable things our Father wants to be ours. He says:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Thanks again for your reminder
KP