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Grace That Makes Us Glad

Clarence O. Clough, Jr.

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Authority to Ask

1 John 5:13-15

By Robert D. Pace

The fact that God allows Christians to approach Him in faith and petition Him reveals a major facet of His grace toward us.  God is our Heavenly Father, He loves us, and He wants us to make requests from Him.

 

There's a huge difference between the God of Scripture and all other so-called "gods."  When you study the ancient Asian and Mediterranean gods, you discover they were always angry and unable to be pleased.  They are depicted as insistent and rarely benevolent. But the God of the Bible is not that way!  He is good. He gives, blesses, and even encourages us to ask whatever we need of Him.

Matthew 7:7‑8 says: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  (8) For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

 John 15:7 says: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

 

John 16:24 says: "Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."

 

Jesus said in Mark 11:24, "whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

God want us to petition Him.  And He wants us to petition Him because He wants to bless us.  Never doubt that! 

 

Let me tell you something about the Bible's promises.  God placed His promises in this Book, but we have to claim them.  They aren't going to leap off the gold edged pages of the Bible into our lives just because we read them.  We have to use the faith God has given us and claim them!

 

You see, God makes His promises available, but we have to appropriate them.  We have to ask.  God has already shown us that He wants to provide for our needs; we don't have to convince Him of that.

 

He knows we have needs because He is the One that created us with our fleshy limitations.  He's just waiting for us to ask for His help. Let me show you where the Bible says this.

 

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus said we should pray this way:"Heavenly Father . . . give us this day our daily bread."  He didn't say to pray: "Sell us this day our daily bread." God's blessings aren't bought they're sought.  And the bread we need may be represented in many forms:

 

The bread you need could be represented in one of the many promises from this Book you need to claim.

 

The bread you need could be physical healing.  Remember, Jesus told the Canaanite woman that healing was the "children's bread."

 

Or, you might need to be fed the bread of a financial miracle.

 

God's bread for us is represented in a variety of ways.  He just wants us to ask for it.

 

(Transition)  Since that's true, how can we take authority to ask and receive from God?  One way is to, Ask according to God's will.

 

I.       Authority to Ask is Granted as we Ask According to God's Will

 

(Illustration)  I heard about the little boy that prayed with mixed results.  He said, "Dear God.  Thank you for my baby brother.  But what I asked for was a puppy!"

 

I John 5:14 says: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  (15) And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him" (NIV).

 

Always remember something about the Lord.  He has a will about everything.  That's because He's omniscient—He knows everything.  But He's not only omniscient, He is perfect in wisdom, and that means He knows what is best for us.  And because God is good He is only wants to answer prayers that work for our welfare.

 

Nobody on earth possesses unlimited knowledge.  No human alive knows the end from the beginning.  And since that's so, we need to trust God and what His will is for us. We don't always know what's best for ourselves.  We should be glad God hasn't answered all our prayers because we could be really fouled up! 

 

What if Jesus had answered James and John's request to incinerate that Samaritan village?  A lot of innocent people would have died!

 

What if the early church had prayed for Saul of Tarsus to die while he was persecuting the Christians? A third of the New Testament would have been missing!

 

You see, it's a blessing when God disregards prayers that don't comply with His will and wisdom. God didn't design prayer as a mechanism to let us have our way.  It isn't like a Genie we can rub to acquire our fantasies. God wants to bless, but what we think is a blessing could be disastrous!

 

This is why God wants us to take time in His presence before we begin demanding Him to do things for us.  God's will can't always be determined in quick prayer meeting where we talk and He listens.

 

There are occasions when it takes time to cleanse our heart from wrong desires.  And when you spend time in the presence of Jesus and worship Him and ask for His will, He will cleanse your heart and plant His desires in you. 

 

Listen how the Amplified Bible translates Matthew 7:7.  Jesus said, "Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and the door will be opened to you.  (8) For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking it will be opened."

 

God tells us to repeatedly ‘ask, seek, and knock' because there's something sacred about prayer that cleanses our heart from wrong desires and opens us to God's will.  If you've repeatedly prayed about something and don't have peace, it's probably because the request isn't in God's will. God has something else in mind.

 

(Illustration)  I know a pastor who wanted a new automobile, and he thought he knew exactly which one, so He started praying for it.  He spent several weeks praying for that car but during the process of repeatedly seeking God, his heart and mind changed about getting that specific car.  He told me that during his times of prayer the Holy Spirit showed him the vehicle he needed, so he began praying in compliance of God's will.  When he did, God blessed him with the car.

 

Repeatedly soaking your requests in the presence of God helps cleanse your heart from wrong desires and open you up to God's will.

 

Guard Your Heart

 

How many people constantly battle with your heart to keep it subjected to God's will?  Everybody does!  Our heart can go astray at a moment's notice. Your heart is the seat of your passions and emotions and desires.  And it's a battle to keep them bridled.

 

That's why Proverbs 4:23 says: "Above all else, guard your heart." Your heart is so volatile.  It's not always tied to pragmatism and reason. It can cause us to stray far from God's will.  That's why we have to keep it submitted to Christ daily!

 

(Example)  Think about it.  Imagine yourself as a teenager.  How many would admit to yourself that you thought you saw the perfect guy or girl? You saw that person and your heart jumped half way up your throat and you lost sleep and an appetite for weeks. Your thinking was so disoriented that it brought total disarray to life.  The heart did that!

 

(Example)  Have you ever looked at an automobile under the bright lights of a showroom?  The sparkle of polished paint bounced off your optic nerve and dilated your pupils.  Or maybe you went into the computer store and saw that 5000-megahertz computer with a 1000 gigabytes of hard drive or you saw that seventy-five inch big screen TV you couldn't pass up.  And without regard to financing you decided it was yours!  That's the heart calling the shots.

 

The heart can create instant chaos.  So how do we keep our heart in check?  One way is to pray as Jesus said pray.  Again, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus said we should pray for God's will "to be done on earth as it is in heaven."  (The original Greek language renders this phrase forcefully.)

 

There are times we have to deal forcefully with ourselves and demand that our mind, heart, and flesh submit to Christ's lordship.

 

(Transition)  The next way God empowers us to petition Him with authority is, to ask with the right attitude.

 

II.      Ask With The Right Attitude

 

Did you know that the Bible repeatedly connects receiving from God directly with maintaining a right attitude?

 

Matthew 7:9-12    (Jesus links the "golden rule" with receiving from God.)

 

Mark 11:22-25     (Moving mountains and believing God for miracles is linked to forgiving others and maintaining a clean heart.)

 

James 4:2 says this. "You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. (3) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  (4) You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

 

Do you know why James called those people "adulterous"?  Because they had joined themselves to a worldly way of thinking and acting!  They were coveting, quarreling, and fighting—totally consumed with wrong attitudes!  And that's why God couldn't answer their prayers.

 

I'm sure you remember the sufferings of Job.  But do you remember when God turned his captivity and restored him to health? After all the accusations Job's so-called "comforters" hurled at him, Job 42:10 says:

"The LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before."

 

The NIV puts it this way: "After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before."

 

The NASB version says: "The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold."

God's favor returned to Job when God saw that Job's heart remained pure and he prayed for those that insulted him.  A pure heart will empower your prayer life and attract God's blessings.  I want to say that again.  A pure heart will attract God's blessings!  Let me show you what I mean.

 

(Bible Example)  When you read the book of Revelation, you see John discloses some graphic pictures of Heaven. Whatever mayhem occurs on earth during the Tribulation, every portrait of Heaven discloses it as a place where there is rejoicing, peace, abundance, pleasures, and protection from all ill and evil.

 

The reason heaven is a perfect place is because everything there is in harmony with His will. Hearts are holy.  Attitudes are right.  Motives are pure.  All is done to the glory of God.   Revelation shows us that God rewards the "pure in heart" with eternal happiness.  A pure heart attracts God's blessings.

 

Christians have to realize there are times we fail to get answers to prayer because we live with bitterness and wrong attitudes.

 

I recently preached a message here on the Conquest of Fear and talked about the prohibition that Scripture places against Christians living fearfully.  But there are certain foes in life that we should fear.

 

I want you to know that I live with a healthy fear that a "root of bitterness" or unforgiveness or anger would ever attach itself to my heart.  I don't want these infectious, damning adversaries ruining my spiritual welfare.

 

The love of God should always hold sway in our lives.  And when it does, we are authorized to pray with power.  When our heart is right we are deputized to approach God and expect an answer.

 

(Transition) God empowers us to ask with authority not only when we ask in accordance with His Word and when we do so with the right attitude, but thirdly, when we ask in faith.

 

III.    Ask in Faith

 

Turn to Mark 11:22 and let's read: "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. (23) "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. (24) Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (NIV).

 

Expect God to answer your prayer!  Prayer touches the heart of God but faith moves the hand of God.  Faith causes things to happen.  Faith is certainty!  When we pray with the assurance that God has supplied the request, we've actually reached into the future and brought it into the present.

 

With every need that faces us, we have two options: Will you exercise faith or unbelief?  And what you do is the difference between passing and failing.

 

I want you understand something about the operation of faith for God's provisions.  God always has provision for our need prepared in advance. It is faith that claims what God prepares in advance!

 

Most times, God won't reveal the end result until we first take the step of faith.  It's like Abraham obeying God to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah.  There was no question in Abraham's mind that Isaac would return from the mountain alive, even if God had to raise him from the dead.  And nobody had been raised from the dead at that point in human history.

 

Abraham had raised the knife and was ready to plunge it into Isaac when the angel interrupted the sacrifice.  Abraham's perfect faith had spared his son.  And once he released his faith he turned around and saw what God had prepared in advance—a ram caught in a bush—and there was the sacrifice.

 

Remember, God always has His provision for our needs prepared in advance, but it takes faith to claim what He's prepared.  God wants us to exercise faith when there's no tangible evidence for what's promised. And that's just what Hebrews 11:1 says: "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

 

Conclusion

 

The Bible says God has dealt every person here a "measure of faith."  Nobody is without it!  You were given faith so you could ask with authority and receive answers to your prayer.

 

What prayer is God waiting for you to pray?  What request is God waiting for you to ask of Him?  If He is leading you to ask of Him, that means He wants to answer you.