SPEAK LIFE: LESSON 8 - PRAY IN JESUS' NAME. Part 3

Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. (John 16:24)

We have heard the following many times, and have even said or thought the same ourselves that "God does not hear me, care about me or answer my prayers". This statement is not true at all, in light of Scripture and the protocols of Abba Father, Who hears all His Children and processes in His own time and according to His own holy Will!. 

CONDITIONAL:
It is understood that we are positioned to be praying to the Father, in Jesus' Name through our adoption as His sons and daughters (based on John 1:12). Therefore, we are authorized to approach the Throne of Grace for His Grace, Favor and Mercy in all things, according to His purposes. This key verse in our journey to understanding the "Power Prayer Life" from John 16:24, gives us the condition. This condition is similar to a math equation: if you add one plus one, you will get two!

It is this simple, ask IN FAITH (knowing that God only hears the prayers of the righteous, and those asking for His forgiveness and salvation) and thou shalt receive. Therefore, this equals peace, joy, contentment and victory in Jesus! To fully grasp this what this joy really is, please understand that praying in the Name of Jesus is not a chant, mantra or formula for yours or mine own selfish pursuits, but a powerful and humbling realization and acknowledgement that we are nothing, can do nothing and deserve nothing UNLESS we are in the Presence of the Name above All Names! This is the true conditional status of the intercessors, prayer warriors and just plain old Christian like you or I who pray daily (or several times per day) to the Father!

In My name - means just that! It means we are praying as directly commissioned by Him, to seek His presence and intervention for our prayer requests. Please do not neglect or misunderstand what this truly is. This is the Creator of ALL things, paying direct and close attention to seemingly insignificant people like us! Who am I that the King would bleed and die for (as they song says) and then when He returns to His throne after the Ascension, send His Spirit to live in those He saves.....THEN LISTENS TO OUR PRAYERS??!! Who are we indeed? Blessed and more fortunate than we can ever imagine is the response!

Your joy may be made full - This is truly an amazing statement by God the Son! He simply says "ask in My Name....and your joy will be complete"! The true meaning of this is both amazing and even unfathomable. The original word "Joy" here is "chara" or "xara" and means, in essence, that the awareness of the Heavenly Favor of God will be so present in your own spirit that the resulting joy and exuberance in your spirit will want to cause you to leap, jump and dance for joy in your heart. It exemplifies the presence of God's goodness in the life of the Christian which, if the Christian is properly submitted and committed to the Will of Christ, will burst forth and show all over his/her countenance.  This, my friends, is the condition we find ourselves if we are prayerful obedient servants who seek the very Face and Presence of the Master, as much as we can, during each day!

GOD'S RESPONSE:
Does God owe us a response? In general, God owes us nothing, but because of Jesus' Sacrifice on the Cross, He has given us everything and that includes access to the Throne through prayer! He has promised us, when we pray like this, in the Name of His Son? Yes He does and those promises can ALL be found in His literal, inerrant and Holy Word. 

He says in John 15:16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." Regardless of anything else, that very fact - that GOD HIMSELF CHOSE US. This means everything and like any good parent, the Father listens to and responds to us!

The Bible also says in 1 John 5:14 "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." After knowing that our Father has chosen us, how can we help NOT having confidence? The wonderful thing about being saved and called a child of Christ is we inherit eternity. An upcoming post will discuss what eternity really means - past, present and future. 

This inheritance is more than just the blessed hope of living in anticipation of a future heaven. It is about living in the NOW, with confidence (as the verse tells us), that we can appropriate every aspect of our lives to His safe keeping as no one cares for as God does! Praying in the Name of Jesus is not just a stock ending to a prayer we are supposed to "say" or "mumble" like some pagan mantra. It is the sole and exclusive privilege of the blood-bought son or daughter of Christ, and thus God the Father, who knows the Heart of the Father and how He loves us. It is therefore, this love, which compels us to boldly approach the Throne of Grace, in Jesus' Strong and Powerful Almighty Name, in humility and but with confident hope - that He would do what He said He would. Amen. 

FORTIFIED!

The strong of this world have always over-powered the weak. This is a world, from the fall of mankind into sin, which defines its parameters on Strength, Power and sometimes brute force. This has been so since the dawn of time (as we know it) and the first act of hatred when Cain destroyed his brother Abel. However, for the people of God, it has not always been thus.  The Word of the Lord is full of examples of the people of God, being puny and put upon, yet prevailing under the Power and Provision of victory of God, because they adhered (at the time) to the very Principles of God. There are so many instances, but a main one can be found in Exodus 17 where the Israelites beat the fearsome Amalekites backbecause Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms all day long (Verses 8-16).  Who ever heard of such a thing that a man’s arm being held up guaranteed military victory over a superior fighting force? No one has because it is only because of the intervention and the Strength of the Lord.

That same strength is available today for us, the people of God, if we just let Him have Kingdom Authority over our lives…if we just allow Him to be Who He is – Lord and Savior. We cannot “make” Jesus the Lord of our lives, but we can surrender and submit to His Lordship and live our daily lives, even minute by minute, through and in Christ. This is the difference between being “IN” Christ and “OF Christ”. The majority of western Christianity, including Christians we all know and love, are functioning as a body of people “of Christ”, but are not walking in the full and complete calling and election as a child of the Living God. Read what Ephesians 1:11 says: “In Him, we also have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things  according to the counsel of His will.”

There it is right there – God has given us an inheritance so that “IN HIM” we have all that we need – and that includes His Strength. The question is how, when and/or IF we ever access this Strength. Christians everywhere, including professing cultural Christians who are as deep as a thimble, all love to quote Philippians 4:13. I wear  bracelet myself that verse which says that “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me” (or gives me strength, depending on your translation). But how many of us ever go to Him, surrender our own will, and then say to the Father “Lord, Abba Father, I cannot do this in my own weakness, I need YOU!” It all goes back to the fundamental underlying premise of if we are “IN HIM” or “OF HIM”.

This is NOT a philosophical argument. This is practical Christianity 101 – either you trust Christ, the Creator of the world which is “OF” Him or we, who are called by His Name (Christians) are “IN HIM”. Read therest of Ephesians 1 (click here) if there is any doubt.  

The Lord is our strength when we wake up. 

The Lord is our strength when we lie down. 

The Lord is our strength when we go to the kitchen for breakfast. 

The Lord is our strength when we kiss our spouses and head off to work. The Lord is our strength when we travel on the busy roads and arrive to our destination alive. 

The Lord is our strength to go to the job that HE GOT US. 

The Lord is our strength to help us cope with the tasks involved in that job so we can have the paycheck that is the provision for our very physical existence. The Lord is our strength when you arrive at the lunch hour and even have something to eat. 

The Lord is our strength when we stick out like a sore thumb as the elect in a perishing world of lost co-workers who need HIS strength through us, in those special divine appointments.  

The Lord is our strength when we make it home alive at the end of the day and have a place to rest and refresh. 

The Lord is our strength for all the activities during the rest of that day until our collective heads hits the pillow at night.  

It is the Lord, Who is your strength and mine Who refreshes and renews us every night during those resting hours that we may be able to awake anew every morning. 

It is the Lord, Who is our strength Whose mercies are therefore new every morning, so great is His Faithfulness to us.

Therefore, we have a song.  We must have a song, We should have a song in our heart of praise to Our God. If  we don’t have this song of praise even after all of these truths about the very Strength of the Lord to those who are IN HIM, then we should.  The Joy of the Lord IS our strength. Combine that with HIS Strength, new every morning, and there is no way that the true 100% all-in sold-out, committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, believer should not live, eat, sleep Psalm 40:1 -3 “I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined to me, and heard my cry . He also brought me out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth – a praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD!”

There it is! Our prayer is we all rise up, day after day, secure in the knowledge of the Holy One, wherein our daily estate enables us to promptly proclaim “the Lord is my Strength and my Song”! He is worthy to be praised! Amen.