Passion Week: Ask, Believe, Receive

This is Passion Week, the last days before Jesus' crucifixion. This is the most important week in the Christian calendar, a week of sober thought and reflection. It is also a point in the gospel narrative where we should realize that Jesus was not wasting time. He spent these last few precious days teaching the valuable things he wanted his followers to retain. It is good to take extra time this week just to plumb the depths of what Jesus did and what he said during these final days.There is something incredibly powerful about the intensity of this last week.

The first morning after his great entrance into Jerusalem and the clearing of the temple court, we find Jesus entering into Jerusalem again. He had spent the night in Bethany, probably with his friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. 

So it was early morning and he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree in full leaf Jesus went to pick some figs:

Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!”Immediately the tree withered. (Matthew 21:18-19)

As a child I always had a problem with this story as it seemed unfair to me. What had the tree done? Now, being older I can understand that the tree was a disappointment to Jesus. The leafs gave the appearance of promised fruit but it had none; it was a non-bearing fruit tree, useless to anyone. However, Jesus saw here an opportunity to teach one of the most important lessons these disciples, and those to follow, could learn. He spoke to the tree and it immediately withered. Mark states that they didn't notice it had withered until later but regardless of when they noticed, the fact was that Jesus spoke to the tree and it reacted to his words.

It was Peter who spoke up:

“Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” (Mark 11:21)

After all they had witnessed this withered tree still surprised them? They had witnessed Lazarus coming out of his tomb, alive, simply because Jesus spoke to his dead body. What is a tree withering at the command of this same voice compared to a dead man being called out alive? Regardless, Jesus showed his usual patience and taught them concerning faith:

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “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. (Mark 11:22-23)

This was a lesson the disciples would have to rely on for the rest of their lives. It is a lesson most of us have let go. Let's be honest with each other: When you pray do you believe or do you simply hope? Many people pray without believing; it is more a thing of desperation, like throwing dice and hoping you come up with a seven. It is not a certainty but there is always a chance. That isn't faith.

Jesus said that we would do even greater things than what he did but it would require a people who live by the same faith as Jesus. When Jesus spoke to that tree he knew that his words would cause a reaction. When he told that tree to wither he expected it to wither. He told his disciples that if they spoke and did not doubt but actually expected it to happen, it would be done for them. In other words the power behind your prayer is not you but our heavenly Father. However, lack of faith, lack of trust, lack of belief, blocks our Father from doing anything.

Compared to what we should be, we live such empty lives, and it is our own failing. Because of our relationship with Jesus we are suppose to be the most powerful beings on this planet; all of nature must respond to us because of the authority that Jesus has given to us. He told us that our words would cause things to happen because of the authority that is behind those words. He told us to speak to the "mountains" and they would have to respond. Read this carefully and try to understand:

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24)

Believe; not hope, not chance, but believe that you have received and it will be yours. What did James have to say about this?

You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)

We think we are spiritually minded but we are so off the mark I doubt Jesus can even recognize us. What we accomplish we do with our own hands. The world can't see Jesus because we present our own accomplishments, not what the Spirit is doing through us. So many Christians do not believe in this kind of spiritual authority and power any more. It is like they believe we have been left as orphans and we have to make our own way in the world, as if our Father no longer looks after us, meets our needs or even responds to us. We are living like the Sadducees who believed that Yahweh did not intervene in daily life and we were left to do the best we can. In contrast, Jesus said: ask, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Speak to the fruitless trees in your life and tell them to die. Stop wasting your time and get rid of those things that are bearing no fruit. Speak to the "mountains", those things that are blocking your progress, the addictions, the things that are standing in your way to a greater walk. Speak to these things and expect them to move out of the way. Speak, believe and receive. Ask whatever you need, make sure it is not from selfish desires, believe that you have received it and it is yours. Understand the authority you have to speak to diseases in people's lives, to speak to addictions, to speak to poverty, to speak to barrenness, to speak to anything that is contrary to God's will and it must obey, coming back into alignment with God's heart.

Some may ask, what if it is not God's will? Let me tell you, if it is not God's will he will tell you just as he told Paul when Paul was praying about some affliction he had. God's response to Paul in that matter was, "My grace is sufficient". Ask and God will not answer with silence as some people teach. Ask and believe and you will receive an answer and there will be times when we have asked out of ignorance, not understanding his will, but he will answer. The longer you operate in faith the more you are able to understand his will.

We need to shake ourselves out of this spirit of doubt. It's crazy. We have Jesus' words right here in front of us and one thing I know is that Jesus is not a liar. He said it. I believe it. AMEN! We are a powerful nation, the Kingdom of God. The power is not found in our effort but in the will of our Father. Jonathan stated to his armour bearer that, whether by many or by few, salvation belongs to God. When we speak we have all of his authority backing up our words. So this morning, speak to those barren trees and believe you have received. Speak to the mountains and believe you have received. Speak to your needs and the needs of others and believe you have received. It will be given to you. Jesus said so, and he is no liar. Yes and Amen!

"Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?"

"Why doesn't God answer my prayers?" Have you ever been asked that question? Have you ever asked that question? I have a wife who has a great relationship with Father. Whatever she asks for she receives. People have started asking her to prayer for their needs because they recognize that Father responds to her. Why does he seem to answer some and not others? It really comes down to relationship.

A lot of people who ask me this question have no relationship with Jesus. They are using the question to justify their position as a non-believer. Others are so steeped in sin, they may believe in Jesus but they certainly are not following him in obedience. Isaiah answered this question by first stating that Yahweh is more than capable of answering so there should be no doubt:

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear. (Isaiah 59:1)

So with that established we consider what the problem is:

But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear. (v. 2)

Your sins are separating you from Father. The relationship was established through the sacrifice of the cross. From here we were adopted so that we could call Yahweh Father. It was sin that separated us in the first place, our acts of rebellion. Sin can hide Father from us again. Refusing to obey, refusing to live by the words of Jesus is rebellion and Father will close his ears to us. Repent.

Doubting the goodness of Father will also prevent him from answering. Why bother praying in the first place if you doubt he will respond. That's crazy. Doubt kills faith and without faith we cannot please Yahweh:

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8)

Selfishness is also another thing that prevents us from receiving in prayer. We have this mistaken notion that Jesus planned a perfect, happy, rich life of abundance for us. But Jesus' treasures are different than our idea of treasure. James states in his characteristic blunt fashion:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

Jesus did tell us that we can ask for anything of Father in his name, in our relationship of oneness with him, and we would receive it. But what we fail to remember is that a Christian life is far from self-centered and our primary focus is on the things of the Kingdom. We fail to keep the things that Jesus taught in the context of all his instruction and his instruction was plainly to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. Ours is a sacrificial life in this place as agents of the Kingdom. When we ask anything for ourselves it will always be in the context of seeking the things of the Kingdom. If Jesus told us not to chase after the things the pagans do, why would we think we can chase after them in prayer? Jesus told us we don't need to worry about the basics because Father has us covered.

My wife possesses a pure heart. She isn't perfect and sometimes her desire for the best for others sometimes gets her in trouble but her motivation is pure. She desires to see Jesus glorified in every person she knows. I have the privilege of praying with her daily and I am telling you her prayers are powerful. They are powerful because they are focused on the Kingdom. She has no problem asking for things that are absent from her life that she needs for the Kingdom work, and she gets what she asks for.

There is also the matter of Father's will. Our relationship is an intimate one which allows us to become aware of his will. So often I have had people ask me to pray with them on certain matters. They have expressed what they wanted but as I began to pray the Spirit showed me that it was not Father's will, that he desired something different for them. In our prayers our priority must be what Father wants and submit ourselves to his will. This is vital as a servant of Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is one of reflection; reflecting on the goodness of Yahweh but also on our own spiritual condition. We submit ourselves to examination all the time, asking the Spirit to reveal our heart to us so we can confess anything that does not belong to Jesus. We are concerned about such matters because we want to walk like Jesus, we desire to live by his righteousness. If we check ourselves, believe Father desires to respond, make sure we are not asking selfishly for our own pleasures, that we are focused on Kingdom matters, understanding the Father's will, we will see all our prayers answered. Sounds more complicated than it is. Simply make Jesus your everything, take him by the hand and take joy in the relationship. Prayers will be wonderfully effective in such a relationship because it is all about relationship.

Draw Near To Jesus So He Can Know You

There is a difference between knowing of someone and actually knowing them. Maybe you have a relative that your parents have often talked about. Through them you know about this relative but you don't actually know them. Then one day you get the opportunity to meet with them, talk with them, live with them for a bit. Now you know them.

Those of you from large churches may know of your pastor. You hear him preach, you read his books, you may even follow him on twitter, but you don't actually know him. You haven't visited his home or sat down to share in a meal. You don't know his personal struggles, victories, fears and hopes. You know of him but you don't know him.

For many people who attend our churches this describes their relationship with Jesus. They know of him but they have yet to meet him. For some, they are comfortable with that. They are content right where they are because it means the lack of relationship doesn't put too much demand on them. They aren't prepared for the commitment of "marriage", the sacrifices they have heard it will require. So they are content just to hear stories and worship from a distance. This is not the relationship Jesus is looking for.

Our relationship with Jesus is an "all or nothing". For those who try to approach him from a distance Jesus brings them face to face. There was a woman who wanted healing for her daughter and stood at a distance shouting. Jesus ignored her until she came and knelt at his feet. Even then he resisted saying he had only come for the children of Israel which provoked her to demonstrate her faith in Jesus. Then Jesus moved in her situation.

Consider Job. He had suffered much and his religious talk was tremendous. He was sticking with Yahweh no matter what, but Job worshiped a God he knew from a distance. As much as he did everything to honour Yahweh he did not know Yahweh. But after being chastised by him and after having lived through this experience, Job responded:

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)

Job was confronted by the holiness of Yahweh and his self-righteousness melted like wax before him. He realized his condition and his immediate reaction was repentance.

Those who stand at a distance do so because they do not want to be intimate with our God. But in order to love with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength we must draw close. Those at a distance say they are happy with themselves and they want to worship without changing. They want to hold on to their opinions and their actions. Those who come close are confronted by their own wretchedness in the light of Yahweh`s holiness. We fall to our face in repentance but through Jesus Christ he lifts us up as a changed person, a new creation.

We cannot stand at a distance and claim to have a relationship when we only have a "knowing". It is when we draw near to Jesus that he draws near to us and he knows us in the biblical sense of knowing. Jesus knows us but it is intimacy that he demands. It is the reason that he said there will be those who try to enter into his glory and he will turn them back saying, "I do not know you". It is the biblical sense of knowing, the intimacy as we draw close to him and he to us so that he lives in us and we in him. The Christian relationship with Jesus is not a religious methodology but an extremely intimate knowing of each other.

I can share a lot of scripture on this subject but I leave you with the holy words recorded by James, inspired by the Holy Spirit:

"Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. and he will lift you up." (James 4:8-10)

It is frightening to stand in the holiness of Yahweh and to have the ugliness of our heart revealed to us. There is lamentation, mourning and weeping that is provoked. But the greatest moment is when Jesus reaches down and lifts us up. There is no greater moment in all of eternity then to have all that ugliness washed away and stand before our Lord as a new creation, brought about because the Father willed it and Jesus did it.