Transcript: Jesus' Teaching on Effective Prayer: A Guide to Deepening Your Faith

It's surprising how many atheists say that they became atheists because they asked God for something and didn't get it. When you examine this kind of reasoning, you see there's something not quite right about it, to say the least. Let's say I tell a wombat to roll over. In fact, I beg it to roll over, quite nicely and quite patiently, but it doesn't roll over. I ask it repeatedly, to no avail. So, in the end, I kick the wombat in the stomach, and I walk off muttering about how I'll never believe in wombats again. Not exactly rational, is it? Now, I might disagree with something that God does. He refuses to answer my prayer, so I get upset. I might even argue that he promised he would do it, and that he didn't keep his promise. But none of that proves that he doesn't exist. You know what most people really believe in is Santa Claus. It's just that they call him God. They believe in someone who's really powerful and who will do things for them if they just push the right buttons. It doesn't help that the churches also teach this myth in one form or another. From the rather tame, prayer changes things slogan, to the more recent name it and claim it doctrine, It's all about what you can get from God, how God will solve all your problems, put a happy ending on everything. James, the brother of Jesus, is actually quite clear on the matter. He says, you ask, but you don't receive because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your own lusts. That's just old English words where you ask selfishly, according to your own interpretation of what God should or should not do. But even what James says doesn't seem to explain why we don't get answers to what we assume are not selfish prayers. You know, the thinking that goes behind that, my daughter died, even after I asked God not to let her die. How could he be so cruel? Have you heard that kind of argument? Maybe you've even said something similar yourself. But what we consider to be unselfish is not always the same as what God considers to be unselfish. And more often than not, it's because God lives in eternity, and we live in time and space. In reality, we have only a very short moment of time in which to experience the wonders of what we call life. So, when someone dies, and when they move from time to eternity, we invariably see it as a bad thing. But God may see it as a good thing, for your daughter, but also for you. because he wants to teach you things that you've so far not been open to hearing things that will prepare you for eternity. But I see another source to the problem. I see that it often comes from a misreading of what Jesus actually said. There are verses in the Gospels sayings attributed to Jesus which taken on their own have led many people to assume a Santa Claus image of God John quotes Jesus as saying things like Ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. For all things that you desire when you pray, believe that you have them, and you shall receive them. For in another place, anything that you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. And finally, ask, and you shall receive. For everyone who asks, receives. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Santa himself will be hard-pressed to compete with this wonderful wish list offer. So, why aren't people getting the things that they want? I would suggest that none of these promises that I've just quoted is unconditional. All of them are taken out of context. Now that's what I'm going to try to show you in this video. Let me start with this one. Ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. That comes from John 15 7. But now I'm going to read what precedes the promise. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit. If you abide in me, and if my words abide in you, you shall ask what you like, and it shall be done unto you. If. It's a little word, but far, far more important than most people realize. It's called a conditional conjunction. It connects the condition on which a promise is made with the promise itself. if you abide in me, and if my words abide in you. Now, imagine yourself as a branch on a grapevine. Jesus is the vine, and you are the branch. Jesus wants his branches, his followers, that's us. He wants us to bring forth much fruit. So, if you're a branch on a grapevine, what are you going to want, more than anything else? Aren't you going to want the same thing that the vine wants? Isn't that what grape branches do? Don't they just want more grapes? It's only because people do not abide in the vine, that we get ourselves tied in knots trying to get something else, what we want, and trying to get God to want what we want. And so, as a result, our efforts are met, almost always without success. I really dislike something called promise boxes. You ever seen them? Someone goes through the Bible, dissecting out of the Bible all of the promises. Then they print them on little cards, and they sell them in Christian bookstores. Kind of Christian versions of tarot cards. You dip your hand into the promise box each day, and you get yourself some promise that God supposedly made just for you, and just for that day. Only rarely will it ever include the word IF Most of the conditions are left out All of the commands are left out And even some of the promises are left out You know, the ones like, All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's a promise! So why isn't it in the promise box? Or this one. You shall be hated of all men for my sake. That's a promise too. Can you see how selfish we are? and how we set people up for disappointment, when we excise off all of the conditions. And then quite apart from the conditions, we need to ask more questions about the circumstances surrounding the promise. Like this one from John 16 verse 24. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. Now ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. So to whom was Jesus speaking? And what was the background to that statement? He was talking to men who had been following him for a few years now. They had left everything for him. They had risked their lives just to be near him. They had not done it for what they could get out of it. They had learned to want only what Jesus wanted, to do only what he told them to do. They were in fact living their whole lives in his name. That means that they were living their lives on his behalf, for his glory, according to his instructions. So one day, Jesus turns to them and he says, I think you know how to handle a promise like this now. Go ahead. Ask my Father for something that you know I want. Ask for it in my name, and watch what happens. See, they knew what in my name means. If you are living your lives in accord with the teachings of Jesus, and if Jesus says to you, pray for your daily bread, then you can go to the Father and say, Jesus sent us to ask for our daily bread, Dad. And you know that he'll give it to you. If Jesus says, ask the Father to forgive your trespasses, in the same way that you forgive those who trespass against you. And if you pray that same prayer, on his behalf, in his name, you know that God will answer it, just like he said. Do you see how the promise works? Now here's another one. Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds. And to him that knocks, it shall be opened. Sounds good, doesn't it? A blank check. A letter to Santa. But read on. If a son shall ask a fish of any of you that is a father, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Obviously, Jesus is talking about something more than getting fish, isn't he? And one clue is this. A fish was an early Christian symbol for Jesus himself. The Greek word for fish is icsis And that a combination of the first letters in the phrase Jesus Christ Son of God Savior And the snake Well that a symbol for the devil Suppose you would ask your father for a snake. You think he'd give you a snake? Did Jesus promise that? No, of course not. What Jesus said is that a good father will not give his son something that is bad for him. In fact, this is how he put it. If you then, being sinful and imperfect, know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Did you hear that? Did you hear what your Father will give you if you ask? Did you hear what door he will open if you knock? Did you hear what you will find if you seek? The Holy Spirit. That is what it's all about. Those preachers who tell you that it's all about a better job, a new car, a beautiful girlfriend, healing, peace in your home, even the salvation of some lost relative, they're not giving you the full picture as Jesus said it. What he wants to give you is his Spirit. If you want magical presents, talk to the Easter Bunny. Look for the tooth fairy. Go ask Santa Claus. But if you want the Holy Spirit, if you want what Jesus wants, if you want God's will to be done, then ask God, assured that He will give you exactly what you have asked for. Because that is the true picture of what He promised. Meet the conditions. Abide in Him, and let His words abide in you. Ask according to his will, in his name, and you will have whatsoever your heart desires. Have you been there? Have you been in that place where all you want in this entire world is God's will? Let us each start by praying that God will lead us to that place. That place where the soul is fully satisfied. living life to the full, doing and experiencing all that God intended for his special creation, just by dwelling in his Spirit, walking in his kingdom, living in his will, and all of it to his glory. It all comes together when we stop asking amiss, when we stop trying to apply his promises to our short-sighted ideas about what he should want and how he should act. I hope that you now have a better idea about what it means to truly ask the Father in the name of his Son, and that it will bring peace and contentment to your soul. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.