“I can have this
candy,” said my son.
But there was
something about the way he said it: arm extended over the candy bar,
fingers already closing around the wrapper.
It wasn’t just the
imprecise grammar of a toddler. My son sounded------ casual.
Presumptive.
It affected me.
My head
tilted. My face tightened. My eyebrows rose. As I leaned
toward him I could feel the rumble in the back of my throat riding out on the
words.
I growled,
“Boy! Are you asking me, or telling me?”
My son paused.
At 3 years old he seemed to understand.
This was the most
important and dangerous question he’d ever been asked.
The toddler
understood, but apparently the church doesn’t.
The other day, I
heard a preacher tell his congregation to “Tell the Holy Spirit that you need a
right now blessing!”
Tell? And
right now?
"This is
what the LORD says-- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things
to come, do you question Me about my children, or give Me
orders about the work of my hands? (Isaiah 45: 11, NIV)
God our Father wants
to know: Are we asking Him or telling Him?
How do we approach
God when we want something from Him?
Jesus said to
them, “Have faith in God.
For assuredly, I
say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the
sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says
will be done, he will have whatever he says.
Therefore I say
to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them,
and you will have them. (Mark
11: 22-24)
But somehow, at some
point, we took a sharp, wrong turn with the concepts of believing and asking in
faith. We started acting like God’s promises to us had made God
subordinate to us and we could make God do what we want Him to do.
We forgot basic
protocol in the child-Father relationship.
…whatever things
you ASK when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you
will have them.
Most assuredly, I
say to you, whatever you ASK the Father in My name He will
give you. (John 16:23)
ASK,
and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you. (Matthew 7:
7)
Children ask their
Father. They don’t tell Him.
We the children of
God pray to our Father. We don’t command Him.
I know. I
know.
“But the Bible says
that I can have WHATEVER I ask.”
Don’t forget to
stomp your foot when you throw that tantrum.
Believer can have
whatever they ask IN JESUS’ NAME.
That doesn’t mean
that we simplistically say the magic words, ”in Jesus’ name” when we ask for
foolishness and God has to give it to us.
God is not a genie
locked in a bottle that you rub with prayer “in the name of Jesus.”
The Holy Ghost is
not a familiar spirit summoned by your praise and held for your pleasure in a
circle drawn by your will.
God is GOD!
“In Jesus’ name”
means under Jesus’ authority.
We ask under Jesus’
authority because our requests are subject to His authority, meaning that our
requests are subject to His “yes” and to His “no.”
Yes, all the
promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
(2 Corinthians 1: 20)
But what has God
promised?
He has promised to
give us what we ask---- subject to His authority (and approval).
He has promised to
never give us more than we can bear/ handle. (1 Corinthians 10: 13)
So, Would God withhold your request if He knows that you aren’t really
spiritually ready to deal with getting it?
Yes.
He has promised not
to tempt us to sin. (James 1: 13)
So, you mean that even if I believe and pray “in the name of Jesus” God won’t
give something that will lead me away from Him.
Let the church say,
“Amen.”
The promises of God
do not override the sovereignty of God.
If I promise my son
that I’ll get him whatever he wants for his birthday, I’m still not going to
get him a flamethrower or a box of rat poison no matter how fervently he
asks for it.
What man is there
among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks
for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Mathew 7: 9-11)
Daddy can say, “No,”
if He wants to.
And if we were
honest, we’d testify about all the times that God has told us, ”No.”
Because honestly, for each time you claimed it and received it there were a
dozen when you claimed it and got----- nothing.
You ask and
do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4: 3)
Daddy can say, “No,”
if He wants to.
Today, some
Christians talk about getting stuff out of God as though God has no choice in
the matter. As though, when one of us puny humans knows the right
scriptures, we take away God’s control over Himself.
They’ve forgotten
that God has free will, too.
They’ve forgotten
that though Christians have authority in/ under Jesus name; Jesus has ALL
authority and power in Himself.
We’ve accepted the
popular dysfunctionality of families in the larger culture and transferred that
dysfunction onto our relationship with God. The church thinks it
can use the same disrespectful tone with God that church members allow their
children to use with them.
Ya’ll forgot Whose
house this is.
The Lord says:
I have
made the earth,
And created man
on it.
I—My
hands—stretched out the heavens,
And all their
host I have commanded.
I have
raised him up in righteousness,
And I
will direct all his ways;
He shall build My
city … (Isaiah
45: 12, 13)
He is the
Dadddy. We are the children.
Doubtless You are
our Father, Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge
us. You, O Lord, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. (Isaiah 63: 16)
When you speak to
that demon, remember your authority and COMMAND IT to come out. (Mark 3:
14, 15)
When you speak to
that mountain, remember who you are and TELL IT to be uprooted and cast into
the sea. (Mark 11: 23)
But when you speak
to your Father in Heaven, also remember who you are----Ask Him. Don’t
tell.
For thus says the
Lord,
Who created the
heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the
earth and made it,
Who has
established it,
Who did not
create it in vain,
Who formed it to
be inhabited:
“I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
(Isaiah 45: 18)
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community
organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership
development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of
Hall Memorial CME Church in
Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization
(SAYNO)
and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for
Human Development (
NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You can help support this ministry by clicking the
DONATE button
on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Hall Memorial CME
Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
