Are You Asking or Telling?

“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

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116