“You will receive”

 

“Ask and you will receive” (John 16:24).

 

In our previous reflection we considered that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke to us of our Father in heaven, a concept alien to most folks in His time, and I think functionally alien in our time. What I mean by “functionally alien” is that while we may know the words to the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who is in heaven,” few of us think of God as our Father and fewer still have intimate relationships with Him, relationships which are the essence of our lives.

 

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks to us of asking of our Father and our Father giving to us. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you…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 what is good to those who ask Him” (see Matthew 7:7 – 11).

 

Later in His ministry, Jesus reiterates this in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 11:1 – 13). Note the proximity of “how much more will your heavenly Father” to the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11. Also note that in Luke 11:13 Jesus introduces another element, “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” We are to be asking for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18 – 21).

 

As we see in the Upper Room, the themes of asking, receiving, the Holy Spirit, and joy are all woven together. They are woven together because this is what we experience in the Trinity, in intimacy with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We see this fabric throughout Jesus’ life and teaching, from the beginning to the earthly conclusion…and beyond. Asking and receiving is inextricably woven with abiding in the Vine, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:5).

 

While we have the privilege of asking for specific things, for the glory of our Father and Lord Jesus, and while we should glory in the answers to specific prayers, so that our “joy may be made full” (16:24), an even greater glory and joy is the deep relationship with God that we are called into. In one sense these are one and the same, in another (experiential) sense they are not; they are not in the sense that many of us cannot conceive of the deep love our Father has for us and of the deep communion to which He calls us. The greatest thing that we can receive in prayer is more of God, more of the Trinity.

 

Receiving more of God in prayer leads us to greater wisdom and confidence and trust in continual prayer, and we transition from having prayer lives to having lives of prayer. We transition from engaging in intercessory prayer to living intercessory lives (which encompasses intercessory prayer).

 

In 16:23 Jesus says, “If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” Then 16:26 – 27 He says, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”

 

If we cannot bear fruit without abiding in Jesus, if we can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:4 – 5), then we must live lives of asking (John 15:5). Don’t you think so? However, our asking goes far beyond this, for in asking for fruit to bear (John 15:8) we are also asking for fruit to give to others. That is, we are asking to receive in order that we may give, not that the fruit may rot on the vine.

 

However, this goes even beyond this, for we are asking that we might live lives of loving others as Jesus loves us, and this means laying down our lives for our friends and brothers and sisters and the world (John 15:12 – 13; 1 John 3:16; John 3:16). Prayer becomes as breathing, asking in prayer becomes both conversational and deliberate and at times persistent and imploring (Luke 11:5 – 8), and at other times deeply intercessory. Prayer also includes the joy of praise, singing, thanksgiving (often sacrificial in nature) and confession and repentance. Prayer encompasses our koinonia with God and others. We grow out of prayer lives into living lives of prayer. (Of course, we still have focused times of prayer, often (I trust) intense.)

 

Perhaps when we place Jesus’ emphasis in the Upper Room on asking, asking, asking in the context of His portrayal of our life in the Trinity and with one another, we can better see the necessity for asking, asking, asking – for our lives are dependent on receiving, receiving, receiving…always receiving from the Father, the Son, the Spirit…so that we may give to others, thereby sharing God’s love and mercy with the Church and the world.  

 

Now I’d like to make an observation and then share just a bit about my own life. We are all different and in Jesus Christ we must find our own voice with the Father in prayer. Yes, we ought to learn from one another and be encouraged by one another, but your voice cannot be my voice, nor can my voice be your voice.

 

However, there are times that we can indeed use another’s voice to find our own voice, perhaps as a manned space rocket needs a booster to escape earth’s gravity. Our voices can blend with other voices. After all, the Psalms give us 150 voices (and more!) to join our voices to. I write “and more!” because we not only have the voice of the earthly authors, but also the voice of the Church and also the Voice of Christ. The Psalms have been the Voice of the Church since our birth at Pentecost and it is a tragedy that many of us and our movements are ignoring our membership in this heavenly choir and ongoing prayer meeting. 

This is one reason why I am insistent that we read and meditate on the Psalms every day, every single day. If we do this in Christ, the Psalms will become our own voice – your voice, my voice, the voice of the congregation, the voice of the church in our region and in our world, and of course this means that we have become the Voice of Christ.

 

Other written prayers can be quite helpful and draw us into the koinonia of the saints and into intimacy with God. I have found The Valley of Vision, published by the Banner of Truth Trust and edited by Arthur Bennett, to be a source of joy and comfort and challenge. Prayers by writers such as Francis de Sales, Francis of Assisi, Francis Fenelon, Andrew Murray, and the Church Fathers (and others) have meant much to me over the years.

 

Naturally I do not relate to every prayer in every prayer book, but even the ones that I do not relate to can cause me to ponder why I don’t – and I must remember that every prayer is an expression of a man or woman’s heartfelt relationship with our Father and Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Also, I never know when I might return to a prayer in the future that I could not relate to in the past and very much need that prayer in my own life!

 

I think we must give one another room to develop our voices in prayer, and our insistence on conformity is really pretty stupid and limiting and controlling. What would we think if we had a church dinner and everyone brought the same dish? Why do we give each other more room for expression in earthly food than we do in heavenly food?

 

Let me be clear, this problem exists in highly demonstrative environments just as in highly liturgical and structured environments, we all have this challenge as far as I know – so let us not think that the problem belongs to others and not to us. This problem exists in small groups just as in congregations and denominations and movements.

 

A few years ago, an acquaintance invited me to an annual meeting of a region of his denomination in Virginia Beach. My acquaintance was the bishop of the region. I enjoyed the breakout sessions and I found the plenary speaker interesting. The plenary worship times were also interesting in that just about everyone was expressing themselves in the same highly demonstrative fashion…except me (Ha! What did you expect?).

 

During one worship time a man came over to me and asked me if I was okay. He was concerned that I wasn’t expressing myself like everyone else. Now while I appreciated the concern, and while I assured him that I was fine, in looking back perhaps he should not have been concerned that I was different, but rather that everyone else was the same.

 

Please understand, as far as I know we are all faced with this challenge of allowing one another to find our voice in prayer and worship and communion with the Trinity. For sure when we gather in large groups we want to find one voice, or various expressions of our collective voice, in which to worship and serve and edify. God is not a God of confusion, and reasonable order is important I think for edification (1 Cor. 14:31 – 33). Yet, often our Sunday school groups and small groups and other gatherings are like church suppers in which everyone has brought the exact same dish. Something is amiss with this…don’t you think?

 

Well, this is long enough, the Lord willing I will circle back in the next reflection and share a bit about my own life with respect to communion in prayer with the Trinity.

 

Are you finding your voice in prayer?

 

Has your voice changed over the years?

 

Are you discovering new vocal ranges in your voice with God?

 

Much love…Bob