"It will not suffice to quote the text, 'If ye shall ask anything in my Name, I will do it' (John 14:14). If an attempt is made to give an absolutely literal interpretation to that verse apart from its spiritual intent, it will be found to be meaningless.
There are certain things that God will never do, no matter how earnestly one prays.
For example, if a young couple, zealous and devoted, were about to go as missionaries into the jungles of South America, they conceivably might ask a group of friends to join them in prayer that their coming baby should be born without original sin so that they would have an easier time rearing the child and might have more time to devote to their spiritual work. They all could pray until they were dead but the prayer would never be answered.
When the Lord Jesus Christ said that if we would ask anything in His Name He would do it, He expected us to have spiritual discernment enough to understand that this meant, beyond question, if we would ask anything, that it was consistent with the holiness of His being and the divinity of His purposes."
Bingo. "If we ask anything according to his will he hears us." And that probably doesn't include a new bass boat.
ReplyDeleteMany do not understand the way that Jesus often uses hyperbole in verses like this.
ReplyDeleteI love Donald Grey Barnhouse. I think you can still hear some of his recorded radio broadcasts on the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals web site.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was a Barnhouse broadcast that D. James Kennedy heard that led him to faith in Christ. Barnhouse asked the question that Dr. Kennedy was to later adopt and use in his own ministry: "If you were to die tonight and God asked you, 'Why should I let you into My heaven?' what would you say?"
Woah! I just noticed the little Corky icon on the tab for the CC home page. How long has that been there?
ReplyDeleteHe's been there for a few months.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that too!
ReplyDeleteJust consider the fact that it took me about half an hour to find Corky in the December calendar post : )
ReplyDeleteHey wait a minute, I though if I sent seed money to that TV evangelist I would get anything I asked fer in the name of GEE-zuss... Was I mistaken...?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite definition of prayer is from the children's catechism: What is prayer? Prayer is asking God for things which he has promised to give
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