“This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1Jn 5:14-15
GOD’s sole interest and goal is that His will may be done; and this passage rightly means that EVERYTHING that we ask or declare according to His will will come to pass. In order to see 100% of our prayers fulfilled, we need to pray according to GOD’s will → we need to know it → we need to study the Scriptures → we need confess the Word. It’s quite simple, but many Christians would rather live and manage with just 5-10% of their prayers granted than pay the price necessary to ensure 100% of fulfilment. Why?
2. The fear of death. This was the dilemma of the Israelites. “Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die… 27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.” (Deut 5:24-25, 27)
They had just discovered that GOD could speak with man and man could still live; and yet, they still feared to die if they kept on hearing His voice! It's therefore clear that this wasn’t really about physical death. They were afraid that His voice –what He says, i.e. the Word of GOD– would kill their desires, plans, dreams, projects and ambitions.
My daughter once said to me that she’d rather not ask GOD what His will was in certain areas, because whenever she did so in the past, He went against her desires. So, she had concluded that GOD didn’t really want her happiness. Let’s brush aside the fact that this implied that she thought she knew, better than GOD, what was good for her. The point is: to believe that GOD doesn’t want your happiness is to believe that GOD doesn’t want you to fully enjoy life. It is to think that "If I go near Him, He will forbid me this or that." This is why many people do not want to go to church or read the Bible: “If I do that, the person that I’ve been up until now will die.” They’d rather outsource it. The children of Israel told Moses to go to GOD, hear what He had to say and report it back to them. They even promised to listen. But, every time Moses came to inform them of what GOD had said, he was met with murmurs and rebellion!
What is your problem? You say you want to succeed; you say you want GOD to give you the desires of your heart and not withhold the request of his lips (Ps 21:2); but you don’t pray according to His will. You want to succeed, but you hardly open the book of the Law, which you ought to meditate day and night for this to happen (Jos 1.8). You want to succeed, but you don’t want to seek GOD for yourself; and yet, when those who seek find Him and tell you what He desires, you argue and get angry! Tell me: what do you really want? Do you really want to succeed? If yes, then why are you afraid to die?
Let the Word of GOD –the perfect Law of liberty, the truth that sets free, the mirror of heaven and the soul into which we gaze– kill everything that is not of GOD in us and around us. If the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth and die, it cannot bear much fruits. Jesus received the Name above all names after agreeing to die on the Cross.
Paul said: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [knowing His will]. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own… but that which comes through faith in Christ…— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” (Phil 3:7-10)
Listen, He must increase, but you must decrease (i.e. die to the god self; Jn 3:30). Think about it and have a great week.
GOD bless you.
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