Psa. 78:29-31 π Psa. 106:15 π Eccl. 2:10-11 π Mk. 11:24; 2nd π Jas. 4:3 π Jas. 4:5
“...Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” ( Mk. 11:24; top )
This verse has been exploited, probably more than any other verse of Scripture, to fulfill the fleshly, lustful desires of the divided hearts of born-again Christian people.
We very often use this verse to fortify the flesh-life that was meant to die.
Mk. 11:24 (top) will be fulfilled regularly when we surrender to our Heavenly Father’s desire in every instance; then God’s desire is our desire, and He then fulfills His desire of blessings for us daily.
Jas. 4:3 further confirms this: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (top)
Verse 5 in this same chapter questions us by saying, “Do you think the Spirit of God in us via the new birth wants us to follow the desires of our own hearts to the point of lusting after things?” (top)
Most of contemporary Christianity is bulging with lustful desires for personal pleasures by receiving encouragement from assemblies of men to ask and get what they want and desire. Our whole aim is wrong. It is not what we can get for ourselves, but what we can share with others, by sharing ourselves totally with the Lord and then sharing His desires for others.
In prayer, do we ask for more for ourselves than others? If we pray fore for others than ourselves, how much more?
Praying to fulfill our own desires can have devastating results.
The children of Israel asked for meat and received fowl in abundance. “So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire. They were not deprived of their craving; but while their food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came against them, and slew the stoutest of them, and struck down the choice men of Israel.” ( Psa. 78:29-31; top )
In Psalms 106 it describes what transpired when the Israelites failed to wait for God’s will, but lusted for their own desires to be fulfilled; so God gave them their desires and requests, but sent leanness into their souls. ( Psa. 106:15; top ) Who wants it?
King Solomon’s life, with its great gift of wisdom from God and then the subsequent undesirable lifestyle, reveals a great truth ( Eccl. 2:10-11 ): “Whatever he desired in his life he pursued and claimed it and withheld nothing from himself, yet the end result was all vanity and vexation of spirit and nothing was worthwhile.” (top)
We often are prompted to believe because we are a child of God, born of the Spirit and identified with Jesus, we can ask for whatever we wish; however, being joined into the Christian family of God through Jesus doesn’t mean that at all. We have to be as concerned about doing God’s will as Jesus was (and not our own).
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