Everyone who asks receives… —Luke 11:10

Ask if you have not received. There is nothing more difficult than asking. We will have yearnings and desires for certain things, and even suffer as a result of their going unfulfilled, but not until we are at the limit of desperation will we ask. It is the sense of not being spiritually real that causes us to ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of your total insufficiency and poverty? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…” (James 1:5), but be sure that you do lack wisdom before you ask. You cannot bring yourself to the point of spiritual reality anytime you choose. The best thing to do, once you realize you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit, basing your request on the promise of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes everything that Jesus did for you real in your life.

“Everyone who asks receives….” This does not mean that you will not get if you do not ask, but it means that until you come to the point of asking, you will not receive from God (seeMatthew 5:45). To be able to receive means that you have to come into the relationship of a child of God, and then you comprehend and appreciate mentally, morally, and with spiritual understanding, that these things come from God.

“If any of you lacks wisdom….” If you realize that you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality— do not put the blinders of reason on again. The word ask actually means “beg.” Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are poor enough spiritually to show our interest. Yet we will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because we are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty. A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty. He is not ashamed to beg— blessed are the paupers in spirit (see Matthew 5:3).

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
We could really use some clarification about asking. How to, when to, how specific, etc. Because we have plenty of experience with asking somehow incorrectly. Perhaps the request came from our own lusts or as Chambers says, “the blinders of reason.” It “seemed logically” like the right thing to ask for… Perhaps by getting too specific, we stop holding the issue in the “open palm” and remove ourselves from letting you be God and surprise us with your perfect answer? But, here, in Luke 11 the man asks specifically and with audacity and gets what he came for.

5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

We are then admonished to ask, seek, & knock, and encouraged that our Heavenly Father will answer our requests better than we do as earthly parents …but at this point specific answers to specific requests, like bread, is replaced with “the Holy Spirit.”

13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Are you saying, just ask for the Holy Spirit and He will take care of our specific requests? Or should we make the specific requests and let you sort them out? Like when you added, “Nevertheless, your will be done?” Maybe if we, “Seek ye first…” it will all work out? As you can see, we need your help here.

Dont feel bad, it’s normal for humans to not get it. You are using worldly thinking while I am offering heavenly answers (which are bigger than the world and include the world and all that is in it, including the physical answers.) Notice what I said to the woman at the well?

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

So take the same advice that I gave her. Ask for the Living Water. It will contain the H2O that you need.

Come to me, and keep on coming and you will be satisfied. Do you seek the answer first and then me? Or me first and then the answer. If you truly seek me first, the answer will be clear. So seek me first. Ask, Seek, Knock, and know that the answer is in me.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. —John 13:17

He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” —Hebrews 13:5

What line of thinking do my thoughts take? Do I turn to what God says or to my own fears? Am I simply repeating what God says, or am I learning to truly hear Him and then to respond after I have heard what He says? “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ ” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

“I will never leave you…”— not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.

“I will never…forsake you.” Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful— just the everyday activities of life— do I hear God’s assurance even in these?

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing— that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment. If we have God’s assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him… —Psalm 25:14

Who is the man that fears the Lord? —Psalm 25:12

Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,” but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God. A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother. In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.

If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.

“He himself shall dwell in prosperity…” (Psalm 25:13). God will cause us to “dwell in prosperity,” keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. “God is our refuge…” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.

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Journal DJR
Good morning Lord.
Thank you that you can cause us to live in prosperity (Psalm 25:13) … in all circumstances. Seemingly good ones or bad ones. Like those in the war zones of Syria and Iraq, being martyred and persecuted. Staying in a prosperity mindset in the face of those circumstances is certainly different than most of our “challenges” that we face in our everyday lives. But the source of the power to live in victory and prosperity is the same…. connection with you and living “Hidden with Christ in God” How to do that more consistently is our question today. We’ve learned that starting the day with connection is part of the answer. And reserving some time for what we’re calling a visit to the “holy of holies” is another part. But there must be more…

It is good that you are seeking more. It is a lifetime quest and you will never be totally satisfied. You will be satisfied as a young child rests with his mother after eating. But he is soon hungry again. That is how you are to live, hungering for more of me and what I have for you. And you will never exhaust my storehouse.

How do I keep from stumbling back into self will, self promotion and self preservation … those all come so naturally?

I have provided the answer and demonstrated how to use it. It’s called the Cross. It’s an instrument of death. I used it myself. Remember I said, “nevertheless, your will, not mine, be done.” You can live that way too. Connect with me and discern my heart … and then bring to the cross everything that would hinder you walking in what I am showing you. This might be even harder for you super blessed Americans than for your brothers and sisters in difficult places, because you have so many options. You are overwhelmed with blessings to the extent that you forget to count them.

When you walk with me in the secret place there is peace and no stress and you don’t have to push. The only pushing you have to do is pushing back all the things that distract you away from me and hearing my voice.

He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” —Ezekiel 37:3

In that day you will ask Me nothing. —John 16:23

When is “that day”? It is when the ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. “In that day” you will be one with the Father just as Jesus is, and He said, “In that day you will ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is fully exhibited in you, you have questions about many things. Then after a while you find that all your questions are gone— you don’t seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the point of total reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus, which brings you into complete oneness with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why aren’t you?

“In that day” there may be any number of things still hidden to your understanding, but they will not come between your heart and God. “In that day you will ask Me nothing”— you will not need to ask, because you will be certain that God will reveal things in accordance with His will. The faith and peace of John 14:1 has become the real attitude of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your mind, but look for it in your spirit, your true inner nature— that is where the problem is. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. “In that day you will ask Me nothing.”

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…tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:49

Pray without ceasing… —1 Thessalonians 5:17

Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.

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Journal, DJR
Good morning Lord,
This sounds so right … to pray without ceasing, to breath in and breath out prayer all the time. But my rambling mind just seems to run off on it’s own and soon I am far away from what I think would be called praying without ceasing. What’s the best way to proceed? I know I’ll never perfect this on this side of heaven and I’m so glad that you understand that and still accept me. But I do want to get better at it.

You are right. I accept you and I’m glad you want to get better at it. Because when you are breathing prayer in and out is when we are most connected. There are several things to do. Start your days with commitment to live this way. Then arrange some reminders to pull you back from the chaos of the thoughts of the world. Regularly spend some time in the “holy of holies” with me. You will develop a taste for it and it will no longer be work. Trust me on this. Discussion is almost useless. The Holy of Holies and prayer without ceasing must be experienced. So come on in. I’m waiting for you.

If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9