John 16:26-27
26 In that day
you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on
your behalf. 27 No,
the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me and have
believed that I came from God.
After thousands of years of the Levitical Priesthood being slowly warped into a teaching of privileged access to God, Jesus takes Torah back to it’s origins by telling the disciples they can talk to God directly.
Last night I remembered this as I lay in my bed. It was 89 degrees in our bedroom and the only breeze was from a fan. Our heat pump has shut down on the Friday evening before the 3 day Memorial Day weekend.
I was a little ticked at God about it breaking. “If the Hebrews could walk in the desert for 40 years without their shoes wearing out, can’t our brand-new heat pump work for more than 2 years?!â€
I started to think about this section of John 16 and how I could go directly to God and ask Him to fix the heat pump. Then came a really good question.
You can go to God, face to face, and you’re going to ask Him to make you cooled off and cozy?
SERIOUSLY?!
When Jesus says we will ask for things in His name, it’s in His style, in His manner, in His way.
My wife has cute feet. If I were to explain their proportions, I’d say they were about like three squares put next to each other. Most people would consider them normal, but they are not what I grew up with.
I come from a long line of German and Irish feet that are more like a swimming flipper than a foundation for walking or running.
[you just went from Jesus’ name to your feet. What’s up?]
My son was lamenting that as he is about to begin swimming lessons, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to swim very fast. What?! I said. You are going to swim great! Take off your socks. Look at your feet. You don’t have sweet little feet like mommy. You’ve got tremendous Sullivan feet! Look at those things! Those long webbed toes, those skinny heals. You’re gonna swim like a Sullivan, boy! You’ll do great!
When he jumps in the pool, he’s going to swim like a Sullivan because he’s got Sullivan feet. When we pray like a Christian, we pray in Jesus’ name because we’ve got a Spirit like His. When we are praying for comfort and coziness, we aren’t.
I don’t want to unnecessarily soften this. Jesus only prayed for comfort when He was about to be face to face with the Devil in death and abandoned by God the Father. And even then it wasn’t comfort as we talk about it, it was spiritual deliverance.
When we go to God for more than just satisfaction in our 20 minute instant, when we ask Him to mold us into a form and then show us what to request, when we completely yield ourselves to Him, we find that the things we start to ask Him for are FAR more satisfying than a repaired Heat Pump or a winning lottery ticket.
Some of you know the secret to this, because you’ve been there. When you get to that point, there is only one thing you ask for, and He gives it, just like He said He would.