Wednesday in the Word...John 14:12-17...We're back in Maine!!!

 

About 3,000 miles round trip, 16 states, and a lot of windshield time but well worth it.  Some fun photos of Grandma and the grands and the group shot of this part of the family.  Special, in the sense that resided together for about 2+ years so one son could be in the area of work and the other could be in the vicinity of school.  We will always cherish that time together.  

Today's Wednesday in the Word covers John chapter 14 and verses 12 through 17, which read,

v.12 - "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father."

Jesus has responded to Thomas with "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  Jesus has also responded to Philip with "The one who has seen Me has seen the Father."  Now Jesus gives full attention to all the disciples left (minus Judas Iscariot) and speaks to them about prayer and the Holy Spirit.  Both of these they will need in the coming hours and days as Jesus walks through the will of the Father via the cross.

The "truly, truly" signifies for us the weight of the next words.  This is a truth statement for all time from the lips of Jesus.  The person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God and God Himself, sent by God as God, to save sinners in which they are one of them, will be used of God for His glory.  The believing person(s) will take the message of the gospel to the world as Jesus has done and in greater measure, meaning distance.  It seems odd to say that we would do something greater than Jesus but in relationship to the whole world geographically and nationally, Jesus physically came to the region of Israel and basically to the people of that region, Jews and Gentiles.  Jesus' believers, us, would take His gospel to the whole world and to every tribe and every nation.  

This is necessary and part of the plan for the believers of Jesus to do this as it was necessary and part of the plan for Jesus to go to the cross.  We could easily jump to the Great Commission of Matthew chapter 28 and verse 18 through 20 and Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 to see this commanded action to Jesus' disciples and the church that would emerge from the Day of Pentecost.  One last thing to note here is that Jesus again tells His disciples where He is going.  He is going to leave them and go back to His Father.

v.13 - "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." 

The disciples will engage in prayer in the coming days.  They have been taught how to prayer by Jesus; they have heard Jesus pray; and they have observed Jesus rising early in the morning to pray or going to the mountain alone to pray.  It was going to be their turn to pray, to teach others to pray and to show by example the necessity to spend time alone with the Father.  Jesus continues to teach them how to pray in this section.

They are to pray and when it comes to asking, it is to be asked in Jesus' name.  The asking is with Jesus in view.  The asking is not thinking of yourself but actually what mattered to Jesus.  What mattered to Jesus?  Jesus wanted the people to know that He was God.  Jesus wanted the people to experience repentance of sin with the confession that He is Lord.  Jesus physically healed many but the spiritual healing produced eternal life and this sometimes came before the physical healing.  

Do we pray with Jesus in mind?  Do we ask for what mattered to Jesus?  The Father is glorified in the Son when His followers are doing and saying what Jesus had done while here on this earth.  When the church is busy with what mattered to Jesus and not about a cause usually attached for our comfort and when the church is asking, i.e., praying in the name of Jesus, Jesus will bring about results that glorify the Father.

v.14 - "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."

Notice that Jesus again stresses the connection of prayer to His name and He will do this a third time in the next verse.  This must be very important to the act of prayer.  Jesus is telling us to "pray big" but always with Him in view of what we are asking for.  Does what I am praying for have Jesus in the forefront and actually the only way it could ever be accomplished?  Does it line up with His will?  Does this also check us to pray about things that matter to Him?  

Does my "anything" request merit Jesus' name attached to it because it will glorify Him alone?  I believe many times our prayers are "too small."  We pray about essential things but they hover over the physical things of this life rather than the spiritual things that last forever.  Our prayer lists are long of physical ailments rather than long of spiritual aches for those who don't know Christ.  Can I attached this back to the Great Commission and the promise tagged to the end by Jesus.  After commissioning them to go into the world as His witnesses, He assures them that He will be with them while they are doing this.  In this passage, while Jesus believers are praying this way, in His name, about what matters to Him, He will attend to them.  It is like Jesus is saying, "While you are witnessing of Me to the world, I will be with you and while you are praying for the world, I will be working for you to see it happening."

v.15 - “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

What hinders our prayers?  The answer is disobedience.  Many times we come to prayer asking for the wrong things.  Many times we come with lingering sin and the first thing out of our mouths should be, "Father forgive me."  We should follow this up with confession to others, if needed, and a repentance of action in the form of obedience to His way of life.  We turn from following the god of this world and get back to following the God of our salvation.

We ask for the wrong things because we are not in obedience to what God has given us to do.  We have set His things aside to focus on our things and therefore our love for Him is lessened seen in this lack of obedience.  Think of the disciples and what is coming ahead of them.  They will be called upon to declare obedience to the world and deny Christ rose from the dead or against the authorities and proclaim to their physical deaths that Jesus did rise and is who He says He is.  They would not say "Caesar is Lord" but only "Jesus is Lord."  This would require obedience to God and therefore a showing of their love for Him and this would direct their prayers to ask in His name for what mattered to Him.

v.16,17 - "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."

Jesus not only gives them the avenue of prayer but also the Holy Spirit to walk with them through this life and into the next.  The Holy Spirit also comes from the Father to His believers.  He comes as a helper.  He comes forever.  He comes as truth.  He comes to the believer only.  He comes to reside with and within.  Each of these things about the Holy Spirit are huge.

It is great to have another set of hands when the task calls for it.  It is great for the assurance and security of not only salvation but the sign of that salvation via the Holy Spirit.  It is great that when we call upon the Holy Spirit, we are calling upon the truth to guide us as our desire.  It is great that this Holy Spirit is dedicated to the believers.  He is downloaded into our lives for instant access.  It is great that Who we have is now a part of us.  The Holy Spirit is incorporated into our DNA, per say, and the world cannot separate us from Him.  

The disciples have been told that Jesus is going away back to His Father but also told that Another would come from the Father to be in them.  While they pray in the name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit will help them, guide them and assure them to keep in obedience to God's words and ways.  They do not pray alone.  Do you know that you don't pray alone?  As you pray, the Holy Spirit helps you to pray for what matters to God.  You start praying the kind of prayers that God answers in His way and in His time because His glory is what matters to you more than anything else.

Are you challenged to look at how you have been praying lately?  Are you going to be aware of Who is praying along with you?  Do you think the Holy Spirit's help and truth are lining up with what you are asking for?  Do you think the Holy Spirit might be pushing you to obedience first rather than the request that we are presenting?  Could that action change your prayers?  A lot of questions to ponder this morning.

Adam