3) Bear
fruit (particularly in loving each other)
"You did
not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit
- fruit that will last. THEN the Father will give you WHATEVER you ask
in my name. This is my command: Love each other." John 15:16
This is talking about
serving others and being in ministry. Reaching out to others, and
loving them like Christ loves them. Meeting them where they are and
ministering to their needs. This starts in our families, those we are
closest to, and goes out from there.
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"Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with
your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as
heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will
hinder your prayers."
(1 Peter 3:9) |
Not loving others, not
ministering to them, NOT bearing fruit . . . will hinder our prayers.
In points 1 - 3, we could
find ourselves in a situation where God just says, "no."
These three are no
different than a parent telling a daughter, "IF you clean your
room, you can watch TV tonight." The room doesn't get cleaned,
so the parent says, "Sorry, no TV."
How does the child
usually respond? "But you SAID I could watch TV tonight!"
They completely ignore
the fact that it was CONDITIONAL, that there was a criterion, and
they did not meet it.
4)
Persevere (we are in a war)
"I tell you the
truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will
grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a
child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born
she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into
the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you
again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
In that day you will
no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give
you WHATEVER you ask in my name. Ask and you will receive and your
joy will be complete. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a
time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but
will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my
name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf."
John 16:23-26
Trials and tribulations
will come, but we have to persist. Satan is constantly fighting to
keep us from getting our answer from God. Sometimes, that means we
have to persist in order to receive.
"At that time I,
Daniel, cried out to God in mourning for three weeks. I ate no choice
food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all
until the three weeks were over . . . Then he said, 'Do not be
afraid, Daniel. Since the first
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day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble
yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I
have come in response to them. But the prince of the
Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained
there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you . .
. " Daniel 10:2, 12-14a |
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Note that a powerful
Satanic spirit resisted Gabriel, who was charged with delivering the
answer to Daniel's prayer. But because Daniel persisted, Michael was
dispatched to assist Gabriel in delivering the answer, and so, Daniel
got his answer.
What would have happened
if Daniel had not persisted?
Satan wants to prevent us
from getting answers to our prayers, and he will actively resist the
angels who are sent to deliver those answers. When we persist, we
gain the victory, and receive our answers. This is one of the chief
reasons that we may occasionally need to fast and pray: Satan is
fighting us and trying to prevent our answer from arriving.
5) God's
Timing is not OUR Timing
This is often the
toughest test we have to face: the answer doesn't come according to
OUR schedule or timetable. In fact, God's perspective is HUGE,
spanning generations (Israel was in slavery for 400 years before
Moses showed up). In our perspective, two weeks is a REALLY LONG TIME!
In the OT, Abraham was
promised that he would have a child, and that child would become a
great nation. Yet he found himself at almost 100 years old with no
child. From our perspective, standing there at that moment, we would
say, "God did not come through." The fact is that God had a
different timing than we do.
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Joseph got a dream from God in which he was lifted up, and his
brothers were bowing to him. Then he was sold into slavery and spent
12 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. God did not come
through on His promise.
But God has different timing than we do. His answers come when HE
determines it is the best time. We are NEVER promised that God will
answer WHEN we want Him to answer, only that, given that we have
fulfilled our side, He WILL answer. |
What all of this means is
that measuring God's dependability based on whether or not our
prayers are answered is an only marginally reliable method, as there
are so many variables, and so many reasons that have nothing to do
with God for why our prayers might not be answered, might be
answered in a way that is different than we expected, or are
not answered when we think they should be answered.
One way to really build
your faith in this area is to keep a prayer log. Write down what the
need is and who it relates to, what you prayed, the date, and then
fill in the result when an answer arrives. For most of us, it is not
an issue of having our prayers answered; it is about REMEMBERING that
we prayed for an answer after the fact because the answers usually
come by such "ordinary" means, that it doesn't dawn on us
at the time that this is an answer to prayer. Keeping a prayer log
will help remind us of what we were asking about.
If you are going to use a
prayer log, you need to be consistent with it for at least a year or more.
Is there a method
described in the Bible to check God's faithfulness?
First, we
can read the Bible, and find out that His track record is completely reliable.
Both the Old and New
Testaments are a record of God's reliability. From the deliverance of
Israel out of slavery by Moses (an answer to the prayers of the
Israelites suffering in slavery), to the many military deliverances
in Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, to the three men thrown in a fiery
furnace, to the ultimate deliverer, first promised to Eve (Genesis
3:15), and arriving in the NT: Jesus.
Second, He
has given us an area in which we have His permission to check His
reliability: tithing.
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"'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there might
be food in my house. Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and
see if I will not throw open the floodgates of |
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heaven and pour out so
much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will
prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields
will not cast their fruit .'" (Malachi 3:10-12)
The word translated
"test" is bachan, which means "to carefully
investigate, to examine closely, to make a careful inspection, to
watch intently." It primarily indicates an investigation into
something to determine what it is made of, or if it actually MEETS
the claims or qualities it SAYS it has.
In the context of
Malachi, it means to closely observe what happens when you give your
tithes. God is saying, "Pay close attention here, because this
is an easy way to PROVE TO YOURSELF that I can be trusted,
that I do what I claim I do, and I don't want you to miss it."
Faith is about learning
to trust God, and trust is earned. So God is saying: this is a really
good way to investigate whether or not I can be trusted, because
there are no special circumstances or situations to consider, no
special considerations, no related issues: It is just you give
tithes to Me, I give blessings to you.
The reason you must PAY
CLOSE ATTENTION is that the blessings may or may not be obvious to
the casual observer. The examples He gives (no pests, fruit not lost)
indicate that he will BLESS your plans and efforts. The blessings may
or may not be monetary, which is why you need to pay CLOSE ATTENTION,
so that you will not miss it.
Many people are certain
this passage is talking about "money," but the question
then becomes, if God "meant" money, why didn't he
"say," money. At the time of this prophecy, money had
existed for several thousand years.
Another translation says
here that he will bless you "until you have no more needs."
It is worth noting that
this is not ALL the Bible has to say on tithing, but that will be
covered at a later time.
Summary
God's faithfulness can be
seen throughout the Bible. It can also be proven by keeping careful
track of our prayers (keeping the five criteria listed above in mind)
and the answers. The easiest method of testing whether or not we can
trust God is through the tithe.
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