“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7.
“Do not fear, only keep on believing.” Mark 5:36.
“Do not live in fear, little flock, it has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:32.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Today I am continuing a series of life lessons so that you may live the abiding life. And why am I giving you lessons on this? Because I desire above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. It is My desire that all people be saved and come to know the truth. It is My desire to have such a close union with each one of you so that we have the same focus, the same purpose, and the same desires for good, peace, prosperity, joy, righteousness, justice, abundant life, healing, and walking in divine health, as we partner and walk through this world to the next in complete agreement so that I can perform all My promises in your life and so that you will be fruitful in good works as the branch on a vine. A life where no weapon formed against you prospers and every tongue raised against you, you prove false. A life in My rest, days of Heaven on earth even now.
We are considering a promise Jesus made to every believer, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7. I would like every believer to live this kind of life with Me. But this promise has a condition, you must be abiding in Me and My Words abiding in you for your every wish to be granted. And this means you have taken to heart the “zero tolerance” rule whereby you refuse to dwell upon any thought or say any word that is contrary to My Words. This means bitter, envious, jealous, mean, offensive, vindicative, angry, unforgiving thoughts must not be tolerated by you and that fear, discouragement, depression, anxiety, worry, and stress cannot be tolerated by you. Instead you must replace those with My thoughts towards you and others, which are for your shalom and not evil, to give you a future and a hope—thoughts and words which edify and give life, even when spoken in correction and direction.
Yesterday we started the journey of what it means to abide in Me and for My Words to abide in you with Life Lesson No. 1: “Forgive, forget, and proceed,” and if you have not read that, go back and do, for that is where answered prayer starts. Today we will continue on our journey with Life Lesson No. 2: “Do not fear, only keep believing.”
I AM the LORD your healer. I AM the LORD your righteousness. I AM the LORD who sees ahead and provides for you. I AM the LORD of hosts. And I am the MOST HIGH, the ALMIGHTY, and there is nothing and no one higher, for it is I who created all and sustain all. And the good news is that I am with you. I am on your side.
So what should your response be if you believe My Word? The same as David, even in the midst of tribulation on every side, “I fear no evil, for You are with me.” Psalm 23:4. And again, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the refuge of my life; whom shall I dread?” Psalm 27:1. “Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident.” Psalm 27:3. And he kept this confidence up for thirteen years of persecution and danger until he saw what he was believing for and more come to pass just as I had promised.
Do not fear, ONLY keep on believing. You will have tribulation in this world, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world for you in Jesus. And in Him, you are more than conquerors of every evil thing that comes against you. In Him, you become a conqueror of conquerors.ving. You will have tribulation in this world, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world for you in Jesus. And in Him, you are more than conquerors of every evil thing that comes against you. In Him, you become a conqueror of conquerors.
When the brother of Martha and Mary became very ill, Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus to come. Jesus told the disciples that the sickness would not end in death and continued on with the work He was doing where I had sent Him until that was done and then went to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. But in the meantime, Lazarus died and was buried. When Jesus arrived, Martha ran to meet Him and said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” John 11:21-22. So she was believing that Jesus could still bring Lazarus back from the dead. And Jesus assured the lamenting Martha, that her brother would rise again. And He told her why, “I AM the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25. And then He asked her if she believed that. She said she did. But then when Jesus commanded the stone to be rolled away from her brother’s tomb, she objected, saying there would be a stench since he had been buried for four days. John 11:39. Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” John 11:40. Believe what? Look back. She had already agreed that she believed He is the resurrection and the life, and she had professed that she knew whatever Jesus asked of Me I would give Him. But in the face of a corpse that had been buried for four days, she had stopped believing. But Jesus kindled her faith and the stone was removed. And Jesus called Lazarus back to life in this world and Martha saw the glory of God displayed before her eyes. By faith. Hers and the faith of Jesus. He is the author and finisher of your faith.
Why do people give up and stop believing when they start out in faith? There are a number of reasons but most often it is when they do not see the result immediately. Abraham waited twenty five years after I first told him he and Sarah would have a son until the son came. In between Sarah and he tried another way to arrive at the result but it was not what I had promised. After that Abraham did not talk with Me for awhile thinking he had solved the problem with Hagar but that was not the perfect plan. Once I visited him again and we made covenant, he became fully persuaded and no longer cared how old he and Sarah were or how impossible it seemed in the natural, and it was then, when he believed it had happened before he saw it, and Sarah also, that they made the connection with My power by their fully persuaded faith that brought the promise to fruition in the flesh. Do not give up if you do not see it, still continue believing if you have My Word on it. “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” Hebrews 10:35-39.
“And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. Hebrews 6:11-15.
And sometimes things get worse first as the devil tries one last effort to stop your miracle from manifesting. You see this in the healing of the daughter of Jairus. He came to Jesus and he made a total faith declaration, “My little daughter is at the point of death; come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will be saved and live.” Mark 5:23. Jesus went with Jairus as he directed. On the way there, the report came that she had died and that it was no use to bother Jesus further. Jairus had a choice to give up and give in to the report or to keep believing for the result he had spoken. Jesus merely told him, “Do not fear, just keep believing.” And Jairus did that. And he got the result he believed would happen. He knew My Words well. He knew I AM the LORD your healer. And that was all he needed to focus on. And Jairus had faith in Jesus. Jesus taught and healed people in the synagogue at Capernaum, and Jairus was the leader in that synagogue.
Just because the storm gets worse, don’t give up. Paul knew he would preach in Rome and My messenger appeared to him in the storm on the sea and told him that he and all on board would be saved, but the storm got worse and lasted another 14 days before what I told them came to pass. But once Paul had the word he refused to fear or give up. And when he survived the storm, he then got bitten by a poisonous snake on the island where they found refuge after the storm and shipwreck. But he shook that off in faith too. He explained that the spirit of faith is to believe in your heart and speak the result with your mouth. And he, like Abraham, was fully persuaded that My Word would always prevail. He told you to fight the good fight of faith. He told you to stand your ground and never give in to the tactics and schemes of the devil. He told you to have no anxiety about anything but in everything to make your requests known to Me in prayer and petition with thanksgiving and you would have perfect peace if you did so in faith.
And don’t be like the Israelites in the desert on their way to the land I had promised them since I made covenant with Abraham. I had worked great miracles of deliverance to redeem them from the slavery of the Egyptians—ten plagues that did not touch them, parted the Red Sea, fought Pharaoh’s army for them, and made them wealthy and healed as they left Egypt, and yet EVERY time they faced another challenge that appeared impossible to solve in the flesh, they went into panic, grumbling, complaining, bitterness, blame, and hopeless fear. Every time they ran out of water, even after I had already miraculously given it to them out of a rock, they screamed and cried in fear and questioned My care and My ability to provide for them. And yet, they never were without anything they needed during the forty years they stayed in the desert due to the fact that they refused out of fear to enter the Promised Land. If you look at their behavior right after I parted the Red Sea for them and drowned the pursuing Egyptians they danced, sang praise to Me, and celebrated My care and their victory. But in just a few days they are in a panic over the fact that the place they arrived at, where they hoped to get water, had bitter (poisonous) water and they could not drink it. They went into the fear of death and blaming Moses and Me for bringing them out there to die mode. But I told Moses to cut a tree and throw it into the water and the bitter water became sweet. I was showing you the Cross ahead of time, the Cross whereby Jesus took the punishment for all your sins and made your bitter lives sweet. The bitter water became living water gushing from His wounded side. And I tell you in a later episode when I bring water for them out of a rock, that the rock they struck was Christ.
So what is your answer here? When things do not seem to be manifesting immediately, refuse to doubt and fear, if you want to continue abiding in Me and My Word abiding in you, but set your mind on Christ and all the promises that are “yes” to you in Him and claim them, take them, and thank Me for them. Remember, ask and you shall receive. Believe that and rejoice. Jesus told you that whatever you ask in His Name, He will do it. And He will, if you are abiding in Him and His Word is abiding in you.
“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 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.” John 14:13-17.
It all comes down to that the abiding life is a life lived in My love. It is knowing and believing in the love I have for you. And if you do rest in that relationship of mutual love, you will have no fear and you will believe and receive. Why? Perfect love casts out all fear. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:15-19.
I love you. And that is why you do not fear but only believe. There is no room for fear, it is not even an issue, when you understand the love I have for you as manifested in what I have done for you in Christ Jesus. Believe in My love for you and the rest will be there for you.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21.