“In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” John 16:23.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
As we continue to consider the Words of Jesus at the Passover meal the night He was betrayed, we see a continuation from our preceding Life Lesson.
“In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” John 16:23-24.
He is speaking of the day they would see Him again after they had gone through the separation they experienced through His tremendous sufferings and death, but He is also going beyond that to the days that would follow until you reach the last day of time and then the endless day of the Kingdom dawns and never sets.
You have so much to look forward to, starting today.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare (shalom) and not for calamity (evil) to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD. Jeremiah 29:11-14.
David had prophesied that day when I would raise up Jesus as the stone rejected by the religious leaders of His day that is the cornerstone on which the Church, and, indeed, the very foundation of the world, is built.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:22-24.
Rejoice with a joy no one can take from you. You have been redeemed and are welcome at My throne, and seated there forever, because of the day that I made for you. It is your day of salvation.
The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. . . Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation. Psalm 118:14;19-21.
Jesus is the gate (door) that you enter through for salvation and to receive all My benefits, He is the open gate to the Kingdom for those who have been made righteous with My own righteousness by receiving Jesus and His finished work of grace, those who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. And that was the gift you all received the day I raised Jesus from the dead when He had paid your debt to Me in full by nailing it to the Cross.
The day they saw the resurrected Jesus you will notice no one had questions only glorious faith beyond all you can ask or imagine. His prophecies proved true. There was life after death. There was beauty for your ashes. He was so marred by the sins of all mankind that He bore for you that they did not know Him as He carried the Cross through the streets of Jerusalem and now He, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, stood before them shining with the light of Heaven in sinless perfection. For those who follow Him, the grave is not the end, it is only the beginning of the life you were born to live with Me forever.
And I raised Him by the blood of the eternal Covenant and the power of the Spirit as your great good Shepherd and your great High Priest. And you great High Priest made a new and living way for you into the very Holy of Holies where He ever intercedes for you before Me with His eternal blood on the Mercy Seat speaking on your behalf of an eternal redemption so that all you ask in His Name, I will give it to you. His Name is above every other name and when He is glorified then I who sent and gave Him to you am glorified in Him.
But I must clarify what it means to ask in His Name. It means you are asking as His body on earth doing the works He did and greater, doing the works that the Head of the body directs. Your body never does things in contradiction to your head. Your head, that is the thoughts and determinations of your mind, direct your body what to do at any given moment. Your head determines the desires and acts of your body.
If you are doing the works of the head, you are doing the works that I have planned for you as a new creation in Christ Jesus and they are Kingdom assignments as My ambassadors in the world. And all the expenses of an ambassador are paid for and taken care of by his home country at whose direction he is living in a foreign land. As I sent Jesus, so He sends you, and as I cared for everything in the life of Jesus, so He does as your good Shepherd and High Priest for you. So that anything you ask in His Name I will do for you in Him, and I will supply all your needs according to My riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. John 16:24.
Today many people just by rote finish off their prayer with “in the Name of Jesus, Amen.” Now this is good if you are doing it for a purpose with faith and in honor seeking to carry out your work for the Kingdom on earth, but if it is just a formula or a formality it has no power and no effect. The Name of Jesus, and faith in that Name and in the One who has been given that Name by Me as His inheritance, moves things in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth. It casts demons out and heals the sick. It stops storms and moves mountains. But like all prayers and all connection with My power it can only be accomplished by faith. Use it with honor and as a privilege you have been given to bring about Kingdom results—to accomplish the good deeds I prepared for you to walk in since the foundation of the world. Jesus told you that those who believe in His Name will cast out demons and lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. It is for those who believe and when you truly believe you obey My Word above all words. What use would believing in Me be if you then acted in contradiction of all that I am and stand for? That is not the kind of belief of which I am speaking. The devil definitely believes I am God and knows My power but he cannot access it for his believing brings no honor or obedience with it, only evil. He is not within My Will so he has no power to invoke the Name of My Son.
Peter and John understood how to ask in the Name of Jesus. Remember how they raised up the man crippled from birth that sat and begged at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple?
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. Acts 3:1-8.
The people were astonished and looked to Peter and John as having some kind of power within themselves, but Peter set them straight.
But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. Acts 3:12-16.
The faith in His Name, it is the Name of Jesus which strengthened the man and the faith which comes through Him that heals. Do not worry about not being adequate. You can do nothing without Me but you can do all things with Me and by My gift of the One who strengthens you.
I love you. I have entrusted to you a treasure and it is there for you in Jesus and the Helper He sent that is one just like Him but giving a whole new dimension to your union with Me.