Ask God–Don’t Command Him–And Then Believe and Receive

You may be saying, “Look, I ask God all the time. I even say the word “ask” in my prayers.”

I know what you are saying. I did the same thing until I realized that I was not asking. I was announcing to God that I was asking Him for something. I was saying, “God, I am asking You to  heal my brother William.” You notice that there was no question mark at the end because there was no asking a question. It was a statement, announcing what I wanted God to do.

I should have said, “God, would you please heal Brother William? Would you touch him and comfort him? Would you make him whole? I ask in your name Yahshua, which means Yah is the Savior. Thank you.” In this communication, I used three questions that ask God for His healing power. I noticed that as I wrote these questions just now, my heart became softer.

Compare that to the announcement which told God what I wanted Him to do. But God already knows everything. He knows our needs before we ask. He doesn’t need for us to apprise Him of the situation; He knows. He would like to see humility grow in us, and it will, when we ask Him for help in time of need. He is near to the humble.

Besides, God likes a challenge. He relishes an opportunity to dramatically show His love to His people. And He really likes the holy boldness that asking-Him-questions portrays. He likes that faith because it is the same faith that ushers forth out of His heart. God tries our hearts and proves and examines our inner thoughts. He does this to bring us to great righteous changes within us. And He then tells us to see if He will keep His word toward us: “Prove me now herewith, saith the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Prov. 17:3; Mal. 3:10). God likes a challenge; He rises to the occasion. He will come through—for the sake of His name.

In the end, we shall see that asking Him a question is that humility-producing element that puts our hearts in the right place with His heart. It gets us in sync with Him and His plan.

Asking God questions in our prayers, when done humbly, puts the ball in His court. He is bound by His word when He said, “Ask, and it shall be given.” And, “You shall pray for the sick, and they shall recover.” If we ask for a fish, He will not give us a stone. It all begins with a humble spirit that asks the great Healer of mankind, “Father, would you please heal him?”

And lastly, He ties it all up with this reminder. “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). It’s all about the faith.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Ask God—Don’t Command Him–Another “New Commandment”

“Ask” is one of the new commandments that Christ has given us. No. Really. Ask. Simple, right?

He has commanded us to ask. We are very acquainted with His words. “Ask, and it shall be given.” And so we try to ask God for things in our prayers. But most of us are not really asking; we are commanding Him, not asking Him!

I examined my prayer life, and I found that I was using commands in my prayers: “God, help brother William. Give him strength to fight the disease. Heal him, God.” Sounds okay. I’m trying to get some help for William. But I was giving God commands! “Help…Give…Heal…” I was telling God what to do and when to do it. I was not asking Him reverently. I was giving Him commandments instead of obeying His new commandment.

Someone will say, “But my heart was in the right place. God looks on the intent of the heart.” But should the “right place” be a source of commands for God to keep, dished out by us?

This new commandment is clear: “Ask.” Ironically, it is a command, telling us to use the interrogative mood in our prayers, by asking Him to supply our petitions. But we do not do this; we use the imperative mood, commanding Him to do things for us.

We need to stop telling God what to do. What audacity and hubris we exhibit toward Him! What a complete lack of humility we demonstrate. And we are not even aware of it!

Demanding of God and commanding Him to do things is being childish. We see it in our earthly offspring. Little children rarely ask for anything. For example, they don’t say, “May I have more toast?” They will innately use a command: “Give me some more toast.” Children command and demand; that is what they do.

The spiritual children of God are still giving commands. We must grow up and mature and obey Christ’s new commandment, “Ask.” By asking Him instead of commanding Him, we will immediately see and feel a softening of our hearts toward Him and others. We will begin to sense just how weak and vulnerable we are, and how strong He is.

“Ask and it shall be given” (Matt. 7:7). It is one of the first biblical precepts that we were exposed to. And yet, it is so profound. For when we ask God and not command Him, it leads us through the gates of humility and ushers us into the arena of true communion and communication. Getting this revelation opens up a most astounding promise. “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14). It does not get any more exciting than that!    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

Chapter 25 Virtue Is Moral Strength and Power—Where Does It Come From?

God has given you and me power and authority over Satan. I know. I know. You’ve heard this all before, heard it through powerless, well-meaning lips. Nevertheless, you and I are the recipients of power from God to change this world.

Because we have taken our old sinful self to the cross and have received a new heart from our Father, He has given us “the faith of the Son of God.” And now He commands us to add virtue to that faith. We have received His faith, which is Him believing in His own word. And virtue is that moral strength, vigor and power of God’s divine nature, now given to us to add to faith (II Peter 1: 1-10).

And through His virtue in us He has given us the power to share with others the goodness of our King. We now have power to liberate those who remain captives of carnality, to those still struggling with sin in their lives. Through His Spirit within, we have power to help the brokenhearted through their trials. He has given us now the strength and power to free those who are bound like prisoners in dungeons of despair. He has sent us “to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified” (Isa. 61: 1-3).

But before divine power will flow through us to achieve all these things, evil must first strike. Why? You cannot be a savior if there is no one that needs saving. You cannot be a healer if there is no one who needs to be healed. Before a resurrection miracle, there must be a death. The ultimate show of moral strength and power is resurrecting someone. That can only happen through the death of the one to be raised up.

Christ said it best. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” I scratched my head for 45 years on those enigmatic words. Translated: Every day has its own ration of “evil” for us to overcome or deal with. Let’s not add to it.

Adding Virtue

That is why those chosen for this auspicious calling will add the seven additions to the “faith once delivered to the saints.” They have no choice really. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

But this power is not given to Tommy Thomson or Larry Lansing or any other human being. This power is given to Christ in Tommy, Larry, you, and me. For it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And it is glorious when the anointed Spirit in us flows through our bodies, surging through and into the soul in need, thus proving Yahweh’s love and mercy.

But how is this power exercised in us? How does God work miracles through us? First things first. It starts out by understanding and then walking in the early apostles’ teachings. They had the power and authority from God, and they left us a roadmap to intense spiritual growth.

That roadmap is the teachings of Christ passed on to the early apostles. Luke called them “the apostles’ doctrine,” the teachings of the apostles. Christ’s doctrine became the “apostles’ doctrine.” Some people today are averse to the word “doctrine,” but it only means “teachings.” The early apostles “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.” The fruit of that brought “many wonders and signs…done by the apostles” (Acts 2: 42-43). Power was given to the apostles because they were faithful to the teachings of Christ. And His teachings became theirs. And His power became theirs, also.

If you are seeing what I am saying, then “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” If you have seen through the shallowness of churchianity and long and hunger for the true living waters, then perhaps He has chosen you to “bear much fruit” and to walk with the patriarchs, prophets and the apostles, along with the King Himself.

Realizing all this brings a moment of gravity and humility. “For to whom much is given, much is required.” Think about it.  Of all the billions living on this planet, the Creator has chosen us to reveal His secrets and mysteries to. And the secret and mystery is this: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The Spirit of Christ in you and me! This is where the virtue power comes from.

The following is very important. The amount of the Spirit in us depends on how much understanding and knowledge we have about the Father’s ways and means. We must know Him as the instigator of all things in this life—both good and bad—for our perfection. When we know Him as our “Prince of peace” and our “Prince of pain,” our Savior and the Supplier of our sufferings, then we will be closer in “knowing Him and the power of His resurrection.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[Order my book The Apostles’ Doctrine. It is free with free shipping. Just email me. Include your name, address, and the title of the book. To:  wayneman5@hotmail.com  ]

Adding the “Additions to the Faith”—By Faith

To bear “much fruit” and thereby attain to full spiritual maturity, we must add certain qualities of His “divine nature” to our faith (II Pet. 1: 3-10). God has called and chosen us to grow and bear 100 fold fruit (Matthew 13, “The Parable of the Sower”). To walk in His divine nature, knowledge must be added to virtue. And we see that virtue is the initial moral goodness and righteousness that comes with a new heart.

To grow we must understand God’s use of not just what we perceive to be “good” toward us, but also what we perceive to be evil. We will never grow to be like Christ and His apostles if we do not understand how God uses evil to develop the attributes of agape love in our hearts. That is His whole purpose, a mystery hidden from the eyes of man. And that purpose is to reproduce agape love, which is Himself.

The apostle Peter says, “I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things…” So, it goes like this. By faith we have received a new heart and a new spirit from our Father by believing that Christ is raised from the dead—in our hearts. “Old things are passed away, and all things have become new.” We are “new creatures in Christ.” This is the way that God sees His work in us (Rom. 6: 1-11).

To His way of thinking, it is a done deal. God “quickens the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were.” You and I are the “dead” here. He has raised us from the dead through Christ’s Spirit now in us. We, walking in 100 fold spiritual growth, are the “things that be not.” We are not there yet, but Christ has great faith, and He sees us there! We are to walk in His belief system (Rom. 4: 17; I Cor. 1: 27-28).

Our struggle is to believe the same thing that He believes about us. He has chosen us, the weak, to confound the mighty. That is His faith that we have received in our hearts. And to that faith we add virtue. We add it—by faith. And to virtue we add the knowledge of good and evil. And to knowledge we add temperance, and to temperance patience/endurance. And to endurance, we add godliness, which is loving God [forgiving Him for using both “good” and “bad” in our life]. And then adding “brotherly kindness”/loving other people [Forgiving them for being human, and understanding that they have been dealing with some harsh “bad things” in their lives].

And we are to add agape love to all of the above. For His love is the bond of perfectness, of maturity. With this spiritual maturity in us, God will be loving mankind—through us! And that will fulfill His eternal purpose to reproduce Himself.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock