Fruitful Prayer

John 15:7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

The first part of this verse (the condition) is the most important part of this verse because it gives the conditions that must be met in order to get to the promise. However many of us just see the second part of this verse. There have been many times when I've heard people quote this verse and not even include the first piece. It's made to sound like regardless of what we are doing, good, bad or indifferent, that we can ask God for whatever we wish and it will be given to us, or done for us. There are many that ask the Lord for something but they are in a place spiritually where they can't receive because they are not in Christ and His words are not in them.

We cannot get what the Lord has for us if we are disconnected from him in any way. In today's terms lets look at using a cell phone. If your cell phone cuts out, you’re disconnected from the person you were talking to. Now you can keep on talking and ask them anything, but they're not going to answer you because the connection broke down. Staying connected to God through prayer, Bible Reading, Bible Study, and meditating on what you've learned is the only way to stay connected. The Lord will honor that because we've abided in Him, so He is in us.

If we are expecting consistent answers to prayer, the words of Jesus must abide in us. That is, Jesus himself must abide in us speaking. We do not just stock ourselves with dead ideas that he spoke a long time ago, but we believe and remember and meditate on the truths that he spoke once and is speaking now as he abides in us. I want to focus on the (result) of this verse, "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." If the words of Jesus abide in us, then the result will be that you pray with power and effectiveness.

Prayer is for fruit bearing. God designed prayer to give believers the joy of bearing fruit while God himself gets the glory. We can see this in the connection between verses 7 and 8 and then in verse 16. 7If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. "By this is my Father glorified". What that means is, by us asking God for things and His giving them to us. He gets glory as the one who is rich and good enough to answer prayer. But also, "By this is my Father glorified". That is, that we bear much fruit. The implication is that God gets glory when we bear much fruit because we have prayed and God has answered. This gives us a testimony by which he gets all of the glory. Therefore the primary point of prayer is fruit-bearing.

This is confirmed explicitly in John 15:16. Jesus says to his disciples, "You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you." The connections between the two parts of this verse are tremendously important. Jesus says that he chose and appointed his disciples that they should go and bear fruit that remains, so "that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you."

The point is that prayer malfunctions when it is not used for fruit-bearing. Therefore, because prayer is for fruit-bearing, if you are not devoted to fruit-bearing you have no warrant for expecting answers to prayer.

Prayer is not for gratifying natural desires. I know that Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day, our daily bread." What's more natural than wanting to eat? I know that there are dozens of instances in the Bible of people praying for desires as natural as the desire for protection, success and healing. I'm not implying that those desires are wrong. What I'm saying is that they should always be subordinate to spiritual desires, kingdom desires, fruit bearing desires, gospel spreading God centered desires. When our natural desires are felt as a means to these greater desires then they become the proper subject of prayer.

Just before Jesus said to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," he said, make it your heart's desire that God would hallow his name and that the kingdom would come and that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in Heaven. When your heart is caught up with those great desires, then having something to eat is not merely a natural desire, but a means to some great God centered end, and then it is the proper subject of prayer.

Prayer is for God's kingdom and God's will, it is for fruit bearing in all those great things. If our protection, eating, and possessions leads to those great God centered ends, (the kingdom of God and will of God) then that’s Fruitful Prayer.

Please pray with me

Father you are so good to us. You do give us the things we ask for when we are abiding in you.
My prayer God is that you would show each of us the times when we are not abiding in you as much as we should be, because there are times when we will think we're in that right place but we miss the mark. That with your help and guidance God, we would be more obedient to the urgings of your Holy Spirit to be in that right place to receive the blessings you have for us and that through this we would each have more testimonies to give that bring all glory and honor to you and the kingdom of Heaven.

I ask this in Jesus name

Amen

God Bless You All








“The Sharpshooter”