John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me”, that is, if you are following the Lord, remaining in the Lord, doing what God wants you to do, and you are up to date with your obedience to God, and, “My words abide in you”, then you can ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. What does this mean?
Man Has Three Parts
Now everything that is designed or built today has a specific purpose. An automobile, for example, is designed to be a comfortable vehicle for travel. Just like a car has parts and functions, you can also say a man has parts and functions as well. The beginning of the Bible reveals to us the three main parts and functions of man: body, soul, and spirit. Let’s put a diagram on the board to represent these three parts. First of all, we’ll draw a large circle to represent man’s body. Second, we’ll draw another circle inside that, representing man’s soul. Third, we’ll draw a circle inside that to represent man’s human spirit. In the beginning of the Bible when God describes how He created man, He tells how He formed man out of the dust of the earth. Then it says that God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. This passage shows us the three parts of man. Now it says that God breathed into man the breath of life. This phrase, “breath of life” can also be translated, “spirit of life”. Now another place in the Bible says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord”. So we see that man has three parts. Later in the Bible, the Apostle Paul also mentions these three parts. He is praying for the sanctification of believers. He prays that God would, “Sanctify us wholly—our whole being; our body, and our spirit and our soul.”
We are praying and asking the prayer of God. If you are one with the Lord, you are obeying the Lord, you are abiding in the Lord, and His Word is dwelling in you, then you are one with the Lord, and what the Lord wants to pray, you want to pray, what the Lord wants to ask the Father through your prayer, you want to ask the Father. So who is really praying here? Is it us praying or is it God praying? It is kind of hard to understand.
The Example of Elijah in James
In fact, James 5 talks about a similar principle. The last part of verse 16 says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Then James goes on to talk about Elijah. Verse 17, “Elijah was a man subject to like passions…” He was a man, just like we are. He had feelings just like you and I have. Then it says, “And he prayed earnestly” or the literal Greek is, “He prayed in prayer” or, “He prayed in his prayer”. It is kind of a strange construction in the English. “He was a man of like passions as we are, and he prayed in prayer that it might not rain”. In other words, Elijah had an experience, here, of not praying his own prayer, but praying the prayer of God. You could say he prayed the prayer that God put on his heart, or prayed the prayer that God burdened him with. Here Elijah was praying the prayer of God.
The Example of Young Samuel
We have another example of Samuel in the Old Testament. This is the story of Samuel as a young boy. He was learning how to serve God and how to do the things of God. He was just beginning, or barely beginning to hear the voice of God. At one point, he thought Eli, the priest, was calling him, but he eventually learned that it was the Lord who was speaking to him. The phrase that Samuel repeated back to the Lord at this point was, “Speak Lord, for your servant hears.” In other words, Samuel had the attitude that whatever God would speak, he would hear, and whatever God asked him to do, he would do.
This blog was taken from a video on Drew’s YouTube channel.
Jesus’ Instructions on Prayer in John 15
We come to the New Testament and we want to look at a verse in John 15. John is one of four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Chapter 15 is actually part of a sequence of chapters. Chapter 15 is a kind of a conclusion to chapter 13ff. In chapter 13, Jesus was telling His disciples some troubling things. He was telling them how He was going to die on the cross. He was talking about how one of His disciples was going to betray Him, and He was telling them how one of His disciples was going to deny Him three times.
Then you come to chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17. In those four chapters, Jesus was trying to comfort His disciples. Right in the middle of that, in chapter 15, Jesus was talking about abiding. He was talking about how we need to be like branches on a vine. He was the true vine. Some people say this describes kind of an organic relationship between Jesus and us, or between us and the Father. Without getting into the rest of the context, there, John 15:7 says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” That seems kind of like a blank check where you can expect God to do anything you ask of Him. Some people look at that verse and they wonder why God doesn’t answer when they pray for something. There is a condition in this verse, though. It says, “If you abide in Me and My words aide in you”. Being a computer programmer, I am familiar with logic. There is a “condition and statement” in that verse. It requires the first condition or statement to be true and it requires a second condition to be true before the result can be true.
The first condition, there, is, “If you abide in Me… “ Without getting into the context, there, one way to abide is to stay in the Lord, to rest in the Lord, or to remain in the Lord. I would even say it means to do the things God wants you to do, to obey the Lord. He says, “If you abide in Me”. Then He says, “And if My words abide in you”. This passage in the book of John says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you”, you can ask whatever you will and I will do it. What words is He talking about when Jesus says, “And My words abide in you”? I believe He is specifically talking about the word He is speaking. I believe it also has to include the words of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
The video this text is taken from is on Drew’s YouTube channel. This portion is at YouTube.
Prayer is just talking to God. God is real, He exists and listens, we just need to start talking to Him. Prayer does not need to be formal or in some special place or with some special people. Prayer is just talking to God in reality. So we don’t need to be phony or make-up something, just start saying what is on your heart as you think about God. Prayer is just a dialog between us and God. Prayer can be alone for with others. Prayer can be when we are happy and when we are sad. Prayer can be what we feel when we are very encouraged and when we are very depressed and low. Prayer can be when we are a sinner (and we all are sinners) and when we feel we are a saint. Prayer can be when we love God and when we hate God. Sometimes we are hurting because of something that happened, so tell that to God. Sometimes after we pray we feel high and sometimes low.
Sometimes we have things we want God to fix or do. Sometime He does them, other times it just does not happen. We can in prayer talk to God about ourselves and talk about others.
In the Bible there are many sample prayers. These Bible prayers are great examples of words if we need them, but still the best is what just comes from our heart as we think about God.
Three quick tips to help your prayer:
1. To know Jesus Christ as savior makes a big difference in prayer results
2. To know the Bible also helps our prayer
3. To obey the Lord also helps our prayer
So try some prayers, just talk to God what ever words come to you as you consider God.