davidwpalmer posted: " https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/iSuBakyzYGb David W Palmer (John 15:7 NKJV) "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." Jesus came to this earth to destroy the works of the " Following Jesus Today
(John 15:7 NKJV) "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
Jesus came to this earth to destroy the works of the evil one, to heal all who were oppressed of the devil, and to seek and save that which was lost. In other words, his mission is to overthrow Satan and his worldly kingdom from the earth, and to free all of the enemy's slaves. We have many Scriptures from which to see this assignment:
(1 John 3:8 NKJV) … For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
(Acts 10:38 NLT) … Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
(John 8:34 NKJV) Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
(Hebrews 2:14–15 NKJV) Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, {15} and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
(Luke 19:10 NKJV) "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
When we receive Jesus's rescue for us—when we receive his new birth—our new standing is "in him." We are the righteousness of God in him, we are seated with him in heavenly places, and we come boldly to God's throne in his name. On earth, he is in us: "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4 NKJV). What's more, by virtue of being "in him," we are now "in" his mission and assignment:
(John 20:21 NKJV) So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
Therefore, our mission on earth is the same mission as Jesus's: overthrow the enemy and his kingdom, seek and save the lost, rescue and heal those oppressed by the devil, and free them from slavery and bondage to sin and Satan's world system. This is a gospel mission; this is a mission of hearing and saying what and how the Holy Spirit leads us to say, and in the manner in which we should say it:
(John 12:49 GWT) "I have not spoken on my own. Instead, the Father who sent me told me what I should say and how I should say it."
In our opening passage, our Lord Jesus began with a condition: "If" … "If you abide in me." I suggest that this would be impossible if we didn't also realize that abiding in him also means that we are "in" his mission. Then he adds another condition: "And my words abide in you." The Passion Translation of this passage includes some interesting insights from the original languages:
(John 15:7 TPT including its footnotes in parenthesis) "But if you live in life-union with me and if my words (rhema) live powerfully (my words take hold and are strong) within you—then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done."
This clarifies for us that we not only live in vital union with him as "one spirit with him" (1 Cor. 6:17), but that his rhema words to us take hold in our hearts … strongly. Thus we have the picture of someone at one with Jesus as their Lord, and someone who is in union and full agreement with his mission—and his role as their Lord in that mission. This is the person, who like the apostle Paul, has stepped aside so fully that they allow Jesus exclusively to live through them:
(Galatians 2:20 NKJV) "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
To that person, Jesus's promise applies:
(John 15:7 MSG) "But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon."
To be sure we fully understand Jesus's first condition— "If you abide in me," or, "make yourselves at home with me"—we go back to the beginning of John 15 to explore it:
(John 15:1–3 NKJV) "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. {2} Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. {3} You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you."
In these opening verses of John 15, Jesus hasn't yet mentioned abiding in him; but he gives this is the background to the concept. In other words, Jesus preludes the idea of abiding with the idea that Father will remove branches of him—of what claim to be extensions of his character, church, life, and mission—that do not bear fruit. Then Jesus introduces the fact that the fruitful branches are fruitful because they are abiding in him:
(John 15:4, 6 DKJV) "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, unless you abide in me. ... {6} If a man doesn't abide in me, he is cast forth as a [fruitless] branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
We note also in verse 3 that he said, "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." Cleaning in this context includes pruning, or removal of the dead, unproductive, and sap draining. Jesus's words to us, his rhema words, clean us from all of this as he promised us when we keep his second condition: through his "life-union with me and if my words (rhema) live powerfully (my words take hold and are strong) within you."
The Holy Spirit confirms that it is what Jesus says to us that cleans us, removing what is undesirable to God; he said that Jesus's words cleanse and make us holy:
(Ephesians 5:25–27 NKJV) … Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, {26} that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, {27} that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
According to our Lord and Savior, Jesus, when we fulfill the conditions of John 15:7—that we abide in him and have his rhema's abiding in us, cleansing us—we become eligible for his astounding promise: "You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7 NKJV).
Today, I encourage you to give up your independence from—any lack of abiding in—Jesus; surrender fully to him as Lord of your life, take up your cross; follow him, yielding to his voice, and abiding permanently and fully in him. Then, the amazing truth that you are one spirit with him will bring your desires into alignment with his. With your desires being one in spirit with the Lord, as you ask for those desires, you will be truly asking in his name; "it shall be done for you."
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