His Desires, or ours?

I received this email from a Believer. Blogged below are the question and the reply.

Question:
a personal inquiry of scripture...

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

This feels like I can ask God for whatever and He will give me what I ask for. Now I know that may be a very elementary way of looking at it and I need further clarification. What do you think?

Response:

The Bible talks about in the end times there will be many people, specifically Believers, with "itching ears". ( 2 Tim 4:3, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.")

This is EXACTLY the Body of Christ in America in the 21st Century. There is a swarm of teaching ALL over this country, which boils down to “ask God to bless your plans”. It has permeated a very large percentage of even Christ's Body.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Memphis and saw a couple of signs outside a church. The signs said "Real authority is here!" and "Take authority over your life!".

Jesus preached "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25), while America preaches "take authority over your own life". It is a cunning (and seemingly biblical) message, sounds good, and may well draw unbelievers into church whose lives are filled with turmoil and strife. Perfect candidates for the Gospel, but this message does not reflect Jesus' teaching.

Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). He had just rebuked Peter in verse 23, saying "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 "...Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who act wickedly (disregarding My commands)" (Amplified Bible)

So, with these unshakable truths spoken by Jesus and Paul, weigh in your heart if the things you seek and ask God for are the desires of your own flesh. Is it something that is disguising itself as a God-given desire--are you assuming it is a God-given desire simply because it's in your heart? Are you using the logic "Well, I'm a Believer, so if there's a desire in my heart since I'm in a Believer that desire must be there from God, so I'm going to ask for it and pursue it"?

I pray you take time discerning if the desires that come to your heart or mind are from yourself or the Holy Spirit. I pray you are dying to your flesh every day, or many times within every day as needed, and are truly going where the Holy Spirit wants you to go, doing what the Holy Spirit leads you to do, and saying what the Holy Spirit tells you to say. This is all that matters. If we are walking in the Spirit then we are indeed doing the will of the Father, and are not in danger of being told by Jesus "Depart from me, I never knew you".

I pray that whatever desire you weigh in your heart and mind is not an emptiness resulting from of a past hurt or situation. Are you assuming (automatically) as a Believer that God wants to fill your void/pain with something earthly--without prayer, pondering and reflection by you and the Holy Spirit together? Have you slowed down, and asked the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the nature of your thoughts/desires, to see if they are of the Father or not?

Let’s look at an example of a common occurrence among Believers.

Do any single Believers pause to think that a desire in their heart for a relationship is actually the yearning to be totally and completely filled by God? Even if they know Him, have they stopped to think God has a deeper, richer, fuller relationship He wishes to take them to than they've yet to ever experience? Or is their mind too tainted by the world, society and culture--and instead of going on to a new experience with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit they focus on being fulfilled by someone/something down here?

How many are looking to earthly friendships or spouse relationship for their true fulfillment, but say "God is first" on Sunday morning or when asked? How many substitute their friendship with (or admiration for) their pastor for a relationship with our Creator, His Son and His Spirit, who their pastor is trying to point them toward?

So many Believers tell others "God has put the desire in my heart to find a spouse", but how many stop to hear if it's actually God saying "It is your desire for a deeper relationship with Me that is the cause of this yearning. You were created for fellowship, relationship, companionship and friendship with Me, and it is a yearning for more of Me, not mankind, that you are sensing in your heart. Come be Mine. Let us experience each other more deeply. Let Me show you more of Me. Let me show you more of My nature, My personality, My being."

Pretty much any Believer you talk to will acknowledge wanting to experience God deeper. But where the rubber meets the road, do we discern the desires that come to and through our minds? Are we truly open to experiencing God deeper, or are we taking our own desires and pasting them with "God wants me to find someone” and “God wants me to do ‘xyz’” paint? Then, by doing this, we miss God and in Jesus' name actually seek our own desire, our own will, and ask to be blessed in doing it.

I pray you earnestly seek the Lord in what you do, for this is a great blind spot plaguing the Body of Christ today. We are truly in the times of the "itching ears" in the Body--Believers wanting to only listen to teachers who tell them what sounds good and what they want to hear.

"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). If we are seeking God and God alone, pursuing and listening for His thoughts and His ways, denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Jesus, dying to ourselves and walking by the guidance of the Spirit, then any other "things" will be added unto us. In walking by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will be doing what God wants us to do, and will not be in danger of Jesus saying "I never knew you", even if we had been "prophesying, casting out demons and performing many miracles" in His Name as in Matthew chapter 7.

Jesus bluntly states doing miraculous things in His Name is not "it". He didn't say this to cause fear or confusion about the requirements for entering His Kingdom. He said it to simply say "Following Me and being led by the Holy Spirit is what matters", not seeking our own desires or what we think His will is--and doing it all in His Name.

Wow. How many in the Body are doing their own will in Jesus' name? Only by His Grace and Mercy did He not cut me off His vine, for doing my own unfruitful will for so many years while claiming Him. How faithful He remained to me, until I humbly returned to the foot of His cross. How he has so humbled me in life, to see once again that I am absolutely nothing, that all my efforts and toiling are in vain unless they be directed by Him. God have mercy on us and at the same time judge us, Your people--that we may come out from our worldliness into Your Light. May we seek You and You alone, waiting to hear from and only desiring You. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and Your ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). May we seek and know Your ways, O Lord. Guide us by your Holy Spirit. Give us discernment and Your wisdom, to see the underlying nature of the thoughts and desires which enter our minds. May we take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus (2 Cor 10:5), so that no one takes us captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies, which depend on human tradition and the principles of this world rather than on Jesus (Colossians 2:8). In Jesus' holy and consuming name, Amen.