Please turn to the Gospel according to Luke.
And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone?
Or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
Prayer is based on relationship. If there is no relationship, there is no ground to pray, and there is no assurance of an answer.
Now, in Old Testament times—and it is true even today, so far as the world is concerned—the only relationship the world has with God is the relationship of the Creator and the creature. That is the only ground upon which man could pray to God: as the creature of the Creator.
But in the Old Testament, the children of Israel had a better relationship with God, because God was not only their Creator but also their covenant God. So, in Old Testament times, if they did not come to God on the ground of being created, they could come to God on the ground that they were His covenant people.
But here in the New Testament, with the coming of our Lord Jesus, through His death and resurrection, we are given a new relationship. It is the relationship of Father and son.
You remember, after our Lord Jesus was resurrected, He told the woman, “Go and tell My brethren, I am going to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” So today, the most basic of our relationships with God is the relationship of Father and children. It is now the most basic ground by which we pray.
You remember, in John 1:12 it says that as many as received Him, He gave them the authority to become children of God.
Now we are given the authority—the right—of the children of God. As God’s children, we have an authority with God. Now, of course, we have to understand what it means.
Just like children who are born into a family, in a sense they have some kind of authority with their parents. The right understanding of that authority is not to rule over their parents, but rather that they can claim certain rights with their parents because they are born into the family.
In a sense, they have certain rights with their parents. They can ask for supply, clothing, sustenance, and protection. These are the rights of children, and these rights are, in a sense, authority.
Now, we know that our God has absolute authority over us because we belong to Him. But because we are His children, we have certain rights before Him. We have some claim that we can rightfully make before Him. We can come to Him as if with authority—almost like demanding, but I would rather say claiming—as God’s children.
And one of our rights is prayer. We have the right to come to our Father to pray. This is our birthright.
We do not need to hesitate, nor do we need to be afraid to pray, because we are praying to our Father. We have a right to pray, a right to ask. We can make a claim upon Him. This is the authority that He has given to us.
It would be a kind of not exercising our rights or authority if we do not pray. We are encouraged to pray, and there is no reason why we should not, no reason why we should be afraid, and no reason why we should doubt. We have the right; we have the authority, as God’s children, to come and pray.
In order to encourage us, the Lord used an illustration. It is the illustration of a son asking his father for bread. The son has a need. He needs bread, and he asks his father.
Will the father give him, instead of bread, a stone? Impossible.
If a child asks for fish, will the father give him a serpent? Never. If a child asks for an egg, will the father give him a scorpion? It cannot be.
Sometimes children may ask amiss, asking for the wrong thing. Because of that, the father may withhold the wrong thing that he asks for. But oftentimes, even though he may ask wrongly, the father will give him the right thing.
Certainly, the reverse is impossible. If the child asks for the right things—bread, fish, eggs, things that are the necessities of life—the father will never withhold these things from his son. He will never substitute them with something hurtful and harmful to his own child. That is impossible.
The Lord uses this as an illustration to show us that we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children. Now, basically, we are evil because we have fallen. But even though we are evil, when it comes to the relationship of father and son, in spite of our being evil, we still know how to give good gifts to our children.
We love our children. We give them good gifts. We will not purposely try to hurt them or harm them. Sometimes we may inadvertently do it, but certainly that is not our desire.
Now, how much more our God, who is good? He is a good Father. The Lord said there is no one good but God. Our God is a good God; He is a good Father. How much more will He give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
Now, what I want to try to say is this: in James 4, we are told, “You have not, because you ask not.” Oftentimes we do not have because we do not ask.
If we have a need, a legitimate need—if we need bread because we are hungry, if we need fish, if we need eggs to nourish us—we should ask.
Spiritually, physically, whatever our need may be, we should ask our Father. If we do not ask, we do not have. But if we ask, it shall be given to us.
Now, perhaps we say, “Well, we did ask, but we did not receive.” Well, sometimes we ask amiss. We want to indulge ourselves, to use it upon ourselves, to indulge our flesh; and the Father knows better. He does not want us to fall into such indulgence, so He withholds what we ask for.
But certainly, if it is our need, whether spiritual or physical, we are His children and He is our Father. We have the right; we have the authority. We can come to Him and ask and claim, and He will not refuse us.
But there is something more than that. The Bible says, “How much more shall your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
There are two different ways to look at this verse. One is that you are asking the Father for the Holy Spirit, and if you are asking the Father for the Holy Spirit, how much more He will give the Holy Spirit to you.
Another way of looking at this verse is that you are asking for bread, not the Holy Spirit; but He will give you the Holy Spirit and the bread. You are asking for fish; He will give you the Holy Spirit with the fish. You are asking for eggs; He will give you the Holy Spirit and the eggs.
Now, this is our heavenly Father. Oftentimes, when we are praying for certain needs, probably all we expect is that the need will be met.
Suppose we are asking for healing. All we expect is healing. Or we are praying for expansion. All we expect is expansion. Or we may be praying for a conference. All we expect is that there will be a conference.
But this is not the way that God works. If we ask for healing, what the Father will give is not only healing, but the Holy Spirit. What would healing be if He did not give us the Holy Spirit?
Oftentimes, when you are praying for healing or for something else, you find that God gives us first the Holy Spirit—to convict us, to search us, to bring us into a right relationship with Him, and to fill us with His Spirit. Then, following that, will be healing or whatever we ask for.
The same thing is true if we are asking for expansion. Do not expect that He will merely expand us physically. First of all, He will give us the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is given, well, we may have to repent.
This may be unexpected. We say we are praying for expansion, but God, in answering us as Father, will give us the Holy Spirit to bring us, perhaps, to conviction.
He will do something more than merely give us expansion, because what would expansion be if we were expanded physically and the Holy Spirit were not in it or with us?
What would that be but an external, temporal, empty thing? It would become a white-elephant problem. It would cause more problems, more traffic.
So He will give us the Holy Spirit. Thank God for that. Dear brothers and sisters, when He gives the Holy Spirit, you can expect anything to happen—not as we expect. He will surprise us, because He moves on a higher ground.
Every time the Holy Spirit is given, you find that He surprises us. But that is the way God answers prayer as our Father. That is the best gift. It is better than bread, better than fish, and better than eggs.
But after He gives the Holy Spirit, then we know there will be bread, there will be fish, and there will be eggs. This is our heavenly Father.
So I do hope that as we come to Him tonight—now, it is true, sometimes we come to Him as friends, as we said last Wednesday—but at the very basis of all relationships, there is the relationship of Father and son, Father and children.
Let us come to Him as little children, believing and trusting that if we ask that which is legitimate in His eyes, according to His will, He will give us. But remember: He will give us the Holy Spirit with what we ask for.
And Jesus went out thence, and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon.
But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
But He answered and said, I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But she came and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me.
And He answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.
But she said, Yea, Lord: for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it done unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was healed from that hour.
We mentioned before that prayer is based on relationship. If there is the right relationship, then there is ground to pray. We have a relationship with God our Father, and as children we have the right, the authority, to ask and to pray to our heavenly Father.
We also mentioned that our relationship with the Lord is a kind of friendship. He calls us friends, and as a Friend who sticks closer than a brother, certainly He will rise up and answer our prayers.
But this year I would like to say something different. It is true that prayer is based on relationship, but there is something which is not relationship and yet can be ground for our prayer. I do not know the right word, but I try to use the word concession.
Concession is also a ground for our prayer. Now, what is concession?
One dictionary gives the definition of grace: grace is a concession that cannot be claimed as a right.
If it is a right—if we have the right to ask for it—then it is not a concession. A concession cannot be claimed as a right, but it is something given to us as a favor.
So, to me, I feel that in order to encourage us to pray, the Lord shows us in His Word that He makes many concessions to us. He does this to encourage us to pray, even if the relationship is not there.
Of course, we know the relationship is always there. But over and above and beyond relationship, God condescends to give us a number of concessions to enable us to pray.
All these concessions are like handles. God gives us a handle that we can lay hold of and turn, as it were. One of the concessions in prayer is given in this particular instance.
Here you find a Canaanitish woman crying, “Have pity on me,” because her daughter was demon-possessed.
Now, as a Canaanitish woman, she had no right to the Lord, especially when she addressed Him as Son of David. What had the Son of David to do with a Canaanitish woman? As Son of David, He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
So this woman had absolutely no right to make a claim upon the Lord. No wonder she cried and cried, but the Lord did not answer her a word, because she had no claim upon Him.
She cried so much that the disciples were disturbed. They thought it was very much unlike the Lord, because whenever people cried, the Lord always responded right away. Even before people cried, He would respond.
But in this particular case, the Lord acted very strangely. This Canaanitish woman followed and cried after them, “Son of David, have pity, have mercy.” But the Lord gave her no answer.
So much so that the disciples were disturbed. They came to the Lord and said, in effect, “Do something. If You are not going to respond to her cry, then dismiss her. Let her go. Tell her that there is nothing for her.”
At this moment our Lord began to explain. He said that the Son of David was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In other words, this woman had no claim upon Him as the Son of David.
Then the woman came and said, “Lord, help me.” Notice there was a little change. Instead of “Son of David,” she said, “Lord, help me.”
Then the Lord said, “It is not meet to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs.”
You know, the Jews looked down upon the Gentiles and called them dogs. Why? Because the Gentiles were unclean. The Jews were clean because they ate only clean food according to Leviticus, but the Gentiles ate unclean food. Therefore, that made the Gentiles unclean.
So the Lord said, “It is not meet to give the bread of the children”—the bread meant for the house of Israel—“to the dogs.” No relationship.
When the Lord said this, however, He used a different word. The dogs here are not wild dogs. The dogs here are little dogs—pet dogs, domesticated dogs.
In other words, here you find our Lord giving a concession to this woman. So far as relationship is concerned, there was no relationship and no claim. But now the Lord gave her a concession.
It is true, you are not of the house of Israel, but I consider you as a pet dog, a dog that belongs to the house.
Immediately, you find that woman took hold of that word. She acknowledged it. She said, “Yes, I am a dog.”
I think that is important, because we need to realize what we are. Oftentimes, when we come to the Lord, we do not know what we are. We think we deserve something. We think we have a right to something.
But when we realize that actually we have no right, yet the Lord has given us a concession—because we are created by Him and therefore belong to Him—not as children, but as pet dogs, then we understand. We do not deserve to eat at the table, but certainly we can pick up some crumbs under the table.
So here you find the woman taking hold of the Word of God as a handle and turning it. “Yea, Lord, for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
And the Lord said to her, “Great is thy faith.” In other words, she knew how to humble herself before the Lord and lay hold of the concession that God had given.
The concession here was the Word of our Lord Jesus. If our Lord had kept silent and said nothing, the woman would have had no ground. But our Lord opened His mouth, and even though outwardly His words sounded harsh, actually the Lord was opening a way for her through that word as a concession.
The woman took hold of that word and presented the request. Great faith.
You find this in many places in the Bible. When we come to prayer, thank God we have relationship—more than one relationship. But when we come to pray, oftentimes you find that it helps us very much if we know how to lay hold of the Word.
In other words, the Word of God is God’s concession to us. If He keeps silent, we do not know what He will do or what He will not do; we do not know His will. But if He speaks—if He has spoken, and He has spoken—His Word is a concession to us, His grace.
His Word is given to us for us to lay hold of. If we only know how to lay hold of God’s Word, you will find our prayer will be more effective.
For instance, Moses. After the children of Israel sinned against God, he went up to the mountain to intercede for the children of Israel.
God had already said, “I will destroy the whole nation and raise up your seed to be a nation.” But Moses pleaded with God, saying, “No, do not do that.”
If you read Exodus, you find Moses based his pleading on two things. One was God’s own name. “What will happen to Your name? You delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt with a strong arm, and now You destroy them. What will the Egyptians say?”
It would reflect upon Your name. I think this is another concession that we can lay hold of in our pleading with God: His name.
But the other thing was that Moses pleaded with God on the basis of His promise. “Now You have promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You have sworn to them that You will multiply their seed and give the land to them as their inheritance. Now here is Your Word.”
“You cannot deny Yourself. You cannot go back on Your Word. You have to do what You said.” Using God’s own Word, the Bible says that God repented of the evil that He had decided to do to the people.
The same thing you find in the prayer of Nehemiah, and you can find it in many instances in Scripture. People who really know how to pray, how to intercede, know how to lay hold of God’s concession. They know how to lay hold of the promises of God.
It is always good in our prayer that we can remind God of what He has said. If we know how to remind God of His Word, of what He has spoken, that will give effectiveness to our prayer.
So I do hope that as we all pray, the Holy Spirit will quicken God’s Word to our hearts. As His Word is given to us, we can use it as a handle—God’s concession. This is grace.
Please turn to the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 11.
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it.
Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.
Here our Lord Jesus teaches us a very great lesson on prayer.
Of course, we know the incident. One morning our Lord Jesus was on His way from Bethany to Jerusalem, and He was hungry. He saw a fig tree full of leaves, but He could not find any fruit on it. So He cursed that fig tree.
Now, that is the only thing that our Lord cursed during His life.
The next morning, when they passed by that fig tree, Peter noticed that the fig tree had withered. So Peter said to the Lord, “Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away.”
Then our Lord said, “Have faith in God.”
Literally, “Have faith in God” is “Have the faith of God.” What is the faith of God? God has faith. And what is His faith?
He believes that whatever He says is. That is His faith. You remember in Genesis, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God never doubts His own Word. When He speaks, it is done.
His Word is as good as His act. That is the faith of God.
Here our Lord Jesus demonstrated that faith. He spoke to the fig tree. He had no doubt that it would wither, and it was withered. It might have been a surprise to Peter, but to our Lord it was as natural as it could be, because He had spoken.
That is the faith of God. Here our Lord Jesus says, “Have the faith of God.” In other words, He exhorts us to have that kind of faith.
It is not something beyond us. It is not something that we cannot receive, because He says, “Have faith in God; have the faith of God.”
To have the faith of God is not only a possibility, but it is a command. In a sense, this is the only genuine kind of faith.
The real faith is this kind of faith: the faith of God, God’s faith. We do not have any faith of our own; it has to be God’s faith in us.
If we do not have faith, all we see is a mountain that looms high before us, blocks our way, and presents difficulty, problems, and no way out. We will be crushed.
But if we have God’s faith, if we see God, if we believe in His power, then we can speak to the mountain and command it to be removed into the sea. In other words, the way is clear.
And here the Lord said, “For this reason I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.”
In the original, it is, “Believe that ye received them.” Not merely believe that you shall receive them, not merely believe that you receive them, but believe that you received them.
In other words, when you pray and ask, you believe you received it. You first receive what you pray for in faith, and then you will receive it in fact.
You do not wait to receive it until you receive it in fact. You receive it first in faith, and then according to your faith shall it be done unto you. Now, this is the faith of God.
Now, the Lord says, “Whatsoever ye pray for and ask, believe that ye receive it.” This is not to be presumptuous, nor is it psychological suggestion. It is faith.
Of course, we know that whatever we ask or pray for must be according to His will, because elsewhere in Scripture you find that if we ask according to His will, we have the confidence that He answers us.
If we are really one with God, if we are really united with Christ, if we really know what His will is, then when we pray and ask, we ought to believe that we received it. Otherwise, it is a lack of faith.
There is a difference between faith and hope. Hope is expecting something to happen. Faith is believing that it has already happened.
Why? Because faith is the substantiating of things hoped for. It is true that this is the thing hoped for, but faith has already substantiated it and already sees that it is done. That is faith.
Faith is to see what God sees. Faith is believing in God’s part.
“Whatsoever ye pray and ask”—in other words, we are uttering for God His Word or His will. If we are uttering for Him His will, then we ought to believe that we received it, and it shall come to pass for us.
Sometimes we may think that this seems too difficult for us to exercise such faith. But when you really think about it, you will realize that anything less than that is really not faith.
It is hope, but not faith.
Faith is believing in God—believing in God’s Word, believing in His will, believing in His power—believing that it is done.