Marty the zebra is at the zoo in his tiny pen, and he keeps thinking there must be more to life.    The penguins suddenly burrow in and pop up in his yard and say they are going to the wild, and Marty’s like THE WILD, YOU CAN ACTUALLY GO THERE?

And the question came to me, where are we not going as Christians because we are boxed in with our thinking?  What are we not asking for in terms of miracles? 

That is this scene from the Madagascar movie that I have been drawing some deep spiritual parallels from the last few months.  

The more we dig into the word of God, the more it expands our thinking, it shows us the areas God wants to satisfy us (printable here), the ways in which God wants to provide breakthrough, the provisions for protection He has made for us through things like Psalm 91.

A passage of Scripture that stood out to me around this topic was the prodigal son saying to his Dad,  “ I never asked for the young goat, let alone the fatted cow.’   What are the things we are not asking for that we actually have access to?

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!   Matt 7:7-11

³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38 While this Scripture is used a lot in evangelism, I saw that this was just in the context of Jesus going to the Jews.    People get weary when there are only rules and no power.    All the way through the Bible God has rules but He also wants to break through in power when we ask.

Another interesting story that caught my attention this week was that of King David and how early in his life, every time he came up against something He would ask God how to solve it, what to do, whether to fight, but towards the end of his life he did a census to see what he could achieve and how strong he was. And it’s not that taking stock is wrong, in other places we are told to count the cost in terms of whether or not we have the resources to do something or not, it’s when we write God out of the situation or limit him that we go back to rules with no power. (Power Printable Here)

I was listening to my daughter’s Adventures in Odyssey Bible stories cd while we were eating lunch today and a story I had heard before but not really paid attention to started playing.  It’s the story in 1 Samuel 11 where Nahash the Ammonite besieged Jabesh-gilead.    The men of Jabesh were prepared to make a treaty with them and become their servants, but Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”1

The Israelites asked for a week to think about it & to send messages to their bothers for help, and the men of Israel wept but the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul and he organised an army to fight back and God gave them the victory. 

It stood out to me that they were willing to be servants of the Ammonites until the conditions became intolerable.  

Sometimes we tolerate smaller attacks; they were willing to become his servants.   Sometimes we don’t get serious about fighting the enemy until the conditions get nasty, but God wanted to deliver us all the way along and made provision for it.

Maybe we didn’t even know that we could fight it.   We didn’t know that the provision was there in the Scripture, or due to doctrine of man things have gotten murky in our thinking.   We are wandering around in the murky, splurky, 6 week old refrigerated turkey land of ‘but maybe this is God’s will, maybe He’s teaching me a lesson’  That kind of thinking keeps you sick.   I know because I’ve been there.

For a few months earlier in the year our pastor kept asking us what we thought of when he said the word Abide. And while it can mean being aware of God’s presence throughout the day and praying, the Scripture below would always immediately come to mind.

John 15:7-8

7If you remain (abide) in Me and My words remain (abide) in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.…

God wants us to live lives that bear much fruit, it is for His Glory.

John 16:23

Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

1 John 5:14

 ¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

And what is God’s will? A good indication of His will is in the Lord’s prayer, the way Jesus taught the disciples to ask, along with the commission he gave them, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out devils, raise the dead.

Matt 7:7-11

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  

It’s actually amazing how many Ask Scriptures there are when you start putting them side by side and they give you great confidence and faith in coming to God.

In the same token, we are told to study to show ourselves approved, and so that we know what we should be asking for, that we don’t ask amiss, and so that we may be ready to give an answer in our defense to those who ask, but we are also assured that God will give us words of wisdom in the moment.

1 Peter 3:15

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

James 4:2-3

 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

There are certain things God has provided in His covenant with us, provision, yes, but not so we can get drunk or do stupid things, it’s one of His Names, Jehovah Jireh. I’ve previously put together a Free Printable of Scriptures to pray over our business.

He’s also provided salvation, forgiveness, deliverance and healing.

Something He hasn’t provided, for example, would be someone else’s husband, even if you think God has told you marry them. It’s not in His covenant to you, therefore it doesn’t matter how much you ask, its not yours to have. (I have heard of this happening so I had to throw this caveat in here)

There are some other very interesting ask Scriptures in the Old Testament. Scriptures where God was telling the Israelites to set up memorials so it would prompt their children to ask why it was set up, providing an opportunity to remember what God had done for them.

We have the Scripture where God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” And Solomon asked for wisdom and to be able to discern justice and therefore God granted him all the other things, wealth, riches, long life and the death of his enemies. Did you know historically speaking that in Solomon’s time, everyone owned his own home and garden and there was no need for welfare?

We find guidance in the whole council of Scripture as to what we have permission to ask God, we find that God really wants us to ask and that there are specific things that He has told us to ask for.

We see that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We see that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter but the glory of kings to seek it out…could he be referring to our position in Him as kings and priest?

I hope that this has empowered you to ask from God with confidence, knowing what He wants to give you

FREE ASK PRINTABLE