Mercy and Abiding

Lightening shredded wood fibres.

 So here is the idea of Hebrews 4:16 of coming to God to receive mercy and grace not on the basis of works but on the basis of Christ's blood. We don't come to God on our works but on Christ's blood. So how does that line up with John 15:7 that if we abide in the Word and in Jesus we can get our prayers answered?

There are 2 points here. One is if a person is sowing to the wind, and sowing to the wind, and sowing to the wind and reaping the whirlwind and their life is crazy and confused and turned over, they can go to God for help. But you are not going to go to God after spending years of sowing to the wind and come out of prayer and be an on fire evangelist with miracles following the next day.

We approach God for mercy and grace by the blood of Jesus. But we don't advance the kingdom of God by just being humble. God wants faith. Heb 11:6; Col 2:6; Hab 2:4. As we spend time with God and His word faith is built. We can from this faith get answers to prayer if we still approach God in humility not from our works and of study and prayer and meditation but still on the basis of the blood of Jesus.

So on the one hand we are working, meditating and seeking God. And on the other hand we approach God on the basis of His blood, not our good works. That does not mean our good works are for nothing. Our works of faith with love from obedience advance the kingdom. This only happens as we pray and pave the way with prayer from approaching God from our humble approach trusting God because of the blood of Jesus.

The 2 go hand in hand. Humble prayer trusting in the blood of Jesus. And aggressive works of faith from obedience, coming from being with God and His word. And you don't have these aggressive works of faith without a fight in prayer. There is the humble prayer for guidance with mercy and grace and there is the prayer of fighting to gain the victory. Now if you are like I have been you go out without fighting in prayer to gain the victory and you get beat up by the enemy. I have learned you have to fight in prayer also.

Romans 8:11 IF. If is a big word in this verse. Do we assume we have the Holy Spirit living within if we have our mind in the gutter watching TV. Do we assume we have the Spirit living within if we are lusting after material things instead of meditating on God's word. Do we assume we have the Spirit of God, the creator of the heavens and the earth living within if we are complaining of some puny problem? Or do we have the Spirit of God living within when we are wasting  time instead of utilizing the gift of time God has given us? Can we have the Spirit living within if our mind is on the flesh?

Just as there is a difference between getting the Spirit of God at salvation, Ephesians 1:13 and getting the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:4. There is a difference between having the Spirit of God from salvation and having the Spirit of God live within Romans 8:11; John 14:23 John said in Revelation 1:10 that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Meaning that it was possible for this apostle to not be in the Spirit at times. This is the question of Romans 8:11 Are we in the Spirit now? The simple prayer of Hebrews 4:16 gets us back in the Spirit. Faith on the other hand, takes some effort and focus and does not flow from a lukewarm heart.

People reason that we have the Spirit Eph. 1:13 and we approach God because of the blood Heb 4:16. Therefore we can pray and get anything we want. That we are OK with God and living the lukewarm life is fine. Now people don't say then are living the lukewarm life. But they are deceived if they think they can watch movies and TV 10 or 20 hours a week and many more hours in amusements and pray 10 minutes and just read a couple of chapters of the Bible a day. NO. To live this way is not living humble before God. James 4:6 says that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble people will repent from living a lukewarm life. Humble people will change to serve God from fear and then continuing on to serve from love. If we don't repent of our lukewarmness we are continuing in pride. We can't serve God effectively with pride. Pride needs to be done away with and then faith will grow.