As Jesus spent his last hours with his disciples, he said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you” (John 16:23). Then he told them further, “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (16:24).

What an incredible statement! As this scene took place, Christ was warning his followers that he was going away and he wouldn’t see them for a time. Yet, in the very same breath, he assured them they had access to every blessing of heaven. All they had to do was ask in his name.

“Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest’” (Hebrews 3:8-11).

Do you know Christians who always complain about how inadequate they feel? They constantly belittle themselves and compare themselves to those they admire, thinking, “I’m nothing like him. It’s hopeless for me.”

You may remember the Old Testament story of the Israelite spies sent to scout out the Promised Land. They came back saying, “Yes, it’s a land flowing with milk and honey, but it’s also full of giants and walled-up cities. We’re not able to go up against these people. Compared to them, we are mere grasshoppers” (see Numbers 13).

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

The Bible tells us very clearly that in these last days, the Church of Jesus Christ faces the wrath of an enraged devil. Satan knows his time is short and he is bent on devouring God’s people (see Revelation 12:12). Where does the devil direct his wrath? He is taking aim at families all over the world and his goal is simple: bring ruin and destruction to every home he possibly can.

In the early years of the Church, a great persecution took place. During that awful period, the apostle John was taken prisoner and sent to Rome before being banished to the Isle of Patmos to die. Patmos was a small, desolate place inhabited by only a few other prisoners who had been exiled there.

When John disembarked at Patmos, he was left stranded, forsaken, isolated. He would later write, “I am banished to Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (see Revelation 1:9).

Daniel testified, “Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands” (Daniel 10:10). The word for “touched” here means to violently seize upon. Daniel was saying, “When God placed his hand on me, it put me on my face; his touch filled me with an urgency to seek him with all that is in me.”

You have heard of the prayer of faith but I believe there is a mirror image of this prayer that is based on flesh — the prayer of unbelief. Such prayer is totally unacceptable to God; in fact, Scripture says it is sinful in his eyes.

“If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15, NKJV). Jesus forgave us out of his goodness and mercy and, likewise, he says we are to be loving and merciful toward our brothers and sisters.

“May the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever” (Hebrews 13:20-21). 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul urges everyone to pursue the fullest measure of the blessings of the gospel of Christ. “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift … Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ … To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 4:7 and 13; 3:19).