Whatever...

I realize that the word whatever brings to mind the image of an obnoxious teenager, rolling her eyes while chewing gum and twirling hair, but that's really not the picture painted in the New Testament.

Think about the meaning of the word whatever...it really means anything, or everything. It is an all inclusive word, and Jesus used it in several key scriptures.

The dictionary describes it as a relative pronoun, used to emphasize a lack of restriction in referring to any thing or amount, no matter what.

Consider how Jesus used it:

"Truly I say to you, WHATEVER you bind [forbid, prohibit] shall have been bound in heaven; and WHATEVER you loose [undo, destroy] on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." [Matthew 18:18]
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and WHATEVER you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and WHATEVER you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." [Matthew 16:19]
"WHATEVER you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." [John 14:13,14]
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask WHATEVER you wish, and it will be done for you." [John 15:7]
"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that WHATEVER you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." [John 15:16]
'For WHATEVER is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? [1 John 5:4,5]

No matter how you look at them, these are promises without restriction of any kind. There are no prerequisites, no conditions, no limitations.

Carte blanche.

Think of it this way...what if the world's richest, most powerful person told you "Whatever you ask for, I'll give it to you...whatever you forbid or allow, I'll back it."

This is exactly what happened! Jesus fully intended to equip us to reign in life by these precious and magnificent promise...He said them, and as God expects His Word to come to pass in the earth.

He gave us these promises for us to use as His Body in the earth! He was without limits, and expected to continue to walk in that limitlessness throughout the ages. We are One Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17]

1 John 4:17 puts it this way: '...as He [Jesus] IS, so also are we IN THIS WORLD.'

This is the very essence of believing you receive when you pray, of believing that all things are possible to him who believes.

It is the antithesis of religious error, which tells us sometimes the answer is no, to embrace the wilderness experience, God may not want to heal/prosper/fill-in-the-blank, blah blah blah.

The Fine Print
What's the catch?

I'm glad you asked.

There are, in fact, a couple of built-in safeguards...just so we don't blow people up on the freeway or send politicians to an ice floe in the North Atlantic.

1) Your requests must be based on the promises of God...this is Bible HOPE.

'For as many as are the PROMISES OF GOD, in Him they are YES; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.' [2 Corinthians 1:20]

Find the promise(s) that pertain to your situation and base your prayers on them. Don't bother praying contrary to His will as found in His written word...you're wasting your breath.

Why is this great? Because He has granted us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them we may become PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE! [2 Peter 1:4]

There are lots of promises in the Book and they are all YES for us! Promises to cover every situation, promises made by a loving Father to His children!

There are even carte blanche promises! Try Luke 12:32, Mark 9:23 & 11:24, 2 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Corinthians 3:21,22, 1 Timothy 6:17 for a start…

2) Love and forgive.

Faith works through, or by, love!

Because God IS love, and His Word—Jesus IS the Word—is love. [Galatians 5:6]

Love is the power in the universe, and faith works by love.

And forgiveness comes from the heart of love.

I realize that this may be hard for some, but we wouldn't be told to forgive if we were not able to do so. Forgive by faith, not by feeling. Decide to do it, speak it out and trust God to heal your hurts.

Choose to love. 1 Corinthians 13 says, in a nutshell, that nothing we do apart from love counts.

It also states that LOVE NEVER FAILS.

If you're in a situation where you could use a little 'never fails' try love.

3) Faith.

'For WHATEVER is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? [1 John 5:4,5]
'Now faith is the ASSURANCE [SUBSTANCE] of THINGS HOPED FOR, the CONVICTION [PROOF] of things not seen...and without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a REWARDER of those who seek Him.' [Hebrews 11:1,6]

That's it, folks. Faith, hope and love...these make up the 'safety catch' on the prayer promises of God.

The good news [get it...the gospel?] is that if you're born again, you're One Spirit with the Lord! You've already got all the faith, hope and love in your inner man that He has! Remember, as He is, so are we in this world...

Power
We're filled with ALL miracle-working power! Unless, of course, the Holy Spirit's prayer didn't get answered...

We don't walk in it because we've had 2000 years of lies to brainwash us out of our power. But it's true, regardless.

And that miracle-working power is Love...God Himself, the treasure in these earthen vessels.

So go ahead. Use the power within to walk in faith, hope and love and believe God for whatever.

It already belongs to you.

Hallelujah!