“Called Unto Holiness” - by Jim Tharp, 2009

Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24).

The apostle Paul is writing to Christian believers who have been born again, and in whom the Holy Spirit abides. They have been justified by faith and adopted into the family of God. They have already been counted as righteous in Jesus Christ, who died for their sins. They now have a destiny which they must pursue. They are called unto holiness, not because they are not yet accepted by God, but because they are.

The miracle of regeneration changes our standing with God – we pass from death unto life; we are transplanted from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light; we are transformed from creatures of despair into children of hope with a glorious inheritance.

As lost souls, we responded to the Holy Spirit’s call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As believers, we must now respond to the Holy Spirit’s call to God’s ordained purpose for each of His redeemed children: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29). This change from our old sinful corrupt nature of Adam into the new nature of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, with our consent – with our willingness to die to our selfish desires, our total surrender to the will of God. This change is called sanctification. This sanctifying experience is both a refining crisis and a renewing continuation.

Let us note three conditions on the part of the believer in order to experience the sanctifying crisis as well as the purifying process: ask, obey, believe.

New Testament Praying - by Jim Tharp, 2002

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full… In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. John 16:23-24, 26-28

Jesus’ final discourse on prayer took place within the context of the Paraclete Passages (John 14:15-21; 14:26-27; 15:26-27; 16:7-15). These promises concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit had to do with many things in the lives of Christ’s followers, not the least of which would mean a new economy of prayer. I want us to consider at least four components of New Covenant praying as emphasized by Jesus in His final message on prayer.

Approaching the Father

"In that day," said Jesus, "you will no longer ask Me anything." The phrase "in that day" appears twice in this context, referring to the time when the Holy Spirit will come and influence the praying of believers. When Jesus said, "You will no longer ask Me anything," He was reminding them that He would no longer be with them physically and visibly. But with the Holy Spirit indwelling and illumining and guiding them, they would have no need to ask Him anything. So it would be to their advantage that He depart in the flesh in order to return to them in the Spirit. With the Holy Spirit abiding in their hearts, the Father and the Son would be approachable at all times and in all circumstances. "The Father Himself loves you," Jesus assured them, "because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God." 

No apologies would be necessary in approaching the Father. As His redeemed children, purchased by the precious blood of His Son, we are not intruding or interrupting Him when we come before Him in prayer. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16). The inspired writer here argues for an approach to the Father that is one of confidence because of our standing in Christ. We are not approaching the Father as a stranger but as a blood-bought child who is in favor because of Jesus and what He did for us. Christians, think of it! We are invited to share in that holy intercourse between the Father and the Son and to participate in the intercession of the Son before the Father. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit can be such that we are assured an understanding of how to pray in unity and in sympathy with our interceding Lord. In so doing the will of God is prayed to pass here on earth even as it is in Heaven.

In the Name of Jesus

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said, "My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name" (v. 23). 

All true believers are given the name of Jesus. What a powerful name! In commissioning His Church to go into the world to carry His message and work His works, Jesus wanted His followers to realize that He was not leaving them powerless; they would invoke His name and the Spirit would release His power in and by and through them. Jesus intends us today to operate in the power of His name, just as any company executive would delegate authority to go out and conduct business for his enterprise. The members of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the people of Jerusalem soon learned that the same power by which Jesus had conducted His ministry was present with His disciples for continuing His work. It was "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" that Peter and John ordered the crippled beggar at the temple gate to rise up and walk (Acts 3:6). May a Spirit-cleansed, Spirit-filled Church today return to the same precious understanding and reverent use of the name of Jesus. When it does, we will learn that "the kingdom of God is not in word but in power" (I Cor. 4:20).