Did you know you can develop yourself spiritually to the point where you interact with the Lord not just when you read the Bible, pray, or go to church, but when you’re eating breakfast, getting dressed, driving to work, cooking dinner, or doing anything else?
You absolutely can! And you don’t have to be some sort of weird, super-saint to do it, either. In fact, Jesus commanded us all to live that way. As far as He is concerned, that is just basic Christianity. He said:
Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches.
Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.
If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
John 15:4-7, Amp.
Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you! That’s a wonderful prayer promise, isn’t it? But never forget it is made to the person who abides in Jesus and in His Word. And we can only abide through constant fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
The word ask used there has a deeper significance than most people realize. Its Greek meaning implies your will and God’s will are so closely intertwined, when you ask for something, it is because He is asking for it as well.
That’s what happens to praying people who continually fellowship with the Holy Spirit. He begins to put God’s desires in their heart so that when they pray, they’re not making silly, superficial requests based on their own selfish whims; they’re lifting up God’s own desires. They’re praying His perfect will. Yet, they are praying their own will as well because His will has become their will.
This isn’t really surprising. You can see the same thing happen in natural, human friendships. Say, for example, you have a dear friend whose son has run away from home. Day after day you fellowship with your friend about the situation. You weep together about it. You share the sorrow. Before long, your desire for that child to come home grows almost as strong as your friend’s desire. The fellowship and love between you and your friend has caused your friend’s need and yearning to become your own.
That’s exactly what happens as you fellowship with the Holy Spirit. He confides in you the longings of the Father’s heart. He causes God’s own dreams to stir so strongly within you that eventually you find His divine requests flowing from your own lips.
When this happens, you can surely do as Jesus said in John 15: “Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”