Ask God

David Conley

May 3, 2014

Welcome, brethren, to this weekly Sabbath we so eagerly wait for each week.

Brethren, throughout the Bible are many examples of people praying and crying out to God in sorrow or thanksgiving, asking for guidance and help. David, in many of the Psalms, is crying out in distress. One such example is found in Psalms 51 where King David is petitioning God for his very survival in God's Family. He asked for his sins to be remembered no more. And in verse 11 he says, Don't throw me away from your presence, don't take Your holy spirit from me. God heard and answered David's prayers.

Hannah, in 1 Samuel 1:11, petitioned God for a son and promised him to Yahweh's service all the days of his life. In verse 17 – Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” Hannah's son was born and named Samuel, which means, “ask of God or God answered.”

Jonah cried out from the belly of the great fish and God heard his cries. Jonah 2:2 he said, I called because of my affliction to Yahweh; He heard me. Out of the belly of sheol I cried; You did hear my voice. Jonah was rejoicing in the fact that God had heard his prayers.

Moses, in Deuteronomy 9:25 ...fell down before the Eternal, praying and fasting forty days and forty nights. He cried out for Aaron and all the children of Israel that God should not destroy them. God heard and answered Moses' prayers.

God knows our needs and desires long before we ask concerning them. He wants us to ask anyway. He wants us to develop a relationship with Him. He knows what will help us, what will hurt us, and what will make us grow as He is creating Elohim. There are things to ask God, and things you should not ask God. Also, there are ways to ask God and ways not to ask God.

God wants us to know who He is, who we are, and that we need to ask of Him. That is what we want to discuss today. So the title for those who would like one is Ask God.

The first point we want to look at today is: Why ask God? Why do we ask God for anything? Psalms 91:1. Firstly, we ask God because we believe and/or have faith that He is the Almighty Yahweh Elohim (or the Eternal) and that He can hear us and that He has the power to answer all of our prayers and petitions. We believe also that He is the highest authority and superior over all His creation and has the power over all things.

Psalms 91:1 – He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. David knew who he was talking to or he was talking about.

Verse 2 – I will say of Yahweh, He is my refuge and my fortress, My God in whom I trust. When we ask God for that which we need and desire we are acknowledging to God and to ourselves who we are in relation to God. I know, as a whole, you all know this, but I felt compelled to add it in anyways. We only pray to God the Father, the Eternal (or Yahweh), the Self-existing One. We don't pray to Mary. We don't pray to Jesus Christ hanging on a cross. But as commanded, we do pray to the Father in Jesus Christ's name.

The next point we want to look at today is: How to ask God. How to ask God...1 Peter 5. We heard, or have heard in many sermons and many times, that we can pray standing, sitting, lying down (just don't fall asleep), thinking out loud, or with just your lips mouthing the words as Hannah was doing. “Windshield time” seems to be a big one these days. I know I spend a lot of time driving back and forth and I get a lot of “windshield time,” and it's not too bad now that they have Bluetooth because people don't look at you like you're funny anymore, like they used to. It can be a long and planned out or just a quick blurb in times of need. But today we want to look at some of the attitudes in relations to how we petition God or ask of God.

The first, of course, is humbly. 1 Peter 5:6 – Humble yourselves. Now, this does not mean to be weak or mealy or cowardly or— and sometimes you even go before God that way, because of sin, usually, your guilt. Moses was, by no means, a weak man, but he was a meek man and a very humble man. It says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all of your worries on Him, because He cares for you. So, we want to go humbly before God with our petitions.

Unselfishly is another one. Turn to 2 Chronicles 1:8. There are a couple of scriptures (let me interject this here), there are a couple of scriptures we're going to look at here in a moment, but it needs to be said God did not and does not promise to give you every whim and desire that we can come up with if we only ask. There are restrictions placed upon it that we will mention in a moment.

2 Chronicles 1:8 – Solomon said to God... in the previous verses God had told Solomon, "Ask what I shall give you." Solomon said to God, You have showed great loving kindness to David my father, and have made me king in his place.

Verse 10 – Give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this Your people, that is so great?

Verse 11 – God said back to Solomon, Because this was in your heart... How did it get there? God put it there. He knew what was in Solomon's heart when He asked that first question, "What shall I give you?" Because this was in your heart, you have not asked for riches or wealth, or honor, nor the life of those that hate you, neither yet have you asked long life; but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may judge My people, whom I have made you king. In other words, "You did not ask for things to spend on your own selfish lusts."

Verse 12 – Wisdom and knowledge is granted to you and I will give you riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings have had who have been before you, neither shall there any after you have the like. So we want to ask God unselfishly. And in asking God there is a good possibility that if you need to be praying for something or for things, it may be lacking in others as well.

Don't turn there but James 5:16 reminds us to ...pray for one another, that you may be healed.

We are instructed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 – Brothers, pray for us. He is talking about the leadership of the Church, that they can be kept in the truth and the light. That was also addressed in God's posting concerning ordinations.

Paul also tells us to pray for all people and the leadership in the world. You can jot this down and I'll quickly read it. 1 Timothy 2:1 – I exhort, therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and giving's of thanks be made for all men.

Verse 2 – For kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence. It is a display of unselfishness and love when we are petitioning God for others, or on the behalf of others.

The next one is, asking boldly. Turn to 1 John 3. We should have a boldness to go before God, and know that He will hear us and answer our prayers because we have a continual relationship with Him. If this relationship is weak because of sin or neglect, this boldness will be missing in our prayers.

1 John 3:21 – Beloved, if our hearts don't condemn us… How is it that our hearts condemn us? Unrepentant sin, guilt, doubt, neglect. Beloved, if our hearts don't condemn us, if we know we are repenting every day of our lives, if there are things happening in our lives and we're going before God because we recognize that sin cuts us off from God, sin has to be repented of. It may be what we consider “small things,” “simple things” that in the course of life we might not even think of it, think about it as sin, but it's there. And we have to repent of these things before God – of all these things – and then we can have a confidence and boldness in our petitions to God.

Once again, If our hearts don't condemn us we have boldness towards God. Verse 22 – And whatever we ask, we receive from Him. Now, that is a very strong statement that is often misunderstood in the Church of God because it has to do with a matter of God's will. Because it has to do with a matter of God's will. If you know there are certain things in your mind that are a matter of God's will, things that you know are His will, you can ask God about these things and you know that they are going to be done. You have that confidence. You just know it. There are other things, sometimes in our lives that we ask, that we have petition and desire for, that may or may not be a part of God's plan and purpose, and it's not wrong to desire these things, but we're not guaranteed to get them based on the statements above. We can certainly ask God to take a look at it, to consider it, certain aspects of our lives that we may want God to intervene or to help us in. He may or may not intervene – His choice – but He knows what is best for us. He knows what is best for our spiritual and physical growth. But about other things that are a part of God's plan and God's purpose and what He is doing in your life and in the lives of others in creating Elohim, we can pray with a greater boldness in these things, brethren, and know that they are going to be done.

Verse 22, again, And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments, we are obedient to Him, we want and desire to obey Him, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. A desire to be pleasing to God. A desire to honor God by how we live our lives towards others. A desire to be a better example to those around us in the world, in the Church, and in our families.

1 John 5:14. It's just forward a few pages. This is the boldness, that confidence which we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He listens to us. Another way of saying this in the English language would be, "When you ask for something, do so according to God's will."

Verse 15 – And if we know that He listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him. These scriptures are not saying that you will get everything you ask for. By all means, in the other direction, certainly you can ask for things (and we will be covering some of those in a moment), but sometimes the answer may just be a simple, "No."

Something that needs to be interjected at this time: You know, brethren, without this confidence we spoke of earlier, we will fail to do our part in fulfilling these petitions to God. We may go to Him and mention them to Him, but without that boldness, we won't act upon them. And many of the things that we ask for from God also require action on our part. If you ask for a job or intervention in your financial situation and only spend 10 minutes looking for a job or 5 minutes bettering yourself to be a better employee or a better businessman, there is a good chance that you're not going to find that help. God wants to intervene for us, but are you seriously doing your part? Are you beating the streets for work if you have asked for a means to support yourself? And that's just a thought.

There are a couple other scriptures, John 14:13, and I think John 16:26 (you can read them later), but they certainly fall under these same guidelines when petitioning God according to God's will and His plan and purpose in creating Elohim. All other petitions you may get a, "Yes," or you may get a, "No."

There are a lot more attitudes that we should consider when petitioning God, and I didn't have these listed in my notes, so I'll just mention them. I mean, it's by no means a full list and you can come up with some on your own, but like, thankfully petitioning God and petitioning God often are just a couple of other attitudes that pop into my mind that I didn't have mentioned in my notes.

Let's continue on. Matthew 6. We have addressed a couple ways to ask God, and there are certainly some examples also in the Bible of how to not ask God, and we will look at some of them now.

Matthew 6:7 – In praying, don't use vain repetitions. Now, I often feel like a broken record when I open my prayers, "I did it again, Father, please forgive me." “Forgive me again..." "Forgive me again..." "And again..." But that's not what's being referred to here. What's being referred to here is “chantings,” scripted or written prayers formula like in nature. And not to pick on any one pagan group or over another, but things like the rosary and “Hail Mary,” and “The Lord's Prayer,” just to mention a few. If you don't know what these are, you're that much ahead. Again, I wouldn't suggest going and reading them or looking them up. Again, In prayer, don't use vain repetitions as the gentiles do: for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Prayer wheels or pinwheels would be another form of this. A disc or cylinder or... I don't know how to describe a “pinwheel,” but except to say “a pinwheel,” would have the chanting's written on the outside and people would come up and spin them or blow on them many times and they actually... they actually believe that spinning these wheels will have much the same merit toward the fact as orally reciting the prayers. And you know, they're right. Spinning those wheels has just as much merit towards or effect as orally chanting or reciting those prayers.

As well, we in the Church, we can fall into a rut with our prayers. You know, the one Mr. Harrell speaks of that's situated on either side of the smooth highway – our prayer life can fall into that same rut and we can find ourselves repeating the same prayer over and over again and again. And this is not what God wants either.

Brethren, He wants us to be excited! If we go to God, if we go before God humbly, boldly, unselfishly, and thankfully, you will have an excitement about you like you do when you meet up with your friends that you haven't seen for a really, really long time and you're really excited to see them. And we need to go to God in that manner. He wants us to come to Him in that manner, not humdrum and repetitive and beat down. You don't want God to see you coming and say, "Oh no! There comes ‘David’ again saying the same old things again! Quick! Lock the prayer doors!"

Continuing on, verse 8 – Therefore, don't be like them: for your Father knows what things you need before you ask Him. You know, discuss the situation with God. Ask Him to intervene or provide for your needs and desires and go on, go on about acting on them and move on.

One guideline of maybe how many times you ask God for something would be an example of the apostle Paul. Let's turn there and read it. 2 Corinthians 12:7 – By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations that I should not be exalted excessively, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted excessively. Concerning this thing, I begged the LORD three times that it might depart from me – and this is where we get, you know, you ask for anointing three times, and well, you go from there. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.

And Paul continues on here. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my weakness that the power of Christ may rest on me. So ask a couple, three times, and go on.

James 4. Here is another example that ties in earlier where we were talking about Solomon's prayers, where he was asking for wisdom to give and to serve others. James 4:2 – You lust, and you have not: you kill, covet, and can't obtain: you fight and make war, yet you don't have because you don't ask. When you're not asking, you're trying to do it on your own, and God is not there. He's not in it.

Verse 3 – You ask and don't receive. And why don't you receive it when you ask? Because you ask amiss, you ask for your own selfish desires. And we humans are...we're a selfish bunch! Once again, verse 3 – You ask and don't receive because you ask amiss, so that you may spend it on your own selfish pleasures. Once again, tying it all together, that just because you ask God for it does not mean you are actually going to get everything you ask for. But He wants you to ask anyway.

Let's turn to Psalms 40. Next, we want to go into some of the things that we should be asking God for, remembering that it is usually more important how and why we ask for something than the thing we are asking for self. The first one to be addressed, which has been mentioned many, many times in recent sermons and it's really important so I want to mention it again, is ask God to keep you in the truth. Ask God to keep you in His truth! You do not want to be in this world without God's truth. The Psalmist had a very beautiful way of expressing his desires to God, and as a note, it has been suggested you read these Psalms if you find yourself short of words in your prayers. Just open up your Bible – you can be on  your knees or just sitting down – and just pick one and read it. You can even use it as a prayer.

Psalms 40:11 – Don't withhold Your tender mercies from me, Yahweh, let Your loving kindness and Your truth continually preserve me. The writer here knew the importance of having God's truth continually and unbroken dwelling in his mind. Mr. Harrell has mentioned many times that once people begin to be cut off from God's spirit that the truth quickly dissipates from them exponentially. I think the term he uses is, “So fast it will make your head spin off." I think that's it. It's like somebody flips a light switch, the electricity stops flowing, the room goes dark immediately. There is no slow dimming affect; it's just gone.

Turn ahead a few pages to Psalms 43. You know, that's the way it is. Just like that electricity, that's the way it is with God's spirit and God's truth – same thing. Once you flip that light switch off, it's gone!

Psalms 43:3 – Oh, send out Your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy hill, to Your tents. Brethren, how do we know we are in God's Church? Seriously! How is it that we know that this is the true Church of God? It is because we have the truths of God. It is the truths of God that show us where we are, who we are. We have them dwelling in us and we have them in the Body as a whole. So ask God to keep you in His truth. Only God can turn that light switch back on if it is turned off, but it takes a lot, and frankly...frankly, we're not seeing it happen at this time. And I'm speaking of those that have been in PKG and had the truth and turned the light switch off. Only God has the power to turn it back on.

There are two other scriptures I found. I took a break and I found two more scriptures I wanted to add here that were not in my notes. But I want to read them because they're pretty important here.

Psalms 91:4 – You can turn there. You're already in Psalms so it shouldn't be that hard. There is a theme here, but I just wanted to read this one verse in verse 4 – He will cover you with feathers, under His wings you will take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler.

And another one, I'll just read this one quickly. Ephesians 6:14 – Stand, therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist. Brethren, this truth, this truth that we have, these 57 Truths that we have will protect you.

The next one I want to cover here is ask God for growth. Matthew 25. Turn to Matthew 25. Ask God for growth to develop a working relationship with God's spirit dwelling in you. When you ask God for growth, what you are asking for in some cases, or should I say many cases, is trials. Growth comes through exercising God's spirit through prayer, studying, fellowship with God's people, but it also comes through trials. Well, a trial comes along and we rush to God and say, "Please God, take this away. Remove this trial. Get rid of this. I don't want it. Heal me." But God uses these trials to point out our problems in our mind, in our thinking, that otherwise would never surface. Trials are like a symptom, sort of like pain. Pain is an indicator in the body that something is wrong. “It's weakness leaving the body.” But no, pain is the indicator in the body that something is wrong, and we always want the pain to go away even when we have not fixed the problem or the cause of the pain. Trials point to our weaknesses and show us the points where we need to grow, or the things that we need to fix. If you are not growing, you are dying. There is no in between. And this is true in both the physical as well as the spiritual realm. Just like muscles (those of us getting older know this, and I'm just beginning to experience some of this, by the way), if you are not working those muscles, if you are not using those muscles, they are dying. “Use it or lose it” is the word on the street. And that's the same with God's spirit. God's spirit demands growth! There is no idleness. There is no neutral. God's spirit demands growth.

Matthew 25. God has given each of us a portion of His spirit according to our abilities. Verse 15 – To one he gave five talents, to one he gave another two talents, to one he gave one talent, to each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. Immediately, he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents. In like manner he also who got the two talents gained another two. They exercised the spirit of God and it grew in them and multiplied like it would on fertile ground.

Verse 18 – But he who received the one went away and dug in the earth and hid the lord's money.

Verse 19 – Now, after a long time the lord of those same servants came and reconciled accounts with them. He who received the five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents, behold, I have gained another five talents beside them. His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. Is this not the very words we want to hear from a loving, all-powerful, all-caring God? Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.

Drop on down to verse 24. Same thing happened with the guy with two talents. Verse 24 – He also who had received of the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter. I was afraid. "I was afraid of what the world would think of me if I kept the Sabbath!" Or, "If I keep these Holy Days, I was afraid that people might look at me weird." Or, "I was afraid to believe that Jesus Christ was created." Or, "I was afraid to belong to a Church whose human leader, whose apostle was in prison." "I was afraid." I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have your own.

Drop down to verse 27 – You ought therefore, to have deposited my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest. Take away, therefore, the talent from him and give to him who has the ten talents.

Verse 29 – For to everyone who has will be given and he will have abundance. But from him who has not, even that which he has will be taken away.

And here in verse 30 – Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. Remember that light switch we were talking about earlier? The outer darkness, how the room goes dark when you stop the flow of God's spirit? God's spirit demands growth! God demands growth!

The last one to be covered is, ask God to provide. And in this one I'm going to lump multiple sub-topics into it. This is not, by no means, a full extent of an extensive list, but more some things that have come up in personal conversations over the past several years, and hopefully things in it will spur you to come up with your own ideas to ask God to provide for.

Ask God to provide means to or to provide the blessing to be able to travel to God's weekly Sabbath services. And if we are to grind that one down a little finer, to pound them down fine, we know that this includes finances to get there, safe travel, your health would be involved, protection from flu bugs and other sicknesses that you can spread during services, and this is a biggie here – a desire to be there! We know that these are pre-arranged appointments with God and we don't want to miss out on them.

One person, no longer here, told me some years back that they did not feel the desire to be there in Sabbath services, but they could just stay home and get everything they needed by listening at home. So ask God for that desire to be in Sabbath services.

And by the way, they've been gone for a while and their light switch was turned off and the room went dark.

Another one would be to ask God to provide a Holy Day offering (Deuteronomy 16:16). And just so that there is no doubting in your mind, this would totally be within God's will for you to ask for. I mean, it's a commandment! You're commanded to ...well, let's just read there. We're reminded of this every Holy Day, so let's just read it.

Deuteronomy 16:16 – Three times a year shall all your males appear before Yahweh  your God in the place where He shall choose... and they shall not appear before Yahweh empty.

Verse 17 – Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God, which He has given you. God has given you everything you have. And you know, the human mind can come up with a lot of excuses why not to give a Holy Day offering to God. But the answer back to these excuses is always, "Did you ask God to provide one for you, if you don't have one?" Even if it's only a penny! If that is all you have for an offering, a penny, and that's all it takes to be obedient to God in this manner.

Along with this one, also, you know, I want to mention that as you begin to obey with Him in this manner, ask Him to provide tithes as well. When you come into the Church, you know, your finances are probably stretched tight, or even if you've been in a while and you've suffered as of late a reduction in employment or a reduction in hours, your hours are cut back, ask God to provide you the means and the wherewithal to pay your tithes and to be able to pay your bills. It may be He shows you better ways to handle that which you have rather than just simply giving you more, and other times He may indeed give you more. But ask God to provide these things.

James 1. Ask God to provide wisdom. Now, Mr. Matthews covered this one very extensively in two sermons titled, Living Wisdom. Turn to James 1:5 – here we go, verse 5 – But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given him. Liberally! You know, He'll give you more than you ask for. But let him ask in faith, with confidence, confidence in knowing that you're going to get it, without doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man and unstable in all his ways.

And to add to that, when you ask for wisdom – and this applies to most things that we have discussed as well – when you ask God for wisdom you need to participate, you need to do your part. After asking for this wisdom (and we need to ask, you can't just go there and read), you need to ask and God will give it to you. But through those studies and as we strive to live it, doing our part, we will gain that wisdom. And Proverbs is a good place to start.

And speaking of Proverbs, let's turn to Proverbs 3. The last one I want to mention today here is to ask God to provide favor. Ask God to give you favor. Ask God to bless the work of your hands that you may find favor in the sight of God and man. Ask for favor in all aspects of your life. If you find favor in small points in life, He usually prevents them from becoming really big points or big bad problems.

There are many accounts in the Bible that speak of finding favor or being favored or given favor. Joseph was given favor in the prison system of that time and given charge over the other prisoners. Moses was given favor concerning the Egyptians, at first to prosper among them, and later to destroy them. And it bears mentioning Esther, Nehemiah, Ruth, David, and so many others, all found favor from God in His eyes as well as the eyes of man. And we are no different. We need God's favor. We are still so close. We are still ever so close to going into some awesome, yet horrific times. They are just ahead of us, just before the finish line, and we are going to need God's favor.

Proverbs 3:4 –  Well, let's read it from verse 1 since it covers more on how to obtain favor. Verse 1 – My son, don't forget My teaching, but let your heart keep My commandments.

Verse 2 – For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

Verse 3 – Don't let kindness and truth forsake you. Here it is telling us what to do with the truth and how to not lose it, how to keep your light switch turned on. Don't let kindness and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablets of your heart. So you will find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Once again, we're going to need God's favor if we're going to survive the coming events just ahead of us. We often need God's favor to survive the waiting period. Well, it's not really “a waiting period,” but a period of continual preparation before these events occur, so don't think of it as a waiting period, and don't use it as such. So be asking God to provide favor in the eyes of God and man.

I quickly just want to cover some items, or list them, as you will, that we have been instructed in the past, that we should not be asking for. Some of these are like, asking God to make your decisions for you. You should rather ask God to guide your decision making ability and bless the decisions you have made. And Mr. Weinland covered that one extensively in one sermon series, How God Speaks, 2006. Excessive blessings to spend on your own lusts – covered here today – don't ask for them. You don't need excessive blessings to spend on your own lusts. You can definitely want excessive blessings from God. Do not ask for trials to be removed, but ask that we rejoice in them and quickly learn the lesson we need to learn, or what defect in our personality it is pointing to. This was covered by Mr. Matthews in How to Pray in 2007.

Another one, asking to be ordained. Don't ask to be ordained, but rather ask God to prepare your mind that in the day He should require service of you that you be ready to fill that spot. If it comes, it comes. And that was covered by Mr. Weinland in 2008.

This list could go on and on and on, and in time more will be given and covered, but I hope that it gives you some pointers and food for thought when judging what and how to petition God. And you can modify this small list and add to it to grow your own personal lists of things to ask God for.

In closing, brethren, turn over to Romans 8:26. Brethren, God knows what we need and what is good for our spiritual growth. He knows what is in our hearts and minds, even when we don't. We don't know our minds. It's amazing how much human nature can hide from us, how much pride and so forth that human nature will hide from our own selves.

Romans 8:26 – In the same way, the spirit also helps our weaknesses. We are weak, frail human beings. Again, In the same way, the spirit also helps our weaknesses: for we do not know how to pray as we ought, and Mr. Matthews pointed out a few years back, that we have to be taught how to pray, that the natural carnal mind does not know how to begin a relationship with God. But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can't be uttered.

Verse 27 – He who searches the heart knows what is on the spirit's minds because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

God wants us to know who He is and in relation, who we are, what we need, and where it all comes from.  It all comes from a loving, kind, merciful, rich God. He owns all things and wants to give all these things to us.

Malachi talks about our barns not being able to hold all the blessings that He wishes to give us, but only after He knows that they won't cause more harm than good.

And I will close with this one last scripture. I will just read it to you in Proverbs 30:8. Actually, Proverbs 30:8...and okay, two scriptures. Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full, deny You and say, Who is Yahweh? Or lest I be poor and steal and so dishonor the name of My God.

Brethren, we need to ask God.