Ask Jesus

By James Doss

There are a whole lot of us, who secretly wonder as to why God doesn't say yes more often. Statistically, it seems that there are some people, who seem to have their prayers answered a lot more often than others. While for others, heaven seems to be awfully silent towards their hard-pressed requests. By logical deduction you cannot help but wonder, "Does prayer make any difference, does it change things? if so when, or how?"

The answer is an overwhelming yes! Yes, prayer does change things but it might not always bring about the changes we are expecting. God does not say "Yes" to our every request, but desiring that His will be done before our own, changes us. Which is the most important change of all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Doss
• Release date: May 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201293925

Book preview

Chapter I

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU

JESUS

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Luke 18

⁴¹ What do you want me to do for you?

T

he Journey may be long and the journey may be arduous, but the journey isn’t without a cause or reason or rhyme. You may run into a roadblock, or you may run into a brick wall; you may toss and turn, only to find out that time and tide have just whisked past you.

You ponder over what could have been or what should have been and some more time simply speeds past you. In the interim, life’s challenges keep piling up, and you barely manage to cross one hurdle only to find out that there remains a never-ending series of hurdles to be crossed.

Some become overwhelmed and throw in the towel, some lose themselves to addictions of all sorts, and mankind turns to coping mechanisms.

This may not be your situation or scenario at hand but know this: we are by design and purpose meant to live life victoriously, and that victory both of the temporal and the eternal can never be ours unless we know the one who holds the key to all of life’s hurdles.

Allow me to lead you, by faith, to see the powerful yet gentle, the strong yet tender hands of the Almighty GOD, leading and directing you through the ups and downs, the treacherous quagmires of life.

Those hands hold you together in one piece as if you were his most precious possession, and allow me to boldly declare with strength and conviction that you are HIS most precious possession in all the world.

He comes and stands before you and asks the one question that can redefine the foundations of your life as you know it, make it worth living and pursuing, and make those hurdles of life into an exhilarating roller-coaster ride.

The question that can give you the strength and courage of heart, and the wisdom beyond your wildest expectations, that can enable you to challenge every area of your life and allow you to live life with passion.

Are you ready to make that kind of a transition, a transition that will make your life not just exciting but even thrilling?

And this will be the case, not just some of the time but all of the time. If you are ready, I implore you to bring your life to a screeching halt.

Only then will you be able to hear the crystal clear voice of our maker and Savior The LORD JESUS CHRIST ever so gently asking you, WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?

Everyone who came into contact with this question from JESUS was never the same again. Their lives were completely and irreversibly changed forever.

The man with the withered hand was no longer called the man with the withered hand, if anything he was now the man with the perfect hand, or maybe he was even referred to as the hand model of Jerusalem.

And even the blind was no longer the blind, the lame were no longer the lame, the deaf were no longer the deaf, the unclean were no longer unclean, the leper was no longer the leper, and even the dead were no longer the dead after their encounter with JESUS.

HE remains the author and finisher of our faith.

Be bold and courageous and answer the question with all the faith you can muster and watch the words of JESUS transform your life. HIS question to you and me is this, What can I do for you?

GOD blesses you richly as you seek to answer HIS question with all the faith your heart can muster up.

________________________________________________________________________

Luke 18

⁴¹ What do you want me to do for you?

Lord, I want to see, he replied

Courtesy of: Zondervan and Biblica.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica All rights reserved worldwide.

Chapter II

What can he not do for you?

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JESUS asked this question What can I do for you?  to the blind, to the lame, to the crippled, to the leper, to the needy, and to the parents or relatives of the dead. Overall, a whole lot of people.

And in every one of those circumstances, JESUS knew what the person standing in front of HIM needed. HE most certainly knew more than they knew, yet HE always gave them a chance, a choice if you will, to respond.

And there they stood before the Almighty. Freeze frame that moment in time and think about it. The GOD who made the heavens and the earth standing before you, and you somehow know that HE can deliver whatever it is that you came to HIM for.

People have left the crowds behind, torn open the rooftops and managed to get HIS attention, and have finally managed to come face to face with the creator of the Universe.

And HE doesn’t ask them What are you doing here? HE doesn’t ask them, Who do you think you are barging in like that? Nor does HE order them to stop. If anyone could have asked them to stop it would be HIM!

HE doesn’t even blame them for being needy, but instead, HE understands their need for HIM and HIS salvation and HIS healing touch.

And so, I say to everyone who makes a sincere effort, to somehow drag themselves to HIS presence, HIS question has always remained "What can I do for you?"

I put myself in their shoes and I ask myself, how would I answer that question?

The answer that could alter my being at a very fundamental level. An answer that could change my identity forever, how would I answer that question?

I could think of so many things that I could begin to ask HIM. I thought of asking HIM to help me win the lottery, but then the thought that overwhelmed me is, What is money? Here is JESUS asking me what I want, I could ask HIM for the milky way galaxy, or two or twenty-three of them, and it would be no problem.

And so the amount of money I could ask HIM seemed puny and small. Then I thought I would ask HIM for good health. Once again the thought came to me saying, So what? You are in great shape, you are so tough and you’ve become so strong.

As I live and breathe, I remember Samson. Oh he was so strong beyond reason and his strength got him nowhere but right into the hands of trouble, and before he knew it they were digging out his eyes and throwing him into prison.

Sure he was in good health! But the more I read about the life and times of Samson, I don’t see him having a peaceful life. He was always getting into trouble of some kind, getting constantly attacked by his own people as well as the folks around him. And finally, his ultimate achievement in life was the fact that he killed more people on his way out than when he was alive. 

So health is out of the question, and so what about fame and popularity I thought to myself! I thought it certainly would be so great to be immensely popular. Wherever you go people would come out from far and wide shouting and yelling and perhaps even screaming your name, whoa! How great would that be?

And then I got to thinking about that. Well, let's see, who are some of the people like that right now and what is their lifestyle like. You often hear about these incredibly famous people and how they could never enjoy the simpler things in life, like going to the mall perhaps. They may have to wear a mask or a beard, or risk getting noticed. They may have to cordon off an entire section of the shopping center and then they go in and pretend to be normal.

You might have people stalking you, and writing to you, and in short, never leaving you alone. I remember stories of rock stars who stole the hearts and minds of their listeners and wished they could take it all back just so they could be left alone to enjoy their private life. 

And so I thought, should I ask the ALMIGHTY from whom I could ask anything, for fame and popularity. I mean I could ask HIM for anything, yes, that’s right anything! Anything my eye could see or my heart could wish for.

I am beside myself and I am still thinking, what would I ask for? What is the one thing that I know that would really be a blessing to my life, what is the one thing that would help me enjoy life to the fullest?

Then I had a hah hah moment, I said to myself, I know! I‘ll be like Solomon of the BIBLE and ask GOD for wisdom. It sounds so right and sounds like such a perfectly splendid BIBLICAL response.

So I went out and carefully considered Solomon’s life, granted he was a wise man, and granted he did a lot of interesting things, but he also did a lot of stupid things.

One of the more questionable things Solomon did was have over seven hundred wives, and that is about seven times our church’s attendance on a good day. I can’t imagine if they were all one man’s wives! The thought that goes to my head is Are you kidding me?! How can that person be considered wise?

And in my mind, I played out a scenario like this: Solomon is out and about one day, sees a beautiful damsel, and he decides to ask her to marry him. Why not? After all, he is the king.

And so Solomon says to the damsel, So what do you say? Would you like to be my seven hundredth and first? And the beautiful damsel turns to him and says, But Solomon! Honey, I am already married to you.

The question I was asking myself was, how did Solomon keep track of who was who and what was what? I have one wife and I have a hard time remembering anniversaries, birthdays, and other days that my wife thinks that I should have etched in my brain. I haven’t and I don’t plan on it.... But I digress.

I think Solomon needed all that wisdom just to keep his head screwed on straight amidst his many wives. 

However, all of his shortcomings aside, I also think that Solomon was indeed a wise man and did many wise things. His wise sayings are certainly part of Biblical wisdom literature.

And not to forget his one major project of building the temple in Jerusalem. Such a monumental undertaking, and if anything, he had to be wise to get that accomplished. But when I look at the entirety of his life and consider it carefully, I am unsure if wisdom is the one thing I want to ask of GOD either.

I am not sure that I want to end up like Solomon, the way he ended up in his later years. He ended up worshiping idols and serving the gods of the neighboring countries. And he upset THE GOD OF ISRAEL so much for doing just that, so much so that the GOD OF ISRAEL took an enormous amount of his kingdom away from his family after his lifetime.

And so, as highly as wisdom is rated among the things to seek, I am not sure if that’s the one thing that I will be asking