Awaken The Dawn

AWAKEN THE DAWN!

Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 3

Jesus ponders this very thought in three intriguing state- ments, using keys in one of them to illustrate His point. First, consider Matthew 16:19 in the New American Standard:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Jesus’ followers will act as doorkeepers under the will of heaven; hence we will follow instructions already prede- termined by the heaven’s king. 4 Charles B. Williams translates the verse: “…whatever you forbid on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and…what is already permitted in heaven.” 5 When we pray in the will of God, claiming in faith what is already determined in heaven, we will find answers to our prayers. Another reference is mentioned in Matthew 18:18: Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Finally, John 20:23 records this statement of the risen Jesus to the disciples gathered in a locked room:

If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.

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