Ask Means What Lord????

After studying a while one night, only a few weeks after Franklin was born, I found in my Strong’s Concordance that the Greek word for Ask was aiteo (pronounced ahee-the’), which means “a demand of what is due.”  In other words, when God’s Word says, “Ask anything in my name, and I will do it,” it means to “demand what is due.”  Boy, was that heavy!  In my church and in my denomination, that was close to blasphemy or heresy.  I mean, “to demand of God” was unheard of! 

Finally, about midnight, I went to bed, saying, 

“O.K., Lord.  You’ve got to reveal this to me! I’m very confused.  I know that if your Word says to demand what is due, that it means what it says, because I believe that the whole Word is Truth!  But, Lord, ‘to demand of you’!”



               Illustrations by Beth Switzer in Teddi's book,

                       The Inner Woman of the Heart

 About 2:30 a.m., my precious baby, who was screaming at the top of his lungs, awakened me.  As I leaned over to pick him up, I heard my Lord say,

 “Teddi, Franklin is demanding what is due!  He is your child, and he is hungry.  Does that make you angry?”

I answered, “Of course not, Lord.”

He said, “Neither does it make me angry when you demand what is already yours from me.  You are my child just as Franklin is your child, and, it is my responsibility to supply all your needs, just as it is your responsibility to supply all of Franklin’s needs. 

I have equipped you to meet your children’s needs, just as I AM equipped to meet all your needs.”






Another illustration by Beth Switzer from Teddi's book, 
 The Inner Woman of the Heart





   Wow! What a revelation!  The next day He continued 

   to explain to me that when my older sons, Timothy 

   (11½) and Ted (8), say, “I’m hungry, what’s for

   dinner?” that I was wrong to feel anger or 

   resentment. They are only demanding what is due. 

   It is my responsibility as their parent to supply their

   needs.

 In fact, He said, “Meet all your children’s needs but only give them the desires that will not hurt them. I mean that as you delight in my WORD, I will place my desires in your heart.  So, as your children learn the WORD, I will place my desires in their hearts.”

                

I said, “Lord, what if I can’t meet their needs right then when they ask me?”

           

The Lord said, “I do not ask you to do anything that I have not first equipped you to do, or provided the means for you to do it.  Your children’s needs are your needs, and I shall supply all your needs by my riches in glory just so long as you obey my WORD.”

   THE DOER OF THE WORD REAPS THE HARVEST!