So my question doesn't pertain to salvation, but rather the Christian life.
If a person believes God wants to bless them with some material possession, ministry, or other thing and truly has faith for that item or thing, will they get it if it was never God's intention for them?
For example, someone wants to be a pastor and has faith to be such even goes to school for it, but God's purpose was something else. Will that person, who is full of faith, be blessed in spite of God's plan?
The claim is that faith leads to answered prayer. Somehow, the message coming through that persistence is a virtue.
It goes like this:
1. God wants to destroy Israel, but Moses through persistence causes God to change His mind.
2. The Judge wants to delay justice, but the persistence of the widow causes Him to give her whatever she is pestering Him for.
3. The desperate mother knows that Christ has come only for the house of Israel, but her finding a loophole is appreciated by Jesus, who praises her for her confidence in His consideration for “dogs”.
I don’t know if this is still taught, but there used to be a view called the permissive will of God, where God decrees an outcome to a situation, but because of the persistence of the pleader on God’s mercy and love, He permits a change on His decretive will. It’s a teaching based on very shaky grounds, on so many levels.
However the theme that CAN be seen in the Scripture is this:
1. A person is called out of serving the world/mammon/Egypt.
2. He agrees to serve God instead, because God promises him better results: permanent treasure, bread that fills without the eater being hungry again, milk without cost, eating fruit from trees planted by others.
3. He succeeds or fails, when tested.
Did God call Abraham, Israel, Jesus out of Egypt/the world/from serving mammon?
Yes He did:
Matthew 2:15
15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON."
Did they obey?
Yes they did.
Acts 7:4
4
So Abraham leftthe land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Afterhis father died, God brought him out of that place, intothis land where you are now living.
Next God tested those who repented, meta noia, changed their leader, switched from serving the world for fake wages, treasure that rusts, bread that doesn’t fill, to serving Him for eternal treasure. It’s called drinking from the Rock.
How did He do it?
God put them in dangerous situations and then rescued them.
Did Israel betray God in spite of being shown in those trials that God could and would deliver?
Yes, she did, she demanded to go back to Egypt, because she claimed she got her basic needs there, and some luxuries, without putting the lives of she and her children in danger. When she was warned not to go into battle without God, she took the presence of God with her for granted, put God to the test, and tried to defeat the enemy on her own. but failed.
Did Abraham betray God in spite of being shown God could and would deliver? In the beginning, Abraham did not behave loyally to God, but when God showed him He could and would deliver His followers, Abraham put his entire faith in God.
Did Jesus betray God in spite of being shown God could and would deliver? No!
When God deprived Jesus of food and water, He did not use his power to create bread but He held to the truth that man does not live on bread, but every word that comes out of God’s mouth.
Matthew 4:1-4
1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
3And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
When God placed Jesus on a high building , He did not use His power to save Himself, but held to the truth that God’s help should not be taken for granted.:
Matthew 4:5-7
5Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
6and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and
‘ON
their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
7Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
When God tempted Jesus with all the power in the world if He served the world, Jesus refused to serve the world but held on to the truth that only God was to be served.
Matthew 4:8-11
8Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;
9and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”
10Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
11Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and
began to minister to Him.
So is a person who asks for worldly things loyal to God?
Well Jesus put the Kingdom of God first and all the other things were added to Him, so that should be our example.
Is it bad to ask for a job if we are unemployed?
Well Jesus said no one could be His disciple unless they gave up everything and followed Him. Asking for a job seems to be not going in the same direction as following Jesus.
Luke 14:33
"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Is it impossible to have eternal life if we do not give up everything and follow Jesus?
Well Jesus said we could ask for terms of peace if we counted the cost and found out couldn’t pay the price.
Luke 14:25-33
25Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them,
26“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
27“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
29“Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31“Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand
men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32“Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33“So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Is asking for terms of peace mean asking for an extension of the time to pay the price?
Asking for terms of peace is making friends with those who have entered the Kingdom using unrighteous mammon, so that when lose our jobs anyway because we have started out following Jesus we will be welcomed to eternal dwellings.
Luke 16:9
9 "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Of course if you don’t believe that you have to chose between depending on the world to fill your belly with fake bread, and depending on God for Bread from Heaven. then you wouldn’t even want to think about such things. No one asked you to repent, meta noia, and indeed you haven’t repented. So it’s not a thing for you to think about. In other words, this message isn’t meant for you.