Have you ever heard the ABC’s of prayer – ask, believe, and claim? That’s a pretty good nugget of advice in experiencing God’s promises in your life. And there are literally thousands of promises in the Bible. I would have loved to include a list for you here, but there simply isn’t enough room. God’s promises are an inexhaustible mine filled with wealth. (I will list a few promises for you later, but you really need to search His Word to learn as many as you can. You have all the reason in the world to read your Bible.). Next, you need to ask. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego claimed God’s promise when they said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from your hand, O King.” Did God honour His word? I can see it now – as they were being tied up by soldiers, the three men were probably muttering the promise to each other: “Remember the promise in Isaiah. When we go through the fire, it will not burn us. Lord, you hear that? You said it.” They presented it to the Lord, and the whole world would have had to pass away before God failed in that promise. God miraculously protected them. To receive a promise, we also need to pray in Jesus’ name. “All the promises of God in {Jesus} are yea, and in him” ( 2 Corinthians 1:20). Then you need to believe that God will come through for you. Of course, we don’t deserve a promise based on what we have done, but we can have it on the good name of His Son. How wonderful is the righteousness of Jesus Christ! Your prayer can be as simple as, “Lord, I believe in your promise. I am asking you, in the name of Christ, to fulfill it. Thank you.” When you approach the Father like this, believing in the integrity of His Word, you honour Him, His promise, and His Son. What do you think your chances are of God honouring your faith? I think they are pretty good. Hebrews 11:33 proclaims that His people “through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises.” Now while I have a little room left, let me share some of God’s most powerful promises. The more you read your Bible, the more you will see that the promises of God are like stars. The darker the night, the brighter they will shine for you. The Promise of His Spirit It’s our most important need as Christians: God’s spirit dwelling within us. In Acts 2:38,39 Peter says, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (NKJV). God has promised us His Holy Spirit. When anyone sincerely calls upon the name of the Lord in baptism, God offers the Holy Spirit in the same way it was given to Jesus when He was baptized. Indeed, part of the reason the spirit came down was to empower Jesus for a life of holiness and ministry. God will also do that for you. I wonder how many people have been baptized but have never received the Holy Spirit because they went through a baptism but neglected to claim His Spirit. Have you prayed and asked for His Spirit? Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” ( Luke 11:13 NKJV). If you don’t think you have received the Spirit, it’s not too late. God can provide it even before baptism, as He did with Cornelius, or after baptism, as He did with the Apostles. If you’re still waiting for the Holy Spirit to come, maybe God has been waiting for you to ask. The Promise of Everlasting Life An elderly Christian was in much distress as he lay dying. “Oh, Pastor,” he said, “For years I have relied upon the promises of God, but now in the hour if death I can’t remember a single one to comfort me.” Knowing that Satan was behind this poor man’s doubt, the preacher said, “My brother, do you think that God will forget any of His promises?” A peaceful smile came over the face of the dying believer as he exclaimed joyfully, “No. No! He won’t!” Of course, one of the best promises we can claim is the gift of eternal life. “This is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life” (1 John 2:25 NKJV). Just in case one witness is not enough for you, here is a second: “For this reason He is the Mediator if the new covenant… that those who are called may receive the promise if the eternal inheritance” ( Hebrews 9:15 NKJV ). “Oh,” you might think, “I’m not good enough!” If that’s your fear, stop trembling. God promises to fix that too. He knows you’re not good enough, but He promises to change your heart and prepare you for eternity. And if you lack the faith – well, He promises to give you faith. The Promise for Holy Living While you are believing in the promise of eternal life, believe this: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” ( 2 Peter1:3 ). This is a powerful promise – He has given power in all things that pertain to life, practical living, faith, and godliness. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill promises; these aren’t even just great promises. They are “exceeding great and precious promises.” Through them, we can be “partakers of the divine nature.” Whose nature is that? The nature of Christ Himself. Imagine that! Sadly many want to brush this aside and suggest it means that God merely looks upon you as if you had the nature of Christ. But that’s not what it says. “By these ye might be partakers if the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” ( 2 Peter 1:4, emphasis added). Is that clear enough? Maybe it has not happened because you don’t believe it, but the promise is right there. You can live a holy life. Just to belabor the point, Jude 1:24 says, “Unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy”. Do you believe the devil can tempt you to sin? If so, do you believe that Jesus can keep you from sin? If not, then you actually believe that the devil is more powerful than God! Yet if you believe, all things are possible – even sinless living. Of course, you’re not trusting in your own word or abilities or promises. You’re trusting in God’s promises and depending on Him to see you through all things. Total Trust When the apostle Paul was on his way to Rome, a horrible storm overtook his boat. Everyone on board thought they were going to die…. except Paul. For 14 days, the crew had been lost at sea, and now it looked like the ship was going down. They even threw tackling overboard in an attempt to save themselves. Yet here was Paul, totally unfazed. They wondered, “Why are you so calm?” Paul answered, “God said I have to talk to Caesar, and I have not talked to him yet – so I know I’m living through this storm.” God made a promise, and Paul was totally fearless. Instead of trembling in fear, he prayed for everyone else on the boat, and God heard his prayer and saved them. Not one perished because of the intercession and total faith on the part of Paul. You might have been jaded from promises from family members, friends, or even politicians. We sometimes break our covenants with one another, but God does not. He’s In the Next Room Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.” How true is that? If you could know, right now, that Jesus is in the next room praying for you, would you be afraid of anything? Yet McCheyne concluded his statement this way: “Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” Christ lives to make intercession for you. Just because He’s a little farther away and you can’t see or hear Him, He is praying for you to trust in and to receive God’s promises. There is an old rabbinical legend that when Joseph was prime minister to Pharaoh during the Egyptian famine, he emptied the chaff of his granaries into the Nile River. It floated far away in the moving currents. When the people on the shoreline saw it pass by, they were filled with comfort. It was only chaff, but it meant that there was plenty of corn somewhere. They only needed to trace it to its source. God has promises of plenty for you, but you must track them. I hope you will bank everything you have on that truth and begin to read your Bible to locate God’s promises. You need to read them – underline them – and start asking, and believing, and claiming them in your life. No matter what your challenges are, you’ll experience a complete transformation and even total victory. Do you have a problem with your character, a problem with your child, a problem at work? God can take care of those. Don’t underestimate the power of range in the arsenal of His promises. Finally, they say that in the contracts of men, “The big print gives, and the small print taketh away.” So what is the fine print of God’s promises? “All things are possible for those who believe!” If you are not in the Promised Land, it’s because you didn’t believe that He could take you there. Unlike the disbelieving spies, Joshua and Caleb did believe. They said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it” ( Numbers 13:30 NKJV ). And God rewarded them the same way He wants to reward you. ~Source: AmazingFacts.Org Article by Pastor Doug Batchelor “The Promises of God”~