QUESTION: Will you please explain the passage in John 16:2323And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. (John 16:23), "And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you." To what time does "that day" refer?
ANSWER: To the present time. The meaning is that which the Lord further explains in verse 26, that they would not have to come to Him with requests, as if the Father were inaccessible to them, and they needed Him to go to the Father for them, but they would be able to go directly to the Father in His name—in the consciousness of the new and blessed place of acceptance in Himself, which by the Spirit they would have. It must be remembered that this is a question of approach to God as such, not a denial of the fitness of addressing the Lord also in prayer in due time and place, still less of worshipping Him, which, as the Lamb, all heaven does.
There is no possible place of distance from sin
but in nearness to God.
There are indeed joys by the way, but the moment
we rest in them, they become, as the quails
of Israel (Num. 11), poison.