d therefore it is ours) and then we
shall have the actual experience of that which we have asked. When the
Revised Version came out, I was greatly puzzled about the rendering of
Mark xi. 24. I had begun at the beginning of the New Testament and gone
right through comparing the Authorized Version with the Revised and
comparing both with the best Greek text, but when I reached this passage,
I was greatly puzzled. I read the Authorized Version, "What things soever
ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have
them," and that seemed plain enough. Then I turned to the Revised Version
and read, "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for believe that _ye have
received_ them and ye _shall have_ them." And I said to myself, "What a
confusion of the tenses. Believe that ye have already received (past), and
ye shall have afterwards (future). What nonsense." Then I turned to my
Greek Testament and I found whether sense or nonsense, the Revised Version
was the correct rendering of the Greek, but what it meant I did not know
for years. But one time I was studying and expounding to my church the
First Epistle of John. I came to the fifth chapter, the fourteenth and
fifteenth verses (R. V.) and I read, "And this is the boldness which we
have towards Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He
heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know
that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him." Then I understood
Mark xi. 24. Do you see it? If not, let me explain it a little further.
When we come to God in prayer, the first question to ask is, Is that which
I have asked of God according to His will? If it is promised in His Word,
of course, we know it is according to His will. Then we can say with 1
John v. 14, I have asked something according to His will and I know He
hears me. Then we can go further and say with the fifteenth verse, Because
I know He hears what I ask, I know I have the petition which I asked of
Him. I may not have it in actual possession but I know it is mine because
I have asked something according to His will and He has heard me and
granted that which I have asked, and what I thus believe I have received
because the Word of God says so, I shall afterwards have in actual
experience. Now apply this to the matter before us. When I ask for the
baptism with the Holy Spirit, I have asked something according to His
will, for Luke xi. 13 and Acts ii. 39 say so, ther