This is really a prayer to God the Father, it’s a prayer that has tremendous implications for our lives. This is beautiful prayer which concludes the book of Jude. Jude 1:24-25, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

Jude, I believe is one of the half brothers of Jesus. Jude wrote during a time of great disruption in the church, not only in the area of heretical teachings but in the area of heretical living. And the whole book of Jude is almost a composite about people who are falling; falling into sins, falling out of haven. In verse 5, it talks about the people who disbelieved God in the wilderness and God punished them for their sins. In verse 6, it talks about angels who did not keep their proper domain. In verse 7, it mentions about Sodom and Gomorrah. And then it mentions about Cain and Abel and Korah’s rebellion, Balaam, all these different problems, people with rebellious spirits. That’s the setting of the book of Jude. The book of Jude is full of failures and problems but maybe the fact that God is willing to work with us, in the midst of our problems and failures is a good word. And that really is how this prayer concludes this book, the book seems almost negative of what it talks about with such disruptions. But against the backdrop of men’s failure and men’s inability and men’s rebellion comes a prayer that sets our feet on the rock of the Gospel of grace and the God who called us out of darkness into light.

I’ve heard this prayer used to close many services in churches. This prayer moves me because of what it says about God. But when I started looking at the individual building blocks of this prayer, I got even more excited. This prayer starts with a phrase, “To Him who is able”, there are 3 prayers in the Bible which starts with this little phrase, which emphasizes, first of all, that we don’t worship a God made with human hands, we worship a God who is present and capable and powerful, the creator, beside which there is no other and He is the God that is able to perform on our behalf, in accordance with His own will, anything He desires in His universe. So, it really places God the Father in the position of one who is continually active in our lives, in our world, to accomplish His purpose.

Now, let’s see what Romans chapter 16:25-27 says in that little closing prayer, “Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith— to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.” The same beautiful phrase is used here, these were the building blocks on which Jude was writing his prayers.

There is one more, the book of Ephesians, chapter 3, beginning in verse 20 and concluding in verse 21, this is one more prayer, that Paul comes to pray unto the God who is able, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Now that’s the kind of God we are talking about, a God who can establish us in the Gospel, a God who can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. Now this same God is the God, who in the midst of a record of falling, in the midst of a record of sin, in the midst of a record of rebellion, can establish His church, His people, on a foundation that no one can move. That’s why it says, “unto Him, who is able to keep you from stumbling”, the word here, ‘keep’ means guard. God is going to establish us in such a way that we are not going to slip. In the Old Testament, David says, “he set my feet on a rock”. Sometimes, we feel that in our lives, we know in our mind that God is able to keep me from falling, we know in our mind that God is here, our faith knows that God is here but still we feel like we are falling. Sometimes that’s where faith has to overcome feeling, in the midst of feeling like you are tumbling through things that have nothing to hold on to. Word of God says, “He is able to hold on to keep you from falling.”

First, He is able to keep us from falling. The second thing, this prayer says is, “To make us stand in the presence of His glory.” The ‘stand’ here is a very interesting word, its used in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 and following, that the Christian soldier, fully dressed in God’s armor can stand against the works of the evil one. The word ‘stand’ is also used in Romans chapter 5:2, “through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand”. It’s also used in 1 Corinthians 15, where it talks about the four aspects of how we receive the gospel. In verse 3 and 4, it talks about gospel is able to make us stand. What is that mean? I think he is talking about position. Sometimes, in our lives, we feel like we are falling, feel like we are unattached, feel like no one cares, is because many Christians don’t understand that who they are in Jesus Christ. If we could ever see the picture of the spiritual truth and vitality of our salvation, totally apart from our own merit and our own works, fully and completely established in the finished work of Jesus Christ, we’ll be able to stand lot better. Because when you know who you are in Him, and you know that no one can pluck you out of His hands, you are able to stand in the face of anything that comes, and you are able to say, “though I die, I am still going to serve Him.” Because really no one can take you of the foundation, which is in Christ, in which we are able to stand.

I love this word, “the presence of His glory”. In the Old testament, to symbolize the presence of God, the Jews were afraid that to see God means death. So, God hid himself, hid himself in a pillar of cloud. It was the symbol of His presence that delivered them from the slavery in Egypt. By day, it was a cloud that covered them from sun, so they won’t get sunburn. By night, it was a pillar of fire that lit up the camp. It was that same great pillar of cloud that came down on Solomon’s temple and filled the whole temple on the day of dedication (2 Chronicles 7:1-3). It’s the same cloud, I believe, that when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up in Isaiah 6, he says, “smoke filled the temple”, it was the sign of that cloud. I believe, in the New Testament, when the cloud overshadowed Jesus at His baptism, and the voice spoke out of haven, that’s the same cloud of the presence of God. From the mount of transfiguration, Mathew 17:5, cloud overshadowed them, and the voice spoke out of cloud again, and God again was symbolized in that same cloud. It’s the same cloud I believe that brought Jesus up from disciples’ site on mount of Olive. That’s the same cloud in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, it says, He is coming back with Holy Angels and the clouds of haven. It’s the symbol of presence of God. The Rabbis used to call it ‘the Shekinah’, which is a Hebrew word means ‘to dwell’. So, the word Shekinah meant, “God dwelling with us”. That’s exactly John 1:14 says, “Jesus is the incarnation of God”. Jesus is the symbol of God dwelling with us. To put it another way, Jesus is the physical Shekinah, glory of God. Hebrews 1:2 says, “Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory”. To see Jesus is to see God. We are going to stand in the very presence of God because of what God has able to do for us through Christ. There are some days that I feel afraid to stand in front of God. And it is good to know that we stand in front of God, not in our own goodness, but in the imputed robes of righteousness of Jesus Christ. God took Him, who knew no sin, made Him to become sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He is able to keep us from falling. He is able to make us stand in the presence of His Glory. Now, look at the rest of the prayer that how we are going to stand, “blameless with great joy”. Ephesians 5:26-27 is a beautiful passage of comparison between a husband and a wife’s love, there is an analogy between Christ and the Church. And it speaks in that beautiful analogy about the church without spot or wrinkle or any such things as she stands before the Lord. While I looked at the old girl, she’s got few spots, and a few wrinkles, and a few problems, as the book of Jude shows. But when Father looks through the ministry of Son, He sees His people; bright, shining, sinless, perfect, complete with no spots and no wrinkles.

Thanks be to God who is able and willing. He is not only able and willing, but He is ready. Is there anything keeping any of you today, from knowing the stability that this prayer can bring in your life in the midst of problems and disruptions and discouragement. I think there are many people who believe that God is able, there are many people who believe that God is willing to most people but just not willing to them.

I don’t know what you are going through, I don’t know what problem you are facing. But I want to tell you this, the God who is able, knows what you are going through, and the God who is able has provided a way to all your needs to be met in His Son. And the God who has provided a way is standing and calling you to come under Him. Maybe you don’t know this God today. Maybe you come to church all your life and you could pass a theology test and you’ve read the Bible and you attend church, but I want to know that do you know this One who is able and ready? Do you trust in Him? Do you talk with Him? Do you really have all of your hope of haven planted in Him and in Him alone? If you don’t my friend, I believe God’s love has made it so simple that, “whosoever come by a simple act of transference of faith to Him”, can know the joy and the peace of God. And God will establish you and no one can tear you down. And in those days of trials and pressure and problems, no one can get to you because the God who is able, has planted you and cleaned you and provided everything you need. Do you know this God, who is able, willing and ready?