Student Study Guide
Chapter 7
Ask What You Desire
Section 1 — Ask What You Desire
Section One
After planting a small, Spirit-hungry church in Corona, California in 1999, the Lord told Steve during a prayer drive to take spiritual authority over one of the city's high school football fields and cover the students in prayer - even though a much larger church was two blocks away. "No one is covering these campuses," God said. "I need you to do it." Steve went regularly, praying over the campus until he sensed a breakthrough. Then he asked God for a strategy to reach the students. God did not give him a curriculum. He said simply, "Make something. Whatever it is, I will bless it."
Steve and his team put together a short, simple four-question survey to open gospel conversations outside the campus. In four months, over eleven hundred students gave their lives to Jesus at that school and the other two high schools in the city - not because the survey was brilliant, but because sustained prayer had produced alignment with God's heart, a specific word released them into action, and God joined Himself to the creative process.
Think It Through
God didn't give Steve a detailed method - He gave him a simple assignment and a promise to bless whatever he created. Why do you think God often works this way instead of handing over the whole plan up front?
Your Thoughts
Recall Check
Fill in these details from the story above, from memory.
The Lord said, "No one is covering these campuses. I need you to ___ it."
God said, "Make something. Whatever it is, I will ___ it."
In four months, over students gave their lives to Jesus.
Section 2 — The Staircase Jesus Built
Section Two
Remember From Section 1
"Ask what you desire" is not a blank check. It is the explosive result of getting into ___ with the heart of God.
Jesus was not sharing scattered encouraging thoughts the night before the cross. He was building a staircase, step by step, from the broadest prayer promise to the most specific and personal one He would ever make - John 15:7. Step One opens the door wide: "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do" (John 14:13-14). Step Two adds the condition of obedient love and the Helper's arrival (John 14:15-16). Step Three promises Jesus manifesting Himself personally to the obedient lover (John 14:21). Step Four goes deeper still - the Father and Son making their home in the believer (John 14:23). Step Five promises the Spirit teaching and reminding (John 14:26). Step Six is the Vine and the branches - total dependence (John 15:1-5).
Map the Staircase
| Step of the Staircase | What It Establishes (in your own words) |
|---|---|
| Step 1 — John 14:13–14 | |
| Step 2 — John 14:15–16 | |
| Step 3 — John 14:21 | |
| Step 4 — John 14:23 | |
| Step 5 — John 14:26 | |
| Step 6 — John 15:1–5 |
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
Step One: "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will ___." (John 14:13–14)
Step Seven: "...you will ask what you ___, and it shall be done for you." (John 15:7)
Reflection
Why does it matter that John 15:7 is the TOP of a staircase rather than a stand-alone promise you could lift out on its own?
Your Thoughts
Section 3 — My Words Abide in You
Section Three
Remember From Section 2
The asking flows from the ___.
The word Jesus uses for "words" in John 15:7 is rhema - not the general body of Scripture, but the word that comes alive in a specific moment for a specific situation. That is exactly what Steve heard praying about the high school campus: "Make something, whatever it is I will bless it." Not a general principle. A Spirit-breathed direction that reshaped his desire until it matched the Father's.
In the fall of 2008, visiting his son James at 2 a.m., Steve felt the weighty presence of the Lord arrive mid-conversation. He had learned years before to stop everything the moment he sensed that presence and find out why it had come. He went outside to the parking lot and saw a vision of a church filled with hungry people - the same glory he'd experienced in Corona. Then the Holy Spirit spoke: "The work I started hasn't been completed."
Steve chose, right there in the parking lot, to want what God wanted - planting the Upper Room Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Within fifteen months over five hundred were attending, and in a three-and-a-half year period the church saw over 14,500 souls saved through street evangelism alone - because a rhema word, received at 2 a.m. because Steve stopped to listen, had already reshaped his desire into the Father's desire.
You have now met the word "rhema" twice before without a full definition (Chapters 3 and 5) - the specific word from God for a specific moment, like Isaiah 58:3 dropping into Steve's spirit in Colombo. Now you have it in full: rhema is Scripture's truth turned specific and alive for exactly where you are right now.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
The word Jesus uses for "words" in John 15:7 is .
The Holy Spirit said, "The work I started hasn't been ."
Over three and a half years the church saw over souls saved through street evangelism.
Reflection
Have you ever sensed God's presence arrive unexpectedly in the middle of something else? What did you do?
My Thoughts
Section 4 — He Is Coming
Section Four
Remember From Section 3
Jesus had told Steve: "Whenever you sense My presence arriving...stop whatever you are doing...and find out ___ He came."
Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit five distinct times in the Upper Room. Taken together, the five promises spell out exactly what the Spirit came to make possible - and the five things He does spell the one thing He came to produce: ABIDE.
A – He Abides in You. B – He Bears Witness Through You. I – He Illuminates the Word in You. D – He Declares All Truth to You. E – He Exposes.
"He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever" (John 14:16-17) - not for a season, not during special services, but a permanent, indwelling presence. And when the D.E.E.P. anointing begins to operate and the greater works flow, opposition follows - which is why Jesus immediately promises the Spirit as Witness: "He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness" (John 15:26-27).
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
The five promises of the Holy Spirit spell the word .
"He may abide with you ." (John 14:16)
The Spirit bears witness so the Church can keep doing what Jesus did in the face of .
Reflection
"He is not sent to make your life comfortable." How does that reshape what you expect the Holy Spirit's presence to feel like in your life?
Your Thoughts
Section 5 — He Illuminates, Declares, and Exposes
Section Five
Remember From Section 4
The Spirit floods the written Word with light until it becomes a ___ word.
The Spirit doesn't teach theology from a distance - He illuminates what Jesus said right where you are, right now, until desires get reshaped into the Father's own. And He declares: "He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:13-14) - not whisper, not suggest, but declare with the authority of one carrying a message directly from the throne.
Finally, He exposes - convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-8) - but also exposing what is hidden inside believers. Unconfessed sin, unhealed offense, and hidden motives are not just moral problems; they are prayer obstructions, roots pushing into the soil that pull the branch from the true Vine. The Spirit exposes them not to condemn, but to cleanse.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
"He will take of what is Mine and it to you." (John 16:14)
The Spirit "will not speak on His own ." (John 16:13)
The Spirit will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of . (John 16:8)
Reflection
"The Spirit exposes them not to condemn but to cleanse." Is there anything hidden that you sense the Spirit gently exposing in you right now?
My Thoughts
Section 6 — Why They Still Ran
Section Six
Remember From Section 5
Unconfessed sin, unhealed offense, and hidden motives are not just moral problems - they are prayer ___.
After receiving the greatest prayer revelation ever given to human beings, every one of the eleven disciples ran the moment pressure came. Peter denied Jesus three times in front of a servant girl. By the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection, Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" - the first two times using agape, the self-sacrificing love He'd described all evening. Each time, Peter answered with phileo, the warmth of friendship. He had discovered under pressure that phileo had collapsed, and he did not have agape.
"The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
— Romans 5:5
The agape love Peter lacked before Pentecost - and received in power at Pentecost - is the same agape this book keeps circling back to (Chapter 4). Later chapters will show what it looks like to walk this out long-term, not just in a single dramatic moment.
At Pentecost, the same Peter who cowered before a servant girl stood before thousands and declared with total authority that Jesus is Lord. Three thousand souls were saved that day. The five promises are received in the Upper Room. The power to live them is received at Pentecost. Both are available to every believer right now.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" using the word the first two times.
One More Table
| What It Looked Like | What Was Actually True |
|---|---|
| Steve's outreach at the high school worked because of a clever survey | It worked because sustained prayer produced alignment, and a rhema word released action God had already purposed to bless |
| Where might you be waiting for a full plan from God, when what He's actually asking is for you to bring your creativity to something you already know is on His heart? |
"Ask what you desire. Not the desire you walked in with. The desire the Spirit formed in you through abiding." Write a short, honest response to that invitation as it applies to your life right now.
My Response
Personal Prayer Journal
Write a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reshape one of your current desires until it matches what the Father already wants to give.
Chapter 7 — Practice Test
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Part A: Multiple Choice (5 questions · 2 pts each)
1. What did God tell Steve to do when he asked for a strategy to reach the high school campus?
2. According to the chapter, what does John 15:7's "ask what you desire" actually mean?
3. What is the difference between logos and rhema as the chapter describes it?
4. What do the five promises of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room spell out, according to the chapter?
5. Why did Peter deny Jesus three times despite everything he heard in the Upper Room?
Part B: True or False (6 statements · 1 pt each)
1. God gave Steve a detailed evangelism curriculum to reach the high school campus in Corona.
2. The "staircase" Jesus built in John 14-15 moves from the broadest prayer promise to the most specific and personal one.
3. Rhema refers to the general body of Scripture read devotionally, unrelated to a specific moment.
4. The five promises of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room are named and explained across the discourse, not mentioned only once in passing.
5. When Jesus asked Peter about agape love, Peter answered with phileo.
6. The chapter teaches that unconfessed sin and hidden motives can obstruct the prayer life.
Part C: Fill in the Blank (5 items · 1 pt each)
1. God told Steve, "Make something. Whatever it is, I will it."
2. The word Jesus uses for "words" in John 15:7 is .
3. The five promises of the Holy Spirit spell the word .
4. "He will take of what is Mine and it to you." (John 16:14)
5. Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" using the word the first two times.
Part D: Short Answer (completion credit)
1. Explain in your own words the difference between logos and rhema, and give an example of a rhema word from this chapter.
2. Using the "staircase" Jesus builds in John 14-15, explain why John 15:7's "ask what you desire" cannot be separated from everything that comes before it.
3. Explain the difference between Peter's phileo love before Pentecost and the agape love poured out at Pentecost, and why that difference mattered.
Part E — Before You Leave
A desire I have been asking God for that may still be "mine" rather than Spirit-formed:
A moment when I sensed God's presence and did not stop to find out why:
My commitment this week: