Ask Anything

What, then, did Jesus mean when He said we could ask “anything in [His] name and He will do it” (John 14:14)?  It means the same for us as it did for Him.  In His own prayers Jesus always asked for God’s will to be done, even in the most trying circumstances of His life: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

The Father was glorified by the work the Son did in His name (John 17:4).  Likewise, the Father will be glorified when we do His will, and Jesus commits Himself to helping us accomplish just that: “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

And the way we learn to pray according to the Father’s will—praying prayers that Jesus can answer—is by abiding in Christ.  Jesus made the same promise to answer prayers in John 15:7, where He said He would respond if we abide in Him and if His words abide in us.  In other words, the promise is conditional: its fulfillment depends on our living intimately with the Son of God and learning to pray for the same things He prayed for, the execution of God’s will.  Those are prayers the Father always answers.

So if there is a spiritual mountain in your life—or a great wall of injustice and oppression that needs to come down—you will likely wear down that mountain at the same rate that you wear out your spiritual knees in prayer.

David Jeremiah, Signs of Life, p.  122