John 15 (Eight) Whatever You Ask in My Name

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily word count limit.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.  

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you,” (John 15:7). How long have I been waiting for this verse. Now I can ask the Lord for my Ferrari, my mansion and my yacht that I always wanted – just joking. If only it would work like that. How many of us do however think along these terms? Those believing the prosperity gospel certainly do.

However, when we look at this verse carefully we will see it is first of all written in the context of the branches bearing fruit and it also starts with the words ‘if you remain in me and my words remain in you’. So what does Jesus then mean? If we are branches linked to the vine, which is Jesus, with His sap flowing through us and if we therefore remain in Him and His words remain in us, what do you think our desires will be? Will we desire a Ferrari, or lots of worldly power or riches? Personally I would love to drive a Ferrari simply because I love to drive a car fast, but to own it would make me feel uncomfortable as a Christian because I would always feel I could have used the money for better purposes in the Kingdom of God. So even if I am given a Ferrari, I probably would take it for a nice spin or three and would then sell it so that I could spend the money better. Why would spiritually minded Christians do it? Simply because if Jesus’ words remain in us, we would desire His desires - the things He would desire.

What would we then ask Him for? We would ask Him for things we need to be fruitful such as patience and the other fruit of the Spirit, deliverance from sin, a word of knowledge and wisdom, opportunities and even for money, but money needed to build the church and the Kingdom. We would basically ask what the Lord’s Prayer guides us to ask.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen (Matthew 6:9-13).

I am allowed ask for a Ferrari, but I will have difficulty to fit more than one passenger in for transport to church or a gospel meeting and we might just be way too early for the meeting. So I doubt if God will consider it a necessity – just maybe He provides a red bus.

There are many scripture references in the Bible relating to asking and receiving, but all of them refer to asking according to God’s will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him,” (I John 5:14, 15). With all due respect dear reader, God’s main purpose in life is to build the Church and therefore His Kingdom and the main reason why He cares for us is so we can help Him doing just that.

What am I saying? If we have selfish motives, the only reason God cares for us is because He is love and faithfulness – He cannot be different. However, if we ask according to our selfish motives to satisfy our own desires, but stay passive regarding His Kingdom, in other words stay disobedient, He has no obligation to answer our prayers with a ‘yes’. All his promises are conditional and I am confident that, if we study the ‘ask and you will receive’ promises in context, we will discover just that – it usually relates to what we need for the Kingdom work.

Another thought that crossed my mind links up with our teaching regarding the sap and the water tank discussed previously. What we receive need to be given away for us to receive more. If we receive revelation we need to give it away, if we receive money we need to give it away to receive more, just to give away again (like in George Muller’s life testimony). The same applies to encouragement, love, mercy and so on. We are back to the branches and the sap – we are actually just canals in God’s service. It has got nothing to do with what is called the prosperity doctrine. The idea is not to enrich self, but to allow God’s provision to flow through us as a canal so that the Kingdom can prosper and grow. Is God’s Word not wonderful?

Lord, please help me readjust my focus.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.