“The angel fetched Peter, but prayer fetched the angel.”
A portion of Jesus’ farewell discourse includes the following teaching and promise:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14)
The promise of Jesus to his disciples is “if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” This promise contains four key elements.
- “If.” Simply put, are you asking? In the current situation you are in, whether unusually desperate or fairly routine, are you asking? The Bible contains many promises concerning this asking, “Ask and you shall receive.” Is one such promise. (See Matt. 7:7 and 1 John 5:14-15)
- “If you ask anything.” Jesus does not limit us in our asking. Or to be tricky, he limits us to the degree that he is limited. If you would say to me, “but, Dale, the Scripture asks, ‘Is anything too difficult for God?’” You got me. Ask away.
- “If you ask me anything in my name.” The asking must correspond with the nature of God, the character of Jesus Christ, and be according to the will of God.” And this type of asking brings glory to God and real, genuine goodness to the human parties involved.
- “I will do it.” What a conclusion! Jesus will be active in the answering and his Spirit (see Romans 8) will be working to accomplish it. A helpful question might be, is the thing or the request something you could see Jesus working to accomplish? Get closer to his heart and in your asking you will have greater assurance of an answer.
Let’s close with these relevant verses from 1 John:
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
Have a blessed week and we will see many of you on Sunday.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Dale
