God desires to bless us and lead us into His Divine presence of abundance and His Spirit guides us to ask in prayer for His glory and for His kingdom for we are here to further that.
Ask, Seek & Knock-I Receiving Answers to Prayers
Lord Jesus’ promise is categorical, ask and you will receive, seek and you will
find and knock to get the door opened. But not everyone gets immediate answers
to prayers and no one understands the exact way to pray. What is the sequence
and connection of the three aspects listed in the promise and how much each
influences the other is difficult to fathom.
What type of prayer is answered by God – God is never busy, He never
ignores His children’s requests, He never lacks resources, never confused but
always wise, always loving and gracious and He answers with whatever is best
suited to the one who asks. The first clarification about answering prayers is,
‘And this is the confidence that we in Him, that, if we ask anything
according to His will, he hears us’ (1John 5:14). And the second part is, ‘whatsoever
we ask, we receive of Him’ (1 John 3:22). But what defines whatsoever in
this promise? The third parr of prayer is, ‘Whatsoever you ask in My name, that
will I do, that the Father is glorified in the Son’ (John
14:13).
First,
asking according to His will – Scripture reveals two possible meanings
of His will. The first is, what He command us to do or His will of command as
disclosed in the written word; and the second is what He decides to do or His
will of decree. The difference in the two as per the Scripture is, God’s
decreed will is that ‘our God is in the heavens; He does all
that He pleases’ (Psalm 115:3) and ‘He works all things according to the
counsel of His will’ (Ephesians 1:11). Second is thewill
of command, ‘this is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Thessalonians
4:3) and that ‘Whoever does the will of God, the same is My brother and sister
and mother’ (Mark 3:35). But the same act may be right for His decree
but not for His command. The command of God is ‘you shall not kill’ (Exodus
20:13) as compared to His decree, ‘It was the will of the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief’ (Isaiah 53:10). Further to this is the getting
together of Herod, Pilate, Gentiles and Jewish crowds for the killing of God’s
Son to do ‘whatsoever God’s hand and His counsel had predestined to take place’
(Acts 4:27-28). God decreed the death through crucifixion of His Son but it is
against His will of command.
Which
will is linked to prayer in 1 John 5:14? – What God decrees may not be
known to us except through prophetic messages in the Scripture or through His
chosen prophets. Book of Revelation records the events leading to Lord Jesus’
second coming and even He Himself had also warned of these future events. God’s
will of command is expressly mentioned in the Scripture. Joshua is assured by
God of His Divine presence with him; and that ‘no man shall be able to
stand before you all the days of your life; you shall divide as an inheritance
the land which I swore to your fathers’ (Joshua 1:3-9). And the next command is
to ‘obey the law which Moses commanded you (the Torah) and do not turn to the
left or right; the Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth and you
shall meditate on it day and night’. It is not about physical looking at the
Word but about the soul and spirit meditation of God’s Word to obey the same.
Obedience led to Joshua stopping the sun and the moon for a while. We must ask
in obedience to His will of command as explained in the Scripture.
The next integral part of the command to ask is ‘whatsoever we ask, we receive
of Him’ (1 John 3:22) and this is then linked by the Lord to ‘Whatsoever you
ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father is glorified in the Son’ (John
14:13). Thus defining whatsoever you ask is contained in Deuteronomy 28:3-14
where the blessings that will accrue to obedience to His word are listed. Lord
Jesus has also promised, ‘I have come that they may have life, and that they
have it more abundantly’ as part of the same definition (John 10:10). The life
giving status of the Son of God is that ‘in Him was life, and the life was the
light of men’ (John 1:4), the light that separates us from darkness. God made
us alive with Lord Jesus from the death of our sins (Ephesians 2:5) and the
Holy Spirit teaches us all things and reminds us the Savior Lord’s words (John
14:26). We have to seek His Word to understand ‘ whatsoever’ which must provide
abundant life under the guidance of His Spirit and which must glorify the
Father in the Son.
Why invoke
Lord Jesus’ name in all prayers? – Only the
Son of God prayed the prayers that were always answered by the Father and He
has blessed us with the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray and also to pray
for and with us. We are told to seek every blessing in the Savior’s name from
the Father, but why did Lord Jesus give this command? Lord
Jesus commanded ‘ask the Father in My name’ (John 15:16) and Apostle Paul also
repeated this to ‘call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians
1:2). Further we are told to give thanks ‘to God the Father in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 5:20). There are five reasons we pray in Lord
Jesus name for praying in His name is to give Him glory and glorify the Father
in Him and in this way we consciously take up the name of Lord Jesus when we
pray to the Father.
First, He understands our weaknesses– The Scripture is clear that in Lord
Jesus ‘we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without
sin’ (Hebrews 4:15). Also to make us join His Divine family ‘He had to be made
like His brothers in every respect’ (Hebrews 2:17) and thus God became man to experience
all that we undergo to fully sympathize with our weaknesses. Without reducing
anything of His Divine status He added to Himself our full humanity to be our
mediator due to His dual role as God and man.
Second,
as a sufferer He understands human pain – Because ‘He Himself has
suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted’ (Hebrews
2:18). He became man to fully take upon himself the unavoidable reality of life
in a fallen world, the suffering and pain for ‘He has borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows’ (Isaiah 53:4). He underwent the extremes of suffering
right on His journey to the cross and He is our fellow sufferer. Our sufferings
prompt us to pray and we do it in His name who knows what it is like to suffer.
Third, as Lamb of God He paid in full what we deserved for our sin –
God’s Son became the sacrificial offering for our sins and ‘the LORD has laid
on Him the inequity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:3). He died the death that we
deserved and when we pray in His name we acknowledge gratefully what He has
done for us through His shed blood on the cross.
Four, He has opened the doors to heaven for us –
After crucifixion, His resurrection, ascension and enthronement in heaven, He
has opened the doors of heaven for us through the ‘torn curtain’ to take us
right into the presence of God the Father (Hebrews 10:20). We can draw near to
the Father in prayer for the risen Son of God has drawn near to Him in person
with the human body and we as human beings can draw near to the throne of grace
with confidence in Him ( Hebrews 4:16).
Five,
He has restored our relationship with God the Father – As our High
Priest He brings us to God not only as our representative, but also in prayer
and one day soon in person also. Through Him we are no longer strangers but
fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God and have
access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18-19).
Praying
in Lord Jesus’ name is not about uttering the words but is about why and how we
pray and why and how we have any relationship with God. That is also the
reason why God the Father must be glorified in our prayers which are then
answered due to the mediation of our Advocate and High Priest in heaven who
glorifies the Father in everything.
How
should our prayers meet the criteria that the ‘Father is glorified in the
Son’ – Our prayers are answered and we receive for we ‘do those things
that are pleasing to God’ and ‘we ask according to His will’ and both have
conscious submission to His will (1 John 3:22 & 5:14). But what
pleases God?First, ‘Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of
God’ (1 Peter 5:6). In this we admit we can do nothing of our own as our Lord
admitted and in this submission the Father is glorified (John 5:30). Second,
‘we all stumble in many ways. and if anyone does not stumble in what he says,
he is a perfect man’ (James 3:2). What he says is in prayer for we do not
suddenly become perfect in prayer for we are fallible. God is pleased when we
admit this and His Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26). Third,
when we ask in faith without doubting we glorify God and then we willingly
submit to His decision to give what is best for us (James 1:6). Daniel’s three
friends declared in faith and submission, ‘our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the fiery furnace and He will’ but even if He does not we will
remain His worshippers alone (Daniel 3:17-18). Fourth, when we
put across our view before God even if it appears to be challenging Him. After
the Israelites made the golden calf Moses prayed to God to forgive their sin or
else ‘I pray, blot me out of Your book’ (Exodus 32:32). And again Moses cried
out to God ‘if Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here’
(Genesis 33:15). Though both instances it seems to be about Moses challenging
God, yet God was pleased with him. Fifth, God is glorified
when we empathize with others. Lord Jesus cried while grieving with Mary and
Martha while knowing that He was going to bring Lazarus to life shortly thereafter.
He could then say in prayer, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me’
without having spoken anything (John 11:35& 41). Lord Jesus was ‘moved with
compassion and healed their sick’ and then fed them (five thousand men or
families) with only five loaves of bread and two small fish (Matthew 14:14
& 19. God the Father was glorified and heavens were opened by Him to meet
the need as projected by the Son.
Why
our prayers are not answered? – God gives us what is best for
us. A young child in a toy store wants everything that he sees but the wise
parent knows what is best for him and gets that only. In prayer ‘Whatever we
ask, we receive from Him’ where the meaning of ‘whatever’ is decided by the
all-wise loving plan of God for our good, who are His children. Whatever we ask
He may limit or increase, hasten or delay and purify and complete. If we ask
for bread, He will not give us a stone but He may give us pizza or cake or
something better. Likewise if we ask for fish, He as a loving and caring Father
may give us cheese or some other substitute which would turn out to be better
in the long run for our health and our being (Matthew 7:9-11).
God
refines us through our trials and delay in answering our prayers
continues the process of refining, ‘For My own sake; for My own sake I will do
it; for how should My name be profaned?’ (Isaiah 48:10-11). God does everything
for His glory and our prayers are delayed or amended to meet that end so that
we do not cause His name be profaned before unbelievers.
God
does not allow boasting and His resources are infinite, His wisdom is
unsearchable and His love is perfect. Apostle Paul was lifted up into Paradise
and ‘heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter’ but to
avoid any chance of his exalting himself, he was given a thorn in the flesh, a
weakness to fight with (2 Corinthians 12:2-9).
Even
in refusal or delay God desires the best for us for ‘all things work
out for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to
His purpose’. And also that He did not spare His own Son for us ‘how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all things?’ (Romans 8:28 & 32). The
qualifying clause for this giving is ‘with Him’ and unless we seek the Son of
God we may not get the promised all things.
We
do not ask many things in prayer for our own limitations in imagining
all that God desires to give us and ‘you do not have because you do not ask’
(James 4:2). So let us be encouraged to pray while humbly admitting our failures
to glorify God through our prayers. Our prayers are the causes of great
blessings God has planned for us and all that He has decreed for us.
When our prayers are aimed at glorifying God and whatever we ask is for
furthering His kingdom on earth or for the good of His people, the answers will
always be forthcoming. But when we ask for our bodily needs or to fulfill the
‘lusts of the flesh’ God will turn His face away. We are the ‘light of the
earth’ and our prayers must reflect this fact to lead others from darkness into
His Divine light through His Word. God wants to use us as He used His Son for
others and He is then always ready to respond to our
requests.