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JOHN 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Some folks think that when we pray, we should always ask for God’s will to be done… Must we always say, “if it be thy will”? Should we always say “the will of the Lord be done.”? NO! …That’s not in the Bible! That is theology… It’s denominatinalism… It’s Sunday School literature… What the Word does tell us is “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.“ (John 16:24) “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.“ (John 14:14) “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
So, what the Bible does say is that when we pray according the the Word of God, then we can expect to be heard. (1 John 5:14). When we ask according to the will of God (which is His Word), then it is His good will and pleasure to give us the desires of our heart. (1 John 5:15)
Now, we can believe that God does give us the desires of our heart… He doesn’t “impose” His will upon us and just give us what He wants us to have… but He gives us the desires of our heart… (I mean, if He only gave us what He wanted us to have, then what would be the point of “asking” Him for anything? It just doesn’t make sense, does it?)
Here’s the key though… God puts those scriptural desires into our heart to begin with… If you have a desire to go on a missions trip to Ecuador, for example, you can be sure that Satan didn’t give you that desire, …it had to come from God. So you simply have to ask Him to open a door, fund the trip, make it happen… and it certainly is His good will and pleasure to do so…
See how it all works? We don’t need to pray “If it be thy will”, because it already is… You just speak it into existence… ask according to the desires of your heart. The Word is not so complicated as many people seem to think. He is the One who said “Ask and you shall receive” (John 16:24) The Word clearly tells us how to do it… “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
Selah,
Rick & Sandy
thelambsway.org
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