Throughout human history, people have tried to get their gods, whoever they might be, to do their bidding. Most ancient religions, which were just about all pagan, were built around serving their gods, so that they could get their gods to do things for them. They’d give offerings to their rain god so that they would have rain and to their fertility god so that they’d have a good harvest. Whatever they needed, they’d make offerings to that god, expecting that god to come through for them.
Monotheism, the belief in one god, rather than a plethora of them, changed all that, as the one god was usually the creator and the people who believed in him or her would make all their prayers to that one god. While Judaism is often considered to be the first monotheistic religion, it actually isn’t; the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism is. What made Judaism different though, was that Jehovah God gave the nation of Israel the Law, establishing a standard that the people had to live by.
Judaism, and later Christianity, were never established around the idea of getting God to do what we want Him to, although there have always been people who have tried to make Christianity into that. Yet the Bible doesn’t support that teaching, without ignoring a lot of scripture to pick out the verses which will support the theory that one wants.
The “Word of Faith” Movement
A part of the teaching that came out of the word of faith and prosperity movements is the idea that God will give us anything we ask for, regardless of what it is, whether or not we need it, or how serious we are about our relationship with Him, just as long as we ask “in the name of Jesus.” I’m not sure who actually started that specific branch of teaching; as it wasn’t there during the early days of those movements. But it certainly was there later on. That idea is primarily based on a misinterpretation of something that Jesus said:
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. – John 14:12-13
On the surface, those two verses sound like we can ask for anything and Jesus will fulfill our wildest fantasies. That’s just how some have taken it, even asking for things that go against what the Bible says. Some supposed believers have taken that verse and used it to ask the Lord for any manner of things, just to meet their personal desires. But that’s not really what it’s saying, as we’ll see in a moment.
To start with, people who are taking this verse in that way are ignoring the last half of verse 12, where it says, “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Where is the Father glorified in the Son giving us our every fleshly or material desire? He’s not. He’s glorified when we do His will.
As with anything in the Bible, we have to take those verses in context. That means several different things, like looking at who it was said to and in what circumstances. But the simplest and most important part of context is looking at the verses around it. They will usually give us a strong indication of how to apply what’s said. So, let’s take a look at those verses.
The verse before says:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. – John 14:12
That doesn’t sound like asking for whatever we want, for our own selfish purposes; but rather, asking for Him to do things that are a continuation of His work here on earth. In other words, we can ask Him to do anything through us, that He would have done Himself and He will do it.
The verse afterwards says:
If you love Me, keep my commandments. – John 14:15
That verse doesn’t sound like we can ask for whatever we want either. Rather, it sounds like we need to make sure that what we ask is in alignment with keeping His commandments. If we ask for something that goes outside of His commandments, then we’re not asking in love. Rather, we’re trying to use the Lord to help us sin. That’s not going to work.
What Does “In His Name” Mean?
To clear up our understanding of what Jesus meant by asking for things in His name, we need to clarify just what the phrase “in His name” means. There have been those who have taught that when we pray, we need to end the prayer with the phrase “In the name of Jesus, Amen” or our prayers don’t go to heaven. That makes “in the name of Jesus” sound like magic words, almost like we’re saying “abracadabra” over our prayers. That’s clearly not what Jesus meant.
If we look at this phrase conceptually, we have examples in our modern society of one person talking in the name of another. Any time you hire a lawyer to speak for you in court, they are speaking “in your name.” That means they can only speak in agreement with your will and your desires. Failure to do so, saying anything other than your will and your desires, as you have directed them, is considered a breach of your agreement, making it grounds for dismissal of the attorney.
The same can be said for an ambassador, stationed overseas, and speaking on behalf of their country. They have no right to speak their own mind, giving their opinion. Rather, all they can do is speak “in the name” of their government or more specifically in the name of their government’s leader. Saying anything else to a foreign power is grounds for immediate dismissal.
Jesus isn’t going to dismiss us if we say things “in His name,” which aren’t truly in His name; but we can’t expect Him to do things, just because we are saying that we are doing them in His name. Rather, we need to make sure that when we ask in His name, we are truly asking in accordance with His will and desires. How do we do that? By making sure that our prayers are in agreement with what it says in the Bible; that’s where His will and His desires are recorded.
What Jesus was clearly telling us, is that when our prayers are in accordance with His will and desires, we are speaking “in His name,” just as He spoke in the name of His Father. Then, just as He was sure that His Father would complete what He said, we too can be sure that He will complete what we say.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. – John 5:19
What Will God Give Us?
This isn’t to say that God won’t give us anything or that we shouldn’t bother to ask. The Lord’s Prayer includes a line showing that we are to ask that God meet our needs. At the same time, we’re not to fixate on that, as it is the shortest part of the prayer. Besides, it’s not like God doesn’t know what we need. He created us, and created this world we live in, so that it would provide for our needs. Jesus made this point, right before giving His disciples the Lord’s Prayer.
“Therefore do not be like them (the heathens who pray with vain repetition). For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. – Matthew 6:8
We can rest, confident that God will give us the things we need. That’s not to say that we won’t have to work for them; but God, in His infinite grace, will make up for where we fall short, helping to meet those needs. But God will not allow us to just sit as couch potatoes, expecting Him to provide.
Originally, before the fall, God provided everything man needed, in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). Adam’s only chore was to tend the garden (Genesis 2:15). But Adam and Eve sinned, causing them to be expelled from the garden (Genesis 3:24) and God telling Adam that he would eat off the fruit of the ground through his own toil (Genesis 3:17-19). This was not to say that Adam’s needs would not still be met; but rather, that he would have to work to ensure that they were. If he did his part, God would do His, bringing rain and causing the seed to grow.
God is still providing for our needs today, several thousand years later. The system hasn’t changed. He hasn’t stopped being concerned about our needs; for “my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Note that this verse doesn’t say that God will provide us with riches, merely that he provides for our needs out of His riches. The two aren’t the same. He knows the difference between our wants and needs. Therefore, He still requires us to work, as “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
Working to meet our needs and being preoccupied about those needs are nowhere near the same thing. When we become anxious about our needs, we stop acting in faith. Worry is us trying to find the answer on our own, rather than trusting God to find it for us. Jesus gave a wonderful response to this in the sixth chapter of Matthew:
Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. – Matthew 6:31-33
Again, these verses are talking about God meeting our needs; not just giving us something that catches our eye. God isn’t interested in being our celestial vending machine, that provides every shiny thing we see.
There are Limits
Where people get in trouble is in expecting God to provide for their desires as well. This comes from a misinterpretation of a popular Psalm:
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. – Psalm 37:4-5
Once again, we have a place where people are taking a part of a verse, isolating it, and building a doctrine based on that part of a verse. That’s not good hermeneutics and will pretty much always lead to coming up with false interpretations. In this case, taking “He shall give you the desires of your heart” alone, sounds like God will give you whatever your heart desires. But when you put it back in context, we see some specific requirements for that to happen. Specifically:
- We need to delight ourselves in the Lord (vs. 4)
- Commit our ways to the Lord (vs. 5a)
- Trust in the Lord (vs. 5b)
That’s a lot that we have to do. Not only that, but it pretty much precludes the frivolous desires that we might be expecting God to provide. It especially precludes any that might go against what God has said in the Bible. So, using this verse to say that God will give you whatever you want, is false. It’s more likely that what He’s talking about is putting the godly desires in our hearts that we need to have, rather than Him just giving us whatever we want.
We Can Especially Expect God to Provide for the Ministry
God has a special interest in providing what’s needed for the ministry. Those who are doing His work, here on earth, can count on Him providing what’s necessary for that ministry, regardless of what it is. About 35 years ago, I was heading out on the road to minister. Wanting to take my family with me, I started praying that God would provide us with a motorhome. We started traveling with what we had, but before the year was out, we had a motorhome. Not only that, but the motorhome was configured to have the exact things that we felt we needed.
That motorhome served as our ministry vehicle and headquarters for nine years, until God moved us on to other things. But the basis of His provision was that we were using it to fulfill the ministry calling that He had put on our lives. That’s not the same as asking God for a motorhome, just so we can take our family on vacation.
Some ministers, especially pastors, struggle with God providing for their ministry. It seems unfair, on the surface, that He would provide a motorhome for my ministry, but not provide what other ministers need for their ministry. That begs the question… why? If God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), how can it be that God provides for some, while seemingly ignoring the needs of others?
I can’t fully answer that question; mostly because I don’t know the circumstances of every example that can be brought to the table. But I can say this; if it appears like God is not providing for a ministry, that minister needs to ask themselves if they are actually doing what God said to do. That includes asking whether they are missing anything they are supposed to be doing; whether they are doing something that they shouldn’t be doing; whether they are doing it in the way that God said; and whether they are doing it in the timing that God said. If any of these are missing, they could have inadvertently walked out of God’s perfect will, to a place where God doesn’t see a need to provide.
After all, If God orders the pizza, He pays the bill; but when we order it ourselves, we’re responsible to pay.