What John 15:7 Reveals About Prayer:
Part 1
"If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:7)
We must be in RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD -- "If you remain (abide) in me..."
The promises of God are not for everyone, but for His Son: The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ (Galatians 3:16).
God's promises are also for those who, through Christ, are the children of God. We are heirs with Christ of the promises made to Him through Abraham: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29).
However, even as His children, sin in our lives can disrupt our relationship and cut us off from the blessings of the Father: "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Psalm 66:18). "Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done" (Micah 3:4).
In order to turn to God in prayer and claim His promises, we must first ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us any area in our life which is out of sync with His will for us, and to repent of that, asking and receiving forgiveness and cleansing in that area of our life: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9).
Does that mean we have to be living a perfect life before we can expect God to answer our prayers? Of course not! It means we have to be honest with God about the sin in our life, acknowledge our need for the forgiveness He offers us in His Son, Jesus, and cooperate with the work of His Holy Spirit toward making a change in that area of our life.
That's the first step in praying prayers that God can answer.
What John 15:7 Reveals About Prayer: Part 2
"If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples." (John 15:7)
Does God hear and respond to every prayer the same way, or does it matter who is praying and how they pray? Are there conditions that make one prayer more effective than another? According to Scripture, it does matter who is praying and how we pray -- there are conditions for effective prayer.
God's love for us is unconditional, but His blessings come with conditions. He is a covenant God, Who "keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands" (see Nehemiah 1:5 and Daniel 9:4). The little word "if" occurs over 1500 times in Scripture. Many of them spell out conditions God places on our receiving His blessings:
"If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant of love with you, as He swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you." (Deuteronomy 7:12)
"If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." (John 8:24)
In part one, we focused on "who is praying" -- God always listens to the prayers of those who identify themselves as belonging to His Son. This time we're looking at "how we pray" -- we must let His words guide our prayers -- "and my words remain in you...."
His words are always words of trust instead of fear. Often, our prayers are borne out of fear, and we cry out to God in desperation. Instead, Scripture urges us to trust the love God has for us and "have no anxiety about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).
When we come to God, asking Him to meet a need in our lives, we have to make a choice. Will we focus our attention on our circumstances -- that's the wrong thing to fill our minds! Instead, we must fill our minds with the promises of Scripture and the faithfulness of the One who makes them -- letting His words abide in us. It's not faith in our prayers that gets answers; it's faith in the words of promise and in the loving faithfulness of the One who makes them!
What John 15:7 Reveals About Prayer: Part 3
"If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:7)
In part one, we focused on the relationship we must have in order to expect answers to our prayers: "If you remain in Me," Jesus said.
In part two, we looked at the importance of how we ask -- it is not to be with fearfulness about our circumstances, but with our focus and faith in the promises and the faithfulness of the One who makes them: "and my words abide in you."
Now in part three, we focus on the third element in this verse: "ask whatever you wish and it will be given you."
The great English pastor, Charles Spurgeon, once said: "Whether we like it or not, ASKING is the rule of the Kingdom. In the familiar words of James 4:2, we are reminded that the reason we don't have what we need is because we fail to ask.
There are some wonderful promises in Scripture about God's provision for us. For example, the apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:19, "My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Jesus also tells us, in Matthew 6:33, not to worry about the things that we need for life, but to seek the Kingdom of God and He will provide all we need.
Sometimes we think that because God loves us and already knows what we need, He will automatically supply it for us. Certainly He does sometimes, but His greatest desire is to be in relationship with us. As any father does with his children, God wants to be appreciated and not taken for granted.
God is EAGER to pour His blessings into our lives, but He often waits for us to ask for what we need. He does that so that "we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen" (2 Corinthians 4:18). Is there something you are longing for in your life? ASK the Father; He's longing to show you His love by meeting your need!
What John 15:7 Reveals About Prayer: Part 4
“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:7)
We must move beyond selfish motives —“This is to my Father’s glory…”
Remember the words of James 4:3—“and even when you ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” (NLT)
God has a bigger agenda than simply making us feel comfortable. There is a real temptation to want God’s power to work through us for the sake of what it will do for us—for our ego, or for our faith, or for our reputation. (Those were among the temptations Jesus faced in His desert encounter with Satan, and throughout His earthly life.) As we become aware of those desires in ourselves, we need to confess them, and reaffirm our desire that:
- God receives all the honor and glory, for He alone is worthy of that;
- That the purposes of God’s Kingdom be accomplished (as we bear fruit)
- That others be drawn to Jesus Christ, through the miracle of His power at work in and through us, to find salvation for their own lives (we are seen to be His disciples).
“The glory of the Father must be the aim—the very soul and life—of our prayer….A distinct, conscious longing for the glory of the Father must animate our prayers." (Andrew Murray)
What Role Does Prayer Play in My Life?
“Some people express surprise that professing Christians today are so little like their Lord, but when I stop to think how little time the average Christian today puts into secret prayer, the thing that astonishes me is not that we are so little like the Lord, but that we are as much like the Lord as we are.” (R. A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer, p. 21)
Those words were written nearly a hundred years ago. Do you think things have changed? Would you suspect people pray more now?…less now?…about the same? I don't have any statistics, but with the busy lives all of us seem to lead, I suspect very few of us are satisfied with the amount of time we spend in prayer and meditation on the Word of God.
Why doesn't prayer have a place of higher priority for most of us? I think it's because, although we say we believe in praying and we do pray, deep down, we aren't sure that it really makes a lot of difference in the things that happen in our lives and the lives of others we pray for. We see praying Christians coping with the same tragic circumstances as non-Christians, and we begin to doubt the power of God will really make a difference in our day to day experience. The tendency is to believe God is in control and will do what He wants to do whether we pray or not. Be honest; is that what you tend to think?
What Good Is Prayer, Anyway?
Sometimes we look at what happens in life and ask ourselves, “Does it really make any difference whether or not I pray?” At a recent group discussion in our church, a strong attitude prevailed that the only difference between the life experience of Christians and non-Christians was the inner strength and hope that carries Christians through the tough times. There was no expectation that God will protect us from affliction, only that He will help us through it.
Although we are warned to expect persecution, the message of Scripture is that God grants His children protection against and escape from the “curse” that is upon the world because of sin (Galatians 3:13-14). That curse includes disease, lack of success in making a living, broken marriages and families, etc. On the other hand, there in Galatians Paul mentions the “blessing given to Abraham”, that we can expect from God; it is exactly the opposite: good health, success in work and material affluence, and happy, healthy families. (See Deut. 28)
The group I mentioned above, based their attitudes on our experience, not on what God's Word seems to say. Why is there such a discrepancy between what the Scriptures seem to promise and what we experience “in the real world”?
Jesus said, “The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Satan is actively working to steal God's answers to your prayers. (He's delighted if you don't believe that.) The apostle John said, “The Son of
God appeared in order to destroy the works of Satan.” And Jesus said He was establishing His church to continue this work of tearing down “the gates of hell” that hold people captive in chains of sin, disease, poverty, and all other kinds of brokenness.
Is Prayer Really Important in the Life & Ministry of Our Church?
The answer is found in God’s words to us through the prophet Jeremiah:
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:11-13, NASB)
A real encounter with God, however, doesn’t just happen. And as much as God longs for such an encounter with each of us, He only gives Himself to those whose hearts really seek Him for Himself, not just for what He can do for them.
What’s true for individuals is also true for a church. As a church, we are developing a deeper and deeper hunger to really encounter the living God—to be touched and changed by His mighty Presence in our midst. That will happen when we, like the early church, devote ourselves to “the apostle’s teaching (Scripture) and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
That will happen, though, because God wants it to happen, and we want it to happen! Scary? Sure! Exciting? Absolutely!
Our Prayers Switch on God's Power
One of the Old Testament prophets makes a very interesting statement. In Ezekiel 22, the Lord says through Ezekiel, “I looked for someone to build up the wall and stand in the gap so I didn't have to destroy the land.” The fact is that God desperately wanted to save His people from destruction, but was unable to do so without someone who would stand before Him in prayer, interceding for the people.
Did you ever wonder why God considers our praying so important? If He has all power (and He does!), and if He loves us and knows what is best for us (and He does!), and if He is Lord of all (and He is!), why does He depend on our prayers in order to accomplish what He wants to do anyway? Without going into a long, biblical study of the basis for this, let's just realize that God loves us so much and yearns so strongly for a relationship with us that He delegated His sovereignty over our world to us. He did that so that the things that happen to bring about His will in our world would only occur through a cooperative partnership between Him and us, His people.
God has chosen not to act independently of mankind. When God wants to do a great work in our world, He works in the hearts and minds of His people to bring them to the point of faith-filled praying, speaking, and acting in union with His power to accomplish the work He wants to do. We see God working through people in that way in Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Nehemiah, and on and on, clear up to the supreme example when He, Himself became a man to accomplish His greatest work on our behalf. Until people pray in faith, God's power is held in check, even when He wants to act! One of the best analogies involves electricity. A friend, who worked at our city's power plant, gave this illustration of the principle here. When they want to start up one of the huge motors that take massive amounts of power to run, they flip a small switch which carries only a very little DC current. That tiny amount of DC current flows through a coil, closing a relay switch, which in turn allows 10s of thousands of volts to flow--to a 30 megawatt motor, for example. Now, what turns that motor on? Is it the thousands of volts that run through the main line to the motor, or the tiny current that flows through the switch and closes the breaker so that massive power comes into play? Obviously, neither one by itself operates that motor. Both sources of power are required.
So it is, I believe, with God's power. It is not the power of our prayers that move mountains, heal disease, bring reconciliation between people, or anything else we pray for. It's the power of God. But our prayers are the tiny amounts of current that it takes to close the breaker switches through which God's power flows into those situations. The tiny spiritual current that flows from within us as we pray in faith, activates the Spirit of God, who closes the closes the circuit and allows the infinite power of God to flow from the throne of heaven into the midst of our world. However, here's where we come to the principle that I can't document chapter and verse from Scripture, but can only conclude from reports of answered prayer in Scripture. We have to release from within ourselves enough spiritual current, if you will, to build up a certain level of spiritual energy, before that breaker switch is triggered, that allows the power of God to flow. Let's consider some biblical examples.
In 1 Kings 17, Elijah restores life to the only son of a widow with whom he was staying. Verses 21-22 say: And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, "Lord my God, please let this child's life return to him." The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he came back to life! Why did Elijah have to do the same thing three times before God answered? In the very next chapter, the Lord says He's going to end a 3 year drought by sending rain. It is clear, this was the will of God, but to make a very long story short (you can read the whole thing in 1 Kings 18) God did not send the rain until Elijah had cleansed the land of pagan priests and then prayed seven times for rain. Why did Elijah need to repeat his prayer over and over, doesn't God hear the first time? There are other examples of the need for repetition to unleash the power of God--the walls of Jericho, for example. Why did Jesus pray the same prayer three times in the Garden of Gethsemane? In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable to teach His disciples to "persevere in prayer." A nagging child in a grocery store may eventually get what he wants by wearing Mom down, but "persevering in prayer" is totally different. It doesn't manipulate God--it sets His power free. Because of our praying, God can work in us and in our world in ways that, because of limitations He put upon Himself, He could not work otherwise. Our prayers don't get God to do what we want Him to do, they allow Him to do what He wants to do for us. What an incredibly good reason to pray much more than we do!
by Ben Dickerson
