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5 Statements Regarding Asking in Prayer

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1. Who to ask―

Our Heavenly Father. “whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (John 15:16).

2. How to ask―

In the name of Christ. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

In the power of the Spirit. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

In faith. “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith”” (Matthew 21:22). “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6).

3. What to ask for―

Help of the Lord. “And Judah assembled to seek help from the LORD; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD” (2 Chronicles 20:4).

Fulness of the Spirit. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Fullness of joy. “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).

Wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

Anything.“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14).

4. The Condition―

Abiding in Christ. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). “..and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:22).

5. Encouragements to ask―

Promise of Christ. “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you” (John 16:23).

He hears us. “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).

Christ praying. “In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;” (John 16:26).

Comments

  1. The words “ask for anything” and “in His name” got me thinking… obviously, our requests should not be flippant.

    Doing ANYTHING in His name comes with some responsibility.

    I’m thinking back to the middle ages… if a government official came to your village and started demanding things “in the name of the King” then you had better pay attention and give him what he wants.

    On the other hand, if the King ever found out that the official was abusing the privilege, there would definitely be a price to play.

    The words that stood out to me in the above scriptures are “if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL”

    • I agree regarding the term “What ever is in Gods will” We must understand that Our Father in heaven knows what is best for us therefore we can not treat Him as though he where the genie in a bottle who grants us three wishes.
      The things we ask of God must be the things that are of His will for us in our life !!!

  2. A lot of times I am asked “what is His will for me” and I also ask it of myself. This is not an easy question. Any thoughts?

    • Good Morning, Rix!
      Thank you for asking for our thoughts about “what is His will for me”.
      I am wondering if you mean, “What does God want me to do today?” or “What does God want me to do for a career?” Those kinds of questions only the Lord can answer for an individual.

      But if you are asking us to ask ourselves, “In my day to day approach to life, what is God’s will for me?” I just did a little BLB Lexicon search for the words “His will for” and got lots of scripture references.

      His will is that we have faith in His son, Jesus.
      His will is that we grow in the knowledge of Him.
      His will is that we love Him with all our heart, mind and soul.
      His will is that we love our neighbor as we love ourself.
      His will is that we be Holy because He is holy.

      Every day, I study the BLB devotion, Day by Day Grace. For me, God’s will for me is to be totally dependent on Him for the attitude of my heart and mind; the words I speak; the thoughts I have.

      When I pray for people, no matter what the circumstance, I pray that the Lord hear the cry of their heart, use the circumstances in that person’s life to draw them closer to God, and bring joy to that person.

      For me, I think that is “his will for me” and those are my thoughts. 🙂

      Best wishes, Debi

    • To wait on the Lord is where our faith comes into play. Being of the flesh we have a very low tolerence for waiting. Especially in todays society. It is an instant gratification world we live in…
      Psalm 46:10 says:
      Be still and know that I am God;
      I will be exalted among the nations,
      I will be exalted in the earth !

  3. I just went through a little pray conversation with our Lord the other day, and wrote about it on FB and would like to share with you.

    This is what I posted in Jesus Loving Christians: Today I prayed and in my praying I got very emotional about the people a care for and who I am praying for. Asking for healing is not difficult for me to ask for it’s just in asking I expect an answer and I always want the miracle answer. Of course I pray for His will be done, but I know He can do the miracle, so God do the miracle and we will give you all the glory. Our flesh is not made to last forever at least not in our sinful state. If we didn’t have x-rays and advance medicine most of us would die of natural causes, disease, or old age. My prayer for all of us to use our time wisely, and share Gods love with the sick and the lost, and pray for their salvation and our relationship with the people we love here on Earth. After I prayed today and got emotional and practically demanded a miracle, I sat down and looked for some about God answering our request before we even ask, (never did get there today) but instead the Holy Spirit lead me to 2timothy2 and I listened and in that 70 mins the Holy Spirit answered my prayer and my questions. I could say listen to commentary (I think you should) but one of the answers I got was that having the flu, or having cancer, or having difficult times is not picking up your cross and carrying it. Sickness, difficulties, death, hardships are trials and this is life. If you want to pick up your cross, you have to give up something, and do for others, not always that easy, ask me? I am going to try though. I am going to pick up my cross and I am going to do something for the Lord, my neighbor, my friend, a stranger, or even a loved one. This is what I learned today.”

    This is the link below, BLB, 2Tim2, commentaries, Jon Courson, if link doesnt work easy to find. I hope God finds you all on your knees today. (in a good way)

    http://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/comm_topic.cfm?AuthorID=12&commInfo=41&groupID=55&commTopic=2%20Timothy&SeriesOrder=2

    • Cheryl,

      Thank you for opening up your heart to us and giving us your wisdom. I am going through something now in which my heart isn’t totally right with the Lord or the people involved. I guess you could say that I am dragging my cross rather than picking it up and carrying it. The Lord has been ministering to me about it, and your post has added to my lesson. Thank you for sharing so that we can benefit! I pray that your time with the Lord will result in His perfect will being received with joy!

      Have a blessed day~
      Barbara

      • Thank you Barbara, I just like to share my life and all the wonderful things the Lord has done for me. In good times and in bad. God Bless you, and if you need prayer or someone to talk to look me up somehow.

  4. I love the mystery of it all. We are certain but uncertain. Confident yet we walk by faith. Wonderful!

  5. (1 John 5:14-15) 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.

    That pretty much sums it all up. It’s obvious that certain things Jesus said were specifically spoken to for the Apostles:

    “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).

    That and many others we find actually occurred in the Book of Acts but don’t occur for every believer. In fact not for most.Many pray for a dying relative to stay alive, yet it fails. Many pray to be spared from a trial, yet they must endure it. Many even pray for millions of dollars (unwisely), and never receive it.

    Point being the key is (as Klaus Brune also noted:

    “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.”

    That’s really all there is to the matter of prayer.

    Seek God through Christ. Seek his will in your life. Knock, and certainly that, you shall be led to.

  6. Acts 22:14
    And he said THE GOD of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know —-HIS WILL— and see that —JUST ONE—
    and shouldest—HEAR THE VOICE OF HIS MOUTH—

    Acts 22:15
    For thou shalt be —HIS WITNESS—unto all men of what thou hast—SEEN AND HEARD—

    Philippians 1:27
    Only let your—CONVERSATION—be as it becometh the —GOSPEL OF CHRIST—that whether I come and see you or else be absent
    I may hear of your affairs–THAT YOU STAND FAST IN ONE SPIRIT–
    WITH ONE MIND STRIVING TOGETHER FOR THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL—

    Colossians 1:21-23

    And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath HE reconciled
    (22)In the body of HIS flesh through death to present you holy
    and unblameable and unreproveable in HIS sight
    —IF— YOU —CONTINUE— in the faith grounded and settled
    and be not moved away from the —HOPE OF THE GOSPEL—which you have heard and was preached to every creature which is under
    heaven whereof I Paul am made a minister

    1 Thessalonians 2:10
    You are witnesses —AND GOD ALSO—how—HOLILY— and—JUSTLY—and—UNBLAMEABLY—WE behaved ourselves among you that believe

    1 Thessalonians 2:4
    But as we were allowed of—GOD—to be put in trust with the —GOSPEL—even so we speak —NOT AS PLEASING MEN –BUT GOD–
    who trieth our hearts

    LOVING THE LORD

  7. I agree with that we have to pray for His will be done, and if we abide in Jesus He is in us, and even if we do not know what to pray for, Jesus will intercede for us. I do a lot of praying for others because I believe in the power of prayer, but when you have so many requests for healing,you want it to be Gods will, not for me but for the glory of God and for the family going through such a difficult time. Your heart just goes out to them. Why would Jesus wept when Mary came crying to Him? Jesus knew Lazarus was in a better place, so why did he weep and raise him from the dead?John 11:32 to John 11:45..

    Jhn 11:33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

    Jhn 11:34 And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

    Jhn 11:35 Jesus wept.

    So human that He would cry not for the dead but for the people He loves. Thank You Jesus!

    God Bless you my friends, Thank you for the fellowship today.

    • There are some interesting things to pick up on in John 11 that helped me understand the heart of Jesus when he wept. Not once, but twice, we are told he was “troubled in his spirit”. A better way to say that in modern English is he was DISTURBED. He was ANGRY. As in, the same way he was angry when he took a whip to people selling things in the temple. Why?

      Perhaps because he knew exactly where Lazarus was NOW (Heaven) and he would have to bring him back here to make a point and show these people who he was, because it was obvious that they just didn’t get (yet) what he was teaching them.

      Furthermore, this whole thing would result in Lazarus also being a target for murder by the religious leaders, along with Jesus (see John 12:10-11). Which of course Jesus saw coming.

      • Klause I agree with you on that too and probably thought that through out my studying, but, I just lost my mom Feb. this year, and it has triggered a whole new set of feelings,(so many)in her death I have learned so much about life. But yes I can see where Jesus would be upset because they lost someone they love, and why aren’t they happy he is in heaven, oh do I have to proof to them that I am God not only of the living but also of the death. Yes Yes all there for a reason. But he could have also with love and compassion for the people he loved here on earth, He wept with them in their lost. Like for me I better understand now, when someone loses a loved one, even when you know they are in a better place.

  8. Dearest all,

    I was planning to read and memorize the verse quotations that some of you had posted over the past weeks (Thank God for your posts). Question? -How do I check e.g. all the messages of one particular person? So, I would like to propose to you (though I have no idea of how to do it) to implement a shortcut to every person’s name. So, if someone now would click on my name all my messages would come out in a row on one page.
    Thank you for further comments.
    I love your website. May we all experience His Grace, in Jesus name. Amen.

    • to me this means that if I am willing to go the Father in Heaven I ought to be willing to hear what He has to say by reading my Bible and pursuing knowledge from Him.

  9. Sweet Fellowship,
    Thank you all for your posts, they are encouraging and faith building for me. I started thinking about what Cheryl has said about bearing our cross and remembered that Jesus had help to bear his from Simon.
    Luk 23:26 Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear [it] after Jesus.
    I think that our life here is our cross because we are heavily laden with the cares of this life and our own sinfulness. Jesus took them on Himself by becoming one of us and then conquered them with His death and resurrection. But on the way to Golgatha, the Romans called upon a stranger standing in the crowd to carry the cross part of the way. I feel that this could represent the Holy Spirit in our lives, the “paraclete” who comes alongside and helps us with our burden. I did a word search for the name Simon and found out this:
    “Simon” is one of those names that comes to English from Hebrew, by way of King James’ translation committee.

    The original word in Hebrew is pronounced “sheem-OWN”. Its meaning is related to “hear”, as expressed by
    Simon’s mother Leah in Genesis 29:33, when she gave him the name.

    God hears our prayers and even when we do not know how to pray the Spirit helps us.

    Praise our Father for providing everything we need to get through this life and help us to bear our own crosses.

    Love to all,
    Linda

    • Thank You Linda, I hadn’t even thought that far as to Jesus getting help with His cross. As a the body of Christ, we are petitioning for the Holy Spirit, to help in many ways.

      Jhn 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever–

      Jhn 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

      Jhn 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

      Also Jesus had the Holy Spirit with in Him to help Him carry His cross when He was tempted 40 days.

      Luk 4:1 ¶ And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

      Luk 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat
      nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

      This is Awesome, Thank you Everyone!