Thoughts on Praying in Jesus' Name

            “Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer.... The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.”  -- William Gurnall

Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14, ESV).

What did Jesus mean?

Certainly, He did not mean that we could ask for anything whatsoever, and if we say “in Jesus’ Name,” He will do or give what we ask.  We know it can’t mean that because we have not received everything we have ever prayed for.  We also know it is not true, because we sometimes ask for things that are sin or for things which are just not good for us, and God would not honor a prayer for such things.

William Gurnall gets at the heart of the matter in the quote above:  if we pray for what Jesus wants, for what Jesus wills, for what is God-honoring and God-glorifying, God will grant than prayer.  Gurnall suggests that we pray the promises of God back to God, in Jesus’ Name.  If we pray for what God has promised, God will act on that prayer.

Of course, we often don’t know what God’s Will is:  Is it God’s Will to heal me?  Is it God’s Will for me to marry so and so, or for so and so to rise to an office in government?  That is why God cautions us to pray, “If the Lord wills” (cf. James 4:13).

But if God has promised something, God will bring it to pass, and we can pray with certainly, with sure hope, that those prayers will be answered.

For example, God promises, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, ESV).  So, as we and others profess and confess faith in Jesus and His Gospel, let us pray that God will save, in Jesus’ Name – and He will!

Likewise, Jesus said, “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 that I have said to you” (John 14:26, ESV).  Since we, Christians, as well as the Apostles and disciples, receive the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, we can pray that God the Holy Spirit will help us to remember and understand the Scripture that we have read and read – and He will!  (Of course, He will not help us remember and understand what we have never read – we must read the Bible.)

One caution:  we must understand who the promise is made to.  If God does not make the promise to all Christians or all people, we cannot ask God to fulfill it in Jesus’ Name, having the sure hope that He will do so.  That is why Dave Wilkerson’s book, The Prayer of Jabez, is in error.  Yes, God answer a prayer that Jabez prayed, but there is nothing in the Bible that says if anyone else prays the same prayer, God will answer it in the same way.

So, let us read our Bibles, learn the promises God has made to His people, and pray those to Him, knowing that He will most certainly do those things that He has promised and willed – in Jesus’ Name.