Ask whatever you wish - really?

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Can Jesus really mean what he says in John 15:7? His promise is breathtaking: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Ask whatever we wish? How is this possible when so many of our prayers seem to go unanswered? Is this promise only for super-saints?

No. The only saints Jesus chooses are those who are weak and foolish (1 Cor. 1:26). They are disciples whose faith begins small (Matt. 14:31). They are people just like us. So this promise is for us. It is a check Jesus wants us to cash at the Bank of Heaven, where there are more than sufficient funds (2 Cor. 9:8).

But there are two conditions we must meet for this check to be valid. 

The first is that we must abide in Jesus (John 15:1–6). Jesus commands us to abide in him just as branches abide in a vine. Apart from him, we can do nothing but wither (vv. 5–6). An abiding branch has the sap of the Holy Spirit running through it. The more connected the branch, the more it receives the affections and wishes of the vine.

The second condition we must meet is that Jesus’s words must abide in us—meaning all his words: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (v. 10). Jesus loves us by telling us the truth (17:8, 26), and we love him by treasuring and therefore obeying what he says (14:15).

When our prayers seem to go unanswered, it is because we don’t yet wish what Jesus wishes (James 4:3), or we haven’t yet aligned our desires with Jesus’s, or we haven’t yet recognised that his answer has arrived in an unexpected package.

But the more we press into his two conditions (we abide in him; his words abide in us), the more Jesus shapes our desires and trains our discernment through the Holy Spirit. Our wishes and his wishes become increasingly the same. Therefore, increasingly, we receive whatever we wish, just like branches that receive exactly what they need from the vine.

So take this check to the Bank of Heaven. Ask whatever you wish. And in the process of redeeming the check, you’ll discover that your joy springs not from Jesus giving you what you want but from Jesus being what you want.

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