Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. – John 14:13-14

In the text above, Jesus said whatever we ask in His name, He will do it. What does that really mean?  Is Jesus saying that we will get anything we ask in His name? Anything? Is He also saying if we don’t add the phrase “in Jesus’ name” to the end of all our prayers, He will not answer?

In response to the first question, some have tried to make that claim by saying we can ask for anything our hearts desire and the Lord is bound to answer because He promised. They have also used Psalms 37:4 to buttress their point. That verse says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

First of all, we know this is not what Jesus is saying.  John 14 is part of the upper room discourse. The whole chapter is about Christ being our comfort not only in this life, but also in the life to come. Those who have come to believe in Christ and truly love Him are those who take the time to seek out His will and desires for their lives. As Psalm 34 says, those who love the Lord “delight in Him”. Delighting in Him means getting to know Him through His Word, and a true knowledge of Him will cause us to love what He loves and hate what He hates. When we love what He loves, then we will ask for only those things that are in accordance with His will which will bring Him glory. That, He is bound to answer. 1 John 5:14 tells us that: “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

We come to the second question. Is adding the phrase “in Jesus’ name” at the end of every prayer the rocket that shoots our prayer right into the throne room of God? What happens when we don’t add the phrase to the end of or prayers? Will that prayer ever reach heaven? The short answer is, yes, that prayer will reach heaven.

Just like delighting ourselves in Him, to pray in Jesus’ name means that what we are asking in our prayer is consistent with what Jesus would want us to have, something consistent with His will for us.  It is to pray in accordance with the mind of Christ. The only way we can ask for anything that is in accordance with the mind of Christ is to first know what the mind of Christ is. This is only possible by spending time in His world. This is why we can never divorce prayer from Bible study. We pray more effectively when we pray according to the will of God as revealed in the word of God.

Praying in Jesus name is not a sticker we attach to the end of every prayer to send it flying to God’s throne, it is praying according to the mind of Christ as revealed in the word of God.

Soli Deo Gloria!