124. Done
John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
A conditional promise: if you abide in me and Jesus’ words abide in you, then what you ask will be done for you. In other words, the Lord will answer your prayers if you believe in Jesus. This is an awesome promise; it is hard to believe and hard to explain away. When taken at face value it means, “ask and you will receive,” even, pray whatever you will and God will do it for you. The experience of every believer who prays is that he does not always get what he asks for, at least not in the way that he expects. Either he is not abiding (believing) or the promise is not true: God will not always do it for you. This leads us into thinking that there must be something wrong with me and my “abiding.” But that can’t be, because I know I am believing and abiding and His words are living in me. So what gives?
One way of answering this dilemma is to believe that God did do it for us, it was just not what we expected or the way we wanted it to be done. The promise is that it shall be done unto you; this means that something is done according to God’s good and perfect will. When we “ask what ye will” it is assumed that we are asking according to God’s will, in other words, our wills are in line with His. We may argue with God and our wills may not align with His; thus we need to sincerely seek His will in a matter; this will of God will be revealed in His answer if we are listening and waiting. God must answer and act according to His will: He cannot do otherwise, and He will not act contrary to His nature, character or purpose.
This asking what you will depends on our abiding in Him and His words. We believe in Jesus, but we may still be at odds with His word and will. Our preparation for prayer involves knowing the mind of Christ and the heart of the Father. This kind of preparation takes hours and years. In time, and maybe over a long time, the better we know Him and His words the closer our will is to God’s will. Then we ask what we will (in Jesus’ name). The adjusting of wills needs to be on our side. God will probably not change; He doesn’t need adjusting. So we adjust our own will by letting His words abide in us. For this reason, the “abide” condition is important.