Anything?

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” John 15:7-8 NLT

‭‭What did Jesus really mean when He said, “you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”?Superficially this might be interpreted as making Jesus out as some form of cosmic vending machine, dispensing all sorts of goodies to His followers. But nothing could be further from the truth. Imagine the chaos that would result from two believers in Jesus both asking for opposing weather patterns in the same area at the same time. Mutual exclusives would be irreconcilable. But in the context of these verses, Jesus was speaking about remaining or abiding in Him, the production of fruit, and the consequences for not doing so. 

As we remain in Jesus, keeping in close fellowship with Him, listening to His voice through the Holy Spirit within us, being obedient to His teachings, and working out in our lives the intimacy of a relationship with Him, then we will produce fruit. Spiritual fruit, as we read in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” So, surely Jesus saying that we can ask for anything we want, can only apply to this fruit of the Spirit.

We perhaps also get more light from the previous chapter in John, where Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:12-14). The important words are “in my name” and Jesus emphasised this phrase by repeating it twice. “In my name” implies a close and intimate relationship with Jesus such that we will know and understand what His will is, not ours. In our secular world, a policeman will make an arrest “in the name of the law. The name of the person or authority carries weight and influence in our society. Using the name of Jesus in the same way implies that we are acting on His behalf. Jesus went around His part of the world healing the sick, raising the dead and performing miraculous signs, all in the physical realm populated by human beings. As we follow in the Master’s footsteps, such opportunities will come our way as well. We too can do all the things that Jesus did. But I have a suspicion that the “greater works” that Jesus referred to encompass the spiritual realm as well. Perhaps the greatest “work” performed in His name is seeing a person entering the Kingdom of God, a person who has finally decided to believe in Jesus and start his journey of faith.

So we pilgrims need to be careful in asking for anything with the caveat “in His name”. In Romans 12:2, Paul wrote, “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” We cannot ask until we know what God’s will is for us, and that is then the source of the fruit that brings glory to God.

Dear Heavenly Father. We use the name of Jesus from a position of knowledge and revelation about His will for what we are doing. We know that we will not always get things right. We mess up and get things wrong. But we keep trying to do Your will in our daily lives. Please help us, we pray. Amen.

‭‭