It’s In the Asking

By Jerry D. Ousley

            Some of you have heard me tell this story before but it bears repeating for this study.  When I was a young teenager, I was riding home with my parents one night.  It was in early spring, so the night air was a bit crisp but left the night sky clear.  As I gazed into the star-studded sky above, I began to think about God, if He was real or just an ancient teaching brought into our generation.  I thought about the scripture where Jesus had said, “whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”  (Mark 11:23).  As I thought about that I looked to my left and saw a familiar hill that we had passed many times before.  In my heart I said, “Lord, I believe.  I have no doubt that You will keep Your word and so I command that hill to be plucked up and cast into the sea.”  In my heart I really did expect to see the hill uprooted and thrown through the air.  But it didn’t happen.  I prayed, “God, I’ve been having some doubts. It would really help to see a true miracle right now.  Why won’t You do what You said You’d do?”  

            It was then I distinctly heard a voice in my head and here is what the voice said, “Son, do you see that light up there on that hill?”  “Yes.”  “There are people who I love living there.  If you truly needed a hill removed of course, I’d do it.  But those people have rights too.  I love them too.”  I felt very stupid at that point.  I had selfishly asked God to do something that would bring harm to someone else.  Needless to say, I didn’t see a mountain moved that night.  But a giant mountain in my heart was plucked up and cast far, far away into an unknown sea. I learned something about prayer that night.

            Now, I will be the first to tell you that I’ve never walked on water.  I’ve never seen a physical mountain plucked up and cast into the sea.  I’ve never touched someone and seen them immediately healed.  I haven’t witnessed a wall fall down simply by walking around it in silence seven times. For some reason God has not chosen to allow me to witness or be the tool used to work mighty miracles for others.  I have been healed miraculously a time or two.  I have seen others experience miracles.  But for some reason God hasn’t chosen me to be a vessel for that.  It doesn’t mean that it isn’t real; just that God has chosen to use me differently.  And He has.

            The Lord did teach me some things about prayer early on.  First, let’s look at a few scriptures that have been horribly misused over the years, especially in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.  First, Matthew 7:7-8 which says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  Then let’s look at John 14:13, “And whatever you ask in My name that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  On the surface these verses seem to be saying that if we believe and use the name of Jesus that we can have anything we desire.  Frankly, that’s the way many have taken it.  They have created large ministries based on their beliefs.  Some have experienced true miracles in many cases.  I don’t know why, though I suspect it has been based on the faith of those receiving the miracles rather than those proclaiming to have special favor with God to do them.  Others have been no more than charlatans – running elaborate medicine shows where false miracles have been testified to by plants in the audience.  Why God allows it is none of my business.  He knows and He will take care of it.

            But here is what I have learned from the words of our Lord.  To ask in Jesus’ name is to ask for what He would ask for.  It is the duty of the ambassador to speak and act on behalf of his country, doing what his or her country has commissioned them to do.  They aren’t to do any more or any less.  That is what we are to be doing when we ask in Jesus’ name.  We are asking and doing on behalf of Him.  He never asked or did anything just for Himself.  Though He had to the power to do so, He didn’t work miracles selfishly.  And so, as His ambassadors we never ask, seek, or knock from greed or self-want.

            Jesus did say ask, and it will be given to you.  And when we ask in His name, on His behalf, it will be so.  He also said to seek – look for – and we will find.  And it is so that if we look for what our Lord would want done and act in His behalf, we will indeed find.  And if we knock – be persistent – our asking and seeking in His name will be rewarded by it being opened to us.

            Sometimes prayers aren’t answered because we don’t know how to ask or what to ask for.  James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”  There it is.  How can it be any plainer?  It really is in the asking.  Asking for what we are supposed to.  Does God want to do things for us?  You bet your bottom dollar He does.  But He wants to answer those prayers so that His reality will be manifested to others and that He, and only He will get the glory for it.  Ask away, but look for what you’re asking and knock to know what God wants you to ask for.  You can’t go wrong.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.