Praying Your Kingdom Come
What Does It Mean to Pray in Jesus’ Name?
I remember when I was getting ready to apply for my first real job. I was in my senior year, getting close to finishing my undergraduate degree. I wanted to be a youth minister. That had always been my plan, my goal. I mean, after I realized my dreams of playing in the NBA were not going to work out! 🙂
During those college years, God had blessed me with some pretty amazing relationships. I had met some incredible men who had become friends and mentors. These were guys who at the time, and even today, were well respected and highly regarded, especially in the church world. And when a church came calling and asking me to send in a resume, these three guys told me to put their name on my reference list. Each of them said, “Use my name.” “Put me down as a reference.” “Tell them to call me.”
Long story short, I got that job. And I’m convinced it had little to do with my name and a whole lot to do with the other names on my resume.
What does it mean to be a praying church? Begin with this question:
What if we really believed what Jesus said about prayer?
Jesus had a lot to say about prayer, no doubt. I know we believe in Jesus, and I know we believe in prayer, but I’m not convinced we always believe what Jesus taught us to believe about prayer.
Why We Struggle With Prayer
Maybe that’s because we honestly struggle with prayer. We struggle with knowing how to pray, what to pray, and we struggle with unanswered prayer. We wonder sometimes if God hears us when we pray.
We worry that God doesn’t hear our prayer or won’t hear our prayer because of what we’ve done, the mistakes and missteps. We’re keenly aware of our own sin, shame, and unworthiness.
We worry that God doesn’t hear our prayer or won’t hear our prayer because, honestly, there are probably more important things going on in the world compared to what I’m praying about today.
We worry that God doesn’t hear our prayer or won’t hear our prayer because, well, because it’s been a long time since we’ve prayed. It’s been a long time since we’ve talked to Him, brought our requests to Him, and asked Him to help.
For all those reasons and so many more, we struggle with prayer.
I don’t want to dismiss any of your questions about prayer, the difficulty of unanswered prayer, and I don’t want to remove the mystery that is prayer… prayer is an act of faith and it is full of mystery.
What I simply want to do is remind us what Jesus said about prayer and ask us to take Him at His word.
Over and over and over again, we see the importance of prayer and the power of prayer. But I want us to look at some of the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples before He faced the cross.
Remain in My Love: The Context of Prayer
Jesus knew the cross was around the next corner. Jesus is about to willingly sacrifice His life, His perfect, sinless, life for the salvation of the world. So that anyone who puts their faith in His Name can have the hope of Heaven, the promised Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sin, the abundant life, eternal life!
Jesus is fully aware of His mission and purpose and He is willing and able to endure the cross because of His great love for you, for me, for the world.
So He gathers His disciples to give them some final instructions. He wants to prepare them not just for the cross, but for what must happen after the cross. His mission now becomes their mission. And He is preparing them to play their part in His Kingdom Come mission in the world.
In John 15, Jesus says…
John 15:9-17, NIV
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
Abiding in the Love of Jesus
Jesus begins with this instruction to
“remain in my love.”
That word remain, it’s the word abide. It means to dwell. To continue in.
He is speaking to His disciples here who He has spent the better part of three years with. They’ve spent almost every moment together over the past three years. But Jesus knows, He is about to leave them. Now, truthfully, He will always be with them. He will never leave them or forsake them. But the way He will be with them is about to change.
After His glorification, His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus will return to the Father. He will give them His promised Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus will say it’s better that He goes so that He can send them His Holy Spirit (John 16:7). AND here is the promise,
“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love…”
This is important to remember, especially when we get to prayer. We can’t live any way we want and expect to ask for whatever we want.
Now let me be clear: God loves you wholly and completely and there is nothing you could ever do that would make God love you less. Or more, by the way. God loves you perfectly. But it is your decision to remain in His love, abide in His love, dwell in His love, and live in His love. God loves you, but He is not going to force you to love Him or to accept His love for you. Because He loves you, He allows you to choose to love Him in return. To abide in his love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love…”
Obedience Rooted in Gratitude for Grace
Jesus here isn’t saying something new. This is the same thing Moses told the Israelites when he said…
9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:9, NIV
When Israel kept the commands of God, they didn’t do so just out of a sense of obligation. They kept the commands of God because they were a gift from God. Before God gave Israel His commands, He rescued them from Egypt, He delivered them from their enemies.
Then, after rescuing them He brought them into covenantal relationship with Him. Israel’s obedience wasn’t just based on God’s authority over their lives, and to be clear God has absolute authority over all our lives, but Israel’s obedience was also based in gratitude for His grace, His redemption, and His salvation.
This is an invitation from Jesus to His disciples to remain in His love. He says,
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”
They are invited into the divine love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this invitation in love, obedience, faith, and relationship brings complete joy!
Jesus says…
A Relationship That Brings Complete Joy
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:11-15 (NIV)
Jesus says this relationship rooted in love, rooted in faith, rooted in obedience, brings complete joy for Him and for us. This is the goal of the saving work of Christ, to bring us into full relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus was willing to endure the cross, scorning its shame (Hebrews 12:2), it was all because of God’s great love for you and for me and for the world.
And then, Jesus says this…
Chosen to Bear Fruit That Will Last
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
John 15:16-17 (NIV)
Jesus tells His disciples, you are chosen.
You are chosen for a purpose.
Your purpose is to bear fruit.
To bear fruit that will last.
So whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
And all of this is rooted in God’s will for us and God’s desire for us to Love each other.
Jesus here says something about prayer that I’m not sure we fully believe. He tells us that if we ask for something in His name, whatever it is, the Father will give us what we ask for.
What if we really believed what Jesus said about prayer?
What if we really believed that we could ask God for anything and believed that He would give us what we asked for?
Someone just started praying for a new car. 🙂
But that’s not what Jesus is saying here. The question is, what is He saying? Maybe the better question is, what does it mean to pray in His name?
Praying for His Kingdom to Come
To pray in Jesus Name…
It is not self seeking, but Kingdom seeking.
Not self serving, but self sacrificing.
Not self satisfying, but God glorifying.
So often you’ll hear people end their prayers with the phrase, “In Jesus Name, Amen.”
Why do we pray that way?
It’s not a perfect example but I think it’s kind of like my friends and mentors who told me, when you apply for that job, put my name on your resume. Put my name down as a reference. If they have a question about you, tell them to call me.
In a similar way, Jesus tells His disciples to put His name on their prayers to God. When you pray to God the Father, put my Name on it. Ask in My Name.
Your prayers aren’t based on your name, on your goodness, on your accomplishments. When you pray, put my name on it. Base your prayer on My Name, on My Goodness, on what I have accomplished and on what I am about to accomplish at the cross!
Ask in my name, in the name of Jesus!
And as you do, don’t forget to keep this text in context. Jesus is calling His disciples to remain in His love. To abide in Him.
Earlier in this passage He said,
“I am the vine, you are the branches.”
– John 15: 5. In other words, we’re connected. Stay connected. Remain in me. Abide in me. Dwell in me. Remain in my love. Abide in my love. Dwell in my love.
As we do that, our wants and desires begin to align and become the same things that Jesus wants and desires. This is what happens in prayer.
Letting Jesus Shape Our Desires
In our abiding we are becoming more like Jesus. We want what He wants. We desire what He desires.
Consider what Jesus wants and desires.
Jesus wants to see people come to faith in Him and be baptized in His name.
Jesus wants to see people invited to church where they can have an encounter with Him and be a part of the fellowship of His people.
Jesus wants people in discipling relationships, walking together in the Light, helping each other become more like Jesus.
Jesus wants us to share His love with our neighbors.
Jesus wants us to care for those in need.
Jesus wants us to be a part of planting new churches where more people can come to know about His great love.
Jesus wants us to go on mission and carry His Good News to people near and far.
Jesus wants us to start new mission points and shine His light in new places around the world.
Jesus wants us to pray for His Kingdom to come and for His will to be done.
When we pray for these things, God hears, and God answers. This is why David could say in Psalm 37:
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4, NIV
Jesus is preparing His disciples to live on mission, to bear fruit that will last, to be rooted in love, and to pray for whatever they need to accomplish their mission!
Trusting God When the Answer Is Unclear
But I know what you’re thinking…
What happens when we pray for something in the name of Jesus, genuinely believe it aligns with God’s heart and purposes, and yet we don’t receive the answer we’re looking for?
Or we don’t receive it in the timeframe we’re praying for?
Those questions deserve a fuller answer, but let me just say this. Prayer is an act of faith. God is not a genie in a bottle waiting to grant our every wish. He is Almighty God. He is Sovereign. He is Omnipotent. And, He is trustworthy.
Jesus tells us to ask so, we ask. I once heard Charles Stanley say it this way:
“Talk to God, trust Him, wait for Him to work.”
We trust He’s working even when we can’t see it.
We keep praying.
We keep abiding.
We keep asking.
We keep trusting.
We keep waiting.
Jesus Invites Us to Keep Asking
Why? Because, over and over again Jesus told us to pray.
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
John 14:13-14, NIV
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
John 15:7, NIV
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
John 15:16, NIV
23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Six different times in these three chapters where Jesus is speaking to His disciples He tells them to pray, to ask for anything in His name, and He says the Father will give it. God will supply!
Maybe we should believe Him!
Maybe we should ask in His name, pray for what will glorify the Father, commit ourselves to remain in Him and to let His words remain in us, remember that we are chosen by God, appointed to bear fruit, fruit that will last, and that when we pray, when we align our hearts and desires with the heart of Jesus and the desires of the Father, it will bring Him great joy and our joy will be complete!
Our Father Loves It When We Call
Alisha and I sent two of our three kids off to college. They are doing great and we couldn’t be more proud. Perhaps you know what this is like. There is nothing like seeing our phone ring and their name come across the screen.
When they call, we answer. When they call, it’s never a bother. We’re never annoyed… “O, it’s the kids calling again. I wonder what they want this time?” When they call, it brings us great joy. Sometimes they need something. Sometimes, they just want to talk. But nothing brings us greater joy than when they call. And if they need something, anything they ask for… or, I should say, just about anything they ask for, if we can do it, we will.
Because they wear, carry, and bear my name.
How much more our Father in Heaven loves it when we call. Jesus says, when you call on Him, call in His Name.
We want to take Jesus at His word. We want to believe what Jesus said about prayer. We want to be a praying church.
Aligning Our Hearts With God’s Heart
Prayer is where we align our hearts with God’s heart praying in Jesus Name for His Kingdom to come.
The closer I get to Jesus, the more His heart shapes my heart, the more His desires shape my desires, the more my prayers align with His will.
And we pray this all for the glory of God.
Praying Boldly and in Humility
We don’t just believe in the power of prayer. We believe in the power of our Father to whom we pray.
We’re not praying for our will to be done, we’re praying for God’s will to be done.
We’re praying boldly, and… in humility.
With faith, full trust, and with full submission to the King of kings.
We believe a praying church will be a fruitful church.
We believe Jesus gives extraordinary promises about prayer because He is sending ordinary people on an extraordinary mission.
To see His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
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