Direct Access

SYNOPSIS: Jesus is our access card to the very throne room of the Father, where we can boldly and confidently use the authority of his name to let God know our needs. And when we ask in his name, Jesus promises both answers to our requests and a complete sense of satisfaction in gaining the Father’s provision (“and your joy will be complete”). But asking in his name implies two interconnected things: First, it implies that we are living under his authority. By that I mean we are giving his rule first place in our lives. Second, it implies we are asking in his authority. That is, we are under his rule, we are serving his cause, and we are acting as agents of his Kingdom interests. Asking in that sense is both the believer’s highest privilege and most powerful resource. With that in mind, let’s start asking!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // John 16:24

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

What Jesus revealed to his disciples about prayer was a completely new thing in Israel. Under the old “house rules,” people had to go through a priest to contact the Almighty. They had to bring a sacrifice—depending on the need, there were a variety of sacrifices required—which had to be offered in a proscribed way. There was no direct contact between God and people.

But a new day had dawned, and by Jesus’ once-for-all sacrificial death on the cross, complete, free, unlimited, direct and easy access had been opened up between people and God.  The writer of Hebrews so beautifully described it this way:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

Jesus is our access card to the very throne room of the Father, where we can boldly and confidently use the authority of Jesus’ name to let God know our needs.  And when we ask in his name, Jesus promises both answers to our requests (“ask and you will receive”) and a complete sense of satisfaction in gaining the Father’s provision (“your joy will be complete”).

Now asking in his name implies two interconnected things.  First, it implies that we are living under his authority. By that I mean we are giving his rule first place in our lives, we are learning to look at things through his perspective and we are considering our needs and wants in the light of their relationship to the Kingdom life. Truly living under his authority is the best guard against the selfish asking some would take this verse to legitimize.

Second, it implies we are asking in his authority. That is, we are under his rule, we are serving his cause and we are acting as agents of his Kingdom’s interests. We know who we are and who he is, which leads to a bold and unabashed confidence in coming before the Father to request the release of Divine resources to fulfill the needs of his ever-expanding Kingdom.

No wonder Jesus assured us that this kind of praying works, for in essence, as C.S. Lewis so cleverly wrote,

“Our prayers are really His prayers;
He speaks to himself through us.”

Asking in that sense is both the believer’s highest privilege and most powerful resource.  With that in mind, let’s start asking!

Reflect & Apply:  If you are like me, understanding prayer this way calls me to evaluate my life to see if I am living under his authority—and all that implies, and asking in his authority—that is, acting as an agent of his Kingdom’s interests. And, if you are like me, there is usually some realigning needed to bring my life—my thoughts, attitudes and practices—back into Kingdom alignment.