“If you ask anything in my name I will do it.” John 14:14

It isn’t unusual for Christians to take phrases or sentences of Scripture out of context and misapply them because they have also misunderstood them. Nominal Christianity does it frequently and it can be very dangerous to one’s life and, in some cases, allow a person to be blissfully ignorant of the fact that they are missing heaven.

When Jesus said the above words to His disciples there was an in-built condition, “in My name.” The condition is that what we are asking for is something He has given to us. “In My name” means, “on my behalf”. When a company allows its employees to sign cheques they are only permitted to do so within their delegated authority, in the name of the company. It is the name of the company that is on the cheque.

It is just so for us. It is Christ’s name in which we have delegated authority to act. The Bible reveals the scope and limitations of that delegated authority. When we ask in accordance with His will, recorded in His Word, He will give it and we can be confident of that.

In the context, the asking and receiving is conditional upon faith in who Jesus is (He who believes), asking in accordance with Jesus’ words (In My name), and loving Jesus supremely, evidenced by keeping His commandments (John 14:15).

This becomes an invitation to us to discover from the Scriptures just what we are and have in Christ and ask Him to manifest that in us by His Spirit. James 4:3 says we must guard our motives for asking or we will receive nothing. Jesus says that our motivation for asking is “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”