HAS JESUS GIVEN US A BLANK CHECK TO RECEIVE WHATEVER WE ASK?

HAS JESUS GIVEN US A BLANK CHECK TO RECEIVE WHATEVER WE ASK?

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I find it difficult to believe that Jesus has given us a blank check to obtain anything we want. It seems that the entire message of Scripture speaks against such an assumption.  Here is the counsel of James:

• You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:3)

No blank check here! Instead, we are to have confidence that we will receive what we ask for, but only if our prayers coincide with God’s will. We see this plainly in the words of the apostle John:

• And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (John 5:14-15)

Consequently, I am confident that, if I ask to be more Christ-like or to be a better husband, I will receive that for which I have asked. However, other verses do not seem to conform to this understanding. Instead, they seem to indicate that we can receive anything for which we ask. The following verse was the hardest to reconcile with my understanding:

• And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." (Matthew 21:21-22)

These verses don’t seem to give any indication that receiving answers to prayer have anything to do with the will of God. Then, could it be that blank-check-theology might be valid? However, I have not yet seen any mountains tossed into the sea as a result of a prayer. Meanwhile, as I study Scripture, it seems to be the case that all other answers to prayer were connected to God’s will, as in this set of verses:

• “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples...If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:7-10)

What does it mean to “abide in me”? Jesus explained that this abiding is a matter of abiding in His Word. And, abiding in His Word is the same thing as abiding in His will and keeping His commandments. This is the way the Father is glorified.

So then, how would casting mountains into the sea glorify the Father? It wouldn’t! In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus claimed that there would be some who would come to Him and expect to enter into heaven because they had “glorified God” with the miracles they had performed. However, Jesus would tell them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23)

Returning to what Jesus said in Matthew 21, how are we to interpret and understand the idea of mountains being tossed into the sea? In a similar instance, Jesus had taught that with the smallest measure of faith, the Apostles could have trees cast into the sea. However, Jesus’ point wasn’t about the availability of a blank check for those who had enough faith but the opposite. The Apostles had been asking Him wrongly to increase their faith. Clearly, it wasn’t an issue of the quantity or amount of one’s faith (Luke 17:5-10).

Likewise, in Matthew 21, Jesus wasn’t suggesting that moving mountains was about the quantity of faith of His disciples, but, rather, whether or not they confidently knew whether or not it was God’s will to toss a mountain into the sea. If it wasn’t God’s will, no amount of fervent faith could fill the vacuum.

How was Elijah able to accomplish what he did? Had God given him a blank check to do anything he wanted to do? No! However, some “prosperity ministers” believe that God has given believers today a blank check, at least in part:

• Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:16-18)

These pastors reason that with enough faith, fervent prayer can heal all as long as it’s accompanied by the confession of sins. These same pastors tend to believe that Elijah’s drought was brought about by his faith in the so-called blank check. But from where did Elijah’s fervency and confidence come? From the will of God…as directly expressed to him through the Word of God:

• Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." (1 Kings 17:1)

This boldness and confidence did not come from the will of Elijah but from the will of God. God had revealed it to Elijah, who was merely communicating the God’s will.

From this account, we learn that the Lord was directing Elijah throughout. According to the Lord’s will and timing, He sent Elijah back to King Ahab:

• After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 18:1-2)

The famine wasn’t the result of God having given Elijah a blank check but a direct and explicit command. As a result, Elijah had little doubt that his prayer would be answered.

Because of the drought, the Lord now had the attention of Israel. Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to call upon Baal to consume an offering with fire:

• “Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire--he is God… Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. (1 Kings 18:24-29)

Yet when Elijah prayed, the bull was immediately incinerated. Why was Elijah bold? He knew that he was operating according to the will and Word of his God:

• At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. (1 Kings 18:36)

Elijah’s confidence did not stem from his faith in prayer or faith in having been given a blank check but rather from his faith in the Word of God, whom he served. He knew God’s Word, and that was what he banked on. He did not accomplish the destruction of the priests of Baal through a formless “prayer of faith” but through a belief in the very words and will of God.

Elijah’s faith is a model for ours. He did not believe that he had been given a blank check to ask for whatever he chose. Neither should we.