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A friend of mine posted a status update yesterday that simply said, “Matthew 21:22″. I couldn’t recall the verse, so I looked it up and read it. It says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
I remembered hearing this verse preached and spoken about at length. Many use it to justify what is often called the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is basically the following message, “If you believe in Jesus Christ, he will bless you with your desires and give you the things of your prayers.”
The true gospel is, “Repent! You are a sinner, unable to stand in the presence of Holy God. Yet, God sent Jesus, His only son, to live as a man both fully God and fully man without sin so that he may die on a cross. His blood is the propitiation, or the only satisfying thing before God, as the one thing that can cover our sins so that we may stand forgiven before God. If we repent of our sins, acknowledging that we have done wrong before God and turn from them, and confess with our tongue that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.”
John 14:13-14 expands on Matthew 21:22: ”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.”
Today, when I was reading about prayer, I came across a link to a video that specifically speaks about John 12:13-14:
The Bible never says that God will give of the desires of the heart without adding a clause about the glorification of God.
I believe that it was important to reiterate what the gospel is and what it is not because without that understanding, there is no purpose to prayer. If one does not believe in the true gospel, then they have not been grafted into the body of Christ and therefore they are unable to do anything for and ask for anything in the name of Christ. They are still spiritually dead.
Secondly, I believe it is important to begin rightly dividing the Word and taking a deep look at what prayer is scripturally. In other words, learning the WHY and HOW of prayer according to God.
