Jesus said, ‘Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete’ (John 16:24). How shocking these words must have been for the Jews who heard them. A true revolution in their way of thinking! We do not like revolutions, but Jesus does. He came to initiate a radical reversal in the rigid thinking of the believers.
Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, says Paul (Galatians 5:22). And the revolution that Jesus brings about in our life is that this joy becomes the genuine source of our existence. He shows us the way to this joyful existence: praying. Praying? Yes, but so revolutionary different from the prayers that are provided by various religions.
How many prayers are sent up around the world, without changing anything, without receiving any answers. ‘When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,’ James frankly states (:3). Jesus says we should finally learn what it means to pray in His name. This does not mean that we should end each prayer with the phrase ‘in Jesus' name, amen’, but it means that we should pray ‘by order of Jesus’, which means: inspired by His Spirit.
But how could we ever pray inspired by His Spirit, unless we are anointed by His Spirit? This is only possible when we are born again of the Spirit. And we can only be born again by obedience to the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23). But how could we ever obey His word without… a revolution?
Jesus established His church here on earth to make all this come true through faith in Him.