Receive Whatever You Ask For in Prayer

Q: Is this scripture "you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer" only for the disciples who we know were to later receive the Spirit and perform miracles? Does it apply to Believers today such as one with the healing "Gift of the Spirit"? Matthew 21:20When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. `How did the fig tree wither so quickly?` they asked. 21Jesus replied, `I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,` and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.`

A: The instruction of Jesus wasn't necessarily for the disciples only. We must remember that there were no "born again" Christians during the time of Jesus' earthly ministry. As you alluded to in your question the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of the disciples at that time. This did not occur until after Jesus ascended into heaven which is recorded in Acts 1:9. Then in Acts 2 we have the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. When Jesus says "you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer" He is not saying that God is like a vending machine granting our every wish like He is our own personal genie. When we accept Christ by faith we are new creations, "the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)!" As new creations in Christ we now have the Holy Spirit, the very life of God, indwelling us. Along with our new life comes new desires and an attitude to only do what our Father in heaven tells us to do. When Jesus was praying on the Mount of Olives, just prior to His arrest, He was praying for God to remove the burden placed on Him to go to the Cross. However, Jesus ended His prayer with "yet not my will, but yours be done (Matthew 22:42)."

Therefore, as Jesus' example shows, what we ask for is not for God to grant our will, but for His will to be done through us. It is easy to assume that God will do whatever we ask of Him. However, we forget that God is not in our lives to bless our flesh, which is what most of us would be asking Him to do, if we are honest. God's will is for everybody to come to faith in Christ and for believers to be thankful for all He has already given us as we make ourselves available for Him to use us to fulfill His will on earth. Furthermore, if you look closer at the passage from Matthew 21 what Jesus is saying about getting what we ask for in prayer is conditional on our faith and ability to not doubt. He says "IF you have faith and do not doubt" you could do all the things mentioned. However, none of us have faith enough to wither fig trees or cast a mountain into the sea. The Christian life is not about the size of our faith and our ability, but is all about the size of our God and His ability. 1 Corinthians 1:9 says, "God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." God initiated our salvation. He came down as Jesus to live a sinless life, die for our sins and be raised from the dead to offer us His life. God is the one who finishes the work He started in us and guarantees our salvation. It is not our faith, but the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, who performs God's will through us.

When it comes to healing, God is the one who does all the healing. In many cases Christians believe that the healing pertaining to believers is the ability, or gift, to physically heal sicknesses, disease and infirmities. While that may happen on occasion that is not the type of healing we should focus on. The healing believers receive is one of a spiritual nature. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5)." The healing we received as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was that our sins were forgiven so that God, through the resurrection of Christ, could "heal" us from our spiritual death. All mankind is born into the world spiritually dead to God, in sin, because of the sin of Adam. God desiring to restore His life to mankind first had to deal with the sin that caused His life to leave in the first place. Therefore Jesus, the only man born into this world with a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for our sins had to die. Now, raised from the dead, God can offer His life, as a free gift, to all who accept Jesus Christ by faith. Now, in Him, we are healed of our spiritual death, come alive to God and are at peace with God, safe from His wrath and condemnation.

Lastly, we must not overlook the significance of Jesus cursing the fig tree for not bearing any fruit. The nation of Israel on more than one occasion is symbolized by the fig tree (i.e. Hosea 9:10). It has been said that a barren fig tree is the symbol of divine judgment. And Israel, throughout history, has been judged by God because of its spiritual fruitlessness despite being God's chosen nation (i.e. Jeremiah 8:13). It is possible that the cursing of the fig tree by Jesus is a reflection of Israel's ultimate example of fruitlessness; the rejection of Jesus Christ Himself, Israel's Messiah. In fact, Jesus said as much to His Jewish audience in Luke 13. When talking to the crowd about their need to repent He used a parable about a fig tree as an example. "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil (Luke 13:6-7)?'" The cursing of the fig tree could also be due to the fig being thought of as the forbidden fruit that Adam ate in the Garden which caused the Fall of Man. The evidence for this is found in Genesis 3:7, "they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Regardless of the reason the fig tree was cursed, it should serve as a reminder of how thankful Christians should be for being safe from God's wrath.