“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.”
— Mark 11:24
Jesus’ teaching about prayer in this verse goes back to when he and the disciples were walking to Jerusalem. Jesus wanted something to eat. He saw a fig tree and wanted its fruit but none was on it. Though the season for figs was over, Jesus expected fruit.
Take this thought a step further in our understanding. Jesus Christ expects fruit in season and out of season for His purposes. God expects this of His children, those whom Christ has redeemed. If a person does not bear spiritual fruit, that person is dead spiritually. He is not ready for use by God.
Jesus taught in vs. 24 that Christians do not have to be like the fig tree, nor does He want them to be. He wants and expects them to bear fruit. How does that happen? By being in an active relationship with God. How did Jesus teach His followers to be with God? By His example.
Regularly, Jesus went to be with the Father in and through prayer. For Him, prayer was being with God and talking freely with Him. When the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, He gave them the Lord’s Prayer as the prime example. This prayer leads Jesus’ followers to ask for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. It asks for God’s will to be done. The Lord’s Prayer puts God and spiritual matters as primary concerns for life. Jesus’ prayer in the garden before His arrest gives His followers another example of the primary-ness of serving spiritual ends when He said, “Not My will but Yours be done,” to the Father.
These big examples of prayer from Jesus’ life and teaching along with others teach the disciples that praying in accordance with God’s will is important. Secondly, praying for God’s will on earth as it is in heaven means praying for God to work on earth to occur by any means, even through His creation. Praying for God’s will means praying for spiritual things. It means praying for Jesus’ disciples to be spiritually gifted and bear fruit for Him, in and out of season. Bearing fruit out of season implies not be constrained by the confines of the boundaries of the world, but doing God’s will—being ready to be picked by Him—regardless of when He wants to use you for His will. No time is a bad time (out of season) for God to work in people’s lives. He can intervene and direct how He wills at any time.
How does this relate to verse 24? The “all things for which you pray and ask,” if prayed for as Jesus taught, are spiritual things—the things God desires to be done. This prayer grows the pray-ers relationship with God and so grows that believer’s faith in God. It also leads to God bestowing other spiritual fruit on the pray-er so that he/she is prepared in and out of season—ripe and ready for God to choose and use to help prepare to bring “His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.”
When a Christian prays and asks “for all things” (vs.34), Jesus meant he/she prays for spiritual things. By the faith God gives you, believe that God answers your prayers (because you asked according to His will as Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer) and “they will be granted to you.”
Praying isn’t the act of giving God your “gimme list.” It’s being in a growing and close relationship with Him. It involves being so connected with God’s heart that the believer wants what He does and prays for it. It leads the believer to ask God to make you what He wants to bring to pass what He desires on earth as in heaven. This asking by the believer is asking for spiritual things—asking for God’s spiritual gifts—so He can use you for His purposes and grow you ever closer to Him.
This brings to mind another of Jesus’ teachings from Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.” Ask God, seek for Him, knock on His door and you will receive from Him what you are lacking and what He wants you to have.
Are you asking for God’s fruit, His growth of you? Are you asking for His kingdom to come and His will to be done? Seek God and His kingdom, then His righteousness and all else will be given to you (Matthew 6:33).
Today, seek God and the salvation He paid for you through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus. Believe in Him and ask for salvation. Draw close to God and be made like Jesus.
Be made into fruit and be ready for Him in and out of season.
