Mark 11:24 “For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe~~ that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Is having a vision of a completed task the same as “believ[ing] that you have received it?” Futurists of the New Age movement encourage and teach the technique of “visioning” or “vision casting,” which may empower individuals or can be useful for decision making and planning—-but it has nothing to do with God.
John quoted Jesus when he taught a similar promise as our text: “Therefore whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (Jn 14:13).
How much more encouragement do we need to pray for great things that will honor and glorify the Father through the Son? The Father knows how to help us glorify Christ before we ask, but He waits for us to be concerned enough to ask: “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isa 65:24). By His response, everyone will recognize it was God’s doing.
Don’t be misled into thinking that this promise is all about you; it is all about God. James clarifies how to pray, saying, “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—-you want only what will give you pleasure” (4:2–-3NLT).
Stop a moment and think of all the ways you could glorify God through your life and service. He primarily becomes evident to others by answering the prayers of His servants who want Him to be recognized as a powerful and prayer–answering God.
If only His people would call on Him with His purposes in mind. What impossible need do you have that would most glorify God if it were answered? Pray for His glory’s sake.
“Lord, we can only believe in what is absolutely true: Your word. I know that if I ask You for what You want, I will always receive an affirmative answer, and my life will count for You.”