John 14:13
And 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.
Does this mean if I make a prayer to God for a dictator to die, God will listen and grant me my wish?
We should not be afraid of asking anything of our heavenly Father. We should also never think that our Father is somehow obligated to deliver our requests when we ask and in the manner we desire.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. - John 15:7
The more profound our abiding in Christ and the more profound the abiding of Jesus' words in us, the less likely our requests will be foolish, selfish, and evil. Jesus was able to say to our Father, "I know that you always hear me" (John 11:41-42) because He had no sin in His humanity but James says to us:
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. - James 4:3-6
The spirit of man lusts after the friendship of the world thus arousing the jealousy of God. It is a prideful lusting which is soundly resisted as detrimental to His creation. Such prayers are not answered because they tend, not toward the humility of faith, but towards rebellion.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. - James 4:7-8
Rather than trying to shape our requests into the appropriate format we should put all of our yearning towards abiding in Christ and our effort towards His words abiding in us. We should submit ourselves unto God. Then will our requests be granted because our hearts will be purified, our actions clean, and our requests like the requests of Jesus Himself: Consumed with doing God's will and not with God doing ours.
That being said, we are but little children and there is a process of increased abiding that we are undergoing. As our faith must grow and strengthen, so our requests must mature and when our Heavenly Father appears deaf to our asking it is for our good and His glory.
At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. - John 16:26-27
Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ and do you believe that He came out from God? Therefore does the Father love you: Ask whatever you will.
It's all there in what Jesus said.
And 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.
Asking something "in the name of Jesus" does not mean tacking "...in Jesus' name, amen" at the end of our prayers. It means to ask as if we were an agent of Christ - as His representatives or ambassadors, as if we were in His place. (This use of acting or speaking in someone else's name is still used in certain contexts today.) Clearly then, the thing asked for must be something that Jesus Himself would have asked for if He were the one asking instead of us.
Probably not. Jesus has not given to any of his children a blank check for them to fill in for whatever they wish.
Do you remember the foolish request of the sons of Zebedee?
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said (Mark 10:35-38a NIV).
Jesus's words should resonate in all believers' hearts when they are tempted to fill in a blank check from God. Often we do not know what we are asking!
Moreover, the stipulation that Jesus included in his words to Philip was that Philip (and all believers) should "ask in . . . [Jesus's] name."
That does not mean that as long as believers append "in Jesus' name" to their prayers, Jesus is somehow obligated to grant their requests. To ask in Jesus' name is to ask for him and his Father to be glorified, and they are glorified when believers' requests are in accord with Jesus's purpose in coming to earth; namely, to become the Savior of the world.
Jesus's name, Yeshua in Hebrew, means God is salvation. Therefore, believers' prayer requests need to be in accord with God's salvific work which He accomplished through His one and only Son.
Could the prayer of a believer for God to snuff out the life of a dictator be in accord with God's will, which in essence is for God's salvific work in the world to be enhanced and furthered? Perhaps, but not likely.
Christians who live under the tyranny of a dictator deserve our prayers and practical support. God, however, has the ability to enhance and expand His salvific work in the world when His church experiences persecution, which is often the case in dictatorships and oppressive regimes.
The argument could be made that the church in China would not have experienced its miraculous growth in recent decades had it not been for communist ideology and the godless philosophy of Chairman Mao and his followers.
Very oten God's thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways. They are above and beyond us. The prophet Isaiah knew this truth clearly:
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are . . . [God's] ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (55:9 NIV).
Perhaps a better and more biblical prayer request would be that God's church would grow and expand in spite of governmental oppression and dictatorship.
