Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:24) 

Many read these words of the Savior and conclude that they can get whatever they want from God as long as they can convince themselves that God will give it to them. Such a misinterpretation of the Master’s words would be laughable, if it were not so tragic. The truth is; such foolishness has shipwrecked the faith of many Christians and kept others from coming to the Christian faith at all. 

The Bible teaches us that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith doesn’t come from clinching our fists and gritting our teeth and convincing ourselves that God is going to do whatever we ask Him to do. This is pure presumption, not faith. Whereas faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4), presumption is the shortest path I know to sure and certain spiritual defeat. 

Faith only comes when God speaks directly and personally to our hearts, revealing to us His will. Once we are convinced by Him of His will, we can pray accordingly with perfect confidence that our prayers will be answered (1 John 5:14-15). It is knowing with certainty the revealed will of God and praying with confidence that it be fulfilled that results in our prayers being unfailingly answered. 

Granted, some will protest at this point that the verse under consideration says that we can ask whatever we desire. Yet, the Bible, which is always the best commentary on itself, teaches us elsewhere that God will not even hear our prayers if we pray with iniquity in our heart; that is, for something contrary to His will (Psalm 66:18). If we are right with God and properly prepared to kneel before Him, then, His will, not ours, will be our heart’s desire.

Remember, the Psalmist promised us that God would give us the desires of our heart if we would delight ourselves in Him (Psalm 37:4). All who delight themselves in the Lord will desire His will to be done over their own. It is those to whom the revealed will of God is the soul’s delight who can believe and receive whatever they ask for in prayer.

“Men presume when they are resolved to abide in their sins…It cannot be that God should be wheedled…or prevailed upon by lips of dissimulation. He knows them that trust in him and that sincerely come to him by Christ.” (John Bunyan)