The Lord Jesus spoke these words to His disciples in John 14:11-14,  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
   You might be thinking, Is it possible the Lord could have given us, His disciples, a blank check, to fill out and redeem as we have need?  If so, then when I ask for something in prayer, why I don’t seem to get it?  I think that’s a very fair question, and it deserves to be searched out for an answer, wouldn’t you say?
When the Lord Jesus said “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do”, He obviously meant exactly what He said, because He repeated it a second time.  Oh, boy, I can see some eyes lighting up right now; “Let’s see, I want a new Ferrari, nice homes, lots of money, (you fill in the blank), and so I’m going shopping because Jesus promised He would give me whatsoever I ask.”  There’s only one small catch……
   The Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples.  But before you think He was only speaking to those twelve or so who were following Him that day, you have to define “disciple”.  So let’s do that:  A disciple is defined as one who is in the same way with the teacher; he or she is a pupil, one being taught and disciplined to become as the teacher.  Knowing that, now it’s easy for you to ascertain if you are a disciple of Jesus.  Are you letting the Word of God teach you to be like Jesus, are you taking on His traits and personality and His works?  Are you of one mind with Him?  Jesus spoke that His purpose and will was to please His heavenly Father, to be at one with Him in all things.  Is that YOUR purpose will and in everything in your life?  Are you learning to seek to please the heavenly Father in all you do and say?  Notice I said “learning”, because you’re a pupil.  You probably haven’t “arrived” yet, at least I haven’t.  But if you can honestly answer “YES” to these questions, then without a doubt, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.
   That means when you ask for something, your purpose for asking will be exactly the same as Jesus’ purpose was when He prayed; that is, He wanted to advance His Father’s Kingdom.  He wasn’t asking for anything to promote His own agenda, after all, Jesus came here to seek and save the lost.  He said in Luke 4:18: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
   So that means, when we ask the heavenly Father for something, it should be for the above purpose, because as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you shouldn’t have any other purpose in mind.  Are you still with me?  If so, you are beginning to see why so many prayers go unanswered, because we are not acting like disciples, and we have our own interests at heart.  BUT AND IF we are asking according to the Father’s will, we are promised the Lord Jesus will give us those things.  Now before you go getting goofy on me and getting into the ditch with questions like; Is it always God’s will to heal?, you must again look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus while He was upon the earth training His disciples for service.  Was everyone healed that Jesus ministered to?  Yes, because healing is the Father’s will, and Jesus clearly taught us that, by healing whoever came to Him with a need.  And not only that, He taught His disciples (that’s you and me) to go and do likewise.  He clearly demonstrated it was the Father’s will to meet our everyday needs, when He fed the 5,000 who were with Him one day when He was teaching.  Even His first miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding when the wine ran out, demonstrated his concern for a wedding celebration to go well for the young couple.  Another thing, Jesus taught on giving, but He never said “Give to ME.”  He said “Give to the poor.”  There are those who SAY they are disciples of Jesus, who are greedy for gain, enticing people to give to them using various scriptures to manipulate them.  But a tree is known by its fruit, and sooner or later their fruit will appear and give them away.  The Lord knows those who are His own, and He will see to it that they are well taken care of, you can bank on that.
   We often underestimate God’s compassion.  So often we think the heavenly Father is like a stern, hard-to-please earthly father, whom we can never please no matter what we do.  Many of us have or had parents like that, so it’s just natural for us to think our heavenly Father is like that, too.  And with an attitude like that, it’s easy to believe in your heart that when you ask the Father for something, that the answer will most likely be “no” or “not now”.  But that isn’t the Father’s attitude toward you at all.  That’s why the Lord Jesus said in John 16:24, Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receve, that your joy may be full.  Apparently then, our heavenly Father doesn’t have a problem with us being full of joy.  He isn’t an old fuddy-duddy, you know.  He is a very loving, compassionate Father who wants us to really enjoy our relationship with Him.
   Our job as disciples of the Lord Jesus is to point people to the Father’s love.  And you won’t do that by telling people He’s out to send them to hell.  Rather, we must make it clear to them that our heavenly Father took the necessary steps to deliver us from hell, and all the oppression of the devil, such as poverty and sickness.  I have found through the years that, as the old proverb says, it’s easier to draw flies with honey than it is with vinegar.  I think you know what I mean.  Can someone look at your life, and the way you behave and want to know the heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus because of you?  If so, you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ!  If not, today is a real good time for YOU to become one!
   The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:32, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  So then, what’s the secret of receiving what you ask for from the Lord?  Simple; ask according to the Father’s will.  We can know the Father’s will by looking at what the Lord Jesus did, and then do likewise.  When your purposes finally line up with the Father’s, ask what you will, and it will be done for you!  Not because I said so, but because Jesus said so.  And He would know!
   The Lord knows you have physical needs that have to be met, and He doesn’t want you being worried about how those needs are going to be met.  Instead, He wants you to focus your attention upon Him.  Make the Kingdom of God your first priority, and let Him take care of the details.  And to Him, they’re all details.  NO WORRIES, MATE!  Whatsoever you have need of, just ask Him.  He wants your joy to be full.