“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” 1 John 5:14.

But what does, “if we ask anything according to His will” mean?

This is a major stumbling block for many, the anxious heart boils over as it contemplates “What is God’s will?” or “Is this God’s will?” and rightfully so, however, it is much simpler than all this.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7.

You will not have to ask what God’s will is if you are abiding in Christ; and if you have been studying Scripture you have Christ’s word abiding in you. Do you understand this?

If you have been cultivating a close intimate relationship with God, your mind will be in sync with God’s mind and the things you will ask will be the same things that are on His heart. This is because as you become more godly, you will desire the things that are dear to Him.

This is not a goal for the super Christian; it is God’s goal for the everyday Christian, all everyday Christians.

The reply might be, “Well, I am not anywhere near the goal. So why pray at all until I can clean up my act?”

A fair enough question, but as the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Anyone who feels distant from God needs to take that first step closer to Him right now.

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded [divided between God and the world].” James 4:6b-8.

If you are unsure of what to do, pray to God for wisdom, which is a prayer He will always answer.

Again, concerning prayer, “Don’t let’s complicate what aint complicated.” anonymous.

“Therefore I desire that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting…” 1 Timothy 2:8.

Whether you feel fit to, or not, God wants you to pray. Talk to God, confess your sins, pray for your needs, your loved ones, and those God has put on your heart; pray long, hard, and fearlessly.

Do not be afraid to ask and if you do not receive, ask yourself, am I holding back on some sin I should be confessing, am I holding a grudge, am I asking with a wrong motive, is this something God wants me to have?

Sometimes, just wait, God’s answers to prayer are, yes, no, and wait, that wait may be for quite a long time, but if you feel strongly about it, be persistent in prayer.

“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: ‘There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, “Avenge me of my adversary.” And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, “Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”’ Then the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said.’” Luke 18:1-6.

The confidence gained by knowing that we are asking something in God’s will and knowing that it is His will, we can know that He hears us.

“And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” 1 John 5:15.

Something that will build faith and give one a desire to pray for the things that seem impossible is to pray for little things. As you find that God will help you in these little things you will be strengthened in your prayer life, and also desire to draw closer to God Himself, who is the fascinating source of all this power.

Try this, when you go into the grocery store, pray within your heart something like, Father help me to find the best bargains and to pick out the best fruits and vegetables.

If you have a busy day with a number of appointments to go to, pray, Father help me make all my appointments on time, give me favor with those I am dealing with, and help me to be kind at all times; or words to that effect.

Any time you have to drive somewhere, pray, Father protect me in traffic, do not let me cause or get into an accident, please open a path for me to go through. Even while driving, Father please open traffic up for me to get over to my exit, or do not let me miss my turnoff.

If you are working on something, pray, Father, help me as I work and do not let me hurt myself or another. At work, do the same thing, praying that your work will be thorough and to the best of your abilities.

I have written these things before, but it is important because it really works.

This is all about a relationship, take God everywhere with you. Let Him help you with anything and everything. And, always, always give thanks for answers to prayer.

God is not a genie in a bottle, but He is your Father and wants to help you in all that you do, He is not going to push His way in, you have to let Him in.

If you wish to wander off away from the light of Christ and into this world’s darkness, you are free to do so, but remember there are unpleasant things in the dark that you will not meet in the light.

“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.” 1 John 5:16.

It is easy to worry whether you are sinning the sin unto death and oftentimes some will fret over the unpardonable sin, but these are serious things and if you are worrying about them, it is probably unlikely that you are or have committed them.

Concerning the unpardonable sin, let us look at it first.

“Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ but when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’” Matthew 12:22-24.

Notice how quickly Satan snatches the truth from the children’s hearts. A blazing light goes on and folks say, “Wow, can this be the Son of David (who is the Christ)!” And immediately the devil’s minions step in and with great authority, tell the people that Jesus is working by the power of demons.

The Lord’s horrifying reply is the following.

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.” Matthew 12:31.

Because of the peculiar circumstances of this incident, this sin cannot be repeated today. The reason, as you may see, is that the Pharisees are attempting to vilify the Lord and discredit the clear work of the Spirit in corroborating the claims of Jesus to being the Christ.

Now the sin unto death begins when, as stated earlier, one walks out of the light of Christ and into the darkness surrounding it.

What might be considered a good description of what this sin entails begins with a comedian whom I will not name, though you may recognize him anyway.

This man was born into a family of Pentecostal preachers and in time became one himself. So it can be assumed that he was a Christian. It appears that something must have happened because after he divorced his first wife of five years he turned to standup comedy.

Was this the sin? Probably not, his comedy, though loud, profane and politically incorrect was not the sin either. His association with rock stars and other show business types were no help though.

“Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’” 1 Corinthians 15:33.

Though there can be little doubt that the Holy Spirit was warning him, the turning point, whatever time that may have been was when this preacher turned comedian started to mock the Bible, Christianity, and fallen televangelists.

His career lasted from shortly before 1984 when he was “discovered”, to his death in 1992.

His car was struck by a drunken teenager in a pickup truck on a lonely stretch of highway while he was driving to another show.

According to our verse there was a time when someone could have prayed for this man (and may have), until he turned down a road from which he would never come back, both literally and figuratively.

A young Christian woman I knew suffered the same fate. She took on a lover and walked out on her husband and child.

Shortly thereafter she and her boyfriend were driving to Las Vegas when the car left the highway and she too died beside the road. The boyfriend is now a quadriplegic; and if you like irony, the woman’s ex-husband led him to the Lord a short time after the accident.

There is a sin unto death, and be assured it is not just an unpaid parking ticket, it happens when the Christian becomes so out of control that God cannot reign him in; leaving Him with only one option, death.

“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death…” both this woman and the comedian should have been prayed for years earlier when the troubles were starting to surface; perhaps things would have been different.

If you see someone who needs prayer now, by all means do it, you may save a life.

But notice that this verse specifies Christians. If you see an unsaved person who is sinning, no matter what, and you are moved to pray for them, do so.

There is power in prayer and you may save a soul from hell. Do not hold back, pray for whomever your heart goes out to, anyone, actors, musicians, sports heroes, politicians; especially these folks that you are never likely to come into contact with, pray for them often and persistently.

Another reason for 1 John 5:16 is to warn the Christian that there is a petition that God will not answer no matter what.

As a result, when the believer sees that their prayer has not been answered they can know that it is not their fault, nor is God ignoring them.

“All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” 1 John 5:17.

“All unrighteousness is sin…” everything from the so-called little white lie, the fib, to genocide is sin, and everything in between will put a person into hell.

So let us not say that we are better than others because we only tell fibs, nor should we think we are beyond redemption because of the terrible things we have done.

God is Judge and it is His Son He has given for our redemption. It is our job to confess our sins and to claim Christ as our savior.

If all unrighteousness is sin, then we should all die. But for the grace of God toward those who desire to walk in righteousness we live because.

“As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14.

And God will grant life to those who are slipping, let us, in love, continually intercede for them.

Sin unto Death, 1 John 5:14-17 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-28-12, updated on 7-28-18.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.