Enlarge Your Asking Capacity

Sat, 4 Jan 2020

‘You do not have because you do not ask God.’ James 4:2 NIV

How large is your asking capacity when it comes to prayer? When Elijah asked Elisha, ‘“What may I do for you, before I am taken away?”…Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”’ (2 Kings 2:9 NKJV)

Some of us may have been shocked by his response, pegged him as arrogant, and said, ‘You need to humble yourself and be grateful for the privilege of serving a great prophet like Elijah, and count yourself fortunate if God permits you to carry on his ministry.’ But Elisha wasn’t timid, and Elijah wasn’t offended. So how did it all turn out? Elisha got his double portion and ended up performing twice as many miracles as Elijah.

When you pray, God doesn’t say, ‘Make your request reasonable and practical.’ He wants you to ask largely and abundantly, not sparingly (see James 1:5). How’s this for a big promise: ‘Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession’ (Psalm 2:8 NLT)? Take the limits off God! Think about it: if He’s willing to give you ‘the nations as your inheritance’, He will surely save your loved ones, heal your body, give you that job, that home, or that relationship you’ve been praying for.

Jesus said, ‘And I will do whatever you ask in My name.’ (John 14:13 NIV) Only two times in Scripture has someone said something that caused Jesus to marvel. On both occasions it was a demonstration of audacious faith by a Gentile, and someone the religious crowd thought had no right to God’s miraculous provision. So the word for you today is—enlarge your asking capacity.