In Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these.  “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven.”  Notice the place of prayer—­“on earth”; and the sweep—­“anything”; and the positiveness—­“it shall be done.”  Then the reason why is given.  “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”  That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three.  If three meet to pray, there are four praying.  There is always one more than you can see.  And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit of dejection, “He’ll not hear me:  I’m so sinful:  so weak”—­you would be wrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that are not right—­if you might be thinking that, you could at once fall back upon this:  the Father always hears Jesus.  And wherever earnest hearts pray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer.

The second of these:  Mark 11:22-24, “Jesus answering saith unto them, have faith in God”—­with the emphasis double-lined under the word “God.”  The chief factor in prayer is God.  “Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea—­” Choosing, do you see the unlikeliest thing that might occur.  Such a thing did not take place.  We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain.  The need for such action does not seem to have arisen.  But He chooses the thing most difficult for His illustration.  Can you imagine a mountain moving off into the sea—­the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier?  If you know mountains down in your country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. “—­And shall not doubt in his heart—­” That is Jesus’ definition of faith. “—­But shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it.  Therefore, I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”  How utterly sweeping this last statement!  And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic “therefore—­I—­say—­unto—­you.”  Both whatsoever and whosoever are here.  Anything, and anybody.  We always feel instinctively as though these statements need careful guarding:  a few fences put up around them.  Wait a bit and we shall see what the Master’s own fence is.

The last four of the six are in John’s gospel.  In that last long quiet talk on the night in which He was betrayed.  John preserves much of that heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen.

Here in John 14:13, 14:  “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 anything in My name, that will I do.”  The repetition is to emphasize the unlimited sweep of what may be asked.