And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

These words, uttered by Christ on the evening before His death, are a continuation of the preceding words by which Jesus revealed to the Apostles the mystery of interior unity between Him and the Father. The uniting love between you and Christ is conditioned by true repentance, i.e. by keeping Christ’s commandments (see Jn 14:15.21.23). All philosophies, theologies or psychologies which reject true repentance and the following of Christ lead to both temporal and eternal damnation.

To ask in Jesus’ name does not mean just to utter the phrase “in the name of Jesus Christ” spiritlessly. It means to be in interior unity with Christ through true repentance (see Mk 1:15). If you are in unity with Him, then you surely ask according to the will of Christ, which is also the will of the Heavenly Father. The will of God today is that the kingdom of God would come (see the Our Father) into the souls of the individuals as well as the whole Ukrainian nation.

Jesus clearly says to the Apostles that if they ask anything in His name, He will do it. Jesus will save Ukraine even through your prayer of faith (cf. Jn 14:13-14). Make a promise to God to communicate with Him for one hour every day over a period of one year. He will save both you and Ukraine.

How to pray? The centre of unity between us and Christ is Christ’s cross. Your unity with Christ is contained in the mystery of crucifixion with Christ (cf. Rom 6:6). Utter the following sentence with faith: “Our old self, inhabitants of the (Lvov) region, was crucified with Christ.” If you pray in tongues, keep this truth in your mind for about one minute and at the same time speak in tongues in authority. Because you ask for a concrete thing, your mind is not unfruitful any more (see 1Cor 14:14-15). Your spirit prays and your mind prays, and moreover, the Spirit of God makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (cf. Rom 8:26). Let your spirit, guided by the Spirit of God, resist unbelief and doubt. At the same time, stand under the authority of God’s Word and pray in the power of the Spirit for a particular region of Ukraine. You can imagine a pillar of light over the Lvov region. This spiritual light is Christ. Because the Son of God assumed human nature, I can actualize this unity with Him through faith and God’s Word. “We know that our old self was crucified with Him, that the body (system) of sin might lose its power.” (Rom 6:6) The old self is our human nature infected by sin. The old self works toward both physical and spiritual suicide, believes in lies and questions divine truths. Our crucifixion with Christ is a mystery of our union with God’s power and salvation. Here I can also realize the principle of collective guilt, which means that I suffer for the guilt of others too, above all for the sin of the first parents. But there is another principle too, i.e. that I receive the grace of repentance for myself and for a large number of Ukrainians, so that they no longer follow the broad way to eternal damnation but receive eternal life in Christ. The reality that there is now a civil war in Ukraine should motivate you even more strongly into this apostolic and missionary prayer. Behind the fratricidal war is the spirit of lies and death. In prayer, you fight a spiritual – God’s – fight (see Eph 6:10-12) against this spirit and other suchlike spirits. If you do not pray in tongues, simply utter the words: “You know that our old self, inhabitants of the …… region, was crucified with Christ.” At that moment God’s grace works through you and penetrates many souls. This is true mission. This is an effective apostolate of prayer. When you have uttered the words of faith over one region, utter them step by step over other regions too. Be in faith at least for one minute over each region. At that moment of battle prayer you are like Moses who struggled for the people of Israel. Just as a pillar of light and fire went before the Israelites, let it go before you in spirit when you pray for the particular regions of Ukraine. The pillar of fire is Christ. Enter into this pillar through the mystery of crucifixion with Christ. Try to pray in this way at least once, at best in the time of your prayer guard. Then you will understand what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. His Word is true even today: “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” God also demands perseverance.

Download: Reflection on Jn 14:13-14