Religious Abracadabra.
With the use of faith formulas and using the "religions abracadabra"...IN JESUS' NAME...it is easy to get caught up in the religious spiritual mystic of instant spiritual gratification.
Does the phrase "in Jesus' name" tacked on the end of a prayer assure your prayer will get answered and force God to give what was asked for in the prayer. Does ending a prayer with "in Jesus name" give us a blank check or give the prayer a hocus-pocus, abracadabra instant gratification?
The confusion that religion has caused in this area stems from their ignorance of what faith is. Faith to the religionist is something we create within ourselves as payment to get God to do what we want done. If we can "muster" up enough faith the mountains will be moved into the sea.
In times of crisis we do forced faith exercises as an effort to believe, which adds more frustration and stress to the overwhelming circumstance. This added weight called “faith,” instead of bringing us life, has added the yoke of guilt to our misery.
When faith is seen as a mysterious force which magically changes adverse circumstances and when the circumstance does not change people feel condemned, guilty and spiritually anemic because they don't seem to "have" it. When we have faith in a friend it simply means that we trust them. I have faith in my friends, but this doesn’t mean I possess some power that makes them respond in my favor. There is no inherent power in faith, faith is simply trusting God.
A.W. Tozer stated that, “faith is the gaze of the soul upon a loving God.”
God is here, ready, willing and able to help us. Our faith does not change God's mind or force Him to respond to our demands, faith changes us to totally trust that God has done it all like He says He has. When we don’t believe Him, we shut ourselves off from experiencing God’s power and limit His work through us. If we do not believe that Christ did it all, we will live trying to do what we think He did not do and we will fail to see that it is already a done deal. God is present saying, “Listen, I love you!” yet by unbelief, we can shut the eyes of our heart...blinding us from seeing and experiencing our loving Father.
Praying in Jesus’ name really means to pray as His ambassador, and with His desire. It doesn’t give us a blank check to get what we want, when we want or how we want, it means having our prayer echo God’s heart, desire and will. His will is for us to trust Him 100% as did the man who said; "you don't have to come and heal my daughter, just speak the word and she will be healed". Such faith...(trust) in Jesus and who He was was not found in all of Israel.
Trust in Jesus the mountain mover.
In John 14:13,14 we are told to ask in Jesus name.
ReplyDeleteJohn 14:13King James Version (KJV)
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:14King James Version (KJV)
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
A. W. Tozer also said this about faith.
The faith of Paul or Luther was a revolutionizing thing. It upset the whole life of the individual and made him into another person altogether. It laid hold on the life and brought it under obedience to Christ. It took up its cross and followed along after Jesus with no intention of going back. It said goodbye to it s old friends as certainly as Elijah when he stepped into the fiery chariot and went away in the whirlwind. It had a finality about it... It realigned all life's actions and brought them into accord with the will of God. End of Quote.
That's exactly why Christ said to ask in His name. That the father may be glorified in the Son. That His will be done. (John 14:13)