POWER in the NAME of JESUS
Before my son (Sheldon) or daughter (Vanessa) were born the names they now have didn’t mean much to me. But say one of their names now and my heart fills with emotion, I can smell the freshness of their babyhood, I hear the sound of their voice as a toddler, I feel the pain they endured when they hurt themselves, their crying made me cry, what brought them joy brought me joy, that is the kind of power their name has on me now. If they ask me for something and it is in my power and their best interest they know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I will do it. Their names erupt with power as does mine to them because of our relationship.
It is being in relationship with Jesus that gives His Name power in your life. Because of His LOVE and the relationship between you and Him, His NAME is POWERFUL!
It is not in the chanting or shouting of His Name with loudness and vigor at the end of a prayer, it is relationship and His LOVE that initiates His response.
With the use of faith formulas and using the "religions abracadabra"...IN JESUS' NAME...it is easy for one 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 our 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? If so...why isn't all our prayers answered in the affirmative?
The confusion and delusion 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 to my wants and wishes. 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".
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