Title: The Name of Jesus – 5
“Two Ways to Use the Name”
Text: John 16:23-24; John 14:13-14
I have been renewed and challenged throughout this series. God has truly done a work in my life throughout the past few weeks. Someone once said; “the best messages in the world are the ones that impact you the most.” (Speaking of the preacher) and this one certainly has. I have been challenged with symptoms of sickness and battled some things, but through it all, God has been faithful and has done exactly what He said He would do in His Word.
So far we have talked about “The Inheritance,” “The Authority,” “The Victory,” and then last week we talked about “The Name Belongs to Us.” This morning I want to talk about “Two Ways to Use the Name.” Has anyone learned anything so far? I am not interested in just filling in time every Sunday morning. I want to see lives changed and I want to change myself.
This past Wednesday night I went to bed with a severe headache. I slept well all night long, but when I woke up on Thursday morning, it had turned into an earache and almost a migraine. I woke up and did some chores before leaving the house to come to the office. While I was doing those chores, I was heavily tempted to go back to bed and put the covers over my head and simply give it to that pain, when all of a sudden, it dawned on me, I said, “I don’t have to put up with this pain.” I laid my hands on my ears and over my eyes and began to speak to that pain. I said; “I rebuke you devil, in the name of Jesus I command this pain in my ear and in my eyes to leave my body now.” About 80% of the pain instantly left. I went out the kitchen with a big smile on my face and told my wife what had happened. Within 10 minutes the pain was totally and 100% gone. When we speak the name of Jesus over our pain and sickness, it has to leave. That may not sound like a very big deal to you, but I was amazed once again at the power of the Name.
If you look back to the New Testament you will find that the Name of Jesus touched every part of the early believers lives. The Name of Jesus filled a place in their thoughts, in their prayers, and in their preaching. We are almost ignorant of the power of the Name compared to the early believers, yet we have the same right to the use of the Name of Jesus as they did. I pray that the Lord would open our eyes and our hearts that we may know the riches of the glory of God, which are hidden in that Name. Just mentioning the Name is so much more powerful then all the yelling and all the screaming that you can do. The Bible describes two different ways that we can use the Name in our daily walk.
I. IN PRAYER
Most Christians know that they can use His Name in prayer, but really do not know the power and significance of that knowledge. There are some that repeat the Name in a parrot like fashion, which will not work! If we do use the Name, there is a tremendous amount of people that really do not expect it to work. I mean expecting it to such a capacity that there is no doubt in your heart that it will work.
Matthew 18:19-20; “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
This is a powerful Scripture. I quote it all the time in prayer, but for some reason, it seldom works. Why won’t this Scripture work? It is in the Bible. It is a promise. The Scripture says, “If any two agree touching ANY thing it shall be done for them.” The answer is obvious. If it does not work, then we are not meeting the criteria. We are not agreeing on the same thing. It is possible to repeat Scripture, or the Name of Jesus from memory or ritual, just because somebody said it will work and I can guarantee you that it will not work.
When you know and realize what the Word of God actually says, when you believe it from your heart, not just your head, when you act on it from your heart it will work. The Bible says you can have anything that you ask if you will find someone to agree with you. That is why it is important that you get Bible believing Christians to pray with you.
Let us look at one of the Scriptures of our text.
John 16:23-24; ¶ “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”
Let’s examine this Scripture just a little closer. It is my job to teach you what is in Scripture. When Jesus said, “in that day,” He was talking about the day we live in now. He made this promise just before He went to Calvary. The New Covenant was about to come into being. A good way to think of it is, “In the day of the New Covenant, ye shall ask Me (Jesus) nothing. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”
While Jesus was upon the earth, His disciples did not use His Name in prayer. That is why Jesus said, “Hitherto, or up until now, you have asked me nothing in My Name.” It was after He arose from the dead, conquered the hosts of hell, and was seated at the highest place of authority, far above all principality, power, might, and dominion, that the Church could pray in that more excellent Name that He inherited, which is the Name above every name! He goes on to say, “Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full.” His Name guarantees an answer to our prayer. We can use His Name in prayer and we should. It is the seal that makes the prayer official. (The seal of the President) We also use His Name
II. IN DEMANDING OUR RIGHTS
This puts a red flag up in some of your minds. Some of us feel like we have no right to demand anything from God. I hear the comment all the time; “Who am I that I should make demands from God.”
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. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Jesus is not talking about prayer in this Scripture. John 16, which we just read and John 14 sound a lot alike, however, they are totally different. In chapter 16, Jesus says, “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you.” In John 14 Jesus says, “Whatsoever you shall ask in My Name, that will I do, if you shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it!”
In John 14 He is not talking about praying. He is talking about using the Name of Jesus against the enemy in our daily life.
If you have a Greek Bible and you look up this Scripture, the actual wording of it is the following; “Whatever you shall demand as your rights and privileges, that I (Jesus) do.” We are not getting the full effect of this Scripture because we don’t understand what the original Greek is. The word ask here also means demand. Jesus was telling His disciples that whatever you demand in My Name, I will do it. He tells us to demand something.
You cannot demand your rights and privileges if you do not know what they are. That is where we Christians fail. We do not realize that under the New Covenant, which God has established with the Church through Jesus, we have rights and privileges.
We have the right and we have the privilege to use the Name of Jesus. In that Name is all the power, all the authority that Jesus ever had.
For example, let’s go back to what we talked about last week. In Acts 3:6, Peter and John are at the Gate Beautiful. We have already discussed the fact that Peter knew he had something to give when he said to the crippled man, “silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give thee….”
Then Peter said, “…. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” He asked, or to better describe it, he demanded that the man get up and walk in the Name of Jesus. Peter didn’t say, okay, now try to get up and walk now. No, in the Name of Jesus, you get up and walk now. Now do you see what Peter did? Peter was bold. He understood what Jesus meant when He said, “Whatever you demand in My Name, I will do it.” So, Peter said to himself; “I have that Name and it is my right to use it, so, in the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk.” He demanded it in the Name of Jesus. And Jesus got the man up and put him on his feet. When you speak that Name you have to know without one doubt, that the man behind the Name is backing you up.
Several years after the healing of the man at the Gate Beautiful we find:
Acts 9:33-34; “And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. 34 And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.
This man rose up immediately. Read through the book of Acts and you will see the early believers demanding their rights through the Name of Jesus over and over again. This isn’t just some philosophy that I have came up with on my own. It is the truth. Remember; know the truth and the truth shall set you free. That means to have heart knowledge of the truth. If you begin to have heart knowledge of this truth, you will be set free from all bondage that the devil tries to bring in your path.
The early believers did not have some unknown power we don’t have today. It was the Name of Jesus that did it every time. That Name has not been taken away from the Church. That Name belongs to us.
Why doesn’t that Name do now what it did then? Why doesn’t that Name perform the same miracles it did then?
I think we can answer that question from the following Scripture. Peter was speaking to the crowd that gathered after they saw the man who had lain so many years, crippled and begging alms at the Gate Beautiful, now walking and leaping and praising God.
Acts 3:12-13, 16; ¶ “And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; 16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong.”
If you want to know why the Name doesn’t do what it did then, you will find it in this Scripture.
We have had the Name, but our faith in the Name has been weak. The secret to your breakthrough is not just the Name, but faith in what the Name can do for you. What can we do to increase our faith?
Romans 10:17; “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
How can our faith in the Name of Jesus be increased? By hearing what the Word of God has to say about the Name. We need to feed on God’s Word concerning the Name of Jesus until it is coming out of us without even thinking. The only way to increase your faith is through the Word.
