Part I - The Power of His Name
I. Power of Attorney
A. You and I, and every believer like us, have been given “power of attorney,” the legal right to use His name!
B. According to the Encarta Encyclopedia , the term “power of attorney” means the following:
“It is a written document, certified by a notary public, designating a person or party as an agent empowered to act for another person (principal) in a legal capacity. A general power of attorney authorizes the named agent to act on behalf of the principal or signer in any legal circumstance. Most frequently, people will give another person power of attorney when they are ill or for other reasons are unable to conduct their own affairs, or when they are absent from home or business for a long period of time.”
C. Jesus has given you and I, those bought by His blood, power of attorney over His name and His affairs.
D. The authority of the Power of Attorney is determined by how much authority the named principle represents.
E. The measure of Jesus’ ability is the same measure of the value of His name! Therefore, all that is invested in His name also belongs to us for Jesus has given us the unqualified use of His name.
1. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:23-24)
F. Jesus not only gives us the use of His name but He also declares that the prayer, prayed in His name will receive His special attention!
G. Jesus says, “Whatever you ask of the Father, in My name, I will endorse it and the Father will give it to you!”
1. This puts prayer on a legal basis.
2. Under the new Covenant, when we take our privileges and rights and pray in Jesus’ Name, it passes out of our hands into the hands of Jesus: He then assumes the responsibility of that prayer, and we know that He said, the Father would always answer His prayers.
3. But, we must obey His commands. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7)
4. As a believer, we take Jesus’ place on earth to carry out His will, and He takes our place in heaven before the Father in prayer.
5. Jesus said, Behold, I give you the authority…” (Luke 10:19)
a. He can say this because He has told us that He has been given all authority in haven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18)
b. But, now, He says, “…I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)
6. Therefore, He is with us in the Power and Authority of His Name! (Power of Attorney)
II. What Does His Name Mean?
A. To the Father, His Name means more than our hearts and minds will ever grasps. However, there are a few Scriptural references that will help us understand a little of the meaning of Jesus’ name to the Father.
1. First, He inherited a more excellent name than any of the angels in heaven, as the First Begotten Son!
2. Second, God gave Him a name above every name that at His name “every knee should bow, of those (names) in heaven, and of those (names) on earth, and of those (names) under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11) Every knee will bow in all three worlds. Satan made a mistake when he put a name to cancer, and leukemia, and allergies!
3. Thirdly, by His conquest over sin, over Satan, over disease, over death, hell and the grave, He acquired a name that is above all names!
B. So, the possibilities and provisions begin to unfold beyond our comprehension when we speak the Name of Jesus. When He says to the church, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name,” He is giving us a signed check from the heavenly resources and asking us to fill in the blanks.
III. How Jesus Obtained the Name Above All Names
A. Hebrews 1:1-4, Paul gives us a description of how Jesus obtained the name above all names.
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
1. Two things I want you to notice here:
(a) Jesus was the “heir of all things.”
(b) He received His name by “inheritance.”
2. Doesn’t God’s Word declare that, we, too, shall take upon ourselves the inheritance of all things? That, because of what Jesus did on the cross, we shall become inheritors of God’s grace and promises!?
(a) Romans 8:16-17 says “The Spirit Himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…”
B. Doesn’t It Require Someone To Die, For Someone Else to Receive an Inheritance?
1. God’s last (and only) will and testament was written, Jesus Christ, the only begotten, died, so that we could have the inheritance.
B. Jesus Didn’t Have to Imitate God, He is God!
C. All that Jesus was, in that name, He is still today, and that name is now ours!
D. Why would He give us His name? So that we might fulfill the will of the Father as He did!
IV. His Name is Enough!
A. Notice, Jesus didn’t say that whatever we ask in His name, in faith, we would receive. Why not?
B. Because, He gave us His name! And, whatever is already yours, you do not have to have faith to use! You don’t have to have faith to use it, but you have to have faith when you use it! We must speak His name in faith believing. The right and the privilege to use the name of Jesus come with the new birth.
C. All the authority vested in that Name is given to us to bring glory to the Name of the Father – that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
D. Jesus’ name is now taking His physical place in our lives. All that Jesus was, His name now is for you and I!
E. God has given Jesus the highest name in the heavenlies, in earth and under the earth. God has bestowed upon Him honor, and glory, and power and seated Him at His own right hand in the glories, far above every known authority; and now, all this honor, this glory, this authority, this power, is vested in the Name of Jesus, and this name has been given to us!
F. Oh that man would realize that Jesus paralyzed Satan and stripped him of his armor and that disease and sickness are servants of Jesus Himself; that at His voice they must depart, it would be easier to live in the resurrection power of Jesus!
V. How to Use His Name
A. Matthew 1:21, 23 “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (Savior), for He will save His people from their sins. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.”
B. The very name of Jesus is inseparably connected with salvation.
1. Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
C. Jesus is the one, and only, name by which the sinner approaches the Great Father God; it is in the one Name that God hears and listens.
D. We are not only saved by His Name, but the believer is baptized into that Name.
E. Not only baptism, but also the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised in the name of Jesus.
F. Jesus gave us examples of how to pray in His name:
1. John 14:13-15 “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. If you love Me, (you will) keep My commandments.”
G. In Acts, chapter 3, we find Peter saying to a lame man, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
H. In Acts 16:18, we see Paul casting a demon out of a possessed girl in the name of Jesus, setting her free, and stirring up the city of Ephesus.
I. It’s in His name that Jesus makes Himself known to us. Matthew 18:20 He says, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst (or middle) of them.”
J. The New Testament believers lived by the name of Jesus. They breathed the name of Jesus.
1. In Colossians 3:17, they were taught in to do all things in the Name of Jesus. (“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”)
2. In Ephesians 5:20, they were encouraged to give thanks always for all things in that name. (“…giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”)
3. In I Corinthians 6:11, they were washed, sanctified, and justified through that name. (“…But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”)
4. In Hebrews 13:15, they were encouraged to make confession to his name. (“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks (confessing) to His name.”)
5. In James 5:14, we are instructed to intercede in the name of the Lord. (“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”)
6. In I John 3:23, we have even been given a command to believe in His name! (And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”)
