I believe we all know Jesus as the Son of God Who came to Earth to die thereby
to save humanity from their sins and to restore humanity back to God their
Creator, for as many who believe and accept Him as their Saviour and LORD…
Also, I believe we do know that one of the profound statements Jesus
made as quoted in the below Bible verses, was that His followers should pray in
His name and God would hear their prayer and grant their requests…
"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.” John
14:13-14 (NKJV)
We also find the phrase “in the name of Jesus” mentioned several times
in the New Testament Scriptures… Though the focus of this piece is not about
whether all such prayers receive answers from God and why not; but rather the
aim is to attempt to strengthen our understanding of what we actually mean when
we pray in the name of Jesus…
To begin with, probably we should ask, why did Jesus (as God incarnated)
have to be the One to come and die as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole
world? Why couldn’t any other human being suffice for the job?... I believe we probably
know the answer: basically because the blood sacrifice that would be acceptable
and potent enough before God to pay for the sins of the whole of humanity, has
to be of a 100% perfect and sinless human being; but unfortunately no ordinary
human meets that qualification, so God had to incarnate Himself in the Man
Jesus (a mystery that the natural mind cannot comprehend) to get the job done,
and indeed Jesus did not only finish the task but He finished it perfectly, once
and for all…
The above also gives us a clue to the reason why we pray to God in the
name of Jesus… However, taking into consideration that the name “Jesus” has a
different pronunciation and spelling in different languages, and in fact the
Man Jesus was a Jew, so He was not actually called ‘Jesus’ during His days on
Earth, but was called “Yeshua” (the actual Hebrew name); this then points to the
fact that it is not just about calling the name ‘Jesus’ in prayers, but in understanding
the spiritual implication of invoking that name, irrespective of the language
it is pronounced in...
Indeed, every action in the Christian Faith is faith-driven, and that
includes when we pray in the name of Jesus… The primary reason we pray in His
name is because we are standing upon His righteousness as we make our requests
or petitions to God by Faith; such that through Him (Having met God’s demand of
100% holiness) God can listen and attend to our prayers without lashing out on
us in His Holy anger because of our many faults, failures, and imperfections…
Surely, this brings a ray of hope, and much more it afforded us the invaluable
privilege to be called sons and daughters of God; as God now looks upon us as
His Children, while He deals with us more as a loving Father than as a Just
Judge… And truly, when we pray in Jesus’ name, in other words we are actually
saying: “Because of Jesus…”… This keeps us reminded that we cannot come before
God in prayers priding in any goodness or good-works of our own, because indeed
as the below Scriptures states, they are inferior to what Jesus has already
accomplished for us…
“…For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so
that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and
examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and
acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]. 2Corinthians
5:21 (AMP)
This however does not imply that we are free to live our lives as we
please after-all the holiness of Jesus covers us (which would rather be viewed
as an abuse of God’s grace); but rather the understanding of this causes us to
love God the more and make it our life-long passion to please Him in all ramifications
by the help of His Holy Spirit…
Also, our prayers can become more effective and efficient as we pray
with a better understanding of the efficacy of that name… So, in closing, I
share the below Scripture verses from the Letters of Paul the Apostle to further
buttress on the point:
“…Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those
in Heaven, and of those on Earth, and of those under the Earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the
Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 (NKJV)
“…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.” Colossians 3:17 (NKJV)
Thank you for reading… Remain blessed!
#JesusChristIsLORD #GODisStillinCharge
