The Glory Of Praying In Jesus' Name

Praying in Jesus’ Name as the Source of Life

To me, a verse, and I think it describes what's happening here. In John chapter 20, verse 30, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe.

What you heard in testimony, you will hear on the CDs if you weren't here in the last service. You need to hear that. The testimonies, the things that have been written so that you can believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and here's the phrase, and that believing you might have life in his name.

What we need is life. What we need is who he is, and it's in his name. And so I want to talk to you about prayer, the last thing here, but it's just the beginning. You see, Jesus said, whatsoever things you ask, I will do.

Did he say that? Anything you ask, I will do, and I'm leaving out something. You can ask what you will and greater things than all these things, whatever you ask or think, I will do more. I've left out a word, in my name.

Ask in my name, and we need to know what that really means because I hear all kinds of people praying in Jesus' name like a medicine man swinging a stick over people sometimes, and they don't understand what it really means to ask in Jesus' name.

I want to go to several texts this morning, but I want to look at John 13. First of all, Jesus has come to the end of his time on earth. They've seen miracles. They've done miracles. Their names are written in the book of life.

Unto them it's given to know the mysteries of God, but they come to the end in that upper room before he's arrested that night, and Jesus knows this is his last words with his disciples on earth before he goes to the throne.

He's told them 14 times, I'm going away, I'm going away, and sorrow filled their heart because you see the familiar things of being around the things of Jesus were going to change. Everything was going to change because what they've seen him do, they were going to be able to now walk in that because of something that would happen.

Well, let's pray together. Father, as we look in your Bible, your word, I pray this morning that you will make it clear to us that you want to use us to change the world we live in right around us, across the street, our neighbors.

You set such things before us so we can embrace them by faith. You could make us like a robot, but you want us to choose you and love you, so help us to love you and choose you now this morning, and put your exclamation point on these brief hours together we've had, weave it together into a picture of the risen Lord Jesus so that we might walk in all that that means in this day.

You have a plan. Bless this church, Lord, with vision and passion and obedience and tenacity, as we heard, to press in to all the will of God, and Lord, I just sense you're going to use them more than they could ever ask or think as they go lower and higher and wider.

So take your word now, Lord, empower a weak person with the glory to share who you are in a new way. We thank you in Jesus' name. The promises to prayer are mind-boggling. It's like God gives a blank check and he lets you sign it.

Not your name, but his name, and that's what endorses the check around the throne of God. So when the disciples knew that Jesus was leaving, imagine how they felt. When they came to that upper room, that last night they were together, they probably didn't know what was really going to happen altogether, but they could sense.

He had told them, things are going to change. And so in chapter 13 of John, verse 1, this is for someone in this room. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come and that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having, listen to this, loved his own, he loved them right to the end.

He's not going to change in that matter. These guys are arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven when it comes around, the next kingdom. But having loved his own, he loved them to the end.

And in a demonstration of that, the Lord Jesus washes their feet. They don't understand. You see four disciples asking questions in each one. This is such an amazing chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16. If you read that, don't ever let anybody teach you about the Holy Spirit.

If you don't study these chapters to balance out everything, they teach you too. I hear a lot of people preaching about and teaching about the Holy Spirit, and they never touch John 14, 15, and 16. But that's what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit.

And oh, what a need it is to read in there and have the Holy Spirit apply the truth and lead us into all of it. Let's read together in John 14 what Jesus says to them after he's washed their feet, after he's speaking to them about loving one another the way he loves them.

He says in verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. It's not just a distant, well, there must be a God. We see his power. It's a saying, so be it, let it happen to me according to your word.

That's what Mary said, let it happen to me according to the word of God. As you've said, and blessed is the one who believes. There will be a performance of the things that have been spoken. That's what the angel said to her.

So as he's there with them, he's changing what they believe about believing. But look at verse 12. When Jesus says, amen, amen, or verily, verily, he means it. He says, verily, verily, verse 12, I say to you, he that, present tense, believes is believing on me.

The works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do. How could anything be greater than what he did? Well, here's the reason that it's going to be greater. He says it, because I go to the Father.

The Greater Works Made Possible by Christ’s Ascension

Three times in these chapters, five times, he says, because I'm going to the Father. Everything's going to change. What you've seen on earth, the earthly side of the kingdom, is going to change. And he's setting before them, they don't know it yet, that he's going to go away, and he's going to go offering his blood on the throne of the universe, and he will sit down, and because he lives on the throne, there'll be life coming to them in his name, in his name.

I want us just to say together, with force and power, his name together. Oh, you can almost hear the devil just hating this. We're going to say Jesus, and I'll say one, two, three, one, two, three, loud, Jesus.

Can you feel the power of that? I love that verse that says, he signed my deed. Have you ever heard this, Brent? He signed, forgive the singing, he signed my deed in his atoning blood, he ever lives to make his promise good, though all the hosts of hell march in to make a second claim, they'll all march out at the mention of his name, and then everybody's singing, and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, and you get softer, you say, they'll all march out at the mention of his name, you get softer, they'll all march out at the mention of his name.

Jesus! And the whole place yells, Jesus, and you can almost feel the devil have a hernia when that happens. The church, according to the Lord Jesus, is to do greater works. Listen to what he says, and here's how they do it.

Verse 13, and it's built right on that. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. This last hour, we heard testimony of answered prayer that made me want to crawl on the floor of my face, but it was, the words were there that the Son may be glorified, that the Lord Jesus would be glorified, and then he says it again, verse 14.

If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. So, prayer by the Lord Jesus here is being set forth as the primary way that the church would bring to heaven the greater works of the risen Lord Jesus and see his kingdom come to, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth.

It's being done in heaven, and your word is settled in heaven, but we settle it on earth, and how do we do it? In prayer through his name. That's the blank check that he gives, and he says, you endorse it, but it's got to be a legal and true endorsement, and it's got to be right, you see.

We're to plant the heavens. We're to lay the foundation of the earth as we see in the word of God what God really wants. See, God's method is always a prayer method. I heard a great preacher say once, he said, every failure in my life has really been a failure in prayer because these things are going to happen because I am going to the Father.

You will see in this chapter that seven times in chapter 14, 15, 16, seven times the Lord Jesus says some words. He says, ask in my name. It's in like a command tense. You hear messages on the seven last words of the Savior on the cross, Father, forgive them.

I thirst those awesome, awesome words from the cross, but have you ever considered his seven last commands before the cross? Ask in my name. He says it over and over to them so they'll understand, but he also says this, up till now you've asked nothing in my name.

They prayed and they were wanting God to do something, but he was talking about his name being given a special power. You know it wasn't until after his resurrection that the Lord raised him and above all principality and power and might and set him on his own right hand in the heavenlies and gave him the name above every name.

That is when his name took power and this became the day of his power that we read the other night, that thy people will become willing sacrifices in the day of your power. And so he says to them, he says, listen, I'm going to be raised in a little while.

You will sorrow. The world will be glad. They'll think they got rid of me. But then a little bit after that, you're going to rejoice, why? Because you're going to see me and it's expedient for you that you get out of the old way of looking and seeing at things.

Even though you've seen miracles and all those things, there's something bigger and greater. I've got to go away so that the comforter who the father will send in my name, he will come. Who is this comforter, Philip says, and we don't understand.

And Peter and Jesus said, you know him. He's been with you. See, Jesus never did anything on his own. It was always the comforter, the spirit of God in him doing his father's will. He humbled himself, the perfect son of God who knew all things, but he lived in total dependence on the father.

And he says, this life you've seen in me is going to be not just with you. You know him, this one, but he will be in you. It's a lot better than being with somebody to have him be in you. Be with me, Lord.

No, no, I got something better. I'm going to be in you. You see, it's the abiding life. It's not just getting close and clean. How close is close enough? It's abiding in him and having him abound in us unto every good work.

And so you see him being raised from the dead and taking his place at the right hand of the father. And now the Bible says that the Lord crowned him king and priest. He's Lord of all. And he administrates now in these chapters, he's telling his church, because I go to the father, I will be on the throne and I will administer to you everything that my blood will buy for you.

I will sit there and my prayers will guarantee that whatever you drink, no, my, my prayers will guarantee that whosoever believes on me, greater works than I have done are in your presence. Will you do all of you because I'm with the father, but here's how you do it.

Ask in my name and I will do it. You see, here's the thing you need to learn about the book of Acts. The book of Acts, we read it with awe, but the book of Acts starts with the ascension and their message was not miracles like walking on water and multiplying bread, although that blew their mind, but they were written so that you might believe on him and his name.

Their message was the risen Lord. You've turned Jerusalem upside down with this doctrine, the risen Lord. And that's your message and your witnesses. The word also means sample. People can take a bite of you and see that the Lord is good tasting and seeing you're a sample of things to come.

And that's what's meant to happen. And he gives us this authority. Look, Luke who wrote Acts as well as Luke, he says this, the former things I wrote to you, O Theophilus, I wrote to show you what Jesus did while he was ministering on earth.

But now he says, that's what he did, but it's finished. But now I'm writing to you to show you the things that he continues to do from heaven. Mission on earth. It's finished. It's accomplished. Never will he go to the cross again.

Now he's in heaven and now he has a continuing, I call it the unfinished work of Christ because he ever lives on the throne to make sure that the victory and beauty of Calvary is carried out in your life.

If you'll come to the father in his name, by the spirit of God, you say that sounds strange. Yes, it is strange. When you begin to believe it and see it, it'll shake you to the core because you will understand.

You see, he left behind to the church. They had no building. They had no church constitution. They had no trained leaders. They had no real finances. They had no political involvement except for stocks and bonds, which they wore and not invested in.

Stocks and bonds, you get that finally when you get home maybe. Their secret was, God left them several things, the word of God, the spirit of God, and prayer. Now the first two are unchanging, they're not varied.

The third one is the only variable, prayer. It depends upon our response before the throne of God. It's the weapons of our warfare, the word of God, and the spirit of God, and prayer. The spirit of God takes the word of God, his weapon of choice, and he wields it.

But you know what he uses as he takes the word of God? Your arm. Your arm. He has you take the sword of the spirit, and he cuts down to the bone and marrow of those 40 times in the book of Acts, the first chapters especially, the prayer is set forth.

Of all the 28 chapters, prayer circulates through every chapter except for two. And in those two chapters, the church was really in trouble. You see what's happening. So it rises or falls on prayer. This is what we leave you with after this conference, that you will not leave it to others to be a leader in this whole matter of prayer, but you yourself will take this mantle from God and say, Lord, you said it right here, whatsoever I ask the Father in the name of Jesus, he will do so that the Father will get glory in the Son and that the world will know that you are God and you're awesome.

You see, the Acts begins where the Gospels end, at the ascension. And so we've got to see Matthew 28 in that light. All power is given to me in heaven and on earth, but you're the ones that are going to exercise it and here's the way it's going to come to be seen and known.

It's going to be through prayer. If you ask, I will do. And you see, but there's a qualifying phrase and that is, in my name. You know, I do a lot of, I'm privileged to spend time with some of the people in bands that you might know.

And some of them came to my house every Thursday morning, we'd meet for two hours and we talked about prayer and other things and, you know, it's such a privilege to invest in young people. But you know, sometimes young people and old people too, we get so used to saying, we pray this long prayer and at the end we say, I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

I say, what? I ask it in Jesus' name, amen. What? What did you just say? It's fast, you know? Did you say, I ask this in Jesus' name, amen? Yeah, that's what I said. In Jesus' name, amen. I said, look, when you get to the end of the best prayer you've ever prayed on your time on earth, stop, take a deep breath and look to the Lord God and say, I'm asking this in Jesus' name, because it is the most important part of your prayer.

Through his name, we have access by one spirit to the Father. And what does it mean then to pray in Jesus' name? A lot of people throw it on like an exclamation point at the end of a prayer. You see, Jesus is saying, look, because you're mine and I'm going away, everything is going to change.

I'm giving you the great key to the throne room. If you could imagine hearing this for the first time, whatever you ask in my name, you know what I'm talking about, I will do. So that the Father, not just to make anybody's life better or easier, but so that the Father would receive glory in the Son.

You see, it's not a magic formula. Jesus is signaling a whole new beginning. Up till now, you've asked nothing in my name. You're not tracking with me, some of you. You say, where is he going with this?

The Church’s Prayer Mission in Acts

The ascension changed the dynamic of prayer. For the first time, there was a glorified man on the throne of the universe whose very presence there and the scars he bore gave a guarantee and God swore by his own existence that the promises that he had made to the Lord Jesus would never fall to the ground.

Not one of them would ever fall to the ground, but that every promise, every word would have its compliment and mate on earth. But he wants his church to lay hold of it. It's called the royal law of prayer.

He wants you and me to dare to rise up beyond who we are in ourselves and because of the worth and majesty and might of who Jesus is, dare to get tough with the devil. Dare to get tough with the things.

We've been praying for people these last few years and I'm amazed at the number of people that come up and say, my husband is lost or my wife is away or my, all the moral problems and all the drug problems, but it's all over our land.

But it's like a man that takes a far journey and leaves his servants with authority. But you see, we're so reluctant to take that authority because we're trying to pray in our own name instead of the name of Jesus.

So some use his name wrongly. People say profanity is like cussing, taking Jesus' name in vain. Listen, cussing is not the only thing that's taken his name in vain. It's when God gives you his name and gives you all authority in heaven and you don't use what he's given you or walk in the privilege of it.

It's when we treat prayer as light and we just might as well vainly have gotten his name from the father. Sure, taking Jesus' name in vain is cussing and that kind of thing. But he says, look, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel in my name.

Now I'm praying when you read the New Testament now, when you see that word in my name, that it will leap out at you and grab you by the heart and just say, hey, listen, I want you to understand this.

The early church, the early church, they learned in the book of Acts about the power of the name of Jesus. The first six chapters, you'll see them together learning about the power of the name of Jesus.

There's a little secret that I'm just going to mention that I hope it stimulates you to study on your own. The disciples didn't have a clue about this and even after the resurrection, they were full of unbelief and the Lord came and he opened the scriptures to them as a risen Lord.

And they began to have a burning heart because suddenly they understood the fuller of what we're saying here today, that Jesus is going to take the throne. They began to understand that. So as their hearts began to burn and that fire that Jesus came to kindle in their bones was kindled, he told them, for 10 days he exegeted all the scriptures and said, this is who I am in Genesis.

This is who I am in the Torah and the writings and the prophets. Don't be slow of heart to believe it all. It's too good to be true. That's why they call it good news. It's so good. I can't hardly believe it.

And so, but you have need of something and that is you need to understand some things. So tarry in the city of Jerusalem, he says in Acts 1, until you be endued with power from on high. Because you need the great communion before you could ever think about the great commission.

But see, they were burning on the inside. And so they waited together. People who'd been fussing before. People who'd been full of unbelief before. In the upper room. And it wasn't some kind of religious atmosphere with idols.

I mean, they had to go out and use the restroom, I'm sure. And they had kids they had to take care of. But they came together. I mean, like, you guys are doing some of that. You come together. You stay all night.

You get tired. And I'm sure they got tired. 10 days. And at the end of that time, while they were, it says in Acts 1, it says, and they all gathered together in one accord. Do you know what that word one accord in the book of Acts means?

It's used 10 times in the book of Acts. And only once elsewhere in Romans 15. When it says that you with one heart and one mind and one accord might glorify the Lord. And he wants them to agonize in prayer together for him, says Paul.

That's the only other time. What does one accord mean? Well, it's two words put together. Homo thumadan. Homo thumadan. It's a group thing. And homo means same. Thumos is one of the roots here of the very word for the wrath of God.

It's the, there's two words, orge, which is when God folds his arms and just lets you have your way. And you know people that are experiencing the fruit of their own bad choice. The other thumos is when God comes in flaming fire and destroys unholiness.

And that's what happens at the altar when they come. And the word in the Greek for the offering is thuo, thuo. We get our word thermometer from it, or thymus gland for the emotions and passions. All these things go back to a place.

So homo thumadan is saying this, the same burning passion. The word means to breathe heavily. And you know what's so cool about it to me, how the Lord uses it to say, I want to give you an illustration that the world can even have this kind of unified passion.

Four times in the book of Acts, three times in the book of Acts, it uses homo thumadan talking about the world. You know when one of them was in Acts 7? When it says, they all, the world, they hated what Stephen said, they rushed upon him with one accord and they actually, they bit him and they were just so angry, they just couldn't get rid of him quick enough.

It was a burning mob mentality and passion. That's the counterfeit. Another time when Herod stood up and they said, he's a God with one accord, he's God. And they began to pray the church and God not only got rid of Herod, but did exactly the opposite.

And the other time was when Paul was in the arena and they said, away with this man, he's not worthy to live with one accord. But when you take it and put it in the kingdom, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, it's not just riding together in the car to a social.

We call fellowship when we get together and play softball or intramurals or something like that. And that couldn't be fellowship. Yes, it can be. But this one here in the book of Acts, they all were gathered together with one accord in the upper room.

380 thought he said, supper room. So they went somewhere else and they weren't there for that time and they missed out, you see. But the upper room, as they began to pray, you see in that first six chapters of Acts, they're learning the power of his name.

You see them learning the power of his name. In Acts chapter four, after, I mean, this is what's so amazing to me. In the book of John, he said, greater works than I've done will you do also, and you'll do it through prayer.

In the book of Acts, after 3 ,000 people are saved, God doesn't use the word great. After 5 ,000 people are saved, he doesn't use the word great. He reserves it. You have the one word great that says the world saw Pentecost and they were greatly wondering.

But not until chapter four do you see the word great start appearing in the book of Acts, and you see it in an amazing way. You see it, Peter and John had been beaten by the Sanhedrin and told not to preach anymore in that name.

And so it says they returned to their own company. See, by then there were 3 ,000 or 4 ,000 people or maybe 8 ,000 that were gathered together three times a day when the Thu 'o was offered in the temple, the offering, and they were gathered with prayer.

They were all together in one accord, one common burning, one common breathing, one breath, one heart, one passion. And that is what you need at this altar, homothumadon, where you say, Lord, we know what you want to do.

We see what you want to say to people, and we're asking you for power to do it by the name of the Lord Jesus, and this is what they're learning. And so you see Peter and John come into the assembly, and there's a prayer meeting going on seven times in chapter 4.

It says they, they, they. It's a promise so big that it takes the whole church to lay hold of it. And they come together, and it says they're in one place, and they're praying, and Peter and John tell him what happened, forbidding to speak in his name, and the church, it says, they lifted up their voice.

It's the first recorded instance of prayer by the church in the New Testament. First times, pay attention. They lifted up their voice with one accord, and they quote from Exodus chapter 20, Lord, you made heaven and earth.

Now, wasn't just everybody praying that? No, somebody stood up with a burden from God and said, Lord, you made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them are. And he talks about, then they quote from Psalm 2, they're quoting scripture back to God.

They said, Lord, behold how the, the nations are raging against the Lord and your Christ. That's Psalm 2. That's where it says, ask of me for the uttermost. See, they've been meditating in the word of God, they're together.

And then as they say, Lord, now, help us, Lord. Help us not to be hurt by this because they're, they're, they're persecuting, keep us safe. They don't pray that. They say, behold the threatenings of the world against your Lord and his Christ.

And now give us protection, Lord. No, give us boldness that we might speak your word with all boldness and confirm it, like you said, with signs and wonders, greater works. But there'll be a character in them, not just amazement.

They'll present the glory of God. Do this. And I love this because it says, and after, after, after they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, shaken. That's awesome. You say, oh, it must've been an earthquake, San Andreas fall, you know.

No, it wasn't that. God was so blessed and thrilled that his church was finally doing what Jesus left them. Just like when he stood up, when Stephen was stoned, this is what it's all about. I want to be, have a witness, a living church.

And so you see right after that, immediately after that together corporate prayer, that one accord with great power, they began to make known the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. And the next chapter, great fear came upon them all.

And the next chapter again, great increase, sixth chapter, great growth and a great number of disciples and a great wonders and miracles and great persecution and great joy and great earth. The word great just populates every verse in regular ways because you see prayer turns a gathering from good to great.

3000 were saved, 5000 were saved. That's great. Yeah. But they didn't, God didn't call it that. He waited until after the church got corporately united in real prayer, like he said, for the greater works that I've done.

And so you see them moving and I mean that chapter 12 is years after Pentecost. They're there and they've taught, they've learned. They're still learning. They're in the school of prayer. But see prayer opens the windows of heaven.

It opens the doors of utterance. It opens the hearts of men and women. It absolutely opens the scriptures secrets and channels of blessing and the barricades of hell are cast down. It's all through prayer.

I got to calm down here. And you see what happened? The Lord broke the barriers. You see them every time they were together in one accord, go through the book of Acts and mark that one accord for the church and you'll see how God breaks something.

He broke the religion barrier in chapter two. He broke that resistance barrier that was there to the truth in chapter four, the kings of this world against the Lord and his Christ. He broke the racial barrier in chapter 10 when he went to Samaria and he broke the reason barrier.

And I mean, I've got a list of the region barrier. He took after prayer, always after prayer, the barriers of the devil come down. And so the prayer meeting is the heartbeat in the body of Christ. And our pulse is our obedience.

You see, the church was always together praying and in one accord. When Jesus built his church, he said, I will build my church. What did he call it? Everybody's talking about redefining the church today.

Well, you don't need to. Jesus defined it. This is what you call my father's house. It's a house of prayer for the nations and for all the peoples, but you've turned it into something else, he says. So we need to understand today, especially Lord fill us with that burning.

I hear y 'all talk a lot about fire and that's a glorious thing, but this fire, God puts a furnace around it. A wildfire could just burn, but God builds a furnace and he puts an altar around it to direct the flame and it becomes intelligent worship, intelligent warfare, intelligent weeping, who we gather together in one accord, a common burning.

Well, my heart feels cold. Well, come to prayer meeting and we'll set you on fire. You put an old cold ember out here among a bunch of burning ones, it'll start burning itself pretty soon. You see, God wants you to have a vision of who he is.

The Lord Jesus, high and lifted up, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And when you fall into persecution, rejoice, because this is what your father says that you're to even your call, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake.

It says in Philippians, you ever read those much? The fellowship of his sufferings, plural. And so now what I want to take the last bit of this message to do is to talk about what it means to pray in Jesus' name.

Four Qualifications for Praying in Jesus’ Name

Because he took time, the first six chapters, to educate the church then. It was like seven years he took for the church to learn as it gathered together by the thousands to pray in his name until finally the Lord says, now you're ready to go.

And a great persecution came and scattered them like sparks throughout all the land until you read in chapter nine, after Saul's converted, then all the churches had rest and they were edified and they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfortus, the word for paraclete, the Holy Spirit of the Holy Ghost, and they multiplied.

God wants to multiply other places, what he has here, but it'll only come through a praying people who love him. Well, what does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Well, I want to give you several things and you can ask yourself as we go through them, am I really praying in Jesus' name?

Because these are qualifiers and if you don't walk in these and these aren't operated, you may be taking his name in vain when you pray. God doesn't answer every prayer. God doesn't hear every prayer.

He says, I will not hear your prayers when you pray to me. Back in the book of Jeremiah, where our brother was preaching from. Well, number one, here's what it means. When you come and at the end of your prayer, you say, I'm asking this in Jesus' name, inherently it is to mean something specific and right.

And you see, it means I'm acknowledging my need of a mediator. And only one is available, and that is the Lord Jesus himself. Only one mediator available, and that's the Lord Jesus himself. So it says in 1 Timothy chapter 2, listen to what it says.