In His Name

                                                       “Lord, in Your Name I ask … “

 

These four words together can greatly enrich times of prayer and intercession. Share on X

 

Last month an often-uttered phrase in prayer grabbed my heart as thought it were the first time hearing it:  “In Your Name, Lord”.  Hopefully, in the following paragraphs we will see how these four words together can greatly enrich times of prayer and intercession.  Too often, though, it seems that they are used as a conventional or traditional “tag” at the end of a request, perhaps with little regard as to how these words used with understanding and intention can impact interaction with the Lord in prayer.  First, let’s consider  what His Name represents …

 

                                                         “This is My NAME forever … “

 

When we grasp the awe-inspiring wonder and impact of His Name, we, too, will be quick to reverently worship Him. Share on X

 

In Exodus 3:13-15, Moses asked the Lord how he should answer the Israelites when they ask him who sent him to them, when “they say to me, What is His Name?  God answered Moses, I AM WHO I AM, AND WHAT I AM, AND I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE;  and you shall say this to the Israelites, I AM has sent me to you!”  The Lord ended His response with:  “This is My Name forever, and by this Name I am to be remembered to all generations.”  Thus, we see that this is not a mere formality, to simply know the Name of God, but rather He is to be remembered for what His Name means,  for what it represents.                                                                                                                                              Again in Exodus, chapter 34 verses 5-7, when God called Moses again to go up to Mount Sinai where He would again write His words on two new tables of stone (after Moses had broken the first ones in anger towards  the Israelites’ rebellion against God in worshiping their homemade golden calf!)   Once back on Mount Sinai, “the Lord descended in the cloud … passed by before [Moses], and proclaimed,  The Lord! The Lord!  a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and Truth, keeping Mercy and Lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …”   When Moses heard these words – this definition of the Lord’s Name – he quickly bowed his head and worshiped Him (v.8).  When we, too, as Church Age believers, grasp the awe-inspiring wonder and impact of His Name, we, too, will be quick to reverently worship Him.

 

                                                   “I have manifested Your Name … “

 

I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your Character ... that the Love which You have bestowed on Me may be in them ... Share on X

 

Jesus Himself esteemed the Name of the Father and His Word above all else (Psalm 138:2) and declared to the Father in John 17:  “I have manifested Your Name [I have revealed Your very Self …]  to the people You have given Me …  I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your Character … and I will continue to make You known, that the Love which You have bestowed on Me may be in them …” ( verses 6 and 26).                                                                                                               We also see in Psalm 91:14 how significant it is to God that His people know and understand His Name:  ” … I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My Name [has a personal knowledge of My Mercy, Love, and Kindness – trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never.”  Psalm 9:10 likewise promises that “they who know Your Name … will lean on and confidently put their trust in You, for You … have not forsaken those who seek You [on the Authority of God’s Word and the right of their necessity].”

 

                                                              We are IN this NAME!

 

”” Share on X those You have given Me.”” username=””]

 

It is a wonderful thing to know this Name above all names and to be identified with the One Who is called and known by it.  But we, as God’s children have another privilege that Grace has bestowed on us:  We are IN His Name!  In John 17, Jesus asked the Father:  ” Keep in Your Name [in the knowledge of Yourself] those You have given Me … While I was with them, I kept and preserved them  in Your Name” (verses 11 and 12).  In John 20:30, 31b, the Apostle John tells us that the signs and miracles recorded in his Gospel were ‘written in order that we … through believing, trusting and relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ may have life in His Name [through Who He is].’ –  Eternal Life, overcoming Life, abundant Life!  We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit into this endless, indestructible life and even now are kept by the power of it (Eph.4:30; Heb.7:16; I Peter 1:5).  Thus we have great protection in His Name:  “The Name of the Lord is a high tower;  the righteous man runs into it and is safe, high above evil and strong.” (Prov.18:10).

 

                                          We have authority in prayer, in His Name.

 

When we pray, we pray as those inextricably and permanently united with the Trinity. Share on X

 

Our “location” in His Name gives us tremendous authority in prayer.  When we pray, we are praying as those inextricably and permanently united with the Trinity:  Jesus is in us, we are in Him, and He is in the Father (John 14:20);  and because we are united to the Lord, we are one Spirit with Him (I Cor.6:17).  Now perhaps it is easier to understand why Jesus often told His disciples “… whatever you ask the Father [as presenting all that I AM] He [will] give it to you.” (John 15:16b)

 

.               We know His Name, we learn His Word, and we pray with confidence.

 

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It is through the Word of God that we have learned what the Lord’s Name represents.  It is also through the Word of God that we learn what His revealed will is, and His Word makes clear that when His words abide in us and us in Him, we can pray with tremendous assurance.  The Lord gives us a powerful promise regarding this confidence in prayer, in I John 5:14,15:   ” … this is the confidence (the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him:  that if we ask anything according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.  And since we know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.” (Amplified)                                                                       In the same vein, Kenneth Wuest offers an extraordinary and thorough translation of John 15:7, a passage which, like I John 5:14 and 15, reveals the co-mingling and consequent effectual result of the Name of the Lord, the Word of God, and prayer.  Jesus said to His disciples, “If you maintain a living communion with Me and My words are at home in you, I command you to ask, at once, something for yourself, whatever your heart desires, and it will become yours.”  This is an extraordinary promise from our extraordinary Shepherd, Who came to give us Life and to give it to us ABUNDANTLY!

 

                                                 “Unite my heart to honor Your Name.”

 

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David is the one who cried out to the Lord to do this for him:  “Direct and unite my heart [solely, reverently] to fear and honor Your Name.” (Psalm 86:11b).  We know it was in faith he asked this of the Lord because he goes on to declare in verse 12:  “I will confess and praise You, O Lord my God, with my whole, united heart;  and I will glorify Your Name forevermore.”  It was as though he, like the Apostle John, knew the Truth of I John 5:14,15, hundreds of years before the words were penned – i.e., he knew this request was according to the Will of God and therefore it was granted to him!  What confidence, what boldness, what absolute certainty they both had in the Character and Nature of the One to Whom they were committing their petitions!

Let us be among those who say with the “Sweet Psalmist” David and with John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”:  ” in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted … in His Holy Name.” (Psalm 33:21)  We, too, will doubtless see the results in effectual, fruitful prayer.