John 14:13-14
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name,
and I will do it.
This portion of scripture are very well-known verses that have always been a wonderful blessing for the believer in Christ. They contain great promise and assurance for all who have an intimate relationship with their Savior Jesus.
In these three verses alone, there are many important spiritual principles concerning prayer in what Jesus is telling His disciples and that also apply for all those who personally know and trust Christ Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Even though the word prayer is not mentioned, when Jesus told His disciples to “ask” in these two verses, it is always understood as when we ask for something when we pray.
However what Jesus is telling His disciples and us is something that can be easily misunderstood and applied, either because of a religious tradition and or because of not knowing what Jesus meant when He said “in my name”.
To understand what does it mean when we pray asking for something in Jesus’ name, we need to first look at some similarities that we are familiar with in our culture today. When we were a child and if we had siblings or hung around another kid with siblings, we most likely have heard being used by another kid, been told by our sibling, “mom said it is time to come home now!” If we were the one who said this to our siblings, we were not acting on our authority but speaking for and acting on behalf of mom’s authority as if she was there saying it herself to our sibling. We were representing and being a messenger for our mom to our sibling of what was her will. And if it was said to us, almost no matter what we were doing, most of us stopped what we were doing and obeyed. Most of us did not obey because it was our sibling giving the order but because our sibling was representing mom’s will, mom’s authority.
From this example we know it is our mom who our sibling is representing. Not someone else’s mom. It is our mom’s will that our sibling was expressing, not their own. And it is with our mom’s authority our sibling was saying what they were saying to us, not someone else’s mom.
When we use Jesus’ name or ask God in prayer for something in Jesus’ name, we need to understand it is in Jesus’ authority we come to God, it is not our own merit. It is because of who Jesus is in our life and our relationship with Him we use Jesus’ name when we pray. But to use Jesus’ name we need to know Him as our Savior and Lord and also want God’s will or purpose in the situation we are praying for.
This is what Jesus taught us about our prayers when He said in;
Matthew 6:10
“…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
This is what Jesus said He wanted when He prayed in;
Matthew 26:39
“He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Paul knew the importance of a believer in Christ knowing God’s will when he prayed for the Colossian believers.
Colossians 1:9
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Jesus’ Authority
Matthew 28:18
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
We pray to God NOT because of our own authority but with the authority and confidence of who we know who Jesus is in our lives.
Ephesians 3:12-13
In him (Jesus) and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 10:19-22
19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
1 John 3:21-23
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
Praying in the name of Jesus and or ending our prayers saying “in Jesus’ name” are not magic words like a magician would use, such as, “abracadabra” or “hocus-pocus”. This is “language, typically in the form of gibberish, used to give the impression of secret knowledge or power.”
Abracadabra – “Scholars who support the Hebrew etymology say that abracadabra is a corruption of the Hebrew, ebrah k’dabri, meaning “I will create as I speak,” or that the act of speech will magically create new realities.”
When we pray saying “in the name of Jesus” or ending our prayer saying “in Jesus’ name” we are not creating new realities because of our prayer praying in Jesus’ name. But we are praying in agreement with God’s will. The apostle John makes this point very clear in;
1 John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.
When we pray in the name of Jesus it is not to receive what we want from God but “…so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” When praying in the name of Jesus or in Jesus’ name our motives should not be for personal benefit or gain but that God will receive the glory or recognition for what He does.
James 4:2-3
You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Why pray in Jesus’ name? Jesus said, “…so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” We pray in the name of Jesus so that God will receive the glory or recognition, from us and or others for what He does when He answers our prayers that were said in agreement to His will, with confidence in Jesus’ name.
Pastor John
