Praying in Jesus’ Name

Tim Hughes – At Your Name

Recently I have been reading “Bible Doctrine” by Wayne Grudem, his 450 page “cliff notes” to his 1,200 page Systematic Theology book. It’s been good to get clear views/perspectives on some different areas of Scripture. One of the areas that was particularly refreshing to me was his brief teaching on “praying in Jesus’ name.” The following post is about some of the things that stood out to me as I was reading…

Jesus instructed us to pray in His name (John 15:16, John 16:23-24, Eph 5:20). John 14:13-14 reads, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

For a lot of Christians this is how they end their prayer: “In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.” It honestly can become meaningless rhetoric. I remember I used to always start my prayers with, “Dear God, thank you for this day” without even thinking. It soon became mindless drivel and I realized I needed to be more aware of my thoughts. Also, a number of Christians insert “in Jesus’ name” throughout all their prayers. Some know what they’re saying and there is meaning, but others just do it out of habit. I don’t think my wife would be too happy if I just said, “I love you” mindlessly everyday. There has to be cognizant meaning behind our words for them to have effect.

The truth is that none of the extended prayers in the New Testament end with, “in Jesus name, Amen.” It isn’t a magical formula. Instead it is the cognizant knowledge of these things…

1. “Praying in Jesus’ name is prayer made on his authorization on the basis of his mediatorial work for us” (taken straight from the book). In other words, prayer “in Jesus’ name” basically means we are praying with the authority God has given us. This is why Paul and Peter sometimes would pray “in Jesus’ name” when they would command demons to leave people or when they were pronouncing judgment in a church discipline case. It would be the same as a messenger from a king saying, “In the king’s name, I decree…” God has given us authority, according to our placement in the church and in life. We can grow in this authority as we know and obey Him more because we then in turn grow greater trust in Him and greater confidence in our identity in Him.

2. Praying in Jesus’ name also means praying according to His character/according to His will. If you are truly praying in Jesus’ name then you are praying out of His heart and out of His character. Jesus isn’t selfish or proud or fearful, so prayers based out of such wrong standings are not actually done in His name. It’s when we are praying from His heart that we can be confident that our prayers will be answered. In that case we are praying in Jesus’ name regardless of whether we say “in Jesus’ name” or not.

Praying in Jesus’ name is all about identity. When we know who we are before God then our prayers and our actions become full of faith and power. We don’t always have to say, “I am a son of God. I am loved by the Father. I am a temple of His Holy Spirit” when we pray, but if we choose to meditate on those things our prayers will indeed grow in strength. In the same way as we meditate on the authority that we have as we pray because we are acting in Jesus’ name, our prayers and actions also grow mightily in power.

I’ll end with this link to an Identities in Christ document I made up. It can also be accessed through the “Media” – “Sermons and Resources” tabs.

https://www.comequicklyministries.org/resources/Identities%20in%20Christ.pdf

God bless!