Praying in Jesus’ Name

Jesus' name is not a name to be played with. Dr. Tony Evans talks about people who think that calling on Jesus' name is kind of like saying abracadabra.

This is a person behind the name, and if you don't know, the person don't expect the power. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. It's one of those things Christians do but don't always understand. I'm talking about wrapping up a prayer with the words, In Jesus' name. Well, today, Dr. Evans takes us to John chapter 16, as he talks about connecting with the power in that name by using it the way God intended.

Let's join him. Forgery is the unauthorized use of an identity or a name for personal benefit and privilege. To illegitimately and in an unauthorized way seek to benefit from somebody else's identity is against the law. Unfortunately, many Christians are spiritual forgers because often we as believers use Jesus' name to get what we want when we've not been authorized to do so, and that becomes illegitimate, illegal praying. It is normal for us to conclude our prayers within Jesus' name, and yet for many of us, when we conclude our prayers that way, we just canceled out our request because it was forgery. It was an illegitimate use of his name, yet it is the most important phrase in a prayer. When you conclude your prayer in Jesus' name, it determines whether you get what you ask for or whether you don't. He says, when you ask for anything in my name, you will receive it. Yet we all can testify that we've used the name and not got what we asked for. What I want us to look at today is whether we've been using it legally or illegally, because the use of the name and its legitimacy or lack thereof will determine whether we get what we pray for if we pray at all.

So I want to look at three things, because if you grab what I shared with you today, you will see prayers answered like you've never seen them before. You'll see kingdom authority leave eternity and come into time, leave heaven and come down to earth, leave the infinite and join the finite, because we will have made contact with eternity. Now, the first thing we've got to answer is, what is this concept? What is this principle of in my name?

What does that even mean? To understand that, we have to understand a little bit of theology here. God has already determined that what he does in history on earth where you and I live, he will do by means of Jesus Christ. God is, in the words of theologians, holy other. Another word for that is transcendent.

Another homegrown word for that is he way out there. God is way out there. He exists in a whole nother realm. But we live here in the realm of the five senses.

How can I get that realm way out there to join me in this realm way down here in a way that's vibrant and meaningful? God has established a mechanism, a means through a person to connect the two realms. That's why 1 Timothy 2 5 says, there is one mediator, one in between person, between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. When we talk about his name, we're not talking about his nomenclature alone. We're talking about the person who stands behind the name. So when you talk about in the name of Jesus, you need to know the Jesus whose name you just used. It can't just be the word.

It has to be the authorized use of the person whose name you just called. In John chapter 11, he tells Martha to move the stone. He says, Martha, I want you to move the stone in verses 39 and 42 of John 11. Martha says, well, he stinks.

He'd been dead four days. Jesus said, did not tell you, you wouldn't see what I'm up to till you believe, which wasn't a feeling. It was move the stone. When she finally got around to moving the stone, guess what Jesus says? It says, then Jesus, then after she did what he told him to do, then Jesus raised his head toward the father. And this is what Jesus says, father, you do always answer my prayers. You do always answer my prayers.

And guess what happened after that? A miracle, a change of a situation. Lazarus is called forth because Jesus has been engaged legitimately in an authorized way and his name is used. So the question on the floor is not whether you're using the nomenclature, but whether you're using it in an authorized way because an unauthorized use of his name means a meaningless prayer request because the father loves the son and responds to the son. Then he responds to us who've responded to the son who the father responds to.

So he makes the statement that to use the name, you must use it in an authorized way. Number two, what are the prerequisites for me being able to use the name legitimately and with kingdom authority so that I can get heaven to come down into my history and to blow my mind, to answer my prayers, to respond to my requests. We're getting ready to go into some deep cotton here, but it will change your prayer life. It will empower your prayer life and you will see you won't have to live on other folk testimony because you will see that your prayers got through and that God actually heard your request. So what are the prerequisites for answered prayer?

I can sum it up in one word that was on our introduction today. If you want Jesus's name to have authority in your prayer life, there must be total surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is not a buffet. For most Christians, commitment to Jesus Christ is a buffet. When you go through the buffet line, I want this, I don't want that, I want that, I don't want that. We pick and choose the parts of Jesus we like, we prefer, and we want.

This is not a buffet. God demands total surrender. Romans chapter 14 verses 8 and 9 says Jesus lived and Jesus died to control all of your life.

Not a part of it, not Sunday morning. He wants Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, that Sunday again, 24-7 and everything you do in each one of those minutes of each one of those days. Now that's what he wants. Now we know we're not perfect people, but he wants that to be the mindset, the mentality, the orientation if you expect him to listen to your prayers.

If you are a part-time Christian, don't expect big-time answers. He demands total surrender. When you tell your child, do you want them to do something? You want total surrender.

You want more than commitment because they may make a commitment and do half of it. You want surrender. In fact, you don't want a whole lot of discussion.

I would like for you to do this, but mama, no, no, no, no. I want you to surrender to my instructions, watch this, even when it's not preferred because that's what surrender is. Surrender isn't just because I like it. Surrender is because you said it. It is submission to his lordship or as Luke 6 46 says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say? In other words, you can't say Lord and rebel because if you say Lord and rebel, the word Lord was wasted conversation. Lord means you are now my master. I am now your servant and slave.

I am here to do what you say do, whether I prefer it, want it, like it or not. It is the absence of lordship that keeps prayers unanswered. It is the absence of his comprehensive rule because God knows that we're going to pick and choose what we like, pick and choose what we want so he doesn't have total control. He has some commitment sometime and he wants absolute complete surrender. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment to continue this lesson from his series Igniting Kingdom Prayer. This two-volume, 12-message collection will teach you how to pray with the power that can move mountains, solve problems, heal relationships, and even change God's mind. Contact us today and it's yours with our thanks when you make a contribution to help keep Tony's teaching coming your way on this station. Just visit tonyevans.org or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222. We'll get back to Dr. Evans and today's lesson right after this.

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Those dates again are August 6-13. But hurry, spots are filling up fast. Register today and ensure you get the room of your choice at tonyevans.org. When you look at Colossians chapter 3, you find something very interesting. Beginning in verse 17, listen to these words. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Let me read that again. Whatever you do in word, what you say, or deed, what you do, because we're always saying I'm doing something, do all, not some, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

When you decide my whole life is owned by him. Let me quote another verse. You won't like it, but I need to quote it. It's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20.

Hold on to your seat belt because this will rock your world. He says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, you are not your own, you've been bought with a price. You don't get to own you once you become a Christian. You don't get to own you. He says you are not your own. I bought and paid for you with my blood on the cross.

So don't say what you're going to do when I say something different. You don't own you. See the problem with too many of us is we still own ourselves. And if you own you, he doesn't own you. And if he doesn't own you, why don't you pray to you? Because you own you. He says you have been bought with a price. You are not your own. If you are willing to give up ownership of your life, now you can have access and kingdom authority in prayer.

You can see God move. He wants to own your home, your life, your money, your time, your efforts, your work. You mean he wants it all?

Hello. He wants total ownership. If you want answered prayer, if you want to see heaven, if you want to see kingdom authority manifested in your life, if you want to see the rule of God demonstrated, there must be surrender for kingdom authority to be realized again.

Kingdom authority is the divinely authorized right and responsibility for believers to act on God's behalf and spiritually ruling over his creation under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Listen, the more you surrender, the more of heaven you'll see. Then the supernatural will become more natural. Now, this is going to involve your growth in spiritual intimacy because the closer you get to him, the more you'll trust his Lordship. You see, it's scary to say I'm going to stop owning me. I'm going to let him own me if you're not close to him because then you wonder what he's going to do to me. So that's why growth in intimacy is critical to experiencing his authority. You want to draw near to him. You want to get close to him. That's why the Scripture talks about how much the Father loves the Son. They are so into each other that they never turn each other down because they're so into each other. He wants us to be into him like that. You abide in me and my word abide in you.

Ask me whatever you want to and I will do it for you because we hang out together. You've settled the Lordship issue. Matthew 6 24, no man can serve two masters. You can't have the Lord and anything as a final decision maker. No, everybody has ideas, only the Lord gets the final decision maker to rule and overrule. Overrule your manhood, overrule your womanhood, overrule your marriage, overrule your singlehood, overrule your work, overrule your finances, overrule your activities, overrule your entertainment.

He wants the whole kid in caboodle. That is if you want to see heaven's authority on earth. So we dealt with what it means to pray in his name. We've looked at the prerequisites to praying in his name. If you are a rebel, stop praying. If you're not surrendered, your prayer is hitting the ceiling and bouncing back. So what can you expect when you pray in his name? You can expect God to intervene in the affairs of earth on your behalf. James chapter 5 verses 13 to 15. He says, if you pray in the name of the Lord, the prayer will heal the sick and address the sin.

Now all sickness is not due to sin, but a lot of sickness is. What God is saying is, if I could ever get to the spiritual, we could do a lot better with the physical. See, most of our prayers, we want God to change stuff in the physical.

Give me more money, give me better health, give me a new car, give me a new house, give me nice clothes. We want God to do something in the physical. There's nothing wrong with that, but we often want him to do stuff in the physical without touching the spiritual. Don't touch my sin, but give me my blessing. Don't touch my rebellion, but give me my blessing.

No, he doesn't mind changing the physical, but he wants to address the spiritual. And that brings in a monster authority. Kingdom authority?

You want to know kingdom authority? Here's the monster. The name of Jesus gives you power over the devil, because much of what we deal with has come from him or through him or by him. In Luke chapter 10 verses 17 to 19, he told his disciples, he's having a conversation with his disciples and he says, you have authority over the devil in my name. You tread among the demons. You tread on top of the demons. Instead of the devil and the demons walking on you, you walking on them. Tread means to walk on. When's the last time you walked on the devil? Just walked on. Oh, devil, let me walk on you.

Rather than him walking over you. He says, I give you authority, he used the word authority, to tread on the devil and his demonic scorpions. Why? Because many of the issues we have are demonically exacerbated. See, we think the problem in the divorce was our personalities.

That wasn't a problem. The problem is the devil got a hold of your personalities. And when the demons got a hold of your personalities, your personalities got amped up. And you were meaner than even you thought you were.

You were more irresponsible than you thought you were. Because what demons do is they infiltrate a simple situation and they magnify it. So they make it worse than it is or worse than it was. So unless you can trample on the demon, you can't solve the problem that the demon exacerbated. But if you don't even think the devil is involved and demons are involved, you're not going to address the spiritual, you're going to just try to address the social or the political or the financial without addressing the demonic inspiration of it that you didn't tread on. This illustrates, I love this, in chapter 19 of Acts, verse 13 and 17.

Okay. Paul is casting out demons in Jesus' name. He's just getting rid of demons in Jesus' name. The sick are being healed. The supernatural is occurring regularly in Jesus' name.

Well, some dudes see this and they say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Paul using his name Jesus and stuff happening. Why don't we do that? Because they concluded there's magic in his name. It's a magical name here. So they came to this demon-possessed person, the sons of Sceva, and they use the name of Jesus. They do like Christians do, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, in the name of Jesus, Jesus. Come on demon. Then Acts 19 says the demon spoke up. The demon spoke up and the demon says, Jesus, we know. Paul, we know. We still know who you folks are. It says the demon jumped out of the man and jumped onto the folk who was used in the name of Jesus, stripped them of their clothes and it says, and they ran out naked.

Why? Because when you don't know how to use the name and you still use the name, you just invite the devil to jump all over you and make things worse on you while you call in Jesus' name. So Jesus' name is not a name to be played with, nor is it dice, is it magic you just throw out there.

This is a person behind the name. And if you don't know the person submitted to the person, intimate with the person, following the person, yielding to the person, submitted to the person, don't expect the power. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final thought about how that power can be accessed. But first, I wanted to let you know that the popular film Journey with Jesus, starring Dr. Evans, Crystal, Priscilla, and Anthony, is now available to stream online for a limited time. Journey with Jesus, previously only shown in theaters, was filmed on location in Israel and follows the steps of Jesus through the Holy Land. Get more information on how you can stream this powerful film when you visit tonyevans.org. As we've been learning, kingdom prayer isn't just any prayer.

It starts with understanding God's comprehensive authority over every area of life. We'd like to send you this two-volume collection of all twelve full-length messages, called Igniting Kingdom Prayer, on CD or digital download as our way of saying thank you when you make a donation to help continue this listener-supported ministry. Make the arrangements today at tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. Again that's tonyevans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource team members are available 24-7, so call any time of the day or night. God has unlimited power. We have continuing needs.

It literally seems like a match made in heaven. So why aren't more believers seeing their needs met? Dr. Evans will have the answer for us tomorrow.

Right now, though, he's back with this closing story. When you go to the bank to withdraw some money, I guarantee you, they're going to say, show me your ID. When you go to a hotel and you say, I have a reservation, my name is John Doe, they're going to say, give me your ID. Because they want to make sure that you're not a fraud.

They want to make sure that you are who you declare yourself to be and that you have the right and privilege to get what is being offered. When you get on your knees to pray and you go to your Heavenly Father and say, Father, I want this, I need this, help me over here, deliver me over there, God has a question, show me your ID. Upon what right and authority do you have right now to come to my throne and to make this request and to expect me to let you in to my holy throne?

Where is your ID? All you got to do is tell him, I come in the name of the Lord Jesus, who I have submitted my life to, who rules over my life, who controls my life, who I'm not ashamed to be identified with. Or as the words of the Apostle Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Anybody wants some power? Anybody wants some victory? Anybody wants some deliverance? Anybody want to see some heaven? Well then give God the glory by giving Jesus the honor. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.