In My Name

John 14:13-14

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

John 15:16

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

John 16:23

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

John 16:26

At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

Jesus repeatedly assured us that whatsoever we could ask for in my name would be forthcoming. So down through the centuries we Christians have been voicing our desires in prayer, being careful to add, I ask all these things in the name of Jesus. But the whatsoever in many, if not most, cases has not been realized.

So we must ask ourselves, What exactly did Jesus mean when He made these promises? It certainly cannot mean tacking on His name at the end of our prayers. We’ve already tried that.

Paul tells us that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10). And we hear Peter saying to the lame man at the gate called Beautiful, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk, whereupon the man leapt to his feet walking, and leaping, and praising God (Acts 3). When questioned the next day by the religious authorities (by what power, or by what name, have ye done this?), Peter said that it was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead that this man was made whole. And he went on to say, Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:10,12).

I think it very significant that Peter used the term Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Christ speaks of His divinity while Jesus of Nazareth speaks of His manhood. The man Jesus recognized His oneness with God (and in John 17 prayed that we would too). That recognition was what got Him crucified by those religious authorities:

John 5:18

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

John 10:33

The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

Paul gives us the description of the mind that was in Christ Jesus:

Philippians 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And this is the mind which we must let be in us. Indeed, according to Paul, it is already there, if we but recognize it (we have the mind of Christ —1Corinthians 2:16). It is the mind of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the mind which thinks it not robbery to be equal with God and at the same time makes itself in its humanity of no reputation, knowing (as Jesus did) that I can of mine own self do nothing (John 5:30) since the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10). This was the mind that was in Peter and John as they spoke to the lame man at the gate Beautiful. Even the religious authorities took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:14).

The religious authorities which crucified Jesus for having this mind in Him and jailed Peter and John for having that same mind still stand ready (in their descendants) to crucify us for letting this mind be in us. They have done an outstanding job of convincing us that we are indeed committing blasphemy if we dare accept our oneness with God —the only thing which will enable us to ask the whatsoever in the name of Jesus Christ and do the works that Jesus did —and even greater works (John 14:12).

We are all familiar with Jesus words:

Mark 11:23-24  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

But how many of us have experienced the fulfillment of these words? In 1999 I was teaching a Bible study on prayer. These verses haunted me to such an extent that I shut down the Bible study and began the search for truth which has brought me to where I am now.

I now know that I cannot believe that I receive what I pray for until I let the mind be in me that was in Christ Jesus. He knew that His prayers were answered even before He prayed. (Isaiah 65:24  And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.) On one occasion (the raising of Lazarus) Jesus said He was praying only for the benefit of the people because He knew His Father had heard Him and would always hear Him (John 11:41-42). In other words, Jesus had no doubt in his heart; He knew that He had whatsoever He said. So all of Jesus prayers were essentially, Thank you, Father. I know that what I am asking is already done.

To pray like that, believing like that, is what it means to ask in my name or in the name of Jesus Christ. Peter had this same assurance when he took hold of the lame man and lifted him up. He told the people that the faith which is by Him was what made the man whole. It wasn’t the words in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth but rather the assurance (faith) that came from their being with Jesus and believing Him when He told them that they would do the same works that He did because they were also one with God. They had heard the message Jesus gave to them from Mary Magdalene:

John 20:17  … go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

They had let the same mind be in them that was in Christ Jesus.

We must also have this same relationship with our Father that Jesus had, the same assurance that He dwells in us and does the works, and even the greater works. Then, and only then, will we know what it means to ask in my name and receive whatsoever we ask.