The Preconditions of Prayer (4)

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14.13

Jesus I know; but who are you?
One of the more dramatic moments in recent presidential campaigns came during a 1988 vice-presidential debate between Senator Dan Quayle and Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Senator Quayle was challenged by the moderator to defend his qualifications to serve as president, should that eventuality arise. He responded by saying, in part, that he was at least as experienced as President Kennedy was at his young age to serve in the highest office of the land. To which Senator Bentsen replied, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

Senator Quayle was offended, but, I think, duly chided. He’d overstepped the bounds of legitimacy in comparing himself with President Kennedy, and everyone in the audience, and most Americans, understood this was so.

A similar situation occurred in Acts 19 with the seven sons of Sceva, who were Jewish exorcists. Seeing the success of the Apostle Paul in his teaching and casting out demons, they decided to up their game a bit by imitating the Apostle, and tried to cast a demon out of a man by invoking both Paul and Jesus. To which the demon replied, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know: but who are you?” Whereupon the demon-possessed man beat the foolishness out of the seven pretenders, sending them away naked and wounded (Acts 19.14-16).

There’s a moral to these two stories: If you invoke someone’s name, seeking some personal advantage, make sure the identification fits.

And this leads to a corollary as a precondition of prayer: When you come before the Father in prayer, be sure you come in the right Name, and be sure you know what it means to pray in that Name.

Your name enough?
Your own name and needs are not enough to make your prayers effective with the heavenly Father. He loves you dearly, and cherishes you at every moment. He is eager to meet your needs, but only your true needs, those needs which are in line with the Kingdom agenda of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your felt needs – your needs as you experience them – may be little more than symptoms of something deeper, of a need your Father is trying to awaken in you, and that He intends to meet by His mercy and grace. That need may be totally unrelated to your felt need, and may or may not involve the meeting of that felt need.

So if you come to the Father in prayer in your own name, that is, only as a child of the Father, and only with a view to having your Father see and satisfy your need, as you have identified it, or if you come in Jesus’ Name seeking only something for yourself or some other person, you may be disappointed when the Father does not answer as you’d hoped.

When we come to prayer, even when we come with urgent felt needs, we must always remember that we are not our own; we have been bought with the price of Jesus’ blood, and we belong to Him and are His bondservants, for the purpose of seeking and advancing His Kingdom, according to His priorities, and not ours. We are called to the Kingdom and glory of God as agents of grace and truth in the world. We are citizens in the Kingdom of God and ambassadors of the Good News of salvation. Asking for anything in Jesus’ Name means we are asking God to do in, for, and through us whatever is according to the priorities and agenda of His Son and our Savior. And it is altogether possible that we may not understand what these are, especially if we are blinded by some urgent felt need as we come to the Lord in prayer. If we invoke the Name of Jesus in prayer, merely for our own sake, or that of some other person, or if we pray in Jesus’ Name merely for personal needs, then we fail to understand the Lord’s promise; for it is the Father’s intention to glorify Christ through all our prayers, and not just to satisfy us.

Yes, the Lord invites us to bring our needs and concerns to Him. The Apostle Paul prayed three times for relief from some malady, only to have the Lord remind him that this malady was to be a means of enhancing the grace of the Lord; it was not to be relieved, for if it were, Paul would be less potent as an object and agent of grace (2 Cor. 12.7-10). But in bringing our needs to the Father, we must remain at all times open to discerning the Lord’s will with respect to our prayers, and not merely our desire for relief or help. Remember: We don’t know how to pray as we should!

Praying in Jesus’ Name
So what does it mean to pray in Jesus’ Name?

It means that, when we come to prayer, we come as Jesus’ disciples, to follow Him in His path of righteousness, service, suffering, and Kingdom power and progress. We come in Jesus, through His merit, according to His agenda, and to bear fruit for His glory. We come for the progress of His Kingdom, for the increase of righteousness, peace, and joy on earth as it is in heaven (Is. 9.6, 7; Rom. 14.17, 18; Matt. 6.10). Everything we bring with us in prayer has been supplied by our heavenly Father to fit us for this high and upward calling – even our sorrows, disappointments, pains, troubles, trials, and thorns in the flesh.

So when we come to pray in Jesus’ Name, we must try to see all that we are and all that we intend to bring before the Father as gifts from Him, that Jesus can use to realize His purposes of transforming us into His own image, making disciples, building His Church, and advancing His Kingdom. To pray in Jesus’ Name is to ask God to use everything He has given us, and every felt need by which we are burdened, for the glory of His Name and the progress of His Kingdom, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

By all means, when you pray, pray in Jesus’ Name. But make sure that your intention in so praying is a fit with His promise in allowing you to do so.

For reflection
1.  When Christians end their prayers with “in Jesus’ Name, Amen” what do you think they intend by this?

2.  How is it possible that God could use the troubles and trials we face to further the agenda and glory of Jesus? If we prayed this way about such matters, would that make a difference in the kind of answers we might expect from the Lord? Explain.

3.  Give an example of how you might pray for some felt need in Jesus’ Name, and how you might expect God to answer such a prayer:

Next steps – Conversation: Ask several of your Christian friends who pray what they mean by praying in Jesus’ Name. What can you learn from them about praying this way?

T. M. Moore

Each of our “next steps” exercises is tied into goals and disciplines involved in working your Personal Mission Field. If you have not yet identified your Personal Mission Field, watch the brief video showing you how to get started right away (click here). Learn how to work your Personal Mission Field by finding a friend and signing-up for our Mission Partners Outreach.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.