When I had finished recording the podcast episode “Manipulating God”, I heard the Spirit say “don’t just plow the field, plant something”. I took that to mean He wanted me to share what “in Jesus name” means as the Father has taught me. As I began pondering a script for another episode, He said “it’s already written” and reminded me of this blog post that He inspired me to write several years ago. Reading it again gives me a chance to assess the progress He’s made in me, and where I’ve fallen short. Also to elaborate on what He showed me from scripture, originally.

Walking with the Spirit leads to revelation of the sort that exposes our fears and religious ideas. It startles me just how few words spoken by the Spirit have the power to throw down temples made by men and reduce them to rubble. Yet long after my own temple to man’s religious system was destroyed in my sight, there remain a number of buttresses and other fortifications within me that stand in opposition to the Spirit and Truth. As He pummels yet another of my religious relics, I’m reminded once more of Jesus’s declaration in Matthew 24:2 “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Whether the physical temple in Jerusalem, or the ideological temples and high places within our minds and hearts, I believe He intends to throw them all down to ruin, that His Spirit and Truth would reign supreme.

It was in laying hands on my wife for healing from chronic leg pain and praying “… in Your name …” that He pummeled another of my religious notions, saying:

“You heal her.”

Say what?!? I have no power to heal anyone! Or do I?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with a separatist mind set in some things. Or perhaps I should say, there are ways in which I own the truth of being IN Him, and ways that I see myself as separate from Him. For example, with regard to salvation, I am IN Jesus without a doubt. Where it comes to healing however, I often see myself on the outside, looking in. Thus on the one hand, I identify as a son of of the Most High; while on the other, my self view is that of a beggar.

Consequently, when I prayed for healing and invoked the Savior’s name, I viewed myself like a conduit or intermediary between Him and the person I was praying for. That is not the prayer of truth, where Truth is recognizing and laying hold of my identity and inheritance in Him. Rather, it is a passive prayer, a laissez faire prayer, not unlike: “Lord, I bring to you someone in need of healing – that’s our request. So I’ll just step aside now and You can heal them, or not of course, since it’s Your will after all …”.

Such is a lukewarm prayer; a wavering prayer. Absent the passion of faith, where faith boldly acts upon truth (Hebrews 4:16), such a prayer accomplishes nothing (James 1:6-8), except perhaps to make our Savior want to spit (Revelation 3:16)!

But how do I heal my wife? I’m just a man. I haven’t the power to heal anyone. After all, He said:

“I am the vine, you are the branches … apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

That ‘apart from Him I can do nothing’ makes perfect sense, since when it comes to healing, I have viewed myself apart from Him, like a beggar looking for a hand out. No wonder my prayers amount to nothing.

Still I tried the old way once more; laying hands upon my wife and praying for healing “… in Your name …”. The Spirit corrected me:

“In Our name.”

OUR name?!? Your name is the name above all names and I won’t be taking that name for myself anytime soon. It belongs to you and you alone, Lord!

“And yet I will write my name upon your forehead.” And referred me to Revelation 3:12 and 22:4.

Your name? On my forehead? I’m identified with Your name?

“Our name.”

Still I was reluctant to own His name and found myself looking for ways to say it that did not cause me to fear speaking what felt to me like blasphemy. Perhaps if I said “In YOUR name, Lord, and the name you have given me”? Would that be OK? There is no denying He was telling me to take ownership of the name, His name, and that He was giving it to me.

It helps to understand the nature of a name.

The Greek word for “name” in the New Testament is “onoma” (G3686) and means so very much more than the pronoun by which we commonly address one another. Strong’s Greek dictionary defines “onoma” as the very character and authority of the person himself. Thayer’s Lexicon adds “one’s rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.” Jesus’ “onoma” is far beyond our ability to describe in mere words, let alone understand, which is why I suppose we have called Him by so many different names: Emmanuel, Lamb of God, Son of Man, Prince of Peace, The Living Water, The Way, The Truth and Life, Rabbi, Messiah, Wonderful Counselor, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Great Physician, Bread of Life, Son of David, Alpha and Omega, the Great I AM, Jesus, the Christ, etc. How does one capture the greatness of the Father and the Son, Name Above ALL Names, with our limited human language? Each name we have given Him describes just a single attribute of His overall character, authority, anointing, etc.

Strangely, the one name I have struggled to call Him, is brother.

Brothers are family. They share the name of their Father. But as often as I’ve felt like someone on the outside looking in, I’m hesitant to call Him brother and to completely own our Father’s name.

Revelation 3:12 says “He that overcomes … I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.”

As I was pondering all this, the Spirit brought to mind the words of Peter who encountered a lame man begging for alms at the temple gate called Beautiful. Peter said to him:

“Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” (Acts 3:6).

What did Peter have that enabled him to give the gift of healing to the lame beggar? Why, it was the onoma – the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, of course. One can not truly give that which one does not own. Interestingly, the two words “have” in Acts 3:6, are different words in the Greek. It is the second “have”, pronounced “echo” (G2192) in the Greek that means ownership. Thayer’s Greek dictionary defines it as “to have and hold in the hand, in the sense of wearing … to possess”. Jesus gave and Peter received, owned and wore, the very name – the onoma of Jesus. By receiving and owning His name, the power of Jesus to heal was Peter’s to give.

I’ve found it eye-opening to read the many scriptures that say Jesus lives IN us through the Holy Spirit and that we are IN Him. That’s the picture I get from Matthew (25:31-46) where Jesus says to the sheep “whatever you did for the least of these my brothers, you did it for me”. So how does one become a brother of Jesus? It is through being born again, taking up our cross and following Him, whereby we become a brother of Jesus and child of God. In that passage, Jesus “co-identifies” with His brothers, receiving whatever act of love or compassion the sheep showed to them as if they were done to Jesus directly. Ponder that for a moment. In this world, Jesus wears us like a skin suit whereby He lives through us. Similarly, we put on Jesus – we wear Jesus – through being crucified with Him. About that, don’t we say sometimes that a brother or sister is like “Jesus with skin on” for us? Likewise how often have we heard it said that when we stand before God, He sees the Son having brought us through the fire and conformed us to the image of Christ. Any way you slice it, to be crucified with Christ, is to be clothed in Christ – to own, possess, and wear, His very character and authority – to be “one with Christ”. Concerning our oneness with Him, John 17:6-26 reads, in part:

(6) “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word … (11-12) And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost … (20) “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word … (26) I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

There is one verse in John 17 that impresses me with regard to receiving and owning (possessing and wearing) His name (His onoma). It is verse 10:

“All I have is yours, and all you have is mine; and my glory is shown through them.”

Everything the Son has He shares with His Father; everything the Father has, He shares with His Son. Consider now the parable of the prodigal son, in particular, the story of the older bother.

(Luke 15:25-31 ESV, excerpted) “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing … (28) But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, (29) but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends … (31) And he (the father) said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.’”

The older brother was contemptuous of the younger and refused to receive him once he came to his senses and returned home. From my perspective, the greater tragedy of the prodigal son story, is the older brother who viewed himself not as a son in his father’s household, but as a servant, tasked with carrying out his commands. Though his father shared everything with his sons, his older son failed to receive anything from his inheritance because he saw himself as a servant and did not walk in his birthright as a son who shared in his father’s name (onoma).

I have suffered with the same affliction as the older brother of the prodigal son; an affliction of identity in my Father’s house. This world and man’s religion seeks to rob us of our identity as sons, kings, priests, heirs, temples of the Holy Spirit, and reduce us in rank to that of lowly servants, who grovel before the throne of God. The world is more than happy to steal our inheritance when we don’t stand up and walk in the name God has given us in Christ Jesus. It’s been a long hard road for me and I’m not there yet, stumbling over doubts, insecurity, or tripped up by the enemies lies and those who do his bidding. Nevertheless, I try again and will one day fully own and wear Jesus, even as He fully owns and wears me.

If ever you should hear me say “in Our name” when I pray, know that I am fully aware that Jesus is the Name above ALL Names. Nevertheless, I want to acknowledge the names He has written, continues to write and will write upon me on the last day, which makes me Jesus’ younger brother (Romans 8:29) and a son of His Father (1 John 3:1). It is the sense that we are family, that I do in fact accept, receive, possess, own and wear, His name.

How could something so obvious have escaped me for so long?