Prayer in His Name
While we preach to the lost in the name of Jesus, there are other things—vitally important—which we do as Christians in His blessed name.
We pray in His name. When the time was come that the Saviour would leave His own, He comforted them by pointing out (see John 14-16) the exhaustless resource and blessing found in the privilege of prayer in His name. How thankful we should be for being able to pray in the Spirit in His name.
One thing necessary for prayer in His name is the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the believer. The Spirit gives us the intimate relationship to God the Father that is ours in Christ.
Another thing we learn from 1 John 3:21-2221Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (1 John 3:21‑22) is that communion with the One in whose name we pray is necessary. Disobedience disrupts communion and then there is no liberty to pray. If our state of soul is bad and we ignore it, we can’t expect answers.
But when we pray in the Spirit and in the name of Jesus, we pray according to His mind, and we receive an answer. It is not always as we hope, but we will receive an answer to prayer in His way and time.
In John 14 it is the Lord Jesus who answers prayers in His name, that the Father might be glorified. In John 15 our prayers are in connection with fruit-bearing, while in John 16 we find the personal affection the Father has for us as we pray directly to Him.
But let us not forget that it is still in the name of Jesus that we pray. To mention the name of Jesus before the Father reminds Him of all the beauty He finds in His Son and of all He has done on our behalf, so that to make our petitions in that name secures us the answer.
H. Brinkmann (adapted)