There is authority in the Name of Jesus. When Jesus appeared to John on the isle of Patmos, He said, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore .. . and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev. 1:18). The one who has the key is the authorized one. Jesus is saying here, “I am the authorized one.” He has authority.
Just before He ascended to be seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus said, “AH power [authority] is given me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). He immediately delegated His authority in the earth to the Church, “Go ye therefore ” (Matt. 28:19). Then He promised, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; IN MYNAME”
In My Name! In the Name of Jesus! He authorized us. He gave us His Name as the authority. The power is in the Name. The authority is in the Name. He gave us the Name that is above every name. He gave us the Name that is recognized in three worlds—the Name that has authority in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Angels, men, and demons have to bow at that Name—and that Name belongs to us. We are authorized to use that Name.
He commissioned us: “All authority is given me in heaven and in earth, Go ye therefore.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; IN MY NAME shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Matt. 28:18,19; Mark 16:17,18).
Some folks would tell us, “Healing has been done away with. Speaking with tongues has been done away with. The Church doesn’t have any authority today over devils and demons. They can’t cast them out.”
No! No! No! These supernatural signs follow the Name of Jesus. They accompany the believing ones. If your spouse, or a friend, accompanies you some place, they go right along with you. These signs go right along with the believing ones.
“But that was just for the early Church,” religious people tell us. If that is so, then the Name of Jesus does not belong to us, for it is “in my Name” that they accompany the believing ones. If that is so, then the Name of Jesus belonged only to the early Church. And if we do not have the Name of Jesus, then no one is born again today, for there is no other Name given under heaven whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
But, blessed be God, the Name of Jesus does belong to us today! And, thank God, there is salvation in that Name. Yet there is more than salvation in that Name. That Name still enwraps all the power, all the majesty, and all the glory it ever did.
The Father God has lifted Jesus to the highest position of the universe. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father on high, far above every known authority. God the Father has conferred upon Him the highest Name in the universe—the Name above every name. He has bestowed upon Him honor, glory, and power.
Jesus with His resurrected body is there at the right hand of the Father. But, that Name has all the authority, all the power, all the dignity, all the majesty, and all the glory that Jesus the Person has. The Name stands for the Person. This honor, this glory, this authority, this power, is vested in the Name of Jesus. And this Name is given to us!
The Church has been rich since its beginning. Yet, thinking we were being humble, we sat around and sang, “Here I wander like a beggar, through the heat and through the cold,” or, “Just build me a cabin in the corner of glory land.” That’s not being humble. That’s being ignorant. We have a rich inheritance—the Name of Jesus!
Would to God that we could catch a glimpse of what it means. Too often, the Scriptures we are studying fall on deaf ears. Would to God we would get the revelation of what God’s Word says to us about it. E. W. Kenyon did. I want to quote what he has written under the subtitle, “New Land Ahead.” And remember, he wrote this several years ago. We are getting more into the edge of this now than they were in the day he wrote it.
Oh, that our eyes were open; that our souls would dare rise into the realm of Omnipotence where the Name would mean to us all that the Father has invested in it; that we would act up to our high privileges in Christ Jesus. This is practically an unexplored tableland in Christian experience.
Here and there, some of us have experienced the authority vested in the Name of Jesus. We have seen the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see; those on the verge of death brought back instantly to health and vigor; but, so far, none of us have been able to take a permanent place in our privileges and abide where we may enjoy the fullness of this mighty power.
Smith Wigglesworth got into the edge of it. In his book, Ever Increasing Faith , he tells about going to Wales to pray for a man called Lazarus. Lazarus had been a leader in the assembly, working in the tin mines days and preaching nights, until he broke down physically and collapsed. Tuberculosis set in. He lay bedfast and helpless for six years.
God spoke to Wigglesworth and told him to go raise up Lazarus. When Smith walked into his room, Lazarus looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it. Wigglesworth endeavored to get him to release his faith; to believe God. But he was bitter. Others had prayed for him. He thought God should have healed him. After all, he had given his life to Him, working days and preaching nights.
Undaunted, Wigglesworth said to the people he was staying with, “Could we get seven people to pray with me for the poor man’s deliverance?”
So seven people, plus Wigglesworth, went into the room where Lazarus lay on the verge of death. The eight believers circled the bed, holding hands. One brother took one of Lazarus’ hands; Wigglesworth took the other to include him in the circle.
Then Wigglesworth said, “We are not going to pray; we are just going to use the Name of Jesus.” They all knelt and whispered that one word, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”
The power of God fell, and then it lifted. Five times it fell and lifted, as the little group spoke that magnificent Name. The man in the bed was unmoved. The sixth time the power of God came down on that man, it remained.
“The power of God is here,” Wigglesworth told him. “It is yours to accept.” The man’s lips began to move. He made a confession. He said, “I have been bitter in my heart, and I know I have grieved the Spirit of God. I am helpless. I cannot lift my hands, nor even lift a spoon to my mouth.”
Wigglesworth said, “Repent, and God will hear you.” He repented and cried out, “Oh God, let this be to Thy glory.” When he said that, the power of God went through him.
Wigglesworth said, “As we again said, ‘Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!’ the bed shook, and the man shook. I said to the people who were with me, ‘You can all go downstairs right away. This is all God. I’m not going to assist Him.’ I sat and watched that man get up and dress himself. We sang the doxology as he walked down the steps. I said to him, ‘Now tell what has happened.’ It was soon noised abroad that Lazarus had been raised up and the people came from all the district round to see him and hear his testimony.
And God brought salvation to many.”
One of the leaders of a certain Full Gospel denomination told me of an experience he’d had in his youth. He started preaching at the age of 14. When he was 16, he held a youth meeting in Iowa and stayed in the home of the pastor, who had children near this young minister’s age.
The pastor was called away to preach a funeral in another state. While he was gone, at 2 o’clock one morning, one of the church members came to the parsonage. A 3-year-old girl was very sick. She had gone into convulsions. The pastor’s wife prepared to go to their home to pray. She asked the evangelist, just a 16-year-old boy, to go with her. She was in the ministry with her husband, but she was not called to preach. So they asked the young minister to pray.
He told me, “The child was in convulsions. I laid hands on her and prayed. I did everything I had ever seen anybody do. I said everything I ever heard anybody say. Nothing happened. The child still was in convulsions.
“Then the pastor’s wife began to sing, ‘Praise the Lord! Glory to God! Hallelujah! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!’
“We were on our knees. One by one, we picked it up and sang praises and the Name of Jesus. While we were singing, the child suddenly grew quiet; the convulsions ceased. “We stopped singing, sat around and visited about 10 minutes, and the child seemed fine. Then suddenly, she went back into convulsions. We prayed. I laid hands on her again, anointed her with oil, and said everything I ever heard anybody say. I rebuked the devil. I commanded the child to be well. Everything! Nothing seemed to work.
“After a little while, the pastor’s wife began to sing, ‘Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Glory to Jesus! Glory to God! Jesus! Jesus!’
“One by one, we picked it up. We sang praises unto the Name, and we sang the Name. Suddenly, all convulsions ceased.”
He went on with the meeting for several days. The child was perfectly well.
There is power in that Name! That is what Kenyon was talking about when he said, “Some of us have experienced the authority vested in the Name of Jesus. But, so far, none of us have been able to take a permanent place in our privileges and abide where we may enjoy the fullness of this mighty power.”
Mr. Kenyon goes on to say something which expresses my convictions. I have said these very words myself. But we have a conviction that before the Lord Jesus returns, there will be a mighty army of believers who will learn the secret of living in the Name, of reigning in life, living the victorious, transcendent, resurrection life of the Son of God among men.
Hallelujah! “If our minds could only grasp,” Kenyon goes on, “the fact that Satan is paralyzed, stripped of his armor by the Lord Jesus, and that disease and sickness are servants of this Man; that at His voice, they must depart, it would be easy to live in this Resurrection Realm.”
And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant Lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant. Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. MATTHEW 8:5-10
What did this Roman centurion say to so marvel Jesus?
He said, in effect, “Speak the Word only. Just as I am set over these hundred men who obey my command, You have been set over disease. You are the master over demons and the laws of nature. You have authority over disease and sickness. All You have to do is speak, and sickness and disease will obey You.”
Smith Wigglesworth, Ever Increasing Faith, Springfield. Missouri, Gospel Publishing House.
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