I was watching Joseph Prince and was rather thrilled by something he was teaching. I tend to be tough on public preachers and teachers, especially when they make huge salaries. However, I have some respect for Joseph Prince because he got up in front of his congregation once and apologized for saying a Christian can get a curse and gave Paul’s message on the only curse for a Christian is to go back to trusting in Law rather than Christ. Well in this sermon he got into the progression of prayer and the name used, he have the example of Pharisee and Tax Collector calling on God at the temple, noting that for us that evolved into saying Father, as in the Our Father Prayer, but that progression did not end, for Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it,” (John 14:13-4), “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24) and “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17). The Name of Jesus is the Name above all names, “This is why God has given him an exceptional honor—
the name honored above all other names— so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will kneel and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11), and so we as Christians should be praying in His name, not some generic God name.
As for the Our Father, Jesus said, “Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of Father, Son, and the holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19), so certainly we may invoke the whole Trinity and Godhead in prayer, but Joseph Prince emphasizing that Jesus is the name now we pray in, has the Scriptural support because it is Name Above All Names (Philippians 2:9-11), The Father even Has made Jesus the sole Judge, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.” (John 5:22-23).
There is a reticence in many circles of Prayer to pray in Name of Jesus, but this is wrong. People say God or Abba or Father, again nothing wrong with invoking the Father in the Godhead, Jesus even said to Pray the Our Father, “ In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors (sinners). And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13). However, the only way to the Father is through Jesus, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). And lest people major in minors saying its Yeshua or Iesous, not Jesus, people Jesus is His Name too, it is anglo-Latin (Jesus from Iesus) name that comes from Greek Iesous which comes from The Hebrew Yeshua, so its the same name and most people know the name Jesus, not Iesous or even Yeshua, unless you are a Messianic Christian. I mean few know Jesus name Eloha which is the Aramaic, and would have been how he was addressed by many in His Time, for even even spoke in Aramaic in he Scripture, “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In Aramaic)” (Mark 15:34).
The Name of Jesus in Prayer is crucial. It seperates us from the Jews who call on Adonai and Jehovah but do not trust in Jesus the Messiah and Bridegroom and Lord God who is our Savior. It separates us from Muslims who call on Allah, when we call on the Son of God Jesus Christ to be saved. So we capitulate to fitting in and just use the generic name God, I can hear Yul Brenner as Ramses II in The Ten Commandments saying, “Which God?” And Moses saying, “The Almighty God,” which would have been heard as “El Shaddai.” Just as I Am that I Am is not that in language, but the Name Yahweh. If we are too ashamed to pray in name of Jesus, then are prayers already are destined to fail, because it is Jesus that despoiled the demonic powers, “The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.” (1 John 3:8). For remember people were casting demons out in His name, “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:38-40) and even Jesus said we would caste out demons in His name, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;” (Mark 16:17) and disciples did so, “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17). It was by Name of Jesus a man was healed, “ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.” (Acts 4:10). It is by the name of Jesus that we are saved (Acts 4:12).
If the demons respond to the name of Jesus thus, people were healed in the Name of Jesus and it is by His Name we are saved, why would any Christian refrain from saying The Name Above All Names in Prayer?! Jesus even says that when we gather as two or three in His Name He is there (Matthew 18:20);.
I am not saying to stop saying Abba Father or Come Holy Spirit, that is not the point. I say invoke all Three Persons of the Trinity in Prayer. But even the Father has put Jesus in primacy of place (John 5:20-25), and we need to acknowledge that Jesus is the Name Above All Names (Philippians 2:9-11). So why would we avoid calling on our Savior, Creator, and Lord? For it is He that hung on a cross for our sins and is deserving of worship with the Father and Holy Spirit, One God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity. Amen.
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