Our text, John 14:12-17, is powerful and profound, yet simple and direct.
Often it is garbled but we desperately need its truth. Without it we are lying dead in the water! In reading verses 5-12, notice that Jesus is asking to be believed. Believe me, He pleads, if not for my words, then for my works.
The word “because” in verse 12 links our Lord’s going back to the Father with our ability to do “even greater things.”
Please open your Bible to Hebrews 9:24-28. Read it carefully.
Giving attention to the order of events, verse 28 points out that in the past Christ was once sacrificed to pay for our sins but in the future, He will return a second time to complete all our salvation benefits. Earlier, at verse 24, He is said to have “entered Heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.”
Here is the divine arrangement in Heaven for us to receive the promised Holy Spirit to encourage and to empower us. Look back at our text, John 14: 16.
But, more especially, see this Hebrews passage as a holy alignment whereby we may establish our life of prayer as John 14:13-14 tell us.
Praying in Jesus’ Name Is the Key to Effective Prayer
Praying in Jesus’ name benefits prayer in three ways and thus makes it so effective.
1. BY PROTECTING ANSWERS FROM OUR PRIDE
Here is God’s great problem–how to bless us with answers to our prayers without destroying us in the pit of pride.
Are we not staggered by the seeming comparison or contrast between His work and our “greater” works, 12? But when we look at Acts 1:1, 8 we see Jesus speaks of all the work He did in His own earthly ministry as only the beginning of His doings. After His ascension to the right hand of the Father, He promises to pour out the Holy Spirit and empower believers to complete His work.
Now notice in our text, verses 13 and 14, Jesus says repeatedly, “I will do” what you ask in prayer. It may be that we do the praying but He does the doing. Anything of significance accomplished by us is really only what Jesus does in answer to prayer. All else is not going to last very long. We see then Jesus the Lord has everything in place with Holy Spirit power available and the only thing missing is prayer!
Remember that praying in Jesus’ name is the key to effective prayer because it benefits prayer in a second way.
2. BY PRESCBIBING PROPER LIMITS TO ANSWERS
One of our common failures in praying is that we ask for things out of God’s will–things we might humanly want or things which are wrong in themselves or things which are not wrong in themselves, but are beyond the scope of our faith.
Let me explain this. God has, in effect, given to each of us a total field or territory in life for which we are responsible. We are to care for all these responsibilities as our spiritual stewardship. The total scope of our responsibilities in life will include: 1) things we are assigned to accomplish, 2) blessings which we ought to experience, 3) promises we are to claim, and 4) battles we are to win.
Have you discovered your territory for God? Do you know what personal character traits He wants to bring to you, what quality of life you are to grasp in prayer, how it is to be with your home and family? What are the new things God wants you to bring into the life of your church family?
As someone has observed, none of us has faith enough nor are we responsible to ask that God convert the whole world the moment we ask it in prayer. Neither you nor I have faith for such fanciful objectives but we do know that our Lord “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His .power that is at work within us,” Ephesians 3:20.
Perhaps you see your particular, assigned life responsibilities in a very dim fashion but don’t sit oppressed, cornered, limited. Rather, move out in prayer with God at your side and look over the lay of the land and begin to bring down Heaven’s blessing on your family, friends, church, and your own personal life.
See what we’ve learned thus far. Praying in Jesus’ name is the key to effective prayer because it benefits prayer in several ways. First, we saw that praying in Jesus’ name protects us from pride. We stand in great weakness, acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the power source and author of every accomplishment for good. Secondly, praying in Jesus’ name limits the scope of our prayers to that which is God’s will and territory for us. We cannot truly invoke the name of Jesus Christ for some wild project or sinful desire to be fulfilled.
Finally, praying in Jesus’ name benefits us in a third way:
3. BY PROVIDING THE MEANS OF OBTAINING ANSWERS
This is an urgently important point–if missed, all else fails. To pray truly in Jesus’ name is to have a guaranteed answer. Here is how it works: (1) See it. (2) Stand on it. (3) Say it.
By this I mean, first we must see that Christ taking His place at the right hand of God in Heaven is establishing that holy alignment on our behalf pictured in Hebrews 9: 24. That must be in the eye of faith as we pray in Jesus’ name.
Second, we must then stand on Christ’s merit. It is His perfect righteousness, not ours. It 1s His atonement that removes from us the guilt and stains of sin. Praying in His name is to rely on His sacrificed blood and righteousness before the Father. The Father looks upon His Son and sees us standing in His name, then He deals with us as with His own Son.
Finally, we should say words such as this: Father, this prayer I offer in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. Often it is well to begin the prayer by expressing clearly to the Father in Heaven that you are approaching Him in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and that you know that the Savior is there at God’s right hand and is well received and much loved by the Father and that you yourself have no righteousness and merit except that good which is in our Lord. This is powerful praying and moves the Father in positive response.
Join your brothers and sisters in a new life of commitment, taking up your full responsibilities in prayer and seeking a fresh outpouring of heaven’s blessing on our needy earth.
Amen.