Today too many follow false teachers who say God’s Word tells us to name it and claim it. It’s unbiblical because using Jesus’s name as a magic word at the end of a prayer will not give us what we want if said in that fashion. My devotional reading this morning centers primarily on two verses: “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God”. (John 16:26-27)

Praying in the name of Jesus is to remember the entire life of Jesus. Thus, to pray in the name of Jesus is to bring all the truth of Jesus’s life and ministry to bear on the issue you are bringing to God in prayer, thereby we are to pray in His nature. Oswald Chambers explained, “In that day you will ask in My name”, means to pray in Jesus’s nature. We are not to use His name as a magic word to get what we want. He further said that we will be so intimate with Jesus that we will be one with Him as He is with the Father. So our prayers will honor and glorify Jesus.

A couple of chapters before, Jesus said: “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” (Jn 14:13-14) Some misapply this verse, thinking that saying “in Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer results in God always granting what is asked for, which essentially treats the words “in Jesus’ name” as a magic formula. This is absolutely unbiblical.

Praying in Jesus’ name means praying with His authority and asking God the Father to act upon our prayers because we come in the name of His Son, Jesus. Praying in Jesus’ name means the same thing as praying according to the will of God. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 Jn 5:14-15). Praying in Jesus’ name is praying for things that will honor and glorify Jesus.

“That day” is a day of peace and an untroubled relationship between God and His saint. Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship—“that they may be one just as We are one” (John 17:22) because Jesus paid our ransom.

Jesus said that because of His name, the Father will recognize and respond to our prayers. What a great challenge and invitation–to pray in His name! Through the resurrection and ascension power of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit He has sent, we can be lifted into such a relationship. Once in that wonderful position, having been placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in Jesus’ name–in His nature. Lord Jesus, thank You for tearing the veil (Matt 27:51) so that we are able to “come boldly to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16).