Jesus--Name Above All Names: Releasing His Anointing in Your Life (2 page)

This war cannot be fought in the natural, carnal world. The devil and his demons are our enemy, and we can only fight against them in the spiritual realm with spiritual weapons.

As the
King James Version
of 2 Corinthians 10:4 tells us,…
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal [or “natural”], but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds
[things that hold us in bondage].…

One of the most powerful spiritual weapons God has given us to use is the Name of Jesus. (See Luke 10:17.) It is a spiritual warhead.

According to Your Faith Be It Done to You

As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, shouting loudly, Have pity and mercy on us, Son of David!

When He reached the house and went in, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.

Then He touched their eyes, saying,
According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you;

And their eyes were opened.
…

Matthew 9:27-30

I know about the power in the Name of Jesus. I have been praying and preaching in that Name for more than twenty years. But God visited me some time ago and stirred up my faith in the Name by giving me a fresh understanding of the full power and authority it holds for every believer.

Now, when I say the Lord “visited” me, I don't mean I saw an apparition. I mean He just began to deal with my heart about the Name of Jesus.

I have been mediating on Scriptures about that Name for some time. I especially do that just before I go out and minister to others. It always stirs up my faith so that when I stand in front of people I can pray for them, believing with all my heart, so that power can be released all over the auditorium to break the yoke of bondage off of people's lives.

1 cannot stand on a platform and truly pray for people without really believing or having faith that something is going to happen.

When we have faith in the Name of Jesus, we can go up against any circumstance that challenges our faith with the power that is available to us in that Name.

Faith As a Force

So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).

Romans 10:17

Faith is a force. Jesus pointed out that it is a power invested, or resident, in us that can be released through prayer and the words of our mouth. (See Matthew 9:29.)

In the
King James Version
of Romans 10:17 we are told that…
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

If you hear the Word on healing, your faith will be stirred to receive healing. If you hear the Word on finances, your faith will be stirred up for finances.

When you hear the Word of God on the power of the Name of Jesus, your faith in the Name of Jesus will be stirred up. As you read this book, speak the Scriptures on the power of Jesus’ Name aloud. By the time you finish reading this book, you will begin praying differently. You will begin having more faith in what you ask for in prayer. You will begin to have an attitude of confidence because you believe in the power that the Bible says is yours through faith in the Name. You will be able to press on to the finish line of God's plan for your life and enjoy all the blessings that He has set aside for you! You will have stirred up your faith in the power of the glorious Name of Jesus—
the Name above all names.

2

T
HE
N
AME AND
F
AITH

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

2 Corinthians 1:20 NKJV

There are many promises in the Bible that we read but never see come to pass in our life.

Why is that? What is the problem?

First of all, we must realize that all privileges are released through believing, not simply because they are written in the Bible.

They are not even released to us just because we believe in Jesus. They are released to us because we believe the promises are true, and we put our faith in those things that God has said.

As we have seen, in Ephesians 1:19 the apostle Paul wrote,
And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe.…

I don't believe he was just saying, “I want you to know the immeasurable power that is available to those of us who believe in Jesus.” I believe he was saying, “I want you to know the immeasurable power that is available to those of us who believe in Jesus—
and who believe that power is ours.”

We sometimes think that just because we have general faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, everything promised us in the Bible will come to pass in our life as a matter of course.

That is not the way faith works. We have to appropriate the specific promises through faith.

Let me give you an example from the Word of God.

Signs Follow Those Who Believe

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.

Mark 16:17,18 KJV

These promises were given to the disciples just after Jesus conferred power and authority upon them and just before He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, (v. 19.)

I don't believe all these things happen just to those who believe in Jesus. I believe that supernatural signs follow those
who believe in Jesus and believe the signs are going to follow them.

The church of Jesus Christ is full of unbelieving believers. I know because, as I said earlier, I was a Christian for many years. I was born again. If I had died, I would have gone to heaven, but I lived a totally powerless life.

I believed in Jesus Christ, but I did not believe in the power of His Name because nobody had ever taught me about that power. I had never heard anybody preach about it. I thought God was the only One Who had any power, and if He chose to use it in my life, He would do so. If He didn't choose to use it in my life, there was nothing I could do about it.

I knew nothing about the power of praying in the Name of Jesus. Although I tacked “in the Name of Jesus” onto the end of my prayers, I didn't know what I was doing.

When I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to learn about the authority of the believer, I started believing I had power.

We become baptized in the Holy Spirit (receive divine power to accomplish His will in our life) the same way we become saved. We pray, asking God.

When we as believers in Jesus Christ are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit enables us to receive, understand and experience the power of God in a greater way.

When I started believing I had the power of God available to me, I started using it by praying in the Name of Jesus. When I started using it, I started seeing powerful things happen in my life and in the lives of those around me.

It is not enough just to believe in Jesus. We have got to believe in the power of His Name—and the fact that we have that power.

Do you believe and confess that you are weak or that you are powerful?

If we have that immeasurable power available to us, we don't really realize it if we respond to circumstances by saying things like: “I just can't take any more of this—I'm beaten”; “I can't go on like this anymore—it's too much for me”; “I feel like I'm falling apart—everything's crashing down on my head. This is too hard for me. I can't stand it. 1 can't…I can't…I can't.…”

The problem is that we don't really believe we have the power. We may talk about the power and sing about it, but in reality we believe what we feel more than what the Bible says.

Sometimes we make our feelings our god.

So perhaps the reason the signs are not following us is that we don't
believe
they will follow us.

Just Believe!

And Jesus said, [You say to Me], If You can do anything? [Why,] all things can be (are possible) to him who believes!

Mark 9:23

Every time I stand in front of a group of people to minister to them, I believe that I am being led by the Holy Spirit
¹
and that He will minister to the people by working through me to meet their needs. (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.)

When I step out onto that platform, I know what I am going to preach, but I don't know anything about the rest of the service. I don't have a clue about what is going to take place. I just believe that signs are going to follow me because the Bible says so. (See Mark 16:17,18.) I believe God is leading me by His Spirit.

As a result (and I don't say this haughtily or in pride), we don't have bad services. It just doesn't happen. We go home after every meeting shaking our heads, saying, “God just blew us away! He is so-o-o good!”

The power of God can be felt so strongly in the services. The anointing seems to build and build in every session. There have been times that we have seen as many as thirteen hundred people baptized in the Holy Spirit in one service. People are always healed physically and emotionally as well as spiritually.

And it all happens because we
believe
—because we put faith in the Name of Jesus and in Who He is. It is
all
because of Jesus—His goodness, His mercy and the power in His wonderful Name.

Look At Jesus

And His name, through and by faith in His name, has made this man whom you see and recognize well and strong….

Acts 3:16

If we want to enjoy the power in the Name, we cannot look at ourselves and at everything we are
not.
We must look at Jesus and at everything He
is
and is willing to do for us and through us.

In my ministry I encourage the members of our worship team to believe that when they begin to lead praise and worship, demons are going to have to flee and people are going to be saved, healed and filled with the Holy Spirit.

In my conferences I don't do anything to waste time or to impress anyone. I am there for one reason, and that is to set captives free. If I didn't really believe that what I am doing is helping people, I would stay home with my children and grandchildren.

But I do believe with all my heart that what I am doing is meeting the needs of thousands of people. I believe that when I pray in the Name of Jesus, things are going to happen—and they do!

I am not just doing it to be doing it. I believe it is working and changing lives!

If your life is in a mess, if you are not winning against your circumstances, then check your believing.

Remember, Jesus Himself said:…
According to your faith…be it done to you
(Matthew 9:29).

Pray and Believe

…
whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].

Mark 11:24

You may say, “Well, I pray in the Name of Jesus, and I still don't get any results.”

You may be praying in the Name of Jesus at one time of the day, but without realizing it, using the Name frivolously the rest of the day. Or it may be that you are praying in the Name of Jesus, but you are tacking it on to the end of your prayers like a little magic charm!

If so, from now on when you speak the Name of Jesus, speak it in faith, believing that limitless power is being made available to you.

When I do that, I can feel the power in that Name. I can feel it going through me.

The Bible is not joking when it says that there is power in that Name.

When I speak the Name of Jesus on television, I believe that power goes through the airwaves and right into people's homes to meet the needs of all those who hear it and receive it in their heart by faith.

There is salvation in the Name of Jesus. There is healing in that Name and deliverance from depression and oppression. There is breakthrough in that Name.

To receive everything that is in the Name, all you have to do is sincerely believe.

The Name and the Word

If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

John 15:7

I think that sometimes we Christians lift that promise from Jesus out of context. We think we can ask for anything
we
want, and the Lord has to give it to us because we tack His Name onto the end of our prayers.

The way to interpret Scripture is to interpret it in the light of other Scripture. We can't just pull John 15:7 out of context without considering 1 John 5:14,15 which says in essence that if we ask anything according to
His
will, He will grant our request.

In the
King lames Version
of John 15:7 the Lord says,
If ye
abide
in me, and my words
abide
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

I used to think that was the most awesome Scripture I had ever read. The word
abide
means “To rest, or dwell…. To continue permanently.…to be firm and immovable.”
²
By the time I finally began abiding in Jesus, I had learned that my will had become one with His will so that I really didn't want anything that was not the will of the Lord.

To this day, if I have a Scripture to back up what I am asking for in prayer, I will go before the Lord and say, “This is Your Word, and I am expecting it to be fulfilled in my life.”

But there are many things we pray about for which we do not have a specific Scripture. In those cases, we have to pray, “Lord, this is what I believe I want in this situation. If it is right, I trust You will give it to me; but if it is not right, then I don't want it, because I only want Your will.”