Ps 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
In my prayer time this morning the Holy Spirit gave me a real revelation about this verse, which has always been a puzzling one to me, and I would like to share it with you. The second part of the verse, “Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy Name,” was mentioned in the service at church on Sunday, and I had been meditating on it since.
What the Lord showed me ties in with a promise and a warning.
The promise is Jesus’ words in Jn 14:13 “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” This is repeated in slightly different format in Jn 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” and again in Jn 16:23 “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”
In each of these verses, Jesus tells us that His Name gives us the authority to ask for whatever we want, and God will honour the authority of Jesus’ Name and give us our request.
So, does that mean that you can ask in Jesus’ Name for your best friend’s husband to leave her and marry you? Absolutely not! But didn’t Jesus say we could ask for ANYTHING in His Name? Yes, He did, but the Word of God says “You shall not commit adultery.” The Word outweighs the Name. We can use the Name of Jesus till we turn blue, but if what we are asking for does not line up with the Word, then it will not happen, because God will always honour His Word above His Name.
The warning relates to Jesus words in Matt 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Sadly, many things are done “in the Name of Jesus” that simply do not line up with the Word of God. In recent days I have seen two posts on social media that highlight this. One was an article about a church in the USA that has hired a psychic medium as part of its ministry team. The other was an ad for a “Christian Witches Convention.” These things are being done in Jesus’ Name, so doesn’t that make them ok? Again, absolutely not! In both cases, these run directly counter to God’s Word in Deuteronomy 18:9-12, which lists the occult practices and declares that those who do such things are an abomination to God. We cannot paste Jesus’ Name onto something that is against His Word, because He will honour His Word over His Name every time.
These examples are, of course, the extreme, but the principle applies across the board: if we try to put His Name on that which His Word forbids, He will not honour it or us. What’s more, we may find ourselves guilty of taking His Name in vain – using it for a purpose for which it was not intended.
Jesus has given us the authority of His Name, both for our prayers and for our service, but we must always be sure to use His Name in a way that lines up with His Word.