Ministry of Intercessory Prayer, The by Murray Andrew

Author:Murray, Andrew [Murray, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781441210395
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2003-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

“In my name” is repeated five times in our text. Our Lord knew how slow our hearts would be to take it in, but He so longed that we would believe that His name is the power under which every knee should bow, and by which every prayer could be heard. He did not become weary of saying over and over, “in my name”! Between the wonderful “whatever you ask” and the divine “I will do it” is the simple link “in my name.” Our asking and the Father’s giving are both in the name of Christ. Everything in prayer depends upon our grasping what it means to pray “in His name.”

A name calls to mind the whole being and nature of a person or thing. When I speak of a lamb or a lion, the name at once suggests the nature peculiar to each. The name of God is meant to express His divine nature and glory. So also the name of Christ means His nature, His person and work, His disposition and Spirit. To ask in the name of Christ is to pray in union with Him.

When a sinner first believes in Christ, he thinks only of His merit—and to the very end that is the one foundation of our confidence. But as the believer grows in grace and enters more deeply into union with Christ—as he abides in Him—he learns that to pray in the name of Christ also means to pray in His Spirit.

As we grasp the meaning of the words “In that day you will ask in my name”—speaking of the day when, by the Spirit, Christ came to live in His disciples—we will no longer be staggered at the greatness of the promise: “Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do.” We will gain some insight into the unchangeable certainty of the law: Whatever is asked in the name of Christ—in union with Him, out of His nature and Spirit—must be given.

As Christ’s prayer nature lives in us, His prayer power becomes ours as well. The measure of our attainment or experience is not the ground of our confidence; it is the wholeheartedness of our surrender to all that Christ seeks to be in us. If we abide in Him, He says, we can ask whatever we desire.

As we live in Him, we receive the spiritual power to avail ourselves of His name. As the branch wholly surrendered to the life and service of the vine can count upon its sap and strength for its fruit, so the believer who in faith has accepted the fullness of the Spirit to possess his whole life, benefits from the power of Christ’s name.

Christ came to earth as a man to reveal what true prayer is. To pray in the name of Christ, we must pray as He prayed. He taught us to pray in union with Him. Let us in love and faith accept Him as our example, our teacher, and our intercessor.

Christ Our

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