Miracles, signs and wonders are in His NameAs a Christian it’s possible to easily miss out of the gratuities which belongs to you in Christ Jesus, if you are not correctly appropriating the Name of Jesus. The Name of Jesus holds the key to everything, that the Father had freely made available to us as Christians.
But as an example, when a child of God begins to get complacent, about the Lord’s ability to heal him in the Name of Jesus. He may begin to forget his connecting link to the power in the Name itself. This may cause him to encounter certain roadblocks in breaking through as he prays. God’s promises about healing are the connecting link to the power in the Name of Jesus. There has to be a connection within the believer’s heart to the power source. Otherwise he may be calling on the Name of Jesus in prayer, but there is no power that’s being released.
If as a Christian you do not learn how to constantly base your healing on the promises of God, you will end up in a very dangerous spiritual zone, where you may continue to pray, but you will not be receiving answers to those prayers. You may know the scriptures that connects you to the use of the Name; but your knowledge and understanding may actually be based on, what you are socially or mentally assenting to. It’s not coming from a personal heart’s conviction.
In most cases such a believer may not even understand why his prayers keeps hitting the wall, with no answer from God. Just because your prayers are not yielding fruit does not means that God never heard you. Healing is always flowing from Him, but these types of spiritual situations are making it impossible for you to receive. Healing is the children’s bread. There is no formula from God for getting healed.
Only God can determine how He wants to heal you. No one can dictate to Him, how he or she may be healed. The healing process is a prerogative of God alone. There are no required steps for you to follow in getting healed, apart from your faith in the Name of Jesus. Faith in the Name of Jesus is what is required of you to get healed. The point by point or step by step teachings about healing, often makes it complicated for people, to be able to tap into the power in the Name of Jesus. But God is never complicated. All that you do need is for you to have faith in the Name of Jesus, and in His promises to you with your heart, so as to get healed.
There are many Ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who are struggling with languishing sicknesses as they are serving the Lord. It’s possible to be sick and still be able to pray for others to get healed. People may be getting healed as the sick Minister of the gospel is praying for them.
There was a time that I had to preach at a crusade in the city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. I was feeling so feverish with a very strong headache. I decided to just spend some time praying in the spirit, after which I went for the crusade.
I preached that day about healing, and as I was about to start praying for the sick, I noticed that the fever and the headache were completely gone. I cannot explain it, but the Name of Jesus did it, as I was preaching to that crowd on that day. Hundreds of people received Jesus that night, with many testimonies of healing that took place.
And the next morning I woke up stronger than the previous day. But if I had decided to cancel the crusade, because of what my physical body was telling me; God would not had been glorified that night.
It’s also possible for you to have been healed many times before, but all of a sudden you’ve gotten sick again, because you are not being cognizant of the power source for the healing itself – the Name of Jesus. It’s possible to get so generally used to calling on the Name, and forget the source of the power that connects you to it.
The Bible tells us that there was a time when King Asa of Judah made this type of mistake. He had carried out a lot of great reforms among his people for the Lord. His religious reforms had opened the door of God’s favor into his life.
But he suddenly started relying on the fact that God was with him, and forgot to lean on God for his own personal health. He soon got sick with a serious disease. He had made the mistake of not leaning on God for his healing by this time, but he had decided to rely on the medical system, which he had set up in Judah.
The Bible says:
“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors.”
2 Chronicles 16:12-13 NIV
He knew how God had healed many people in the past, but at the time of his own sickness he chose medical science over divine healing. No one is disavowing medical science here. But King Asa had the option of consulting with God first before the Physicians. He however did not.
He died because he took too lightly the relationship, which he had developed with God. Instead of seeking help first from God, he went straight to his doctors. He could had prayed first, and God would had answered him. God is the creator of the human body. He knows the physical body better than the best doctors in the world.
This type of mistake by King Asa is common among some Christians today, who sincerely love God and are very committed to Him. All of a sudden when sickness comes, they will do exactly what this King did. God wants to heal them, but they are not connecting with Him for their healing. They keep praying for healing, but nothing is working for them, because their faith is in what the Physicians can do for them. They have substituted their faith in God, for faith in the doctors.
As Christians we must understand how important it is for us not to get too familiar with our walk with God. You can’t put Him in a straight box. God is bigger than what you can ever think about.
Get acquainted with your benefits
There are gratuities which do belong to us, because of the mercies of God towards us as His children. God’s mercy is always available for us wherever His grace is carrying us. These gratuities are attainable wherever His grace is evident in the life of every believer in Christ. David listed some of these benefits for us in the Psalms, when he said:
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalms 103:2-5 NKJV
Each one of these – forgiveness of sins, healing, spiritual and physical redemption, the favor and mercies of God and much more; cannot be tapped into if you are unable to use the Name of Jesus appropriately as you pray.
It’s so easy for the Believer in Christ to get familiar with, calling on the Name of Jesus to the extent that, the Name itself begins to depreciate instead of appreciating in power to him or her. This is a very dangerous trend in the life of such believers, as they will start seeing little or no result in their prayer lives. The devil knows how to prey on their faith so as to frustrate them. They are definitely no longer connected at heart with God’s promises.
Oftentimes these believers have gotten so conversant with the use of the Name, to the extent that they are just mentally assenting to its use. Some will even call on the Name of Jesus, as if it’s a magic wand. But the Name of Jesus is much more than all of these. You cannot be effective in using His Name, if you are not in constant fellowship with Him.
You can’t be effective in appropriating the Name of Jesus, if you’re not walking daily through a living fellowship with God. To some people fellowshipping with Jesus only takes place, when they are attending a Church program or function. Fellowshipping with Jesus to them has nothing to do with, what they are doing outside of the Church.
So they begin to wonder why their benefits as the children of God are eluding them. They think that their experience of salvation is all that, they need to be able to tap into these benefits. But that’s not the truth.
There are also some Ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ today, who do see healing as part of their reward package from God, for what they are doing in His Kingdom. But this is yet another religious lie from the devil. This lie has deprived many Preachers of their healing.
Healing is not a reward for anyone. No Christian can ever be able to receive it in this manner. But I have often seen some Ministers of the gospel crying and begging beside sick beds, as they are asking the Lord for healing, based on their service to the Lord. This is wrong. Jesus never took those stripes on His Body, so as to reward anyone for the work done in God’s Kingdom.
You did not do anything to deserve healing. In fact you do not deserve it. But Jesus gave it to you anyway, just as He gave you the gift of salvation. Healing is therefore a gift and not a reward from God. And the same goes for other benefits which belongs to you as a Christian also. They are not rewards, but gifts from our loving Heavenly Father.
Preachers of the gospel do get sick also, just like any other person that they do often minister healing to. The Preacher of the gospel is just as human as everyone else. And so therefore healing for the Preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is part of the benefits package of God, just as it is to other members of the Body of Christ. God is no respecter of persons. A Minister of the gospel has to use his faith also for healing, just like every other believer in Christ Jesus does.
Your faith in the Name of Jesus does matter
The Bible says:
“And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
Hebrews 10:38 NLT
The lifestyle of faith is what God has designed for His children here on earth, to be able to tap into His blessing. And anyone who moves away from trusting and leaning on God’s promises, can never please Him.
In most cases it’s the absence of or the lack of the use of his faith, that causes the believer in Christ to backslide away from standing on God’s promises to him. God has never changed in His decision to save, heal and deliver. His plan is still the same today, as they had always been.
The enemy uses fear to make the believer shrink away from the lifestyle of faith. The devil is the author of fear. The Amplified Bible translation puts the above scripture text in this way:
“But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him.”
Hebrews 10:38 AMPC
Fear is the weapon of the enemy to deprive God’s people of the blessing. The devil once used it against Job, when he was confronted with the greatest trial of his faith. Job said:
“What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true. I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest; only trouble comes.””
Job 3:25-26 NLT
Job used his own mouth to open the door for fear into his heart. There may be many troubles in front of you right now, but God has promised to deliver you from all of them (see Psalms 34:19-20). You don’t have to take thought of the devil’s fear. When fear knocks on the door of your heart, fight it back by saying what God promised you.
Jesus was once going to the house of the high priest of the Synagogue at Capernaum – Jairus, whose daughter was sick. Jairus had come to Jesus asking Him to come and pray for her. Jesus knew that Jairus had faith that his daughter would recover, if Jesus would come to pray for her. He had heard about how Jesus had healed many people. The testimony of Jesus that he heard gave him faith.
But on the way to his house Jesus was stopped for awhile by the faith of the woman with the issue of blood. That delay was enough for the devil to do something in trying to affect the faith of God in Jairus. The scriptures says:
“While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
Mark 5:35-36 NIV
In other words Jesus told Jairus not to allow the fear of the evil report, about the death of his daughter to stop his faith. This is exactly how the devil works in hindering the faith of many believers today, in taking hold of what belongs to them in Christ Jesus. They know what the scriptures says about healing (for example); but when they hear the doctor’s report – they will take the fear of the report, instead of keeping themselves in faith for their healing.
Feed your faith, while rejecting the fear
That’s why it’s important to keep on feeding your faith on God’s word. This is how you will be able to maintain a living faith in the Name of Jesus, which will work for you. If you’re not constantly doing this your faith will become weaker or even die out. The Name of Jesus works always, but if you are not feeding your faith in the Name of Jesus with God’s word, it will affect your effectiveness in using it
That’s how many Christians have become so dependent on what medical science can do in healing them, instead of keeping their faith alive in the Name of Jesus. If your faith in the Name of Jesus is not alive and active, you’re going to be facing some depreciation, in the release of the power of the Holy Spirit to work on your behalf, when you use the Name in prayer. It will affect your expected result in prayer.
You will find yourself just using the Name of Jesus mechanically, without faith in the Name for the Holy Spirit to work for you. Some have gotten so familiar with the use of the Name of Jesus, to the extent that they are just mentally assenting to its use.
You will need to keep feeding your faith in the Name of Jesus, just as your physical body is dependent on food so as to replenish your physical energy. God’s word is the spiritual food for your faith to stay alive and active in the Name of Jesus.
There are a lot of Christians today who will eat three or four times in a day, but they are only feeding their faith once a week. They will only remember the Bible when they go to church on Sundays. So their faith is weak in the use of the Name of Jesus. This explains how and why they are missing out of the benefits or gratuities, which belongs to them as the children of God.
The Bible says:
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
Romans 10:17 NIV
The lifestyle of the Christian who is constantly feeding on the word of God, is strong in the use of the Name of Jesus, than that of the Christian who feeds on God’s word just once in a week. Just as faith comes to your heart by hearing the word of God, spiritual strength comes into your life and ministry in such manner also. Your spiritual strength can only be measured, by the amount of time that you are spending in God’s word and prayer daily.
If you’re using your faith daily for the ministry without replenishing it, as you are replenishing your physical body with natural food; sooner or later your spiritual strength will become weaker in the use of the Name of Jesus.
This is a big challenge for many Preachers today. It’s very easy to get so involved in the work of the ministry, by spending so much time ministering to the people, and also doing the administrative work for the ministry at the same time.
In addition to all these you can get yourself so busy with your own family affairs also, to the extent that you will begin to discover, that you are not feeding your faith enough with God’s word so as to replenish it. After a while it is going to start affecting you spiritually. It will start draining you out of your spiritual strength, whenever you are using the Name of Jesus as you pray for people.
In fact some don’t even hear from God anymore because of this. The extent to which you are able to hear God’s voice is dependent on, how often you are being replenished by His word, as you are living the lifestyle of faith daily before Him.
This is a very dangerous situation for the Minister of the gospel to find himself, because unlike when your physical body can tell you when it needs natural food; your faith can’t tell you anything when it needs to be replenished. You can’t feel your faith, as you can feel your stomach when you are hungry. You can only realize that your faith is getting weak, whenever you are not seeing the expected results, as you are praying in the Name of Jesus.
This is what happens when you are praying for healing or deliverance, and all of a sudden you are not seeing the expected results, as you used to see it before whenever you pray in the Name of Jesus. That’s a sign for you that you are not feeding your spirit man enough on the word of God. You need to get back into the word of God.
Otherwise you will start seeing yourself doing the work of the Lord routinely and mechanically. You are ministering but without the fervor of God in it. This is how Churches often degenerate into social activities and functions, without miracles, signs and wonders among them. It’s very dangerous!
Boldness in the Name of Jesus
Another thing that may deprive the believer in Christ of his benefits in using the Name of Jesus, is the lack of boldness with his faith. Boldness a supernatural gift that the Holy Spirit gives to you, when you got saved as a Christian. The Holy Spirit is always instrumental in the work of salvation. You received the gentleness of a dove, the soaring Spirit of the eagle, the boldness of the lion when you got saved.
Unfortunately many Christians are not tapping into these characteristics of the Holy Spirit in their lives, whenever they are using the Name of Jesus in prayer. The Holy Spirit is not a beggarly spirit. A beggarly spirit is from the dead religious traditions of the world. But there are believers in Christ who will often pray for healing (as an example) in a beggarly way. You can’t receive anything from God, if you’re praying in that way.
The Bible says:
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Hebrews 4:16 NLT
The boldness of the Lion of the tribe of Judah is in you. It is the roaring Spirit inside of you, that causes you to shout for joy. It’s the Spirit that causes you to do ordinary things in the Name of Jesus, but you end up getting supernatural results. If you’re not bold in using the Name of Jesus, you will be unable to use your faith to get the benefits that are yours as a Christian.
The Bible says again:
“No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them.”
Numbers 23:21 NIV
The shout of the King inside of you is the roaring Spirit of Jesus within you, that causes you to be bold in your use of His Name in prayer. It was the same Spirit that was in the midst of Israel, as they marched out boldly to possess the promised land. And just as they were bold against their enemies, the same Spirit works through you to give you, all that you want from God in the Name of Jesus.
The Bible says again:
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the [consistently] righteous man [upright and in right standing with God] runs into it and is safe, high [above evil] and strong.”
Proverbs 18:10 AMPC
It is only a righteous man who can boldly use the Name of Jesus to get results, because he lives a lifestyle that is free of evil and far above every satanic forces. He is strong because of the righteousness of Christ in his life. Satan has no hold on him. That’s why the scripture says again:
“The wicked flee when no one pursues them, But the righteous are as bold as a lion.”
PROVERBS 28:1 AMP
The boldness of the Lion of the tribe of Judah is in every righteous man or woman of God. They are able to go on the offense against the devil in the Name of Jesus. You can’t do anything that the Lord tells you to do without boldness. You can go out and do it, because of the Spirit of boldness that is inside of you. Godly boldness causes you to act based on the authority of what God tells you to do.
Fear is of the devil. You can’t be bold and be fearful at the same time. You don’t ever say: “I am afraid”; because fear is not in you as a child of God. You did not receive the spirit of fear from God. Stop calling what you don’t have to yourself. It will hinder your faith for the supernatural.
The Bible says of the early Church as the religious leaders of the Synagogue at Jerusalem, were trying to make them fearful. They responded to their threats by praying in this way:
“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Acts 4:29-31 NIV
They never called a board meeting to discuss what they were going to do. Neither did they try to negotiate with those who were threatening them. They responded by going boldly directly to the God who called them to preach the gospel.
And after they had prayed, the Spirit of boldness within them was greatly stirred up. It caused a shaking in the place where they had prayed. They knew afterwards that God was with them. So instead of being fearful, as the religious leaders wanted them to react, they went out preaching the word of God in the Spirit of boldness.
This is what we do when we are faced with religious persecution. No, we are not afraid of persecution. You and I have the Spirit of boldness in us, to use the Name of Jesus in preaching the gospel to get sinners saved, get people healed and delivered.
There are many times when I have had to deal with religious persecution during public evangelism. You confront the persecution with boldness. The Lion of the tribe of Judah will always cause you, to go out on the offense against the persecution, by openly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ, and praying for the sick openly in the presence of those persecutors. They need to see Jesus saving the lost, healing the sick and delivering the captives. The Holy Spirit bring them the conviction about their poor judgement in persecuting Jesus.
Many times I had personally seen God moving in amazing ways, whenever I use my faith in the Name of Jesus to confront the enemy like this. Whenever people are getting saved, healed and delivered publicly, I have often observed that those persecutors will melt away, or even repenting of their actions to get converted
You can’t minister deliverance to the captives in a beggarly spirit. You need boldness in the Name of Jesus to cast evil spirits out. And often times evil spirits are involved with certain forms of sicknesses. But when you boldly use the Name of Jesus to confront them, people will get delivered and healed at the same time.
This happens sometimes without even praying for people to get healed. When the underlying evil spirit that causes people to get sick is dealt with appropriately, the sick can be healed without having to pray for healing. I have seen this happen many times. The devil will leave with all his baggages, as the sick gets healed.
In other words the Name of Jesus is the Name that does miracles. He does them as you use His Name with boldness.
I remember some years ago when a tornado was coming near my house. I could feel it coming in the atmospheric pressure around me, as I sat in the living room. All of a sudden that Spirit of boldness came upon me. I commanded the tornado to leave my neighborhood in the Name of Jesus.
There was an unusual silence around me for some seconds. But then I noticed that the storm had gone up away from my neighborhood immediately. What happened was that the tornado obeyed, what I commanded it to do in the Name of Jesus. Any believer in the Name of Jesus can do the same thing also. You don’t allow the fear of the tornado, to cripple your faith in the Name of Jesus. Use your faith in the Name of Jesus with boldness to deal with it. Command it to do what you want it to do. And you will see it obeying you in the Name of Jesus.
Jesus said:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:12-14 NIV
You can get anything you want from God in the Name of Jesus. But you will need to be walking in boldness as you use your faith for it. Boldness is the righteous Spirit in those, who use the Name of Jesus. And you will have to be walking in it to get the harvest of God also. It’s everywhere around you. The harvest is here now. But you can’t get souls saved, if you’re not walking in the boldness of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who lives inside of you.
This is how Jesus expects every believer in His Name, to go out and share the gospel to their world. This was how I started out in the ministry to the nations. And you can do it also.
The Name of Jesus is our covenant Name as Christians. It’s the Name that we all received when we got born of God. It’s the Name that we had inherited from God.
As Paul said:
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father— from Him every family in heaven and on earth receives its name.”
Ephesians 3:14-15 TLV
Every believer in Christ Jesus all over the earth has received the Name of Jesus, to boldly proclaim the gospel everywhere they go. We all have to put that Name to work for us, and advance the Kingdom of God here on the earth. We’ve been called to enforce the devil’s defeat and to show people around us that they can be saved, healed, delivered and set free by the mighty Name of Jesus. It’s the Name above all names:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:9-11 NIV
Let’s go and get the harvest in now, by using the Name of Jesus everywhere we go. Amen!
