Power in the Name

If a king sends his servant to attend to his own business, the servant acts in the king’s name. When he utters the king’s name he gets the assigned task done just as the king himself would. But it is worth noting that the servant is able to use the king’s name successfully only from a certain position — that is, as the king’s servant. Even if he repeated the king’s name from morning till evening, the assigned task would remain undone without the authorization the king grants.

According to the testimony of Scripture there is power in the Name of Jesus. It is awesome to pause before the fact that there is power in the name! In connection with this the prophet Isaiah once wrote how “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” King Jesus gave his own name to us, his servants, that we might transact the business of the kingdom of God in his name. That is, as his representatives.

According to the Acts of the Apostles “certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus.” This did not, however, result in good, but on the contrary. It is told how “the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and mastered both of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

The principle is the same today. There is power in the Name of Jesus, but it has not been given for just anyone to use in just any situation. If it is used without the authorization that belongs to it, one may still open the way for the devil’s influence. But for the born-again believer, who has permission and the right to use the Name of King Jesus, this name is a real and mighty power against the powers of darkness.

Isa 9 Acts 19