Authority in Jesus Name

“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20. These striking words were spoken by the Master, to the seventy sent out by Him as forerunners before His face, and through them to all his faithful servants, who would take him at his word, the power of the Name is available to the believer who dares to wield it. Showing that the authority of the ascended Saviour was truly behind the proclamation of His Name as in the days when He walked the earth. Was the time worse, then, than now, is it not just as necessary now as it was then to have power over all the forces of the enemy? Were the Hebrews of old in the darkness of heathenism? Did they worship idols? No, they were people who worshiped God and had the “oracles of God.” They were the one nation in the whole world with light from God, and with the code of the Mosaic law unsurpassed by any civilized nation on earth to this day. Yet with Jesus, His chief work was, to preach the gospel, to heal and to cast out demons not from heathen, and worshippers of wood and stone, but from people who were God’s own chosen people, having the promises of God. This again seems to be the needed work of the Church of Christ in these closing days of the age; even in lands where they have had the word of the Gospel preached. As the Church, the body of Christ, moves forward in the maturity of salvation in Christ, it will be increasingly evident, that evil spirits, dormant in thousands, spring into activity, and visible existence, so that all too many Christians are in their power and held even in bonds. But the One who had authority then has the same authority now, for He said on the eve of His ascension: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore . . . behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”

The worker’s authority

“Authority” through the Name of the One who has all authority in heaven and upon earth is given to every faithful servant of God. And this authority given as needed in three spheres of service in order to accomplish what is clearly set forth in the Scriptures, i.e., (1) Authority in prayer, “If two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the middle of them.” “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” We see clearly from other words spoken by the Lord that the power in His name was associated with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He repeatedly spoke about ‘that day’ and what it would mean for them. On that day, He said, you will not ask Me anything. Then they would experience for themselves that which He had told them. The Holy Spirit would reveal the union with the Son to them! On that day, you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. When one is in Christ, prayer in Jesus’ name is to God as if the Son Himself were praying, and He gives us what we ask for in Jesus’ name! Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now, you have not asked for anything in My name, says Jesus. As if He would say that before He had completed the work through suffering and death, and thereby, through this suffering and death, made them alive, before this had happened, they had no authority in Jesus’ name. Therefore, those who have His life in them, who are one with Him, have Authority in His name; no one else. If we read Acts 4:29-31, we see that the Master’s words were fulfilled when His servants prayed to the Father to grant them to speak God’s word with great boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus. They were immediately heard. They had received authority through this name.

Authority over the spiritual forces of evil

“Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name,” said the seventy, as they came back to the Lord, and this authority was not withdrawn when the Lord ascended to heaven, but on the contrary confirmed as possible to all who believe by some of the last words of the Risen Lord, for He said, “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons (They had authority through the Name, authority over the forces of evil). In Acts 8:4-8 it says for example that Philip went down to Samaria, and, whilst he was proclaiming Christ, the multitudes listened with one accord to the things that were spoken by Philip when they heard and saw the signs which he did, “for with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many. This demonstrates the authority the Savior had when He walked here on earth is in His name for everyone who believes. Again Paul, who was not one of the twelve who had personally known and heard the Lord’s commission of authority, save as the Risen One who met him on the way to Damascus, we have a specific instance of the authority of the Name in the story of the woman possessed by a spirit of divination in Jesus’ name. This lying spirit crying aloud the truth in every word it spoke, could not deceive the Apostle Paul, who, speaking direct to the spirit, said, “I command you in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” and at once it had to submit and obey! It was an unclean spirit, and they could not withstand Jesus’ name. This authority is the need of the Church of Christ today over all lies and impurity, now more than before.

Authority in preaching the word of the Lord

“Through His Name everyone who believes in Him will receive remission of sins. Acts 10:43. There is a deep need for the Church at this time to proclaim the full gospel. “He taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes” Mark 1:22. An ambassador with a message has authority, the authority of the unseen but Living Lord who stands behind His Name.

The Secret of His Name

The Lord had said to them, as almost His last words before passing from their view into the heavens: “It is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name to all the nations” (Luke 24:47 ) showing Calvary, resurrection, repentance, remission all linked and bound up in the preaching in His Name. Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, in his first words to men under conviction of sin, said: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). To the lame man at the Temple gate, he said: “In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk” (Acts 3:6). The power of the Name he emphasized again to the crowd who ran together to see the miracle, for he said it was “faith in His Name” (Acts 3:16) which had brought about this mighty work. “In the Name” of Him “whom you crucified but “whom God raised” . . . here it is, again Calvary and Resurrection, linked with the power of the Name. The battle raged around the Name. “Speak no more in this Name,” said the council, but in vain. The faith of the Church in the “all power” of the living Lord at the back of His Name, grew. “They beat them and charged them not to speak in the Name of Jesus,” but they only rejoiced that they had been “deemed worthy to suffer disgrace on behalf of the Name” (Acts 5:40-41). We find Saul the persecutor changed into Paul the disciple, and the Lord saying of him that he was chosen to bear the Name before the Gentiles, and even kings, and to suffer for the Name. All this, and much more, shows how the early Church wielded the Name in authority (1) in prayer to God, (2) over Satan’s power, and (3) in preaching the Gospel of the Cross. But what is the reason of the power of the Name? Why should it be so mighty in (1) heaven i.e., in prayer; (2) over hell i.e., over the power of Satan; (3) over men i.e., in proclamation of the Message? The Apostle lifts the veil in his Letter to the Philippians, where he says that the Father gave the Son this all-prevailing Name on the ground of Calvary: “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself, “Becoming obedient unto death, yes, the death of the cross . . . therefore God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the Name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” Then comes again the threefold power of the Name in (1) heaven, (2) on earth, and (3) the world below (see Philippians 2:10-11). It was because He was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, that God gave Him the Name. He was given the name Jesus, (Saviour) at His birth; but He had to suffer it through to the bitter end before it could become surcharged with all the force and power of His finished work. He had to be victorious in all things before His Name could become our “watchword”!