Keep Them Through Your Name!

Keep Them Through Your Name!

“Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept . . . .” John 17:11-12.

Here we can see the importance Jesus attaches to being kept in the Father’s name. “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.” V. 6. Now Jesus was to depart from them, and He prayed that the Father might keep them in His name so that they could be one. The essence of this entire prayer is actually that they may be one—those who believe in Him—as the Son and the Father are one.

One of the last things Jesus said was, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matt. 28:19. These three are one. Believers can be one in their name only. They end up in division if they have a different name besides. It is terrible when we consider the development of how it has gone, in the light of this. All believers, with a few exceptions, have taken different names, resulting in division and enmity among them. No wonder that Jesus said, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.

In our days it is difficult to be baptized unless you also take another name. They baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but afterwards you are a Baptist or a Pentecostal, etc. And if you don’t want to become a member of their denomination and bear their name, they don’t want to baptize you. Thus Satan has deceived the believers and has divided them up into groups so that the world shall not believe.

People want to have a name besides the name of Jesus, but Paul fought an intense battle to keep the believers in Jesus’ name.

“I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.” 1 Cor. 1:14-15.

Paul was a faithful servant. He was not ignorant of Satan’s devices. People want to be called by one name or another, and if Paul were to come to Oslo in our days, where should he go to speak God’s Word to people? If he were to be received, he would have to accept the name of a denomination, which would exclude him from serving the others. And if he did not want to accept a name, he would have to speak in the streets.

“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” John 5:43.

Jesus was separate from the worshipers of His time. This is also a fact that applies to the Lord’s servants in our days. They are also separate from the worshipers of our time.

You cannot take another name without seeking your own. If someone wants to be a preacher in an assembly and make progress and be considered a useful person, he has to work so that his denomination increases in size. He has to gather to his own movement. When there is a revival in his assembly or in his movement, he rejoices; but if there is a revival among others, he cannot rejoice. Of course, he doesn’t say this openly, but that is the truth if he belongs to a denomination. We cannot be set free without acknowledging the truth.

People do not have faith to stand alone in Jesus’ name; they feel they need a human organization to back them up. On this authority they are accepted and can make a living. However, then they also have to work and speak in the organization’s name, which goes right against God’s Word. If they don’t, they also have no power or influence.

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Col. 3:17. People’s response to such scriptures and exhortations is superficial and human, and they do not understand how very serious these scriptures are.

When we think of all the religious work that is carried on today, how many people would have given money and supported it if this work had been done only in Jesus’ name? They don’t have faith for that, and so they have to work in their own name, the name which they have invented themselves, and in this name they organize everything.

Many people say, “Yes, but God acknowledges this work, they do a great deal of good, and they do it in Jesus’ name, don’t they?” Yes, that was also the case with those of whom Jesus said that they drove out evil spirits and performed powerful works in His name. They did a great deal of good. Many people were helped, and so of course it would be natural to reckon that Jesus approved of it, but He says further: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Matt. 7:21-23.

This has always been so. Whenever God has equipped a man for service and a revival has broken out, and many people were helped and blessed, this man received authority. All those who have been helped and blessed are then organized, and the assembly is given another name. Consequently, the revival dies out and ends up as a church denomination. Those who are to serve in this denomination must have a human education. It is not sufficient for them that God has equipped them for the work of serving. They receive their authority on the basis of their talents and their human education.

People consider it a safeguard if someone has a letter of recommendation from such a church or religious group. However, the opposite is the case. With such a letter of recommendation in their pocket they can live in sin—in the vanity of the world—for a long time and travel around and be received. They can even be leaders of Spirit-filled assemblies for a long time and live in adultery without anyone being aware of anything—until it is revealed quite accidentally. What sort of fellowship in the Spirit is that? It is a dreadful deception of Satan.

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.

Those who are in this fellowship will notice it right away when sin has entered in. They can hear it. 1 Cor. 13:1.

In this fellowship a person does not gain authority because he is talented or has a worldly education. Col. 2:8. He has no more authority than the authority he has in Jesus’ name, and all those who have this authority do not quarrel with each other because of the authority they have. On the contrary! They are one as the Father and the Son are one.

The angels did not reveal Jesus’ birth to the acknowledged worshipers of those days. They revealed themselves to the despised shepherds in the field. This will also be the case when Jesus comes again. He will not come to the believers in their own name; only those who have been kept in His name alone will be raptured.

Therefore: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.

This is the voice from heaven. If we want to be ready when Jesus comes, then everything we do, in word and deed, must be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by Him.