TONY EVANS HOUSE
Tony Evans - Praying in Jesus Name
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Once you put sight in front of faith, you've negated faith. Faith is based on what you do not see. If you've got to see it first, you want to see it. The euphemism of walking in the Bible means to live according to, because you're moving with the mind of Christ. You're not just doing that on Sunday morning when it's church time, because he wants to know that you want him. So if you're in distress, don't let that drive you away, draw you near, closer, so that you're like Jacob and say, "I'm not going to let you go until you answer me." So welcome to the fire. I'm the one with the fire. When you get close and want to live for him, want to please him, want to honor him, want to exalt him, want to draw near to him, then heaven opens up, and he lets you find him. He lets you find him. Welcome to the fire. It is normal for us to conclude our prayers within Jesus' name. And yet for many of us, when we conclude our prayers that way, we just canceled out our request because it was forgery. It was an illegitimate use of his name. Yet it is the most important phrase in a prayer. When you conclude your prayer in Jesus' names, it determines whether you get what you ask for or whether you don't. Jesus makes astounding statement. He says, "When you ask for anything in my name, you will receive it. Yet we all can testify that we've used the name and not got what we ask for. What I want us to look at today is whether we've been using it legally or illegally because the use of the name and its legitimacy or lack thereof will determine whether we get what we pray for if we pray at all." So I want to look at three things. Because if you grab what I share with you today, you will see prayers answered like you've never seen before. You'll see kingdom authority leave eternity and come in the time. Leave heaven and come down to earth. Leave the infinite and join the finite because we will have made contact with eternity. Now the first thing we've got to answer is what is this concept? What is this principle of in my name? What does that even mean? To understand that, we have to understand a little bit of theology here. God has already determined that what he does in history on earth, where you and I live, he will do by means of Jesus Christ. God is, in the words of theologians, holy other. Another word for that is transcendent. Another homegrown word for that is he way out there. God is way out there. He exists in a whole nother realm. But we live here in the realm of the five senses. How can I get that realm way out there to join me in this realm, way down here, in a way that's vibrant and meaningful? God has established a mechanism, a means through a person to connect the two realms. That's why 1 Timothy 2.5 says, there is one mediator, one in between person, between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. Hebrews 7 verses 24 and 25 says that Jesus ever lives to be the intercession, interconnection point between us and God. The Bible says he mediates or brings to bear the promises of God. Hebrews 8 verse 6. So the word of God, the ways of God are mediated or transferred by and through the person of Jesus Christ. When we talk about his name, we're not talking about his nomenclature alone. We're talking about the person who stands behind the name. So when you talk about in the name of Jesus, you need to know the Jesus whose name you just used. It can't just be the word. It has to be the authorized use of the person whose name you just called. In other words, just because you authorized don't mean you can do your thing. I have authorized you to do my thing for my good on my behalf so you best get my okay. If you go out there on your own, I'll find another power of attorney. What he was saying is I will give you authority as long as I'm authorizing how you're using it. Because the moment you use it in an authorized way, you lose my backing of the authorization. I put on loan to you. When you pray to the Father without the backing of the Son, you don't get the support of the Son in the request you made to the Father. But now let me give you the good news. The good news is that God the Father never turns down God the Son. There's only one time when God the Father turned down God the Son. And that's when he bore our sins on the cross. My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me? If it's possible, let this cup pass from me. God turned down the s-- You've heard of Pizza Hut's $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more. Something's off. I mean, pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven, baked pastas, cinebon mini rolls. And that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are eight-count homeless. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's Energy in Progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. Every day, we rise, challenging ourselves to work for what we believe in. At U.S. Border Patrol, protecting our borders is more than a job. It's a calling. Agents answer the call, working together to keep our country and communities safe. If you're ready for a new mission, join U.S. Border Patrol and go beyond. Learn more at cpp.gov/careers. Un, because he was bearing our sin. That's the only time that has happened. It can never happen again. God never turns down Jesus. So here's the deal. You want to make sure what you're praying for. Jesus is praying for. Because of what you're praying for is what Jesus is praying for since the Father never turns down the Son than what you're praying for that Jesus is praying for that the Father always accepts, becomes an answer prayer for you. So you've got to have a link between your prayer, his name, and the request you make to the Father. The question on the floor is not whether you're using the nomenclature, but whether you're using it in an authorized way. Because an unauthorized use of his name means a meaningless prayer request. Because the Father loves the Son and responds to the Son. Then he responds to us who've responded to the Son who the Father responds to. So he makes the statement that to use the name, you must use it in an authorized way. Number two, what are the prerequisites for me being able to use the name legitimately and with kingdom authority so that I can get heaven to come down into my history and to blow my mind, to answer my prayers? God demands total surrender. It is submission to his lordship. Or as Luke 646 says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say. It is the absence of lordship that keeps prayers unanswered. When you look at Colossians chapter three, you find something very interesting. Beginning in verse 17, listen to these words, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." Let me read that again. Whatever you do in word, what you say or deed, what you do, because we're always saying on doing something, do all, not some, in the name of the Lord Jesus. When you decide, my whole life is owned by him. Let me quote another verse. You won't like it, but I need to quote it. It's found in 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses 19 and 20. Hold on to your seatbelt, because this will rock your world. He says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, you are not your own. You've been bought with a price. You don't get to own you once you become a Christian. You don't get to own you. He says, you are not your own. I bought and paid for you with my blood on the cross. So don't say what you're going to do when I say something different. You don't own you if you are willing to give up ownership of your life. Now you can have access and kingdom authority in prayer. You can see God move, but he goes on and then he breaks it down. Just so you're not thinking about church. He says, wise, I want you to be the kind of wife I want you to be because I'm your Lord. Verse 18, husbands, be the kind of husband I want you to be because I'm your Lord. Children, be the kind of child I want you to be because the verse 20 says, because I'm your Lord. He goes to 21, fathers, be the kind of father I want you to be because I'm your Lord. Then he goes to the workplace. He says, servants, when you go to work tomorrow, be the kind of worker I want you to be because I'm your Lord. Whatever you do, he says verse 23, do your work hardly as for the Lord rather than for men knowing from the Lord. You will receive the reward of inheritance. It is Jesus Christ, the Lord whom you serve. He wants total ownership. If you want answered prayer. Listen, the more you surrender, the more of heaven you'll see. You want to draw near to him. You want to get close to him. That's why the scripture talks about how much the father loves the son. They are so into each other that they never turn each other down. Because they are so into each other. He wants us to be into him like that. That's why 1 Corinthians 15 chapter 7 says, you abide in me and my word abide in you. Ask me whatever you want to and I will do it for you because we hang out together. How does this work? It works like this. Whatever the father thinks, the son thinks exactly the same thing because they always on the same page. Whatever the father thinks that the son thinks, the Holy Spirit thinks because he's part of the Triune God. So they always on the same page. The closer you get to the Lord, whatever the father thinks, son thinks that the spirit thinks because he renews our mind, we think. So we begin to think what the spirit thinks. That's exactly what the son thinks. That's exactly what the father thinks. Matthew 624, no man can serve two masters. You can't have the Lord and anything as a final decision maker. No, everybody has ideas. Only the Lord gets the final decision maker to rule and overrule. If you want intervention in history, then Jesus Christ, you must be willing to be identified with him. To call on his name in the day of trouble means you have publicly confessed him before men. Romans 10, verses 9 and 10, he says, if you confess with your mouth, that is open declaration that I am a committed Christian, I belong to Jesus Christ. Open declaration, not hidden. He says, those who call on me who have confessed. He says, you've heard of Pizza Hut $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more. But something's off. I mean, pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven, baked pastas, cinnabon mini rolls. And that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included or eight count boneless. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy in progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers. Where you'll find over 30,000 mouth-watering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices. Plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. You can also save up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with fuel points. More savings and more inspiring flavors make shopping king supers worth it every time. King supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. You'll be delivered. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. In other words, anything that's going to make me and my daddy look good, I'm going to do. Glorified. If you're going to make me look good by your prayer request, that's why I want to give you a secret. Give you a secret. This is a secret. When you go to God and you've been fully, you're fully surrendered and you go to Him in the name of Jesus, here's a, here's a, don't tell nobody I told you this. But here's what I want you to do. I want you to tell God if He answers your request, what He'll get out of it. Because God loves to hear His glory on display. He loves to know He'll be glorified in the process. His name will be great. 1 John says this in chapter 5. John says in verse 13, "These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you might know, keep the word know in mind, that you have eternal life." So when you place faith alone in Christ alone, He gives you an inner confidence of your salvation, a conviction that you're His child. But now notice what He says right after that. Verse 14, "This is the confidence which we have before Him." So the word confidence, the word know. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked from Him. Ooh, you see how many times I've said the word know, that is inner persuasion or confidence. Anybody been waiting for something for a while? Okay, well the first question is are you praying in His name? Are you surrendered? But given that, when there is a gap of time between a legitimate prayer in Jesus' name, the knowing that He's going to answer, but the lapse in time between the answer, it is for one reason and one reason alone, preparation. Either God is preparing it for you or He's preparing you for it or He's preparing the two for each other. It is for preparation. God will use whatever time is needed for the preparation to occur for the request to be answered and you to be qualified to receive the request when it comes. Now that's the good news. The bad news is you can delay the time because you can delay the preparation. You can decide, I'm not going to be surrendered, you can decide, I'm not going to obey, you can decide, and you can just spend that time on. So God may have decided I'm going to, it's going to take one year and you may need to be at 25 years because He never got the surrender so you never got the preparation so it can never answer. He says there is a knowing that occurs when we are in framework with God. It's powerful for, watch this, physical and spiritual healing. James chapter 5 verses 13 to 15. He says if you pray in the name of the Lord, the prayer will heal the sick, okay? And address the sin. The prayer will heal the sick and address the sin. Now all sickness is not due to sin, but a lot of sickness is. He says the prayer of faith. He says in the name of the Lord, so He brings the name in, will heal the sick and it will deal with the sin. What God is saying is if I could ever get to the spiritual, we could do a lot better with the physical. But we often want Him to do stuff in the physical without touching the spiritual. Don't touch my sin, but give me my blessing. Don't touch my rebellion, but give me my blessing. No, He doesn't mind changing the physical, but He wants to address the spiritual. The name of Jesus gives you power over the devil because much of what we deal with has come from him or through him or by him. In Luke chapter 10 verses 17 to 19, he told his disciples, he's having a conversation with his disciples and he says, you have authority over the devil in my name. You tread among the demons, you tread on top of the demons. Instead of the devil and the demons walking on you, you walking on them. Tread means to walk on. When's the last time you walked on the devil? Just walk on, oh devil, let me walk on you. Rather than him walking over you. He says, I give you authority, he used the word authority to tread on the devil. You've heard of Pizza Hut $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more, but something's off. I mean pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven baked pastas, cinnabon mini rolls. And that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are eight count boneless. I'm Victoria Cash. Thanks for calling the Lucky Land Hotline. If you feel like you do the same thing every day, press 1. If you're ready to have some serious fun, for the chance to redeem some serious prizes, press 2. We heard you loud and clear. So go to luckylandslots.com right now and play over a hundred social casino style games for free. Get lucky today. At luckylandslots.com Available to players in the U.S. excluding Washington and Michigan. No purchase necessary, V.G.W. Group vibrated by law 18 plus turn conditions apply. It's demonic scorpions, why? Because many of the issues we have are demonically exacerbated in chapter 19 of Acts, verse 13 and 17. Paul is casting out demons in Jesus' name. He's just getting rid of demons in Jesus' name. Just the sick of being healed, the supernatural is occurring regularly in Jesus' name. Well, some dudes see this and they say, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute." Paul using his name in Jesus and stuff happening. Why don't we do that? Because they concluded there's magic in his name. It's a magical name here. Paul doing all this stuff in Jesus' name. So they came to this demon possessed person. The sons of Skeva, they came in Jesus' person and they use the name of Jesus. They do like Christians who Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. In the name of Jesus, Jesus. They went, they went, they went Jesus on them. Just Jesus all over the place. Just Jesus, come out demon. Then Acts 19 says the demons spoke up. And the demon says Jesus we know. Paul, we know. We'll know who you folks are. It says the demon jumped out of the man and jumped on to the folk who was used in the name of Jesus. Stripped them of their clothes and it says and they ran out naked. Why? Because when you don't know how to use the name and you still use the name, you just invite the devil to jump all over you and make things worse on you while you call in Jesus' name. So Jesus' name is not a name to be played with. Nor is it, is it dice, is it magic, you just throw out there. This is a person behind the name and if you don't know the person submitted to the person intimate with the person following the person yielding to the person submitted to the person, don't expect the power. The power comes from a person. You get on your knees to pray and you go to your heavenly Father and say, Father, I want this. I need this. Help me over here. Deliver me over there. God has a question. Show me your ID. Upon what right and authority do you have right now to come to my throne and to make this request and to expect me to let you in to my holy throne. Where is your ID? And oh, if you understand the name of Jesus, you got an ID. Just like when it comes time to go to heaven and if the Peter would say, on what ground should I let you in the glory, I hope you don't say my good works because I'll get you booted out of heaven. There's only one thing that's going to get you in the glory and that is I have somebody who died on the cross for my sins, who was my personal substitute, who I placed my eternal destiny in the hands of for the gift of eternal life. That's your ID for glory. But while you're on your way there and you go to God for answered prayer and the Father says, what's your ID? All you got to do is tell him, I come in the name of the Lord Jesus, who I have submitted my life to, who rules over my life, who controls my life, who I'm not ashamed to be identified with. Or as the words of the Apostle Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who bleeds. Anybody wants the power. Anybody wants some victory. Anybody wants some deliverance. Anybody wants to see some heaven. Well then give God the glory by giving Jesus the honor. For many people prayer is words that just come out of their mouths and doesn't seem to go anywhere. It doesn't seem to arrive at the intended destination. In fact, you may be one of those who are thinking does God really hear? Is he really listening to what I'm dealing with, what I'm going through, the burdens of my life, the pain of my circumstance? How do I get to him? Well, I've got some good news. God has a specific point of entrance, a specific point of access to make sure that what he needs to hear from you gets to him. And that is the name of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the point of access that guarantees that our communication on earth reaches his throne room. Now I know for many people saying in the name of Jesus at the end of the prayer has devolved into a tagline of sorts, something that you're supposed to say. But it's a little deeper than that. It has to do with the principle of authorization. I'm sure you've been into buildings or been in the theater. You've heard of Pizza Hut's $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more. But something's off. I mean, pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven, big pastas, cinnabon mini rolls. And that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are eight-count boneless. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. Judy was boring. Hello. Then Judy discovered jumbo casino.com. It's my little escape. Now Judy's the life of the party. Oh baby. Mama's bringing home the bacon. Whoa. Take it easy, Judy. The Chumba life is for everybody. So go to ChumbaCasino.com and play over a hundred casino-style games. Join today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prices. ChumbaCasino.com. No purchase necessary. We're prohibited by law 18-plus terms and conditions apply. See what site for details. We've been into events where it says only authorized personnel allowed. In other words, just anybody can't come in there. You have to be, you have to have the badge or whatever the authorization is that allows you to get back into this private area. Well the general public does a lot of pray to God. We do it around our food, saying grace, maybe bedtime prayers, maybe before events. But it's a little bit deeper than that. The point of access that authorizes you to get into God's presence is the name of Jesus. But by name, we don't just mean nomenclature, just saying the word Jesus or Jesus Christ. What we mean by name is his person, his character, recognizing his identity. So it's not just using a phrase, it's recognizing the identity of the phrase you're using. You see Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. And God has dispensed everything to the authority of Jesus Christ. So when it comes to having prayers being answered, for his father to grant the answer to your request, Jesus has to say, "Okay Dad, this one is okay to respond to." So therefore your point of access is your relationship to Jesus, not merely your belief in God. To believe in God is good, it's foundational, but it's not enough access. Access comes through the person and work of Jesus Christ, who has granted us the opportunity to enter into the presence of God. The closer you are to Jesus, the greater the access to the Father. The further you are from Jesus, the less and more limited the access to the Father. Are you pursuing your intimacy with Jesus Christ? That is the quickest way to get your prayers answered, because now you're praying in Jesus' name. When you're in the Spirit, the Bible calls the Spirit a wind. A wind blows. In my opinion, nobody's opinion, when it conflicts with God, is to be considered as truth. The Bible says let God be true and every man a liar. Mother nature doesn't work without Daddy God. That's because truth doesn't adjust. Because if it comes from God, it's truth. Because God has absolute standard by which reality is measured. An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's extra help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year, or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. 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