What’s in a name?
Our name defines who we are.
Our name is our representative before man and God.
When your name is brought up before others, how do they think of you?
Each one of us has a story behind our name, a story that starts the day that we are born and continues until the day that we die.
When our name comes up others judge us by our story and their opinion of us is based on how we have lived.
The name that we have carries our authority and with authority there is always responsibility. When other people follow our name, we become responsible for them.
When God created man, man was made in His image and God accepted the responsibility for man. Man had God’s authority while he was subject to it, but once man opposed that authority he became subject to his own authority and therefore became responsible for himself.
When Jesus came to earth, he came under God’s authority; He said “I come to do the will of the Father, who sent me.” Jesus never stepped outside of that authority; He followed the will of God even to dying on the cross. His last words were to commend His Spirit unto God’s hands.
Luk_23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
When Jesus gave us the authority to use His name He was passing on to us the authority of His father, God, He was saying that God could once again be responsible for us if through our acceptance of Him we also walk in that authority.
Mar 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mar 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
There is power in the name of Jesus, the power of God. When we submit to God through Jesus, we have use of that power.
It is a power to use and to abuse.