Hi, I’m Lydia Marrow and I serve at Shake The Nations Ministries, and this is God Today. I want to take just a moment to talk to you about the power that is in the name of Jesus. You know, when we say the word ‘name’ in scripture, when you look at the word ‘name,’ it doesn’t just mean the proper name. It also means the reputation of an individual. You know, the reputation of Jesus in acts 10:38, it says, “Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.” Can I tell you Jesus had in his ministry, He had a 100% rate of healing. Every person He touched that was sick was totally healed. Every person that He made an attempt to raise from the dead, was raised from the dead. Everything Jesus did was 100%. Can I tell you when we begin to pray, that’s why Jesus said, “When you pray in my name, according to my reputation, you will have whatever you have asked for.” This is what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. We don’t just say, “In Jesus’ name, amen,” because it’s a great way to end a prayer. We say that because we’re pulling our prayer life into the reputation of Jesus.
This is why when people say, “Why do you guys pray for the sick at Shake The Nations?” We don’t do that because we are a healing ministry, we do it because the Bible says, if you lay hands on the sick, they will recover. And we know that when we pray for healing, that is within the reputation of Jesus, because He went about healing all who were oppressed by the devil. So when I pray for the sick, I’m not praying according to what I’ve seen in my life and in my prayer life. I’m not praying because of the ministry I serve. No, I am praying because the reputation of my Jesus is that He is the Lord, my healer. In the Old Testament, they said His name was Jehovah Rapha. He still heals every disease. And so when I lay hands on the sick, they’ve got to recover because my faith is in the reputation of Jesus Christ, not mine.
Can I tell you, I want to encourage you today. Don’t pray according to your own reputation. You say, “Lydia, have you seen everybody healed that you’ve prayed for it?” No, I have not, but I don’t pray according to my reputation, I pray according to the reputation of Jesus Christ and He healed them all. So every time you pray, approach it with faith, approach it with no doubt, no double-mindedness, and say, “Because of the reputation of Jesus, I’m enforcing His reputation as provider, as healer, as deliverer on this situation right now, in Jesus’ Name.” See, praying in Jesus’ Name, enforces God’s character upon our prayers. What if we boosted our faith by not praying according to our own little doubt, but what if we started praying according to what Jesus’ reputation is revealed in the book of Acts? What if we just went after what we see in the four gospels and said, “No, no, no, no. If Jesus saw this, I can see it too, right now in my prayer life.” Friend, let’s pray according to His reputation. He said, “Call upon me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you know not.” This is the God we serve. He is waiting for us to tap in to the power of His reputation.
Let’s pray right now. Father, God, according to your great reputation, I ask you to pour out your Spirit upon every life watching. I ask you to boost our faith. I ask you to increase our faith. I ask you to bring our prayer up to another level, let us stop trusting in our own experience and let us start tapping into your reputation. Let us pray for the sick with great boldness. Let us pray for those who need deliverance with great courage. Oh, Father, I ask you, let your reputation come upon your children, in the Name of Jesus, according to your reputation. Amen and amen. God bless you, friend, in Jesus’ Name.