There’s the popular story in Acts 3 of a man who had been crippled from birth. Everyday they carried him to the temple and laid him at the gate where he begged alms of the people going through the gates. Peter and John were about to go through those gates one day when this crippled man begged them for money. Peter answered him, “…Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:4, 6-7).
As he stood before the crippled beggar that day, Peter must have remembered Jesus’ powerful statement: “…In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18). Suddenly, he realized that he had divine prerogative bestowed on him by the Lord to make demands in His Name and expect them to be met. So he looked at that cripple straight in the eye and said, “IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, RISE UP AND WALK!’ Then Peter grabbed his hand and lifted him up and his ankle bones received strength, and the man that was crippled leaped and walked!
This is very significant. That poor cripple couldn’t stand up in his own name or in his father’s name or in Herod, Pilate or Caesar’s name. He did in Jesus’ Name! The devil couldn’t stop him, the paralysis couldn’t stop him, nothing could stop him from walking, because he did it IN THE NAME OF JESUS!
Every child of God has the God-given right as an ambassador of Christ to use the Name of Jesus. When you stand in that Name in the face of life’s situations and before all the cohorts of hell, they’ll respond to you just the same way they will respond if it were the Lord Himself standing before them. Use His Name today!
