Praying In The Name Of Jesus?

[inquiringmind]

What does it mean to pray "in the name of Jesus"?

Is it just using the words, or is it more than that?

[KevinG]

We pray to our Heavenly Father but we recognize that it is Jesus Christ who is our advocate with the Father. In the Book of Mormon Christ instructed His diciples to always pray to the Father in His name.

3 Nephi 18:19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

20 And ^awhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

So we start prayers addressing the Father and end "In the name of Jesus Christ". The form of our prayers are based on the Lord's Prayer which Jesus taught his disciples.

We also do other ordinances like blessings in the Name of Jesus Christ as well.

Here is a great talk about Prayer by the LDS Apostle Russel M. Nelson in 2009

[HeatherAnn]

What does it mean to pray "in the name of Jesus"?

Is it just using the words, or is it more than that?

Inquiringmind (like your name, BTW)...

I asked myself the same thing.

"A relationship is only as good as it's relating/communication."

So, I wondered, if we never communicate with Jesus, how can we have faith in him saving us?

And what is he saving us from anyway? Sin, at it's root is incorrect thoughts (& related feelings & behavior).

Christ is not Jesus' last name... but what he became & urged us to become... "heirs in Christ."

I am not even close to figuring it all out...

Yet, what works for me is to pray to "Heavenly Father and Mother".... "in the Spirit of Christ-like love, Amen."

This makes more sense to me... because this is my real goal - to think, feel, speak & do in the spirit of Christ-like love.

Edited November 5, 2011 by HeatherAnn

[zerinus]

What does it mean to pray "in the name of Jesus"?

Is it just using the words, or is it more than that?

It means more than that. Not only prayers are offered in the name of Christ, but miracles are performed, sermons are preached, devils are cast out, and a whole lot more. For how this doctrine is taught in the New Testament, see here and here. For how it is used in modern LDS scripture, see here and here.

[Mudcat]

What does it mean to pray "in the name of Jesus"?

Is it just using the words, or is it more than that?

I can't answer as an LDS, but I observe a similar pattern in prayer.

I think there is a good Scriptural precedent to pray in the name of Jesus.

Joh 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

There are also scriptures where it's clearly pointed to, that Christ is the one who intercedes on our behalf to the Father.

I have always thought praying to the Father in the name of the Son was a wonderful illustration.. if you also consider that given Paul's words in Romans.

Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

So while we address the Father in the Son's name, we also have the Holy Spirit actively involved in the process. I always thought it was very cool that all persons in the Trinity are engaged in our communication with God. I think LDS views of the Godhead would likely find a similar parallel.

[Flyonthewall]

It seems to me that praying in the name of Jesus Christ is invoking His authority or permission to communicate with the Father.

As it says in John 14:6: No man comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ.

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

What does it mean to pray "in the name of Jesus"?

Is it just using the words, or is it more than that?

Hope this helps…I am on a first name basis with my children; my children are not on a first name basis with me.

[LeSellers]

When one person, having permission, does anything in another person's name, it is as if the named person is doing it. This is an informal (or very formal, depending on the situation) power of attorney.

By sin, we are divorced (to a degree) from Father. We have no right to ask Him for anything.

Jesus, being sinless, has every right to ask for, and to receive, anything that is His Father's: He is the Heir—all that the Father has is His, Jesus', by right. He has commanded us to ask in His name, and, if we ask for things that are in accordance with the will of Christ, the Father will grant them to us, as if we were Jesus, because we are acting, legitimately, with a "power of attorney" granted by the Son.

Lehi

Edited November 8, 2011 by LeSellers

[altersteve]

When one person, having permission, does anything in another person's name, it is as if the named person is doing it. This is an informal (or very formal, depending on the situation) power of attorney.

By sin, we are divorced (to a degree) from Father. We have no right to ask Him for anything.

Jesus, being sinless, has every right to ask for and to receive, anything that is His Father's: He is the Heir—all that the Father has is His, Jesus', by right. He has commanded us to ask in His name, and, if we ask for things that are in accordance with the will of Christ, the Father will grant them to us, as if we we Jesus, because we are acting, legitimately with a "power of attorney", granted by the Son.

Lehi

+1

Well said. I never thought of it that way.

[Mudcat]

When one person, having permission, does anything in another person's name, it is as if the named person is doing it. This is an informal (or very formal, depending on the situation) power of attorney.

By sin, we are divorced (to a degree) from Father. We have no right to ask Him for anything.

Jesus, being sinless, has every right to ask for and to receive, anything that is His Father's: He is the Heir—all that the Father has is His, Jesus', by right. He has commanded us to ask in His name, and, if we ask for things that are in accordance with the will of Christ, the Father will grant them to us, as if we we Jesus, because we are acting, legitimately with a "power of attorney", granted by the Son.

Lehi

+1 also Lehi.

That was a fantastic explanation.

[LeSellers]

When one person, having permission, does anything in another person's name, it is as if the named person is doing it. This is an informal (or very formal, depending on the situation) power of attorney.

By sin, we are divorced (to a degree) from Father. We have no right to ask Him for anything.

Jesus, being sinless, has every right to ask for, and to receive, anything that is His Father's: He is the Heir—all that the Father has is His, Jesus', by right. He has commanded us to ask in His name, and, if we ask for things that are in accordance with the will of Christ, the Father will grant them to us, as if we were Jesus, because we are acting, legitimately, with a "power of attorney" granted by the Son.

Well said. I never thought of it that way.

That was a fantastic explanation.

You are both nice to say so.

I have had people completely misunderstand a corollary to this:

It is dangerous to pray in Jesus' name, at least in some cases. It is true that He has commanded us to do so and to do it in His name. This I believe we have established. The difficulty comes in when we ask for things in His name, but which He would not want us to ask for, even if it is only in that specific case.

For instance, if I were dating a girl to whom I was very attracted, and asked Father to soften her heart (or head) so that she would love me back, and if this was not the Father's (or Jesus') will, I would be taking His (Jesus') name in vain, or so I conceive of the issue. In fact, I believe that even if this hypothetical girl were "the one", that she was, in fact, my heaven-made match, asking Father to override her agency is a transgression, and it is not a legitimate use of the name of the Son.

There is another vanity of prayer, a dangerous use of the name of Christ. I refer to Huckleberry Finn's famous statement: "You can't pray a lie." In Huck's case, his "lie" was a monstrous goodness, but in most of our cases, we ask for things we do not want. "God, grant me patience, and give to me now." "Make me chaste, but not yet." These are classic examples, but we often pray the same sorts of things: asking for virtues we have no intention of following through on. It's the opposite of Moroni's challenge that we have "real intent".

Should we not approach prayer with a sense of fear of offending God? He has commanded that we pray and that we do so in the name of His Beloved Son, but He has also commanded that we ask with real intent and in accordance with the Spirit.

I have mentioned this in the past, but as a new Second Lieutenant in the US Army, my first assignment required that I brief Admiral (four-star) Stansfield Turner (later appointed as the Director of Central Intelligence under James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, III—the one who called me "Lehi"). My bosses all drilled me for hours before every briefing. They pruned and refined my briefing so I would not embarrass them (and myself). But Turner was only an admiral. Father is God. We should, I believe, prepare to pray. We should prepare in two ways. First we should prepare the prayer. We should also prepare ourselves to pray. What I mean by these should be obvious, but probably are not. Nonetheless, I'll leave it at this.

Lehi