We were in family prayer and two things struck me when we came to Acts 3.16: ‘And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.’ NASB.

These are the words of Peter, a transformed Peter. What a transformation in 50 days!

Firstly, he refers to the ‘faith which comes through Him’. How do I explain that? We say, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!’ How can we believe without first hearing? Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Rom 10.17. We have to hear!

Faith is a gift of God. The gospel is effective only under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We may speak broken words, but the impact can be tremendous. We remember Spurgeon’s conversion in that little chapel in 1850. That pastor was no great speaker; he was a ‘plain, unlettered, lay preacher among the Primitive Methodists’ -- but the result was awesome. Beware of those who depend on their eloquence! Beware of the popular preachers of today! Thousands may attend the Crystal Cathedral in California, but to no avail. There were just a handful of people in Artillery Street Chapel, Colchester; but God was speaking there that day.

Faith has to come from God. By nature we cannot believe. There is an inherent hostility in our heart towards God. The Holy Spirit works in the heart of the hearer, and He also works in the heart of the speaker. How many times I have found that my well-prepared and eloquent messages had no effect; but when I spoke with ‘fear and trembling’ how the Holy Spirit convicted the congregation!

Even the faith to believe in God has to come from God Himself. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit – to give the word, to receive the word, and to obey the word!

Secondly, we come to the Name of Jesus. ‘It is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man’. There is power in the Name of Jesus. But who can exercise that power? There is an incident in Acts of the Apostles regarding the sons of Sceva [read Acts 19]. These sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, tried to exercise the power of the Name of the Lord Jesus, but they failed. Why?

Do we really understand what it means to exercise authority in the Name of Jesus? Now I don’t want to elaborate on this, because I too am still learning. But one thing I know: we have to go through the ‘baptism of the cross’; we have to come into a state of total helplessness and utter dependence on the Lord. Baptism means ‘I am dead, but He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is alive in me!’ Paul in Philippians 2.8-11 says that our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. And what kind of death? Even death on a cross. That’s a terrible death! But behold, we find the word ‘Therefore’ or ‘For this reason’, 2.9. God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…in heaven and on earth and under the earth! So we find the deeper down we go, the higher God brings us!

The Name speaks of the authority of the Lord Jesus. And this authority is given to the one who is totally identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection. Baptism testifies to that, for we are baptized into the Name! The Name given to Jesus is the highest of all names – He is Lord, Phil 2.11. He is seated on the Throne of the universe; all authority and power has been given to Him; He is the Most High God; He is ‘far above all’. He cannot be Lord of my life until I come to the end of myself. Baptism says ‘I am finished, but Christ has begun’. He has begun and He will complete. He is the Alpha and Omega God. The Name can be exercised only by one who has gone through a deep baptism of the cross in his life. That is why the sons of Sceva failed. That is why many Christians fail. For we have neither understood faith, nor the power of the Name of the Lord Jesus.

May God speak to us!