3. In His Name

3. In His Name

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HAS IT EVER occurred to you that you are almost daily taking God's name in vain? Unless you are very watchful, very careful, you are doing so.

When God called Moses to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt, "Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. . . .

"This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

"I AM," then, is God's name. Every time you say, "I am sick," "I am weak," "I am discouraged," are you not speaking God's name in vain, falsely?

I AM cannot be sick; I AM cannot be weary, or faint, or powerless; for I AM is all-life, all-power, All-Good.

"I AM," spoken with a downward tendency, is always false, always "in vain." A commandment says, "Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless

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that taketh his name in vain." And Jesus said, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

If you speak the "I AM" falsely, you will get the result of false speaking. If you say, "I am sick," you will get sickness; if you say, "I am poor," you will get poverty; for the law is, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "I AM," spoken upward, toward the good, the true, is sure to outpicture in visible good, in success, in happiness.

Does all this sound foolish to you? Do you doubt that such power goes with the speaking of God's name? If so, just go alone, close your eyes, and in the depth of your own soul say over and over the name "I AM." Soon you will find your whole being filled with a sense of power that you never had before -- power to overcome, power to accomplish, power to do all things.

I am because Thou art. I am what Thou art. I am one with Thee, O Thou infinite I AM! I am good. I am holy. I am well. I am, because Thou art.

"The name of Jehovah is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." They who think rightly about the power of the I AM spoken upward, simply have to run into it, as into a strong tower or fortress, and they are safe.

Did you ever go into a meeting where the drift

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of all the "testimonies" given was the "I AM" spoken upward -- "I am happy to be here," "I am glad I am a Christian," "I am hoping and trusting in God," and so forth? Attend such a gathering, and almost before you know it, you will find yourself lifted entirely above your troubles and anxieties. You leave such a meeting with a feeling of joy and lightness, and a consciousness that you have the power to overcome all the home troubles and worries; you go, singing and confident, toward the very fire which, an hour before, seemed about to consume you.

Dear friends, you who at times feel almost discouraged, you who are being continually "sandpapered" by the petty worries and anxieties of life, just try for one week always saying "I AM" upward, toward the good and see what the result will be. Instead of saying, "I am afraid it will rain," say, "I hope it will not rain"; instead of "I am sorry," say "I would have been glad had it been so and so"; instead of saying, "I am weak and cannot accomplish," say, "I am because Thou art; I can accomplish, because I am." You will be astonished at the result.

The Christ, speaking through Jesus, said to the Jews who were boasting of being descendants of Abraham: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was born, I am." And Paul, writing to

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Timothy, said: "Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." Let every one who speaks the "I AM" keep it separated from iniquity, or from false speaking. Let it be spoken always upward, never downward. Jesus also said, "If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name" -- that is, in the name I AM. Whenever you desire -- not supplicate, but desire, speaking the "I AM" upward -- He will give what you ask. Every time you say, "I am happy," you ask in His name for happiness. Every time you say, "I am unhappy," you ask in His name for unhappiness. "Hitherto," He said to the disciples, "have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive that your joy may be made full." Is not this just the trouble? Hitherto what we have been asking in His name? Have we been asking for health or for sickness, for happiness or for unhappiness, for riches or for poverty, by the manner of our speaking the name I AM?

Have we spoken it upward, toward the good, or downward toward the not good? That which we have been receiving will tell the story. Jesus said that if they asked rightly in His name, their "joy would be made full." Is your joy full? If not, then give heed to your asking.

The disciples healed "in the name of Jesus

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Christ." In the name of Jesus Christ is the name of the I AM.

Suppose that a messenger is sent out from the executive mansion at Washington to do certain things in the name of the President of the United States. These three little words, "in his name," invest the messenger with the full power of the President, so far as the performing of that service is concerned.

"Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father," said Paul, in writing to the Colossians. Whatever we do heartily and sincerely in the name of Christ or the I AM, carries with it the power of the I AM to accomplish -- a power from a higher source, as the presidential messenger receives his power from a higher source. All power is given to Christ. Doing all things "in his name" puts aside our mortal personality and lets the Christ do the work. When Moses, with a sense of his personal insufficiency for so great a work, shrank from it, saying, "Oh, Lord, I am not eloquent . . . I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And Jehovah said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? . . . is it not I, Jehovah? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak."

In Edward Everett Hale's story, "In His Name,"

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a story in a setting of seven hundred years ago, it is no fairy tale that invests the words, "in His Name," with such magic power. This little password carried safely, through the most dangerous places, all who went on errands of good. Locked doors were readily opened at the sound of the words. Soldier, sentry, officer of the guard, all gave way respectfully and instantly before it. Men were willing to leave their homes at a moment's notice and plunge into the greatest hardships "in His name."

Ministering today in His name, I say to you, troubled one, anxious one, weary one: Be strong! Be of good courage! Be hopeful! The world -- the mortal -- is overcome already. The Christ, the I AM, speaking through Jesus, has spoken, saying: "I have overcome the world."

"To him that overcometh [that is, to him who recognizes that already the world is overcome by the I AM, that there is nothing in all the universe but the I AM] to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it."

"He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more, and I will write upon him the name of my God," even the name I AM.