Conversations with God

“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David…” (Lk. 1:31-32). Mary was given a wonderful promise from God. At first, it seemed to be fulfilled fairly quickly. She conceived and birthed a son before she and Joseph consummated their marriage. We love it when that happens, don’t we? God speaks and then, Boom! , here’s the proof. But that wasn’t the whole promise. Mary was told her son would be the long-awaited Messiah. Yet what she held in her arms was an infant. The promise didn’t look like she expected. So what’s the next step? She had a promise. She had an angelic visitation. She had confirmation from shepherds, the anointed man Simeon, and the prophetess Anna. But she was still holding a baby. What do you do when the word you’ve been given doesn’t play out like you think it will? It was 30 years before Mary saw ...

“ In Jesus’ name…” These are words common to our Christian lives. Many of us learned them as children saying grace before dinner. The phrase ends virtually every prayer we ever pray. Unfortunately, like any other common word or phrase, there is the threat of it losing its meaning. So I started wondering, what does it really mean to ask or declare something “in Jesus’ name”? I started looking back to experiences I had before I gave my life to God. I lived in some undesirable neighborhoods and had friends in worse ones. I quickly learned the power of names. There were places I didn’t dare go on my own; but if I knew the right name, I suddenly had access, authority, and protection. I had access because that name carried an authority my name did not. Now, before you start thinking this is too simplistic, I am not talking about a seven sons of Sceva kind of name-using. You know the story: In Acts 19, we read the story of 7 guys who were trying to drive out demons “in ...