Many of us might be familiar with the above sentence. It is found in the book of Acts. Peter and John was on their way to the temple to pray when they saw a beggar crippled from birth sitting at the temple gate begging for money. The beggar saw Peter and John and asked them for money.
Peter responded, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking the beggar by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong and the man started walking and jumping, praising God.
I have read this many times before but today as I was reading it again, something caught me. Yes, Peter and John did not have money to offer the beggar, what they had was something very different. I knew they had faith, tons of faith. But this was different. I knew what Peter had.
Peter had the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
Notice how Peter mentioned, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” He proclaimed the name of Jesus over the beggar’s situation. There is something about names during the Bible times. A name is more than just a word where people use to call and identify one another. A name bear’s the person’s personality, the person’s being, the person’s attitude, the person’s life.
If you notice, this was Peter’s first ever miracle done after he cowardly denied Jesus three times and fled from Him. I admire the great comeback of Peter. I am in awe how someone close to Jesus could deny knowing Jesus and yet comeback in greater power and authority to heal the crippled! What Peter had was not just faith; a lot of Christian those days had faith. What Peter had was faith plus the power and authority of Jesus.
Many of us do not realize what we have and what we can do. We tend to always speak death into almost all our situations – saying, “Ah, this I cannot do. I am not good enough.”, “I know this will not work out, it is too big a problem.” “We are going to fail doing this, let’s not try at all.” “I am like that, I can’t seem to remove this bad habit. I don’t think I can do it.”
When Peter and John saw the crippled beggar they did not speak death into his situation. They did not say, “Ah, poor man, he can’t walk. What can we do to help him? Do you have some coins with you?” Instead Peter commanded the beggar to look at him and then spoke life into the man’s situation.
With the given authority of Jesus, Peter went forth and did miracles after miracles. With the given power of Jesus, Peter became the first church planter, going from cities to cities to build churches and spreading the Gospel like never before.
When the crowd questioned Peter about the miracle healing, Peter said, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to the beggar, as you can all see.”
When David came face to face with the giant Goliath, David said, “You are coming against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the Israelites armies, which you have defied.”
John 14:14
You may ask for anything in My Name, and I will do it.
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