Can Christians “Claim,” “Declare,” or “Rebuke” Things in Jesus’ Name?
Does asking God to heal someone show less faith than declaring that the person will be healed? If we pray, “if it is Your will,” are we allowing doubt to weaken our prayer? And if the answer we want does not come, did we fail to believe strongly enough? This continues the discussion in my earlier article, What Does It Mean to Pray in the Name of Jesus?.
Those questions become especially painful when someone we love is suffering. We may begin to feel responsible for producing enough certainty to secure the answer. Even admitting fear can seem like a failure of faith.
In this article, I will address whether Christians have the authority to claim, declare, rebuke, or bind things in Jesus’ name. We’ll examine Jesus’ promises about prayer, the miracles in Acts, and His teaching about binding and loosing. These expressions also raise a personal question about our faith. Does declaring that someone will be healed demonstrate greater faith than asking God to heal them? Does praying “if it is Your will” suggest doubt? And if the answer we want does not come, have we failed to believe strongly enough?
What Jesus Promises in John 14
These styles of prayer might be borne from a reading in Scripture, like John 14. In this passage, Jesus promises that those who believe in Him will do His works and even greater works because He is going to the Father. He then promises to act in response to requests made in His name, with the stated purpose that the Father be glorified in the Son (John 14:12–14). We need to read that whole promise together.
I love how James M. Hamilton Jr. connects the greater works with the disciples’ witness after Jesus accomplishes salvation and the Spirit is poured out. He gives particular attention to the connection between Jesus’ words and works in verse 10. On this reading, the disciples proclaim Christ from the other side of the cross, announcing the salvation He has accomplished.[1]
The greater works therefore belong to this new stage in God’s saving work. We should be cautious about assuming that “greater” means each Christian will perform a more spectacular miracle than Jesus did. Otherwise in our ignorance of the actual context, we give tools of defamation of the Christian faith to those who are on the fence. Yet, Hamilton’s explanation directs our attention to the gospel the disciples will proclaim and the work Christ will continue through them.
That context also helps us hear the promise about prayer. Notice there are two qualifications: the requests are made in Jesus’ name, and their fulfillment glorifies the Father in the Son.[1] To clarify, to ask in Jesus’ name is to ask as someone who represents Him. This means that our requests should fit His character and purposes. We cannot appeal to His name while treating His mission as irrelevant.
As a result, this should enlarge our praying. We can ask for courage to speak about Christ and for God to bring people to faith through the gospel. Jesus gives His disciples reason to expect His work to continue as they depend on Him. To connect this with a forced promise on job application would be no better than a magician looking for new ways to coerce God into something he didn’t say nor promise to do.
What are We Claiming?
The word “claim” can carry more than one meaning. A Christian may say, “I’m claiming God’s promises,” and mean that he is relying on what God has said. There is nothing wrong with that confidence, provided we have understood the promise and whom the promise addresses.
For example, John tells believers that eternal life is found in the Son and that those who believe in Him can know they have that life. Such assurance rests on God’s testimony. Plus, in the same chapter, John connects confidence in prayer with asking “according to His will” (1 John 5:11–15).
Therefore, when it comes to a job offer, believers can ask God for the job, explain why we want the position, and trust Him with the answer. There may have excellent reasons to believe the opportunity would benefit your family. Still, none of those reasons establishes that God has promised you that particular job.
This is where the language can start supplanting the object of our faith. We might start with a legitimate desire, but a believer might become increasingly certain about the outcome and eventually speak as though God has committed Himself to said expectation.
For this reason, before claiming a promise, read the passage around the promise. Who is speaking? To whom? Does the passage promise what you are claiming, or have you supplied details the passage never gives?
We may discover that we have confused a hope with a promise.
Can We Declare Things into Existence
Christians are expected to speak truth openly. We confess our faith, praise God, and remind one another of what He has done. The difficulty begins when “declaring” is treated as a way to bring a preferred reality into existence.
Romans 4:17 is sometimes brought into this conversation because Paul describes the One who gives life to the dead and brings into being what does not exist. If we read this carefully, we’ll notice that the One Paul describes is God. Abraham is the person trusting Him.
The surrounding verses explain Abraham’s confidence: God was able to accomplish what God had promised. Abraham’s faith rested on that promise. Thus, Paul is not teaching that Abraham acquired God’s creative power by speaking confidently (Romans 4:17–21).
Still, our words certainly have consequences. A lie can destroy a reputation. An apology can begin repairing a relationship. Encouragement can help someone persevere. However, those consequences do not establish that human speech somehow possesses divine authority over circumstances.
Consider James, in his epistle, he addresses people who announce their plans for travel, business, and profit as though tomorrow were already theirs to arrange. He reminds them that their lives depend on the Lord’s will (James 4:13–16). That correction should shape how we speak about our own future. In other words, we can plan carefully and even pray expectantly, while acknowledging that God may lead us somewhere we did not anticipate.
Healing and Rebuking in the Name of Jesus
This is where we need to be most careful, since Scripture records commands spoken in Jesus’ name. A few passages might help illuminate how to approach healing and rebuking in the name of Jesus faithfully. In Acts 3, Peter and John encounter a man unable to walk since birth. Peter tells him to walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, takes him by the hand, and helps him up. The man enters the temple walking, leaping, and praising God (Acts 3:1–10).
Brian Vickers draws attention to Peter’s identification of Jesus as the man from Nazareth. The Jesus known to have been crucified is still at work. Naming Jesus identifies the source of the healing, and the miracle continues the signs of the kingdom that marked Jesus’ own ministry.[2] This is a real demonstration of the risen Lord’s authority.
Vickers also notes the connection with Isaiah’s picture of God coming to save His people, when those who cannot walk will leap for joy (Isaiah 35:4–6).[2] The healing bears witness to the promised salvation now arriving through the Messiah. Luke, the author of Acts, gives us a reason to recognize and praise Jesus in what happens to this man.
Peter’s explanation makes the source of the miracle clear. He refuses the crowd’s assumption that the man walks because of Peter and John’s own power or godliness. Instead, Peter directs the people to the risen Jesus (Acts 3:12–16). Therefore, we should read Peter’s command within that witness to Christ before treating the wording as a general procedure for producing miracles.
Likewise, Paul commands an evil spirit to leave a slave girl in Jesus’ name, and the spirit leaves (Acts 16:16–18). However, that event does not establish that a Christian can rebuke a delayed job promotion, or command every illness to disappear. Nor should we assume that every difficult circumstance is a demonic obstruction.
In fact, the same chapter records the Holy Spirit preventing Paul and his companions from traveling where they initially intended to preach (Acts 16:6–10). What we learn through Acts is that a closed door may require patient discernment, and God’s own doing.
Or consider how Jude adds a needed warning against spiritual arrogance. Even Michael, while he was disputing with the devil, appealed to the Lord’s authority: “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 9). Jude’s point concerns presumptuous judgment. We should let that warning correct our confidence in ourselves without using the verse to erase what happened through Paul in Acts 16.
Indubitably, with so many different Christian denominations, Christians differ over how particular apostolic signs relate to ministry today. Although those differences deserve their own careful discussion, the passages above still provide ample reason to question the assumption that mentioning Jesus authorizes whatever command we choose to issue.
What Binding and Loosing Mean
What about saying, “I bind this in Jesus’ name”? After all, Jesus does speak about binding and loosing, so we need to understand the authority He actually gives. In Matthew 16, that language follows Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In this context, Jesus promises to build His church and gives Peter the keys of the kingdom (Matthew 16:16–19).
Daniel M. Doriani explains the keys in relation to entrance into the kingdom. Peter uses those keys as he proclaims repentance and faith in Jesus, and through the gospel, he announces that those who repent and believe are welcomed, while those who reject Christ remain outside. In brief, this means that Peter speaks with authority as he declares the terms God has established.[3]
Continuing through the gospel of Matthew, in Matthew 18, Jesus brings that authority into the church’s response to sin. When a brother is in sin, a brother is approached privately, then with witnesses if necessary. If he continues refusing correction, the matter goes before the church. The aim is to recover him. Persistent refusal to repent eventually requires the church to treat him as an outsider (Matthew 18:15–18).
The wording perfect tense of this situation is accurately reflected in the NASB: “shall have been bound” and “shall have been loosed.” These expressions mean that the church announces what God has already declared.[4] In this, the church’s authority remains accountable to Christ and His Word, and a faithful church welcomes repentant believers, and warns those who persist in rejecting His call to repentance.
By the way, we need to keep the next two verses in that setting, too. In them, Jesus promises that the Father will answer their agreed requests, and Jesus also promises His own presence where two or three gather in His name (Matthew 18:19–20). These assurances are to be of help for the difficult work of correction and reconciliation. Therefore, these passages entail how the church asks the Father to sustain faithful action, and Christ promises His presence as His people pursue repentance and holiness.[4]
That is a substantial promise. Anyone who has considered confronting serious sin can understand why the church would need that assurance. The possibility of conflict does not remove the responsibility Jesus gives His people. They can seek His help as they obey.
Clearly, these verses give us no basis for binding a financial problem or guaranteeing an outcome because two people agree to claim it. Jesus is speaking about the life of His church under His authority. We honor His name by taking that responsibility seriously and depending on Him to carry it out.
Saying the Name does not Confer Authority
As in my original post, Acts 19 makes this painfully clear. In this passage, the sons of Sceva attempted to use the name of Jesus in an exorcism, referring to the “Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Surprisingly, the encounter ends with them overpowered and wounded. Thus, showing that having the name on their lips does not give them command over the spirit (Acts 19:13–17).
That moment should unsettle the idea that the right expression guarantees the desired result. Yet we should also resist a second mistake: assuming that becoming a Christian turns the same formula into a reliable technique. Belonging to Christ places us under His lordship. Our wishes do not acquire His authority merely because we belong to Him.
Invoking Jesus’ name means appealing to the living Lord and His authority. We are accountable to Him for what we ask and for what we say on His behalf.
How the Church Prayed in Acts 4
Acts 4 shows us how this confidence in Jesus shaped the church’s prayer. After the authorities threaten Peter and John, the believers address God as the sovereign Creator. They remember His word and acknowledge that even the opposition to Jesus fell within His purpose. Then they ask God to give them boldness to keep speaking (Acts 4:23–29).
They also ask God to continue healing and performing signs through Jesus’ name. Vickers emphasizes the relationship between those signs and the apostles’ witness to the gospel.[5] The miracles support the message about Christ. The believers depend on God to equip them for the work He has given them.
Notice how much they ask of God. Their prayer includes bold speech and miraculous help in the face of real threats. Dependence on God’s sovereignty has not made them timid. The Lord answers by filling them with the Spirit, and they continue speaking His word boldly (Acts 4:30–31).
I think that this kind of prayer helps us understand what was stated in John 14. The church asks for what serves Christ’s mission, trusting God to supply the strength. We can learn to pray with that kind of confidence.
Praying When the Answer Matters Deeply
Eventually, these questions become harder when someone we love is suffering. The attraction of a guaranteed outcome is understandable. We want the person healed. We want the frightening news reversed. A promise that the right declaration can secure that result can be difficult to question.
Scripture encourages us to pray for healing. James tells the sick to call for the elders and directs the church to pray in faith (James 5:14–16). We should take those instructions seriously and ask God to act.
We must also hear Paul’s account of his own suffering. He pleaded three times for his thorn to be removed. Christ answered, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). We are not told precisely what the thorn was. We are told that an apostle asked for relief and received sustaining grace through continued weakness.
For this reason, Christians have no permission to accuse a suffering believer of having failed to speak forcefully enough. Continued suffering, by itself, does not prove defective faith.
Otherwise we may have to reconsider Jesus in Gethsemane. He expressed His anguish and asked the Father about the cup before Him, but He also submitted to the Father’s will (Matthew 26:39–42). Submission belongs within faithful prayer. Jesus Himself prayed that way.
Jesus’ example shows us that we can bring a particular need to God with that same honesty: “Father, I want this to change. Please help. I believe You are able, and I need Your help to trust You while I wait.”
At the same time, we must remember that there is no special power in that wording, either. The point is that we can ask plainly, without pretending to know an answer God has not revealed.
I think this is where some of us need relief. Prayer can become exhausting when we feel responsible for producing enough certainty to secure the outcome. We begin examining every word, wondering whether an admission of fear has undone yesterday’s declaration.
Christ invites us to come to Him in our weakness. We can confess the fear, ask for help, and keep praying. We can trust what He has promised and leave room for an answer we would not have chosen.
You do not have to turn a request into a decree for God to hear you.
Works Cited
[1] James M. Hamilton Jr., commentary on John 14:12–14, in ESV Expository Commentary, vol. 9, John–Acts, pp. 231–232. Kindle edition.
[2] Brian Vickers, commentary on Acts 3:1–10, in ESV Expository Commentary, vol. 9, John–Acts. Kindle edition.
[3] Daniel M. Doriani, commentary on Matthew 16:13–20, in ESV Expository Commentary, vol. 8, Matthew–Luke. Kindle edition.
[4] Doriani, commentary on Matthew 18:15–20, in ESV Expository Commentary, vol. 8, Matthew–Luke, especially p. 255. Kindle edition.
[5] Brian Vickers, commentary on Acts 4:23–31, in ESV Expository Commentary, vol. 9, John–Acts, p. 377. Kindle edition.
