So: you’ve got an evening with no commitments; no tomorrow-deadlines for work; nobody coming to entertain. For some, that’s an invitation for some recreational reading; for others, it’s time to fire-up some of those subscription streaming services. What’s to watch? Safe-at-home audiences often lean toward crime as a first-choice genre: people doing bad things sounds like a fun night at home…

That hunger for crime-on-the-screen can be served with real stories from the shadows; that hunger can lead to satiation through fictional accounts. There’s a subset of crime depictions that is growing: we can find political malfeasance on multiple channels, ‘round the clock. Next up: Autopen.

Among the hot hearings inside the Beltway: did the prior administration use the Autopen to enable people who were not the president to make directives that were not, in fact, sourced in the sitting CEO? Had the convenience of the mechanized signature enabled feigned use of executive authority?

Long before Thomas Jefferson’s introduction of the autopen to the presidency, high-ranking people would authenticate their signatures with a signet ring: pressed into hot wax or clay to affirm that they were, in fact, present when the “deal was sealed” (a term we use, rooted in that history).

It’s one thing to imagine people misrepresenting a duly elected president by claiming his/her specific pronouncements without their direct knowledge or approval. If that’s a punishable offense, how egregious would it be to do that with the King of Kings?

I don’t know what it takes to bring you chills, but this declaration – by that King, in His Sermon on the Mount – that should cause us all to listen-in:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23).

Did you catch the term that He used repeatedly? “In my name” is either the highlight of an ambassador’s proclamation, or the tell that calls out the charlatan. It’s one thing to say, “in my view;” it gives room for varying positions. To press the signet ring of the Savior into one’s declarations steps into an accountability that has sobering implications.

But wait: didn’t Jesus say to do that?

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-14).

If that’s the password that opens up the storehouses of God’s provision, why not use it routinely, and regularly?

The health-and-wealth subcommittee of the Christian world would have us believe that we can sanctify our bucket list by submitting any and all desirable requests for divine intervention by putting Heaven’s postage stamp on the envelope of our prayers: “In Jesus’ name; Amen!” 

Perhaps it’s important to listen to the caution offered by Jesus’ close associate, John:

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Did you catch that?

Here’s my counsel: until I understand – from the Bible – more about God’s will, my ability to ask “according to His will” will be sketchy at best, with a risk of total obfuscation. In fact, if that became my habitual tendency – missing the mainstream of Jesus’ approach for assistance – I could be at risk of finding out someday I could have been self-deluded and declared unfit for recognition by Him.

Even Jesus operated with that caution:

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

Ask Him for whatever. Validate your requests based on knowing what His divine will is. Always leave room for His will to filter His response(s) to your requests. Trust Him for the best outcomes.

Our access to God through the authority you’ve been granted in the Name of Jesus is a power provision that the Enemy would love to goad us to misuse. Keep yourself plugged into His power by accessing it in the manner He has instructed us: Your will, not mine, in the Name of Jesus…

Bob Shank

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