“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing! Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations”.
“Your sins were forgiven when you got born again. God is not holding your sins against you. The only thing that is holding up the answer to your prayer is our unbelief because we feel so unworthy. We are empowering the devil. We are allowing our conscience to condemn us. And we don’t have the confidence and the courage and the authority that God has bought for us through Jesus. And we are approaching Him like a lost man that doesn’t have a savior.
We pray in the name of Jesus, but the truth is we actually believe that it’s going to be according to our goodness. And so all somebody’s got to do is say ‘Hey, you’ve committed sin. You haven’t studied the Word the way that you should. What makes you think you’re worthy?’ And all of a sudden your total confidence just crumbles because your faith wasn’t in God, it was in you.
If you pray and use the name of Jesus properly, what you’re saying is ‘Father, not because of who I am, but in Jesus’ name. I expect to receive because of Jesus’. You know the scripture says ‘Agree with your adversary quickly while you’re in the way.’ And there’s multiple ways of applying that, but one of the ways I apply it is when the devil comes and says ‘you aren’t worthy. What makes you think God would use you?’
Instead of me trying to justify myself and say ‘wait a minute, I’ve studied the Word more than I ever have, I’ve been praying, I’ve studied, I’ve fasted, I…’ The moment you start justifying yourself and trying to make yourself worthy, Satan has won because you may be better than you were, you might be better than I am, but you have come short of the glory of God and you do not deserve any answers to prayer based on your goodness.
The right way to respond is when your enemy comes and condemns you, agree with your adversary and say ‘you know what, you’re right. I don’t deserve anything. I think I’ll pray in the nameof Jesus. And I’ll get it through who Jesus is. I’ll get it on the basis of His righteousness. I’m standing holy not because I am holy in myself, but because I am born again righteous and holy’.
See that’s using the name of Jesus properly, but if you say ‘in the name of Jesus’ but you’re saying ‘God, I’m worthy, God, I’ve prayed, I’ve done more than ever before, now will You move?’ You have just used the name of Jesus in vain. You aren’t trusting in Jesus, you’re trusting in yourself and you’re taking the name of Jesus in vain” Andrew Wommack.
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations”.
