In this message we want to see that in our Christian life and service we need to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Ephesians 5:20 says that we need to give thanks at all times in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Colossians 3:17 says that we need to do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus.
In John 5:43 the Son comes in the name of the Father, and in 14:26 the Father sends the Spirit in the name of the Son. In these two short sentences, the divine Trinity is revealed. When the New Testament says that the Son came in the name of the Father, this indicates that the Son and the Father are one. When the New Testament says that the Father sent the Spirit in the name of the Son, this indicates that the Father is one with the Son. The Father and the Son do two things—the Son comes in the Father's name, and the Father sends the Spirit in the Son's name. Each one does something in the other's name. This means that They are one.
John 14:26 says, "But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all things which I said to you." John 15:26 says, "But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me." In reading these verses, a question may immediately be raised: Does the Father send the Spirit or does the Son send the Spirit? According to John 14:26, the Father sends the Spirit in the Son's name. The Spirit being sent by the Father in the Son's name implies that both the Father and the Son are the Sender of the Spirit. Then in John 15:26 the Son sends the Spirit from the Father. The Son sending the Spirit from the Father and the Father sending the Spirit in the Son's name refer to the same thing. The Father sending the Spirit in the Son's name means that the Son sends the Spirit from the Father. Both the Father and the Son send the Spirit. This indicates that the Father and the Son are one. Furthermore, when the Spirit comes, the Father and the Son also come. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, but They are one—three-one.
Based upon the above verses in John 14 and 15, we can be helped to understand what it means to pray to the Father in the name of the Son. In John 15:16 and in 16:23-24, the Lord Jesus charged the disciples to pray in His name. We must pray in the Lord's name. When I was young, I was taught that we should pray in the name of the Lord Jesus rather than in our own name, because we are unworthy to ask anything of God. Later I found out that the Lord Jesus came, not in His own name, but in the name of the Father. Yet His coming in the name of the Father was not a matter of worthiness. From this I realized that the former teaching concerning praying in the Lord's name was not completely accurate. After many years of study and experience, I have found that to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus is not a matter of being worthy; rather, it is a matter of being one with Christ. In God's economy, through Christ's redemption, death, and resurrection, God has made us one with Christ.