What does it mean to do something in Jesus name: to pray for someone to be healed in Jesus’s name, or to simply pray to the Father in Jesus’ name, or to minister the word in the name of Jesus?
We get some real insight from the healing of the man by the gate beautiful in Acts 3. Peter simply commanded the man, “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!”
He later explained to the people how the man was healed;
But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
Also notice these verses from Acts 9 when Peter prayed for Aeneas;
Acts 9:32-34 [32] Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. [33] There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. [34] Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.” Immediately he got up. …
Notice that Peter, in this situation, doesn’t use Jesus’s name; instead, he simply declares, “Jesus Christ heals you…,” and the man was healed.
To invoke the name of Jesus is to simply call on Jesus to manifest His presence and nature. It is to invoke who He is. We can do that because we are in union with Him, and in union with Him, when we use His name, we are simply asking for something or commanding something as if we were Him, as His body. We are releasing His life and His faith for that request or in that situation. Peter said in chapter 3 that it was faith in Jesus’s name and the faith that comes through Him that healed this man. Out of union with Jesus, when we use His name, we are counting on Him, who is our life, and counting on His faith. This is the glorious simplicity of being in Christ and Christ being in us.