Today’s discussion wil run a bit long, but I wanted to finish up before moving on to a new discussion on a different topic. We won’t simply talk about the name of Jesus, we need to get into the concept and principle of actually operating in the name of Jesus. We’ve had this discussion before — or at least part of it — but what we are talking about is the character, the nature, the essence of Who Jesus is, His Onoma!

We’ve been talking about the concept of holiness, but let’s get into the Hebrew text to look at this word a bit better and see if we can grasp the simplicity of holiness. Holiness is not complicated. There’s nothing mysterious or mystical about it. This word comes from the Hebrew, qadash, which means to be clean, to be consecrated, to wholly separate yourself to the Lord and the things of God. Anyone who knew my father would quickly tell you that this word defined him, his character, and his complete commitment to the Lord. If the Lord said something to him and instructed him to go some place or do something, you could take it to the bank! Neither hell nor high water were going to dissuade him.

The early 1980’s were a launch pad for us into the presence of the Lord. Sometimes our worship sessions lasted for well over an hour, and the more we gave time to it as a fellowship, the greater was the degree of His intimate presence. There were a few times when the presence of the Lord filled our midst to such a degree that no one moved, no one made a sound, we just bathed in His Holiness. That was an introductory time for all of us. The House of Praise was an adjunct to CBN-Alaska, Inc., and our affiliation with Pat Robertson and the 700 Club. CBN went through some major changes in 1983 and decided to discontinue all of its satellite operations. That meant that we no longer had authorization to operate under CBN’s administration, and it also meant that we lost much of our funding. Closing the doors of that ministry was a shock to all of us, and with a number of other changes in the works, we closed up our Fairbanks operations and moved to Anchorage.