This phrase stood out to me, “the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.”

Where is the place of His name in your life?

I like to say that His name is His character, nature, authority.

Is there a place for those things in your life?

His character should show vividly in all believers. It should show in our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

His nature encompasses the same but also some other things that should be part of who we are if we are truly in Christ. They are things like holiness, wisdom, power, truth, righteousness and justice. We should take on some aspects of His nature because we are to be one with Christ. We are to no longer live, but He lives in us. We should be the image of Christ on the earth, both as individuals and as a corporate body.

Christ’s authority is ours when and where He gives it to us. He gave His disciples authority and power and a command what to do with it. Without the command to wield His authority we would be out of bounds any time we’d try to declare something in His name to take authority over it.

An ambassador is a representative of someone else. They don’t get to make up their own decisions and policies; they only extend what decisions were given to them. They can only act in the authority given to them.

Acting outside of that either will result in impotence or a breach of faith.

We certainly wouldn’t want either.

The place of God’s authority in your life is directly related to your submission. God’s authority in our lives doesn’t make us big, but small.

We must be humble and remove self to make a place for His name in our lives. We must decrease; He must increase.

We need to humble ourselves and make a place for His name. If we do, then we’ll be part of the harvest, and not part of those cut off with pruning hooks and cleared away.