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IRVING— Women of all ages flocked to the Irving Convention Center on Monday, Feb. 23, to hear author and Bible teacher Jen Wilkin at the Empower Conference Women’s Session.
Wilkin entertained and informed in two sessions filled with humor, amusing family anecdotes, a lengthy Q&A time, and Scripture. Worship was led by Cody and Anna Kujawa and Summer Franklin from First Baptist Church in Celina.
For her main message, Wilkin focused on John 14:12-14, where Jesus promises believers they will do greater works than even He has done and reveals the importance of praying in His name. John 14 is the reason Christians pray in Jesus’ name, she explained.
“Names imply something about the person,” Wilkin explained. “The same is true of the name of Jesus.” The name of Jesus references the “sum total of His character.” Praying in His name is tantamount to saying to the Lord, “According to who you have shown yourself to be, let it be done.”
Praying in Jesus’ name is different from “postage-stamping my agenda,” Wilkin said, and is actually a form of submission. Indeed, the fundamental purpose of prayer is that we would be in submission, not control, she added. “The locus of power … is not with us,” she said.
Greater works than Jesus?
What about the promise that believers will do even greater things than Jesus did?
Wilkin noted John 14 is part of what is known as the “upper room discourse,” Jesus’ final moments with the disciples as a group. These same men had witnessed Jesus raising Lazarus, restoring sight to the blind, casting out demons, cleansing lepers, feeding thousands, walking on water, and calming storms—acts that demonstrated His power over the spiritual and physical realms, even life and death.
“When we think of greater works that we can do in Jesus’ name, we think of miracles,” Wilkin said. Referencing Matthew 7:21-23, she reminded the audience of Jesus’ words to those who claimed to have prophesied, driven out demons, and done miracles in His name: “Depart from me, you lawbreakers.”
“We are drawn to the flash. We are drawn to the spectacle,” Wilkin said, adding, “Jesus means something greater than this”—an empowering of believers that began at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended.
Our works can be greater than those of Jesus in that in His humanity, His ministry was regional. He was limited to one physical body in the incarnation. He primarily taught a small audience of only 12 men. He had no social media, webpages, microphones, or podcasts to amplify His message. There is no record of His speaking more than two languages.
“We don’t think that proximity to other believers who are filled with the Spirit is as powerful or meaningful as proximity to Jesus,” Wilkin said, but when we have proximity to other believers, we have proximity to Jesus.
The key is understanding John 14 in the original language, she said. When Jesus says “you,” He is speaking corporately, as if He were saying “y’all,” Wilkin explained. Thus, it is not for the individual to pray in Jesus’ name, but for “y’all” to do so. She urged listeners to understand how Jesus’ original hearers would have understood His words.
A call to commitment
The power of believers working together led to a conversation about the dangers of the modern church drifting toward individualism. This, Wilkin noted, can sometimes be fueled by phraseology that emphasizes a person’s ability to have a “personal” relationship with Jesus Christ.
“The Bible spends very little time talking about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” Wilkin said.
Christian witness, she said, must be collective: “We need each other. We need a collective obedience.”
Wilkin also lamented a dearth of biblical literacy and biblical fluency. Quiet times are good, she noted, but “quiet time culture” can be toxic, with devotionals often lacking depth.
When interpreting Scripture, it is important to consider layers of application, she added. It is more important for us to understand “What did it mean for them for then?” and “What does it mean for us and for always?” than “What does it mean for me and for now?”
If we are to fulfill the Great Commission, we must be disciples and make disciples, defined not as converts but learners, she said. Jesus walked the earth only 33 years. Current life expectancy in the U.S. is 80. We have more earthly time than the Lord did, she noted. We must not waste it.
“Discipleship takes a lot more time and a lot more work than converting. So does sanctification,” she said.
May we become “quicker to repent” and “slower to repeat,” she said of sin, ending with not only a call to Christian fellowship but also a commitment to the Word.
“It’s a big book,” she said of the Bible. “But we have been given way more time than other generations … a wealth of ways to amplify the message.”
And, as Wilkin says, to be “godly together.”
