"I Speak Jesus," An Honest Look at Spiritual Power

This wildly celebrated song, composed by Here Be Lions and popularized by Charity Gayle, evokes a rich tradition of hymns giving "All Hail" to the power of Jesus' Name. If you can relate to the days of hymnals, you might have opened one in which "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" was featured on the very first page. Called "The National Anthem of Christendom," this hymn was composed in 1779, by a man who has been all but forgotten--which, I would infer, was his intent. Edward Perronet, the son of an Anglican priest, worked closely with John and Charles Wesley in the First Great Awakening that swept Britain and its colonies in the early 1700s.

The lyrics of this great hymn, with its endearing archaisms, present the timeless truth of Scripture's simplest message, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).

All hail the pow'r of Jesus' Name!

Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all!

Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,

Ye ransomed from the fall,

Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,

And crown Him Lord of all!

Let every kindred, every tribe,

On this terrestrial ball,

To Him all majesty ascribe,

And crown Him Lord of all!

Oh, that with yonder sacred throng

We at His feet may fall!

We'll join the everlasting song,

And crown Him Lord of all!

Taking less than four minutes to sing, this great hymn offers more in four verses than most worship composers today offer in four songs. With booming pipe organ, full orchestra, and resounding congregational singing, this song almost knocks you off your feet. What is the power of Jesus' Name? Angels fall at His feet and crown Him Lord of all; those ransomed from the Fall and saved by His grace fall at His feet and crown Him Lord of all; those from every tribe on the globe ascribe Him all majesty and crown Him Lord of all. And, oh, that, with this "sacred throng," we at His feet may fall and crown Him Lord of all! This song lifts Jesus higher than all and puts all of Creation at His feet, both now ("Let [this very moment] angels prostrate fall") and for all eternity ("the everlasting song"); both in heaven ("angels prostrate") and on earth ("this terrestrial ball"); both saved ("ye ransomed from the fall") and unsaved ("every kindred, every tribe"). The power of Jesus' name is defined yet indefinable. He saves, He reigns; He remains "Lord of all."

In rugged simplicity, this song compresses the truth of the gospel with unifying repetition of its central command. Sung eight times in four verses, this command to "Crown Him Lord of all" rings out across the centuries as a rebuke to all false worship that uses Jesus' name as a means of pride to serve its own ends, as a talisman rather than as Truth. Jesus' Name has power because He IS Lord of all. And we are subject to His power.

If you discern in the song, "I Speak Jesus," a subtle something which you can't put your finger on, something that bothers you and eludes you, you are not alone. You are not overthinking, and you are not crazy. You have walked into a web, and the spider has landed on your back. The problem with this song is actually hiding in plain sight in the song's title: "I Speak Jesus." Jesus is not the subject of this song but the direct object. The subject is "I" and, later, an implied "you." Why does this matter? Put the subject "I" with the verb "speak" and the direct object, "Jesus," and you have the DNA of the Word of Faith Movement that awards believers their power as "little gods" to speak their desires into existence. Known as prophetic worship, this practice is indeed imbedded within the song's lyrics, with the "I" speaking Jesus' name by way of command in some form or other a minimum of fourteen times in the seven-minute span of the song. A song cannot transcend its grammar. The placement of every word is intentional.

This intentionality is exploited in a performance of Gayle singing this song onstage, where she begins with a proclamation of healing "in this place," highlighting the "work" she is about to do. The imperative voice of the song's syntax carries commands issued through the continuously forceful movements of Gayle's hands while singing. Combine the lyrics of the song and this "prophetic" setting with the context of Charity Gayle's beliefs, and make no mistake: this song is not about the Jesus you know. Long associated with Oneness Pentecostalism which denies the Trinity in the age-old heresy of modalism, Charity Gayle sings of a "Jesus" who seems to have less power than she does. Worthy to initiate the power for "Jesus" to act, Gayle's power is unmistakable in songs such as, "New Name Written Down in Glory." Not your grandmother's gospel song "A New Name in Glory," Gayle's song belts out its climax eight times in a row: "I am who I am because the I AM tells me who I am" (insert oh-oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh-oh, eh, and "come on"--seriously, see the lyrics online), leaving you feeling pretty good about yourself as a little god ["I am"] who can tell Jesus what to do.

This much is clear: "I Speak Jesus" does not command all of Creation to crown Jesus Lord of all; it commands Jesus to do its bidding--a Jesus who is not Lord at all if He is not even the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus' Name in "I Speak Jesus" is a tool, a means to an end, a mantra finding its power not in being spoken once but many times, "until every dark addiction starts to break." I wonder, how many times is that? Jenn Johnson of Bethel Church puts the "little gods" power like this: "God to me is like the genie from Aladdin." If this does not scare us, it should. At what point do we call this out as witchcraft? At the very least, this type of prophetic "speaking" uses equivocation to mask its true agenda: the elevation and aggrandization of self.

"These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me," Jesus said (Matthew 15:8). He also said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). Even a song featuring the "mouth speaking" should reveal the depths of its heart, but careful examination of this song's lyrics reveals no true heart at all. The song is as hollow biblically as an empty well, with an echo just as loud. Even aside from all other concerns, this vacancy of biblical truth is alarming in a song so widely promoted in mainstream Christianity.

While the package promises power in the name of Jesus, it delivers none of the biblical themes in which Jesus' power resides.  Without these, the name of Jesus cannot mean anything more than the name "Jesus" commonly means, as a favorite of biblical and contemporary Hispanic cultures. The song defines Jesus' Name as "power, healing," and "life"--favorite buzz words of the Prosperity Gospel, but nowhere as the Way and the Truth, as Jesus defined Himself in His Word. Nor does the song even so much as hint even one time at the biblical meaning of Jesus' name--"He saves," nor does it ever use the word "saves" or even a close substitute. Nor is there any mention whatsoever of the Cross, of power in the Blood of Christ, of sin, of repentance, of redemption-- not even of faith, even though the entire song is intended as a declaration.

Plainly, this song invoking Jesus' name isn't a song of personal faith at all because each of the victims mentioned is set free as if against his will as this "I" speaks--and even shouts--on his behalf until Jesus "burns like a fire." There is no change of heart, no exertion of will, no surrender of obedience. When all is quite literally "said and done," any "deliverance" (although this word is not used, either) occurs, not through faith in Christ but through the power of the prophetic worship leader in "speaking" His Name, "I just wanna speak the Name of Jesus over every heart and every mind." This makes the speaker a medium or channel of power. And then what? "Declaring there is hope and there is freedom." Put all this together, and the strongholds break as "I speak Jesus over" you and "declare" whatever it is that you need. I might think all this was just really bad wording if I didn't know that this song comes from a worldview of utterly false teaching.

Jesus' Name has no power at all if not fundamentally identified with the Christ of Scripture through the central work He came to do. Saying it does is heresy. Alongside this song's chief heresy lies its chief fallacy: even if all of the biblical truths inherent in Jesus' name were mentioned in the song, none of them are "mine" unless I, personally, repent. No one can "speak" me into the kingdom of God. Only as I offer my own will and admit to my own lost condition can I experience the power of Christ. Apart from salvation, any emotion of "peace" is meaningless.

Clearly, this song is by no means a modern-day replacement for "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name." It doesn't even belong in the same league. Instead, it would appear to merchandize Jesus' Name almost as something to be consumed. Wrongheaded on every front--in the emptiness of its Jesus; in the helplessness of its recipients; and in the arrogance of its speaker--this song borrows professed power from some unknown source. Quite frankly, I have no reason to trust it. What does it even mean?

It does not make sense in the context of Scripture. It's not about preaching. If it were, it could afford to contain even one element of the gospel. What it offers is, at best, a social gospel that sets people free from disease, addiction, fear, and anxiety--or, far worse, a Prosperity Gospel that brings "power, healing," and "life." It's not about prayer, certainly not the secret prayer that Jesus praises as the only kind God honors. It's about exactly what it says--"I speak" Jesus. In a day that undermines the authority of the Word of God and especially the authority of the Creation Story where God speaks and creates ex nihilo, it is high time we delivered a stern reminder that the only One who "speaks" and "it is done" is God Himself through Christ the Word.

"I Speak Jesus" doesn't check any of the biblical boxes for a song about the power of Jesus' name. As such, it doesn't fit anywhere on the scriptural landscape.