Names

 This past Sunday night, the Lord gave me a message to share with a group from our fellowship that were coming together. Some who were not present, asked if they might have a copy of it. Since simple notes don't translate meaning that well, I felt I would write something, led of His Spirit, that might communicate what He said through me that evening. I pray His words bless you, speak to you, and call you by name.

But now O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the One who formed you says, 'Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name, you are Mine.' " Isaiah 43:1

What's in a name? That's an age old question, and if we give any thought to it at all, we know that the answer is, quite a lot. Quite a lot indeed.

In ancient cultures, a great deal of thought went into the name a child was given when born. It was the hope of the family that the name given would define the character of the one named as they matured into adulthood. Today, in the west in particular, that's not really the case, though parents still try to select a name that sounds beautiful or grand to them, but even those names, known or not, almost always have a root meaning. The name can mark us, whether we realize it or not.

However, it isn't our birth name that exerts the most effect upon us. It's the names given us by others. Others that often mean them for our hurt. Names that can come from the coldness and enmity of an unforgiving culture. Names that are put upon us and have their root in the hatred of the enemy of our souls, satan. Names that can even come from the church itself. And last, maybe the most damaging of all; names that we put upon ourselves. All of them can scar us. All of them can seek to make us take their meaning upon us. All of them can become who we identify ourselves as. All of them can lead us to use them as a means of defining who we are. All of them can become a means to holding us in captivity to their meaning. All of them can become our prison. An identity prison that we have no idea of how we might escape.

The number of names we can take on are endless; Fool, loser, failure, screw-up. Not smart enough, beautiful enough, skilled enough, or simply not enough to be worthy of anyone's love. Maybe the most common name we take on is simply, "Not Enough." We're not enough for anyone or anything. We're not enough even for Him. What we need to know, must know, is that all of these names, no matter the source, are a lie. None of them are the name He gave us when He created us. When He created us, He gave us a name that no one else, NO ONE ELSE, in all of the human race's history has been given. A name that carries with it His purpose, His destiny for us. He knows our name, and He passionately seeks that we should know it as well. He created us for Himself, and it is on in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, that we may know what that name is. Those without Him, never do discover it, and they never live in that name. Tragically, far too many who have come to Him, never learn the name He created them for either. They have spent too many years living under the labels placed on them by others, or even themselves. Yet there is a pathway, Jesus Christ, through which those names, and all their destructive power can be done away with. That pathway is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and His cross. At the cross, His cross, the burden, the prison of those names, all of those names, is rolled away. Canceled.

We, you and I, have had so many of these destructive names placed upon us. We must take them, all of them and each of them to His cross, and there, at the cross, nail them all, singly and together, to it. With this nailing, we renounce not only the names, but all the power and resulting captivity they have wrought upon us. When we have nailed these names there, Jesus, in His great love, writes His name, and our new name over them all, in His blood. The curse of all those other names is broken. We can live in the power of His name and our new name. Our true birth name. We are free.

Someone said that no one has the authority to tell us who we are but God. It is only who He says we are that matters. Can you dare to believe that? Can you take all those false names, no matter how many, to the cross...nail them there, see them covered by His blood, and walk in the newness of your new name and life in Him? Allow Him to write that name, in His blood, upon your heart, spirit, and life....and then live in it now. Take a moment right now. Think on those names, false names, whose tyranny you've lived under. Now take them to Him, to the cross, and give them all to Him. Lay hold of your new, true name, written down in glory as the old hymn says. Carry it through this life, and into eternity. It's who you really are. It's who you've always been in the heart and eyes of the Father.

Blessings,

Pastor O