In Genesis 17:5, God changed Abram’s name. “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Abram means “exalted father”; Abraham, “father of many nations” or “father of a multitude”.
Every time someone called Abraham’s name, they were calling him a father of many nations, when as yet, he had no children and he and his wife were old. In changing Abram to Abraham, God added the Hebrew letter ‘hey’ (ha). ‘Hey’, the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, when spoken, sounds like our letter ‘h’. Every letter has a meaning in Hebrew, and the letter ‘hey’ means “breath, sigh, look, reveal’. When spoken, it has a very breathy sound. It is said to represent the breath of God, which we understand to be the Holy Spirit. I believe when God changed Abraham’s name, He breathed into him His Holy Spirit, reviving Abraham’s old body and enabling him to become the father of many nations. God also changed Sarai’s name. “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be” (Genesis 17:15) . Sarai means ‘honoured mother’ but Sarah signifies ‘mother of a ruler of nations’. Once again, God added a ‘hey’ (‘h’) to Sarah’s name – thus empowering her old, barren body to conceive a child. God changed the name of Jacob (cheater, deceiver, supplanter) to Israel (one who struggles with God) after Jacob had put away his idols and purified himself and struggled with God at Peniel. “Because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28). In the New Testament, Jesus changed the name of his disciple, Simon to Peter. Simeon in Hebrew means, ‘the one who hears’; Peter (‘Chepas’ in Hebrew, ‘Petros’ in Greek), ‘a rock’. In the Scripture, we see the transformation of Peter from a brash, vacillating, foot in his mouth, Christ denying man to the rock who stood up and preached on the day of Pentecost. Why have I mentioned these name changes? Because in changing their names, God infused the natural with His supernatural. And as born-again believers, we’ve been given His precious Holy Spirit, Who indwells us – Almighty God, creator of the universe, living in mortal men and women. And that brings me to another question. As a born-again believer, what do you call yourself? Do you call yourself an old sinner, or the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus? “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]” (2Corinthians 5:21 AMPC). Do you see yourself sick, old, and deteriorating, or healed by the wounds Jesus bore? “Yet it was our suffering he carried, our pain and distress, our sick-to-the-soul-ness. We just figured that God had rejected him, that God was the reason he hurt so badly. But he was hurt because of us; he suffered so. Our wrongdoing wounded and crushed him. He endured the breaking that made us whole. The injuries he suffered became our healing” (Isaiah 53:4-5 VOICE). Do you view yourself as poor, just barely getting by, living pay cheque to pay cheque? Or are you abundantly supplied, as the Scripture says you are? ““For you are becoming progressively acquainted with and recognizing more strongly and clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (His kindness, His gracious generosity, His undeserved favor and spiritual blessing), [in] that though He was [so very] rich, yet for your sakes He became [so very] poor, in order that by His poverty you might become enriched (abundantly supplied)” (2 Corinthians 8:9 AMPC). Instead of saying what the world says about us, we need to start saying what God’s Word says. God is faithful to His Word, which WILL come to pass in our lives, IF we continue to stand on it, no matter what we see around us. And lastly, Revelation 2:17 says the following, ““Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’ll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I’ll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name” (Revelation 2:17 MSG). Yes, believer in Jesus, we will have a new name, only we and God know. It will be a name signifying the new creation we are in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). It will reflect who we’ve become because of God’s grace. And that’s how we’ll be known for all eternity! So dear friend, see yourself as God sees you. Call yourself as He calls you. See yourself with a new name – more than a conqueror, chosen, royal, holy. See yourself as the special possession of God you truly are.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorIn this Blog, I want to share with you some of the things I've learned from many years of following Jesus. Archives
January 2025
Categories
|