After creating all the birds and animals, God blessed Adam to give names to each of them and assume authority over them. A child is named by the father, for he has the spiritual authority to teach and guide him in his life. It is presumed that knowing the name of an individual provides sufficient information about him to control and lead him into certain actions or ways. Knowing the real name of the Almighty God has always been the deep desire of mankind to worship and pray to Him in the right manner.
Why should man know God’s real name to submit to Him? ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,’ and the word for God used here is ‘Elohim,’ which is the plural of ‘Eloah’ (Genesis 1:1). This is supposed to reveal the Holy Trinity being one despite being three: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. However, later God is referred to as Yahweh (Genesis 2:4). It is said that this name represents different characteristics of the one God, and in the Old Testament, most of the time these two names are used for God. Elohim is the general name used for God being the Creator of the universe, and God is thus majestic, powerful, separate, and distant from His creation. Yahweh, or Jehovah, is seen as God’s personal name, revealing His relationship with His people. God as Yahweh is personally involved in the creation and sustenance of all created beings. Yahweh is known as the ‘Covenant-keeping God’, who honors and fulfills all that He has promised to His chosen ones.
Another name given to God is Adonai, which means Master. Elohim is translated as God, Yahweh as LORD (written in all capital letters), and Adonai as Lord. All these names reveal only a particular trait of the same God, for name is supposed to project the individuality of any one. While blessing or revealing the future of his sons, including the two sons of Joseph, Jacob refers to God as ‘El-Shaddai, God Almighty’, the ultimate power and authority over all (Genesis 49:24). Everyone added a particular trait of God referring to a particular situation, and Abraham called Him ‘Yahweh Jireh, The LORD will provide’ when God provided a ram for sacrifice in place of Isaac, his son (Genesis 22:14).
Thus God has no beginning and no end, high above and completely independent of His creation yet involved in its sustenance. He needs nothing, depends on nothing and is not indebted to anyone for anything. He is holy and perfect in every way, and nothing can be added to Him. He is distant yet so close to hear the small cry of any of His created beings to reach out and help.
Apostle Paul has mentioned the ‘riches of the glory of the mystery,’ which is Lord Jesus, as ‘the mystery that has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints’ (Colossians 1:26-27). Why did he mention the Lord Jesus as the mystery, and what is the hidden glory? This is related to the name of God and His created beings. God first commanded Abram to leave his people and move to a new place with the promise ‘in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 12:2-3). Since Sarai, his wife, was barren, this would have surprised Abram, but he moved in faith. God then blessed him, saying, ‘No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations’ (Genesis 17:5). In Hebrew names were expected to express the destiny of an individual. Abram means ‘exalted father, or The Father (God) is exalted,’ but Abraham means ‘father of a multitude’. God also changed Sarai, his wife’s name, to Sarah, and it is believed that God Yahweh added a part of His name to both to change their destiny.
Jacob wrestled with God on the night before he met Esau, his brother, and his name was changed from Jacob, meaning supplanter to Israel, the prince (Genesis 32:27–29). He sought to know God’s name but was told, ‘Why is it that you ask about My name? and He blessed him there’. Moses was confronted by God from the ‘Burning Bush,’ and he sought to know God’s name to receive the answer, ‘I AM WHO I AM’ or YHWH (Exodus 3:14). Since there are no vowels in the name, its pronunciation is difficult to know. It is supposed that Moses received that from God and could then use that for performing all those miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness. When Aaron was commissioned as priest, he received the right way to speak the name, and it was passed on to the next at the time of his anointing. The temple built by King Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the right way to speak the name of God was then lost.
The mystery of God’s name is that it can be used as His authority to perform various acts in the physical realm by using the power of the spiritual. The mystery of the name of the Son of God was revealed first to His mother, Mary, thus revealing His coming to be the much-awaited Messiah for His people. Lord Jesus first sent the twelve disciples with the message of salvation, and then He sent another seventy with the same task. After completion of the given task, ‘the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name’ (Luke 10:17). Using the name of the Lord in prayer and in spiritual warfare is not like using a key to open closed doors. We release our faith in the power and authority of His name as members of His Divine family, claiming the forgiveness from sins and power to proclaim and claim the resultant blessings.
Can anyone use authority in God’s name? Job was afflicted with great suffering with the loss of his children and all his wealth. Even his friends charged him with hidden and unconfessed sins for having suffered in this manner. Job was declared righteous by God Himself, and in faith he could declare, ‘If I have walked with falsehood or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity’ (Job 31:5–6). Job lived his life in a close relationship with God, for he was well aware of the ways of the Lord and walked in them. His knowledge of all that helped him in the days of his trials but could not avert any of that. God’s name is revealed to us regarding the purpose that is to be fulfilled by that. Moses received the name ‘I AM WHO I AM’ for the Israelites needed to be assured of the power of a God whom they did not know but had heard from their ancestors. This is a statement of the nature of Israel’s God indicating His eternal, uncreated, and absolute existence, yet this is not His name revealing all of Him, though we use it even today.
Our Lord’s Hebrew name is ‘Yehoshua’ which, over time, was contracted to ‘Yeshua’ and Jesus from the Greek translation. This name is more than an identifying title, but it represents a calling or destiny. Yeshua means ‘Yahweh saves or is salvation’ and this revealed his role in that coming to the earth. But is Lord Jesus only the Savior or someone more than that? He will one day come to judge the earth riding on a white horse, a symbol of purity and power, wearing many crowns (Revelation 19:12-16). The crowns represent various aspects of His dominion and power. But with this, ‘He had a name written that no one knew except Himself’ represents a role beyond that. His name is called ‘Word of God,’ for He carries the authority of God. There is another name written on His robe and on His thigh, ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS’ for He will judge everyone according to their deeds. Thus neither the one name that we know of God the Father nor of His Son is absolute nor defines His whole and complete divine nature.
The Scripture reveals His fullness as God: ‘For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’ (Colossians 2:9). Our Lord’s name, Yeshua, is complete in all respects for His role as Redeemer and Savior, for He heals our bodies and souls, for ‘By His stripes we are healed ‘ (Isaiah 53:5). He is the Provider (feeding the five thousand families in the wilderness (Matthew 14:13-21); He is the Protector and our High Priest in heaven, interceding for us (Hebrews 4:14-15). He fulfills all that the Kinsman Redeemer of the Old Testament was supposed to be.
God is infinite, and any name would bind Him to specifics, which cannot happen. The name that Moses received, ‘I AM WHO I AM,’ defines His fullness in Himself in totality and finality to which nothing can be added. The Egyptians treated their king Pharaoh as god, and all the miracles performed by Moses were to convince them and Pharaoh himself about the true and living God.
Apostle John received this revelation about the role of the Son of God in creation to say, ‘All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made’ (John 1:3-4). He further revealed His Divinity: ‘In Him was life, and the life was the light of men’. When God revealed light in the darkness of the void and formless earth, it was the light of the glory of His Son. It was only the shining of ‘this light’ that could enable the earth to get into form and be turned to produce all that He commanded. The blessing is to ‘as many as received Him; to them He gave the right to become children of God; to those who believe in His name’ (John 1:12). The authority is not to everyone but to those who receive and believe in Him.
As believers, our focus must be on the Lord Jesus and be like Him, filled with love, compassion, and mercy towards others. Apostle Paul has defined our expected conduct: ‘You were once darkness (not part of but darkness itself), but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8). First, we are light not in our own capability but ‘in the Lord,’ and secondly, we must live as His children to reflect His ways before others to lead them to Him. We must not desire to use the Lord Jesus’ name for personal benefits but for helping others and not think of its use as a mantra to open closed doors.
Apostle Paul reveals the way to glorify the Lord to us: ‘That at the name of Jesus every knee must 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, in the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:10). How much more should we be in awe of that mighty Son of God and revere Him for all that He did for us sinners to forgive and cleanse us and make us part of His family? The Jewish people revere the name of the LORD God and call Him Hashem, which means ‘the name’ in obedience to the third commandment. The Third Commandment is ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain’ (Exodus 20:7). This is not only about the importance of the name of God but also about the misuse of the name of God. It is a warning to not dishonor God’s name in any way, and we must be careful in our prayers also lest we violate this in any way. Though we have the authority, we must be cautious in asking in His name things that do not honor or glorify His name.
What’s the right way to glorify God in our lives? King David ‘the sweet psalmist’ prays to the LORD God, ‘Teach me Your way, LORD; that I may walk in Your truth, give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name’ (Psalm 86:11). David prayed for absolutely undivided attention to the Word of God in his life and to live in total obedience. Fear of the Lord means having great respect, reverence, and awe for God’s power and authority as revealed in His Word and His Name. This fear is not to stay away like the Israelites on Mount Sinai but to walk into His mighty presence like Moses, assured of His love and mercy. The one whom we love very dearly, we do not want to do anything to displease Him in any way.
Before going into any battle, the simplest or the toughest, David first sought the Lord to seek His presence and help to overcome the enemy. Even when he sinned with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uria, he cried out to God in reverence, ‘Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight’ (Psalm 51:4). He admitted his sin of hurting the very God whom he loved so much and Who loved him so much. We are warned to walk in ways defined by God’s Word doing His will in our lives. Apostle Paul shows us the way: ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts’ (Romans 13:14). He has further taught, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). When we surrender to the Lord Jesus to be governed by His rules, we break all relationships with sinfulness and forces of darkness and evil. We keep on getting tempted, and many times we stumble too, but we seek His hand to pull us out of deep waters. We deliberately put on Lord Jesus every day to submit to His ways in our walk of life by turning to live in holiness and righteousness. We get clothed with His character and live in line with that in everything.
Our God is merciful and comes walking on water to get us out of the storms that we face in our lives. Out of the twelve in the boat in the storm, only Apostle Peter dared to ask Lord Jesus, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water’ (Matthew 14:28–30). He did step out and ‘walked on the water to go to Jesus’. When we put on the Lord Jesus, He fills us with His capability to do like Him. But when Apostle Peter looked at the storm, he was afraid and began to sink and cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ The Lord did save him and likewise is always ready to help us. His majesty is not to be separated from His people but to be involved in all their ways and guide them, as the indwelling Holy Spirit does.
King David praised God and prayed, ‘You have exalted Your Word above all Your name’, thus upholding the greatness of Your promises, Lord. When we ask in His name as per His will, as revealed in His Word, we honor and glorify Him in true sense. It should then be our endeavor always to witness before others about what he has done and is doing in our lives. The real essence of praise and worship is not only in singing hymns of praise but in telling others about Him. Then it is not about me but always about Him!
