I HAVE A NAME

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(This is part 4 - click here for part 1, part 2, part 3) 

How do you feel when you are called by your name?  Does it matter who calls it?  Your mother?  Your boss?  The doctor?  Your partner?  When you hear other names, do you think of specific people?

I have two kids and my wife and I thought long and hard about their names… we wanted a biblical name and a family name because we wanted their identities to be routed in GOD and routed in their family.  Although your name is not your whole identity, it is a part of it, and GOD knows it!

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are mine."

Isaiah 43:1 (NKJV)

Imagine being alone, nobody around; you’re walking on a deserted salt-pan.  The ground is cracked and you can see the large honeycomb-type patterns in the hard earth beneath your feet.  It’s the kind of place where the guys from Myth Busters blow things up – but they’re not here right now.  There is no wind.  Not a single sound except for the rushing of blood in your ears, that’s the ringing sound that you can hear.

Then, out of nowhere, you hear your name being called from the heavens.  A booming yet gentle voice, so gentle it gives you chills right to your marrow.  GOD has called your name.  Yours, not someone else’s, yours.  You feel comforted, yet convicted; peaceful, yet uncomfortable with the way things are.  And all that GOD has done is say YOUR NAME.

All of a sudden, you are important, you are no longer an insignificant nomad in a desert wasteland.  Finding your purpose in GOD is intrinsically linked to Him calling you by name.  When we worship, we call GOD by the names that we know Him by, when we pray, we do so in the name of Jesus – that’s because there’s power and purpose in the Name.

There is power and purpose in your name too, power and purpose that can only be recognised and activated by the presence of GOD; the presence of the Holy Spirit, in your life.

Be encouraged that GOD has called out across the universe and He has called your name.  When He called, a life began and creation was different.  When we worship our GOD, it's not as a face in the crowd - it's face to face with the One!