When I see someone I know walking towards me on a street, I do not think of them in a disconnected manner; I acknowledge that I know them. I usually do this by saying (among other things) their name.
Names are important. They individualise us, identify us, and they are the very first prophetic declarations spoken over us after we are born.
Understandably, sometimes people change their names. Maybe the name they were called at birth was abusive, wrong, or just didn’t sit right, but whatever the case, names mean something. Names carry weight. They carry definition and (for the most part) they carry purpose.
The Son of God also has a name. His name is not ‘source’. It is not ‘spiritual essence’. It is not ‘an ascended master’. His name holds the highest of importance.
In Luke 1, it says that an Angel instructed Mary that her firstborn was not to be called ‘Joseph’ (as would’ve been culturally appropriate), but rather, ‘Jesus’. There was a reason for this, and it was as follows:
“But the angel reassured her, saying, “Do not yield to your fear, Mary, for the Lord has found delight in you and has chosen to surprise you with a wonderful gift. You will become pregnant with a baby boy, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be supreme and will be known as the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will enthrone him as King on the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign as King of Israel forever, and his reign will have no limit.”
The son of God has a name and it is the Name above every other name. The name of highest honour. At the mention of the Name of Jesus, there is first a recognition of Who He is, and second, of what He does. His name identifies Him and then reveals His position.
I will never call Jesus ‘Source’, ‘spiritual essence’, ‘the universe’, or ‘ascended master’, because I identify Him as far more special and relevant in my world than that. His name personalises Him: His name MEANS something. I cannot depersonalise the one my heart so loves.
The enemy does not like the Name of Jesus because His NAME is KNOWN by the cosmos. The NAME of Jesus holds power and carries within it the mysterious far-reaching love, truth, and life of the Kingdom of our Father.
Philippians 2:10-11 says: “…that AT THE NAME of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
He has a name. I will say that name. My heart rests fully in that Name — the Name of Yeshua, Jesus.
Photo by Mads Schmidt Rasmussen