What's In a Name?

During my years in Banner Ministry (the early 90's), God birthed in me a powerful and lasting love of studying some of the many names in scripture by which He's called.

In the fall of 2006 God called me out of the drought stricken wilderness where I'd been wandering for several years. He began delivering, healing, restoring, and bringing me into His place of promise. I was overwhelmed by His love and power and what He was doing in my life. I wish I could think of a stronger word than overwhelmed to describe how totally blown away I was by God's participating presence. There is no way to measure the gratitude that flowed like a river in my heart.

As part of satisfying the hunger and thirst for Him in my spirit, God prompted me to feast on truths of Who He is by meditating in my devotional time on some of His names. I'm going to begin sharing some of the thoughts I wrote in my journal during that time in posts on the the blog. The entries will begin with the words "Our God Is ...." and are based on my thoughts from time spent reading from the book, Living and Praying in Jesus Name, by Jack Hayford and Dick Eastman. It's one of my absolute favorite devotional books of all times.

God has taught me so much about Himself through the study of His names over the years. There are more names and descriptive titles of God in scripture than anyone has ever been able to accurately count (even Herbert Lockyer in his wonderful book, All the Divine Names and Titles). To me, that's because God's names reveal facets of His nature - of His person - and our great and awesome God, my dear friends, is INCOMPREHENSIBLE - unfathomable! Were we to ascribe every name within the bounds of our comprehension to Him, it still would not adequately describe Him.

Oh, the wonderful things we learn about God from His names! And, oh, the insights He gives us from what those names mean for our daily living. I asked God to wash me with the water of His word as I studied and meditated on His names. In His great faithfulness, He bathed me daily in the cleansing freshness of a knowledge of His name. I pray that He will do the same for you.

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name

in all the earth!

Psalm 8:9