Your Real Name

If there’s one thing I am learning, it’s that we keep learning every day. Life is a journey of discovery, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that the best part of this discovery journey is that of self-realization. Why? Because as you get to know, understand, and most importantly – accept yourself (shortcomings and all) the way God sees you; only then you truly come into the place of real peace.

Today, I want to share with you something I learnt…. the greatest irony being that it is something that is really not ‘new’ to me per se, but which I count myself blessed to ‘know’ today in a deeper way, and something that I pray will minister to you also. This is one thing I love about growing especially as a Christian. You can never know it all, and sometimes even that which you think you know, you can come to realize with even greater clarity. This is why we never know God’s word enough, even if we were to memorize every single word in the Bible. There will always be fresh realization and revelation, and the same goes for our everyday lives as children of the living God. If we just plug in and anchor ourselves tightly in the Lord regardless… ours will be lives of constant refreshing.

But let me not get ahead of myself…. I believe this message is powerful because I believe it is something the Lord needs you to hear very clearly today. I pray He will open your mind to truly hear with the eyes and ears of your inner man, and to truly receive what the Spirit will speak through these words, in Jesus name. Amen!

So, you know I’m still on the Genesis journey right? Well today, I had one of those ‘revelation in what I have always known’ moments sis. Simply amazing…and amazing in its simplicity! 

Genesis 3 v 20 (AMP) catches my eye and I find myself doing a double-take. ‘The man called his wife’s name Eve (life spring), because she was the mother of all the living’. I have read this Scripture time and again over the years, but this morning I found myself wondering what it was doing in this particular place. I thought ‘Hadn't she been named Eve before?’ I mean, following creation, the entire story up to this point has been about Adam and Eve right? Well, as I asked these questions and more of myself, I flipped back to Genesis 2 v 20 and one verse at a time started to look for where mention was made of ‘Eve’ prior to Gen 3 v 20. I realized for the first time, that there was no mention of ‘Eve’ before this… The other party in the Genesis story up to this point was ‘Woman’ and on a couple of occasions ‘Wife’. I guess I had become so used to the story of ‘Adam & Eve in the garden of Eden’ that my mind framed the words I had read several times around this. But that is not the way the Bible reads… and there is a major message in this!

I asked the Lord to explain this to me because I was really perplexed for some reason. Go to the scripture and check for yourself. Gen 2 v 23: ‘…she shall be called woman…’; Gen 2 v 24: ‘…and cleave to his wife….’; Gen 2 v 25: ‘…the man and his wife…’; Gen 3 v 1: ‘…and satan said to the woman…’;and so it continues from Gen 3 v 2 right down to Gen 3 v 17. I saw that even in verse 16, God Himself spoke ‘To the woman’. He didn’t name her! As He spoke his rebuke, He spoke it ‘to the woman’. Again I asked, ‘Why Lord? What does all this mean?’

And the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me. Please hear and let this truth sink deep, sis.

The Lord said asked me to note that the woman was not named until AFTER she had sinned and was in her fallen state - naked and ashamed, hiding from the presence of the Lord. He asked me to pay attention to this fact. He reminded me that He had already given Adam the mandate in Gen 2 v 19 to name every living thing, and that whatever Adam called every living creature ‘that was its name’. He reminded me that ‘Adam’ the spirit man – male and female which He created, were His representatives on the earth, created in His image and likeness, and with His full authority to rule and reign on the earth. Then He said to me that all that happened when Adam called the woman ‘Eve’ was that Adam was following the principle of the identity that He (God) gives to His children, and calling the woman by her divine name and mandate. He said to me that He when He rebuked the woman, He was speaking to her sin nature, to her flesh; that He was not saying that this was who she was designed to be, or who she was.

The Lord showed me that we are given a definition of ‘Eve’ in Gen 3 v 20. Eve means ‘Life Spring’ – a beautiful name, a name filled with promise, purpose and potential. He asked me to think with my human senses for a minute and imagine what ‘flesh’ would have named the woman ordinarily. I mean, a woman who has sinned and also caused you to sin in such a major way? A woman who has brought a weight of hardship on generations of women (in childbearing) and men (in toil on a land that is now cursed)? A woman who has taken away your cover of the glory of God? A woman who has caused you to be cast out of Eden (the place of God’s delight) with its abundant provision and protection? And you know that as Adam, flesh would never allow you give cognizance to your own role in accepting to also eat of the fruit that was offered. Flesh would not remind you that you also were given the commandment – in fact, you were the primary custodian of the commandment not to touch the tree, or that you could easily also have said No! Flesh would never allow you to accept those thoughts. No, no ,no! Flesh would lay all the blame squarely on the woman and her guile, and what her 'evil' intentions might have been, etc etc. And through all these, if flesh was to have named the woman, she would then have been called some name which would translate to mean something like ‘Burden’ ‘Liability’ ‘Destroyer’ or worse. Maybe if flesh had named the woman, she would have been the first Bible character named ‘Mara’. Do you see where the Lord was taking me?

And again the Lord said to me… ‘Adam named her Eve…“Life Spring” because that is the name that I know her by. That is the name I called her to be from the foundations of the earth…and that is the name that she is!’ God said to me that He does not name us according to our sins, shortcoming and failings in life. No sis, He does not! If she had already been called Eve at creation, and if He had rebuked her as 'Eve', He would have been defining her spirit-being according to a sin nature which would not be in agreement with 'the image and likeness' of Himself. He said that despite the weight of her sin of disobedience, He already had a redemption plan and He already knew His victory over sin and the devil. Knowing this, He was not going to call His precious creation after things that had happened in the flesh, and especially not when He had already declared all of His creation – herself included, ‘Good’!

Sis, the word of the Lord for you today is that no matter the labels the world has put on you because of your sins – past, I dare say ‘present’, and certainly future; that is not the name the Lord calls you. Regardless of the names that you yourself have put on yourself as a result of secret sins, of things from your past or present which everyday hold you bound in fear of discovery and in condemnation; regardless of those names that people have called you because of what they (and perhaps you?) consider to be failings in your life – unmarried; divorced; single parent; raped; spoiled; broken; unfit; jobless; struggling financially; overweight; uneducated; one kind of failure or the other…. Regardless of all the above, that is NOT what God called you from the foundation of the earth, and that is NOT who you really are!

The Lord said to tell you today that He has looked past all of that, and today He names you afresh! He said to remind you that He formed you, and He called you ‘Good’. Can you please truly believe this? God said to remind you that He was intentional about bringing you into this world. He has specific reasons why He birthed you. He has specific reasons why He has allowed everything in your life to be. He says to remind you that you don’t have to understand it all… but you have to know that His word is TRUE and ALL things are working out for your good and for a far greater weight of glory than you could ever imagine! He said to remind you that you were born for ‘signs and wonders’ and the fact that you have grown into adulthood contending with one challenge or the other does not invalidate this divine assignment on your life. You are the fruit of a womb, and God say’s to remind you therefore that you are His reward… and that this is true regardless of whether your birth/foster mother/parents wanted you or not. Their mistakes do not invalidate the word of God in and over your life.

The Lord said to remind you that the enemy is a beguiler, a cheater, a deceiver…and his strategies are many and varied, and sometimes you have succumbed and you will succumb; but God assures you that He will never name you differently because of this. God says to remind you today that you are ‘EVE’ - a life spring. It is through you, your experiences and testimonies that life will come forth …both literally through your womb, and otherwise as you commit to being a blessing in the lives of others and helping them come to and remain anchored in the way of everlasting life in Christ. God said to tell you that you are a Life Spring as long as you remain focused on walking in His will and way, and allowing Him lead you into the fullness of His assignment for your life here on earth.

God says I should tell you today to shake off the labels, the many negative names. He said to tell you to shake off the names you have accepted to be called., to shake them off violently!. He says that until we release what flesh and the world and the devil call us, and embrace what ‘Adam’ has called us, it will be hard for us to truly enter the place of God’s rest and live a life of His supernatural peace and abundance here on the earth. God says to remember that He has called us ‘Good’; ‘Blessed to be a blessing’; ‘Ransomed’; ‘Forgiven’; ‘Renewed’; ‘Restored’; ‘Sanctified’; ‘Justified’; ‘Pleasing to Him’; ‘Righteous in Him’; ‘External excellence’s’; ‘Joy’s to generations’; ‘Favored’; ‘Loved’; ‘Worthy’; ‘Kings and Priests’; ‘Brethren of Christ’; ‘HIS OWN’. His own, sis! His own!

The Word of God is filled with these and so many more names that are His prophetic description of who you really are as His child. Today the Lord asks that you and I press deeper into Him and His Word, so that we can truly know that no matter the situations and circumstances of our lives, in Him we have a glorious name and that name is our heavenly mandate and our heavenly reality.

I don’t know about you, but this is such a blessing to me… because more than anything else, today I know again with deeper insight and clarity that my name… my real name…all my real names (Forgiven; Saved; Anointed; Qualified; Chosen; Loved) they all add up to this one ‘WINNER’! Halleluyah! The Lord will help you truly find and know you and your real name my friend, even as He is surely helping me.

Be blessed sis… for you surely are!