The Power of the Name of God
Knowing the names and titles of God as revealed in the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, is much more than an intellectual exercise. By understanding them, we don’t just learn interesting information; we discover who God truly is and who He desires to be for us.
In our modern culture, names identify a person, place, or thing. However, in the ancient Hebrew culture a name had symbolic and often prophetic significance. When God revealed His names and titles to the world through the Hebrew people, He was showing us a dimension of who He is—His character, His purposes, and His will.
By coming to know God’s names and titles, you will actually come to know Him better. We cannot see God with our physical eyes, but we can know Him through His self-revelation.
Perhaps you remember back during your high school years when you met someone you found attractive. If you really wanted to get to know the person, what was the first thing you did? You tried to find out their name because knowing their name was the first step in building a relationship with them.
So it is with God. I am convinced that when we know God’s names and titles and we begin declaring them, trusting in them, depending upon them, and taking hold of Him through them, we will be brought into greater faith and intimacy with Him, and ultimately, we will have greater victory in our lives.
When God reveals Himself to us through His names and titles, He doesn’t do it just so we will know them; He does it so we can lay hold of and respond to them. For example, when the Lord revealed Himself as Yahweh Yireh, which means “the Lord Our Provider” or “the Lord Will Provide,” it was so we would respond to that name in faith, saying, “Lord, I trust that You will provide for me.”
Again, we learn God’s names and titles not as just an intellectual exercise. God’s purpose in revealing Himself is to challenge our faith so that every time we claim one of His names or titles, we will take hold of it and move out in faith toward Him.
Many of us have a wrong concept of God because Satan has blinded us to the truth of who He truly is. We have been deceived into believing that our Father is a harsh God of wrath and judgment. We tend to see Him as being mostly mad instead of mostly glad. An example of this is found in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30. In this parable, a man representing Yeshua (Jesus) was going on a journey, and he entrusted his possessions to his three servants.
To the first servant he gave ten talents, to the second he gave five talents, and to the third he gave just one talent. When the man returned from his journey, the first and second servants had each doubled the number of talents they had been given. When the master approached the third servant, the man responded by saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man….And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours” (Matt. 25:24–25).
This servant was ultimately cast aside and his talent taken away because he had a misconception of his master. He wrongly understood his master to be harsh, and it affected the way he thought and the decisions he made and caused him to be unwilling to take a risk with the talent he was given. Like that servant, we too can make wrong decisions in life when we have a wrong concept of God. When we see Him as harsh instead of as the loving person He truly is, we aren’t willing to trust Him with our lives and all we have been given.
Is He your provider, your peace, your savior, your shepherd, your victorious healer? When you take hold of the revelation God has given to you in His names and titles, it will strengthen your faith, give you peace, and bring victory to your life.
To read more from Rabbi Schneider's, "To Know Him by Name", visit MyCharismaShop.com