Grave Clothes

You shall call his name Jesus

21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name []Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." – Mathew 1:21 (NKJV)

Names carry a lot of meaning and power. What you name has the power to become. That's why we have to allow God to change our identity. God has always been in the business of changing names. A name gives you an identity. Joseph had to be told what to name Jesus. Jesus' name gives us an idea of who He is.

His name means: salvation, deliverer and savior. Why did Jesus have to be called that name? His name carries his function. For Jesus, saving is not something He does. It is who He is. That's why, everywhere Jesus is, people get saved. His name carries the function. To Jesus, saving is just as natural as a bird that flies in the sky.

12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." – Acts 4:12 (NKJV)

At the mention of Jesus, everything has to bow. Nothing can separate salvation from Jesus. Jesus doesn't just bring salvation, He is salvation. That's how come even casual conversations could lead a person to salvation. Jesus wasn't preaching in Samaria when He met the Samaritan woman. He was merely having a conversation. But that one conversation led to her salvation.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth – Philippians 2:9-10 (NKJV)

God is the one who gave Him a name that is highly exalted. At the mention of His name, demons tremble. At the mention of His name, everything bows. What hasn't bowed in our lives? We can take it to Jesus. For us to understand how the name of Jesus works, we have to fully understand the power that has been invested in His name.

God made His name to be the highest name. In His name, we can pray. In His name, we can claim our healing. In His name, we can expel demons. We can only do it to the level that we understand His glorious name.

What do you call yourself?

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to []Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. – Genesis 2:19 (NKJV)

And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. There is power in what we say. And a lot of times, we can say some bad things about ourselves. It can be hard to say positive things about ourselves if we think we are not where we are meant to be. Life is really a journey. And while not everything we experience is good, we can still choose to speak in Faith concerning what we experience and what we go through.

Have you ever seen how God speaks about us? Sometimes, it's almost as if He doesn't exactly see who we are and what we experience. God sees differently from how we see. That is probably something we have already discovered on our own. We ought to speak like God speaks.

Today, life might be painful and difficult. It might be really tough and we might have all the legitimate reasons to quit. Not everyone will believe in us. Not everyone will agree with what God calls us and says about us. What people say about us doesn't matter. What they think doesn't matter. We care too much about the opinions of people and remain stuck in our struggles.

Did you know that everyone struggles? I know, this word doesn't exactly feel so positive, isn't it? We always think If we are struggling, then we are not meant to have what we pursuing or what we are struggling for.