What Is Your Name

“What is Your Name”

By

Elder Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

Gen.12:2 “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”

There is an old saying that goes “sticks and stones may break my bone, but names will never hurt me”

That’s a lie because a name identifies who you are. The dictionary says that a name is the distinctive designation of a person or thing. A name is what separates one person or one thing from something or someone else. If Ed McMahon came in here and said I have a $10,000,000.00 dollar check for man or for woman, every man or woman would stand up and try to claim that check. However if he came in here and said I have a $10,000,000.00 dollar check for Melvin Maughmer, Jr. he has made a distinctive designation that has separated me from every other person here, because he specified who the check was for by the use of my name.

Shakespeare asked “What’s in a name” a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Many people, like Shakespeare, would say that a name is not important; however, the importance of a name is paramount. In the Bible the name of a person described their character and literally set the tone for their life. In Gen.35:18 Rachel, the wife of Jacob, travailed and had hard labour giving birth to the youngest son of Jacob. Rachel was in so much pain and her labour was so bad that she died giving birth, but with her last breath she called the name of this child “Benoni”, which means the son of my sorrow or son of my pain. Can you imagine going through life with the name sorrow or pain, being teased by the kids as the son that caused the death of his mother. Just imagine what that would do to the psyche. She called his name Benoni, but Jacob said no his name will not be Benoni, but he will be called “Benjamin”, which means the son of my right hand.

Because there is something about a name immediately this son of Jacob went form being associated with sorrow and pain to being associated with honor, power, and authority simply because of his name.

There are many different names of God, which describe His character and so it was in the Bible of people their names described the character, but sometimes their names represented one thing, but their character was something different. Absalom, the son of David, name meant father of peace; however, his character was that contrary to the meaning of his name.

What is your name?

We live in a society both in the secular world and the church where people strive for position because with position comes “title” and man has placed a great deal of emphasizes on titles. Because titles bring a level of prestige and popularity and the flesh desires prestige and popularity.

If we look at a couple of examples in the Bible we find that in Acts 8:18 Simon, the sorcerer, seeing that by the laying on of hands demons were cast out offered the disciple money in order that he would have that power. He was looking for prestige and popularity, which was self gratification and not for the exaltation of God. In the 19 chapter of Acts we find the seven sons of Sceva, who tried to cast out demons, but they didn’t have a name. The evil spirit said Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you. In other word, what is your name. The seven sons of Sceva couldn’t answer the question so the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them and sent them out of the house naked and wounded simply because they didn’t have a name.

The Bible says in Gen. 12;2 “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing”. This is a promise to Abraham. Once we come into the family and are filled with the Holy Ghost we become the spiritual offspring of Abraham and are entitled to the inheritance of the promises.

God said I will make thy name great, He didn’t say I will make your title great, He didn’t say I will make your position great. He said I will make your name great.

What is your name?

Whenever God spoke to someone He often said something like fear not for I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Eventhough they may not have known who God was on a personal basis, they knew for sure who Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were. Therefore they were able to associate who God was and what He was capable of doing based upon their name. So they were able to be comforted and not be afraid.