That which our God promised Abraham is this: “I will be your (and your descendants’) God and they will be My people”. This essentially means “I will give My name to you”. When God said He will be the people’s God, not only does it mean that He will save them, but also that He wants them to share in and possess all the glory of our God.

In the world, kings take from the people what is theirs, but God is He who wants to share everything He has. This is God’s attribute. This is what He is like. It is His will that if He has anything good, He wants to share that with those who belong to Him. He is completely different from humans; He is unlike the devil. Hence we must not misunderstand our God. Do not think that God is trying to take something from you or withholding something back from you.

Hence the Bible tells us not to misunderstand God. It speaks about our fathers and to think of God in the same way. “What father, when his son asks for bread, would give him a stone? Even if you are evil, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more would God give you every good thing?” Yes, He will give us the good things. What will He give us? That which is good and the best. God gives everything He has by giving us His name. It is His name in which is everything of God, that He gives us.

But let’s say that a child is still very young. His mum has a credit card with her signature on it, and she can spend $1000 or $2000 with it. But can she give that to her young child? What happens if her son took that to school and then lost it? Kids can easily forget and lose things. Her son is not yet ready to handle it. That is why his mum doesn’t give him her card when he is young. He would have to wait till he grows up. Then his mum can give it to him. And in the end, she will give everything to her son. Usually, when a person dies, he or she inherits everything to the child(ren) along with their name.

In the past, God also wanted to give everything to the people of Israel, but they were unable to manage it. Though God wanted to give them His name they couldn’t handle it. Because they didn’t recognize the value of that precious name, God first trained them in order that they may know how precious it is. Thus God gave them the name Jehovah. This is a name that must be revered and feared. They were taught how much they ought to fear and reverence God’s name. But the name wasn’t revealed to them when they were not up to the standard to receive that name. God only revealed Himself as the Almighty and didn’t divulge His name. Yet since they became a great nation, God taught His name to them in order that they may know how awesome and precious it is, and how they must serve that name.

God was trying to train them, but the people at first misused God’s name, made an idol and gave it God’s name, and therefore profaned His name. Hence it took a long period of time. And in the course of time, they came to tremble in fear before God’s name, daring not to even call on it. They feared His name. And it was only then that Jesus came. Jesus came and finally revealed God’s name. Despite being those who had been trained to honor God’s name out of all the people, the Jews were out to destroy Jesus’ name. They tried to kill Him, rejected His name and did not accept Him.

Thus man is not worthy to be given God’s name. He has zero potential. So what does God do? He doesn’t think of giving His name to man; instead, He decides to change a man into a new creation. That is why He makes us become born again. Because of his sinful nature, a man simply has no capacity to handle God’s name. So He makes man to repent. Once he repents and becomes born again and thus belongs to heaven as a new being, God gives the name of Jesus into his soul-spirit. For this work, Jesus shed His blood and died so that man is able to receive God’s name within him. In other words, God had to sacrifice. He sacrificed to the point of shedding His blood to finally fulfil this promise. So now, His name is planted within us.

Hence the name Jesus that we have come to know is a more beautiful, honourable and fearsome name than the name Jehovah of the past. It is said that even those who take the name Jehovah in vain would not be guiltless. And the curse would go down to their descendants, to the third and fourth generations. So how much more the name Jesus will be? Whoever disobeys the name Jehovah does get a chance to become born again, but those who reject, disdain, and renounce the name Jesus won’t be given another chance.

The name Jesus was not just given to us to keep but for us to use it. So when the people were given the name Jehovah a long time ago, it was as though they were given a business card saying, “This is my name. Call me by this name”. They were given it to be aware of the name and who it is that the name belonged to. But Jesus’ name which has been given to us now is not a business card with the name Jesus on it; it is like being given a credit card that is under Jesus’ name. And we are told to use it. It is as though Jesus is saying, “I am you”. He has essentially committed Himself to us saying, “From now on, you represent Me”. Hence each of us is now a representative of Jesus.

What would happen if we misuse the name Jesus like a person that hasn’t been trained? For example, I give my old computer to my son to use, but he downloads all sorts of things on it, and soon it gets broken. Or let’s say I give him something important, but he breaks it not long later or doesn’t even use it. I actually had an instance where I thought, “Ah, I can’t give anything to him”. And I even told my son that I shouldn’t give those things to him anymore and that I blame myself for giving him that item. Similarly, even though people have been given Jesus’ name, they can’t even use it, but they simply have it stored away inside the cupboard when it is of such great value. When God sees that, He wouldn’t want to give it to them again. He would rather take it back and give it to someone that can manage it instead.

Despite God giving them the name Jesus, if people are still talking nonsense like, “Does God really love me?”, it’s really infuriating. By believing, one is given Jesus’ name so that he can fully represent God now; and because he is one with God, God’s honor is his honor, and if God is insulted, he is insulted; and if He does miraculous works, that becomes one’s pride. Yet what hope would remain if the person despises that name and doesn’t use it, completely ignores the love he received through that name by questioning when God ever loved him?

God would want to take back the name Jesus from such people. But because God made the promise, He is not going to take it back as long as the person doesn’t forsake and throw away that name. But the person could abandon it. What if he says, “I don’t need this name”, and renounces it? If a person is given a credit card, it is not going to be taken away from him. As long as he is wanting to use it, he can use it. But if he was to throw it away in the streets, what happens? Even God can’t do anything about that. Therefore once we received the name Jesus, we ought to use it more and more. We must not keep it locked in the cupboard nor despise it. We have to use this name more and more so that God feels glad about giving us His name and wants to give us more. By using Jesus’ name more, we need to fulfil more of the works that God wants to do.

As we are serving, we realize how much we lack in our abilities. We lack knowledge, we lack wisdom and we lack inspiration. That’s why He gave the name Jesus. He gave us the name in order for us to keep taking what is in heaven and use it; to pray and pray. If one year is not enough, then pray for two years; if two isn’t enough then pray for three. Semuon testified that he prayed every single day for forty years that finally he was able to build the Christian World Mission Centre. Hence we need to pray and pray continuously. We shouldn’t give up after praying for one year just because it hasn’t been answered. We need to keep praying to finally receive what we asked for. How wonderful is this! We have been given this great authority. Let us pray that we can be those who utilize the name of Jesus.

God our Father, You knew our weaknesses which is why You made us become born again and gave us the name of Jesus. Help us Father to use this name well. Though we lack much, give us the fullness of heaven’s spiritual wisdom, inspiration, and power to carry out the Lord’s work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pastor Ki-Taek Lee
The Director of Sungrak Mission Center