What’s in a name?

Welcome to the one post that will change the way you look at your life forever! (I hope!)

I recently finished a women’s Bible study, with some beautiful sisters, entitled Exploring the Mystery Within. One of our first homework assignment was to make a list of five things we could declare about who we are. The first thing that came to mind was, “I am a child of God.” I declared it out loud and thought, that didn’t come out as I hoped. I needed to say it with more conviction. “I AM A CHILD OF THE MOST HIGH GOD!” Much better. Then it struck me, I am a child of I AM. As such, I have what He has, that He has given to me through His mercy and grace by what Jesus did on the cross.

Like the bad guy in the Austin Power’s movies, he had a smaller version of himself called Mini-Me. That made me smile, because that means I am a “mini-me” of Jesus. I am a smaller version of Jesus, striving to be more like Him every day.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph. 5:1-2 [NIV])

In Genesis 1:26 it says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. [NASB]

So we are all Mini-Me’s!

What’s in a name then? “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” [Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet) I fully believe that holds true for God too. His name is I AM WHO I AM (YHWH). Which is kind of confusing, but it doesn’t matter, because He still smells as sweet.

I AM WHO I AM is the divine name that is a name revealed and at the same time, is sort of a refusal of taking an actual name. It expresses God as what He is—infinitely above everything that we can understand and say. It is a mystery. And since the Bible study I just finished was about the mystery within, it doesn’t get much better than that!

In Exodus 3:14 God tells Moses I AM WHO I AM. Some Bible scholars explain this further as, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. They also say it means God says I WILL ALWAYS BE WHO I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN, and I WILL FOREVER BE WHO I AM NOW.

Jesus says in John 8:58 [NKJV] “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” By stating it this way, Jesus asserts His divinity and His eternal existence, because He is before creation. He exists without our timeline constraints. Because He is the I AM that is equally “was,” and “is,” and “yet to come.” (Your homework assignment is to read John 6:16 through the end of John 8. I did so in The Passion Translation and was amazed by how many “I Am’s there were in two and a half chapters.)

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:10 [NKJV])

And it is also like Father, like Son.

“The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature—his mirror image!” (Heb. 1:3a [TPT])

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” (Col. 1:15a [NLT])

God speaking of Jesus says, “but you are I Am.” (Heb. 1:12 [TPT]) And the footnote here goes to explain further: “As translated from the Aramaic, which is literally ‘you are as you are.’ This is a variation of the name of God related to Moses in Exodus 3:14, ‘I Am who I Am.’ There is an obvious connection here to that incident and endorses the truth that the pre-incarnate Christ was the One who appeared in the burning bush.”

While praying and thinking of what to put in this post, I heard this song by Stars Go Dim, You know me better. In this song he tells God, “You know me better, You know me completely, You know me true, You know me as someone who looks like you.” And right there I lost it and started crying. I am someone who looks like God. I have the same features as my Father! The song goes on to say, I am who you say I am. Which brings me back to my homework assignment. Five things I can declare about who I am.

So who does the I AM say I am, by the gifts He has given to me to further His Kingdom?

1. I am a child of the Most High God
2. I am an encourager
3. I am resilient
4. I am a salty, shiny witness
5. I am fruity (Galatians 5:22-23)

Then I saw this on a t-shirt from Christian Faith Gift Shop, “I took a DNA test and God is my Father.”

Which makes me a child of the Most High God, just like I said at the beginning!

And finally, who am I? I am willing, send me. Because “I will declare your name to my brothers…” (Ps. 22:22 [NIV])

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