First and foremost, one of my biggest "lessons" from God was to learn about His Holy Name. God's name is Yahweh. After buying the Restoration Study Bible which replaces "LORD" in the text with Yahweh and "GOD" in the text with Elohim, I feel as if I know Him a bit better. It's taken me on a journey from worshipping and loving "God" to worshipping and loving YAHWEH -- bringing my relationship with Him to a new level of intimacy.
I am now on a first-name basis with my Sovereign.
God never wanted His name to be forgotten. Over the ages, the Jews have made it blasphemy to say the Holy Name, which is why they call Him "HaShem", which literally means "The Name" in Hebrew. The King James translators did not include the name Yahweh in their texts, apparently also keeping with the tradition that the name of YHWH was too sacred. Instead, they substituted the capitalized LORD and GOD for Yahweh and Elohim.
As a result, the Bible loses a lot of flavor in the text when Scripture exalts God's name -- and yet doesn't mention His name anywhere. Not only that, it loses a personal aspect of knowing God by name, rather than the cold, unreachable title of GOD.
The word "god" can also be attributed to graven images, false gods, and the like. The way to differentiate our God from other gods is to proclaim His NAME.
Knowing God's name also helps to further understand His son Jesus (who's Hebrew name is Yeshua). Yeshua literally means "Yahweh is Salvation". A lot of translators spell His name as Yahshua, thus incorporating "Yah", which is the poetic, shortened version of Yahweh.
The one place in all the Bible where the King James translators "missed" taking out the name of "Yah" is in Psalms 68:4, which reads:
Sing to God, sing praises to His name;
Extol Him who rides on the clouds,
By His name YAH,
And rejoice before Him.
I've always known God's name, however, I truly feel as if He wishes me to use His name more in prayer and to study His name more in Scripture. This is His answer to my prayer of wanting to get even closer to Him in my life. The first step to intimacy with the Most High is knowing His name and being comfortable calling Him Yahweh in prayer.
~~Becka
Its always nice to see more passionate-about-God-folks. Unfortunately not many of my Christian friends and family members have a strong love for God. I feel like the odd one out at times. Nonetheless, I've learned just to LOVE Him anyway.
ReplyDeleteOut of all the Lord's Hebraic names, I really love Yahshua. Perhaps it the sound of it ---its just special to me. In my prayer language, lately the Holy Spirit always has me use Yahweh, Yeshua or often Yashua, sometimes Jehovah, when refering to Him. I never really thought much if it before but it makes me wonder if Hebrew is God's native tongue: is this the language He used to speak the world into existence? If so, how very intimate it is to speak and know the Word as He is. God's language is his word, and Christ's very nature, for He is the Word. Still, I think translations of His name are adquate but there is always something special about the original langauge.
I once heard a teaching that mentioned unbelievers and the devil speak use the more general Elohim'---they do not know God as redeemer.
I know what you mean by being the "odd one out". I'm surrounded by people who claim to be Christian but who don't act like it. They might genuinely be Christian, but perhaps they've fallen away.
ReplyDeleteI'm the only one I know in my everyday life who passionately LOVES the Lord. My sister and her family are strong Christians, but I don't see them every day as they live about 50 miles away. My husband seems more agnostic nowadays than Christian. He claims to believe we shouldn't preach anything with certainty because we can't possibly know the mind of God. That verses from the Bible should be preached as "what if" instead of "absolutely".
But that kind of thinking is building your house on the sand. If the entire Bible is opened up to the "what if" argument, then "what if" Christ isn't God? "What if" there's another way to Heaven? "What if" He was never resurrected?
If you don't "what if" that part, but "what if" other parts, then you're picking and choosing what to believe, whereas I think you either believe it or you don't.
None of our friends believe, and those who claim to believe were once on fire but are now worldly. I feel like an island, but I know God put me here in this family for a reason. I love everyone in my circle of family and friends very dearly. But I believe God put me here to be a light for Him, even if they don't come to Him.
My life has given me every excuse to fall away and turn my back on God. And I did for awhile. But I believe God Himself has been fueling my faith because I've always had a passion for Him, even when I was far from Him. Because even in my fallen-away state when I was writing erotic romance, I was closer to Him in prayer and study than any of my family and friends.
~~Becka