I know what you are going to say, “But God DOES have a name- he told it to Moses!”

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Yes, he told Moses his name, but let’s look more closely at that verse, which is Exodus 3:14-15… (The terms in parenthesis were added by the editor)

God said to Moshe, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be],” and added, “Here is what to say to the people of Isra’el: ‘Ehyeh [I Am or I Will Be] has sent me to you.’”  God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation.

What was that last command to Moses? Wasn’t it that God said this is my name and how I am to be remembered, forever? And what was that? Was it by a word? Was it a specific title or name? No, it wasn’t: it was by a description of who he is.

The Internet Dictionary defines a “name” as a word or words by which something is known, addressed, or referred to. So, in this respect, a name might not be like Steven, or John, or Henrietta, but as a description of who and what something is. That is the way God commanded us to know and refer to him- not with a single name but by the description of who he is.

Yes, we call him Lord, Adonai, Yahweh, Jehovah, God, and many other names, all of which are used to refer to him whether in writing or speech. But that is not how God, himself, said we are to remember him, is it?

A name, as we humans use it, is to identify someone who is like everyone else, i.e. a living creature, as separate and distinct from other similar living creatures. In a society of people, the women have different first and last names and the men, as well. Given the multitude of people, there will always be some duplication, but for the most part, the names we have are what identifies us from everyone else who is the same as we are.

But God has no equal- there is no thing that is like him, so a name is irrelevant, really, because he is the epitome of unique. That is why, I suppose, he uses terms of reference to explain who and what he is when he uses the word “name” to describe himself.

A good example of this is in Deuteronomy 16:11, which is where God states we are not to sacrifice anywhere except the place where his name lives. Again, he doesn’t say the place named after him, or the place with the same name he has, but the place where his name LIVES!

God is telling us that the reference to him is not a static and unique set of letters, but it represents who and what he is. God’s name is a living thing because it is God- he is The Father, The Creator, The King, The Judge, The Savior! He is too much to be restricted to something as confining as a name.

When he changed the name of Abram to Abraham (Genesis 17), it wasn’t like someone getting a legal name change, but it was to represent who Abram had become- from a father to the father of many. He did the same when he said Sarai would now be called Sarah (from mockery to princess.) And in Genesis 35:10, he changed the name of Jacob to Israel, again representing not so much a change in what to call him, but a change from who he was to who he is now.

Throughout the Tanakh, we can see the usage of the term “the name of the Lord” or “call upon his name” not meaning to use a specific title or word, but more so to reference who and what God is. It represents the reputation and power, the renown, and the authority of God.

Again, a name is just inappropriate for God because he is so much more than what we can contain in a simple identifier.

So, what does this all boil down to? It boils down to this: there is no one, right name for God because God is more than just one thing. Any name or title or reference which we might use to identify him is incomplete. Therefore, if you call him Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, Lord, God, Master, Father, Creator, Judge, Savior, Shield, Provider, or any other word that represents who and what he is, you are not doing anything wrong.

There is a group of people known as the “Holy Namers” who insist that there is only one true name for God, and if you use anything else you are praying to a false idol or a pagan god. These people, in their zealousness to know and respect God, are, in fact, insulting him by implying that God doesn’t know who you are praying to; and, even worse than that, they are actually sinning by rejecting what God has told us to do, i.e., remember him as he told Moses we should.

God never says he has only one name but tells us many different ways to refer to him; he even tells Moses, at one point, that his name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14), so should we be praying to “Jealous”?

Of course not!

God is beyond anything we humans can comprehend; he is a multifaceted spiritual entity that is not any single thing at any one time. God can’t even be referred to as an “is” because he isn’t just an “is”- he is, he was, and he will be, all at the same moment in time. To us, things happen in the past, present, and future along a linear, chronologically defined line, but to God, it is all happening now.

To conclude: Please don’t listen to the “Holy Namers” because God can’t really have a name, so call upon him using whatever name(s) you know him by, none of which will ever be adequate but all of which he knows we use. Trust me, he will hear you.

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So, that’s it for today: L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

I know, I know- love conquers all. Yeshua and God are love, and nothing is stronger than they are, so the obvious answer is that love is stronger than hate.

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We are told in the Bible that even sinners do good things for the ones they love (Luke 6:32) and that we should love each other as ourselves. So, since sinners love, and righteous people love, then love must be stronger, right?

Fine. But, if that is true, then how come there is so much hatred in the world?

And if we are to love others as we love ourselves, what about those people who actually hate themselves? You know who I mean- people who do things that are harmful to their health and refuse to stop doing it; people who purposefully say and do things that ostracize them from the general population (but not by being holy); people who reject friends and family in order to hoard animals until their homes are a health hazard. These people don’t love themselves, so how can they really love others?

There are many people who often prefer to hate and keep hatred in their hearts by refusing to forgive others. And, as much as I hate to say it (no pun intended), I count myself as one of that crowd.

I know the importance of forgiving, and I am much better at it than I ever was, thanks be to God and Yeshua, but I am still angry and sometimes feel the need for vengeance on some who have been unfair and very hurtful to me in the past.

We all know there is a very thin line between love and hate: these have got to be the strongest emotions humans have. If you want to see how thin that line is, go ahead and watch a couple of episodes of the old TV show “Love Boat”: no matter how much the couple hates each other when the cruise starts, in the end, they are all lovey-dovey and the world is wonderful.

Seriously, hatred can stem from love, but I don’t think it works the other way around. That old adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt” is based in truth. Sometimes, what we love about someone is not enough, and that love can turn into hatred: maybe not the “I need to kill you!” kind of hatred, but the kind where one no longer loves the other and must get away from the other person because the relationship has become poisonous.

Maybe the issue is not whether hate is stronger than love, or love is stronger than hate, but that they can be equally strong, and one needs something extra to overcome the other?

The quickest way to generate hatred in someone is to do them harm, either physically, emotionally, or socially. And, I believe (maybe you’ll agree) when we hate we leave less room in our heart for love. It’s as James says in James 3:11, where he says a well cannot give forth both fresh and salty water. The more we hate, the less we are able to love, and the more we love, the less we will hate, but in the long run, I believe that hatred will fill a heart faster than love will.

Why do I say this? Because I observe the world, I see people, I study history, I read the Bible, and I am not so naïve as to wish for something that is obviously not true.

But let’s go back to what I just was thinking, about that something “extra” that might give the edge to one or the other. I think I know what that is…it’s forgiveness!

I have seen how forgiveness can overcome hatred. In fact, in those “Love Boat” episodes, it was often enough forgiveness that changed their hearts towards each other.

Actually, now that I think about it, forgiveness is an expression of love, isn’t it?

Hatred is pretty much a simple thing, but love is complex. I don’t think we can love something about someone we hate, but I know, for a fact, that we can hate something about someone we love. And how is it possible to hate something about someone without it turning into hating them?

Because of forgiveness!

So, I have come to the conclusion that forgiveness is the thing that makes love stronger than hatred. Hatred is a part of who we are and must continuously be fought against. It is, like sin, crouching at our door always there, waiting to take us over, and when the Enemy comes (as he has done in the past) he will not take over through love but through hatred. He did it with the Crusades, the Inquisition, in Nazi Germany, and today he is doing it right here in America!

Throughout history, when people were strongly bonded together, it has been hatred that is the glue the Enemy used to form that bond.

God hates sin but loves the sinner, and he is not just willing to forgive, but he desires to do so (Ezekiel 18:23), so to overcome hatred, which only reduces our ability to love, we need to exercise forgiveness.

Hatred is the weapon of the Enemy and love is the defense; but, without forgiveness, love isn’t enough. Maybe that’s why we are commanded to forgive because God knows that without forgiveness, love cannot conquer hate.

Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to subscribe (click the button in the right margin) and also use the link above to go to my YouTube channel and subscribe there, too (click the Messianic Moment icon) because these are different lists. Subscribing only means you will be contacted when I post- no selling of names or anything like that.

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Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

When you pray, do you add “In Jesus’s name” or “In the name of Jesus, I pray”, or something similar? Maybe you like the Jewish version, “B’shem Yeshua!”?

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In the Gospels, there is a place where Yeshua says that whatever we ask for, in his name, we shall receive, so long as we faithfully believe that we will receive it.

Over the years I have heard and prayed with others, and so often I hear people praying and invoking the name of the Messiah, in whichever form they know it, over and over. I have heard people pray to God to give thanks for food, and after thanking God they say “In Jesus’s name”. My question is this: Why do you have to invoke the name of the Messiah if all you are doing is thanking God? I mean, if I am giving thanks, why do I have to do it in Yeshua’s name? He never said to use his name every time we pray, only when we are asking for something.

Praying to God should be heartfelt and honest, and to invoke the name of the Messiah with every prayer, whether asking or thanking and to do so over and over again, isn’t really what (I believe) Yeshua meant when he said to pray in his name.

Do you recall the childhood game “Simon Says”? You needed to be very careful to do what the leader did, so long as he said “Simon says to …”, and if you did it without him saying “Simon says”, then you lost and were out of the game.

I think sometimes people pray like they were playing Simon Says. They use the name of Yeshua over and over, for each and every single request, like if they didn’t then God would refuse them.

Oh, Lord, in Yeshua’s name, help me do better at work (God thinks to himself, “OK, I will”), and Oh Lord, in Yeshua’s name, help me to be a better husband (God thinks, “That’s a good one, sure I will”), and Lord, God, please help me to be a better father to my children (God thinks, “Hah! You didn’t say ‘In Yeshua’s name’, so NO!…you’re on your own!”)

Of course, this is a comical example of what I am talking about, and I doubt that God would refuse a legitimate, heartfelt prayer whether or not we asked in Yeshua’s name. I also think that God would not have a problem with us waiting until the end of the prayer, at which time we would say something like, “All that I have asked, I ask for in the name of Yeshua, the Messiah.”

Now, to be honest, I often find myself doing this exact thing- asking and invoking Yeshua’s name more than once in the same prayer. I feel there are some things that are just so important to me, I need that little, extra oomph to my request, maybe just so that I can convince myself that I really emphasize the importance of this, particular request. And, when I do that, I realize how silly I am thinking that God doesn’t know how important it is to me.

Prayer is something we do that we don’t really need to do because God knows our heart, and he knows what we need, and he knows the best time to give it to us. But, then again, he wants us to pray to him because when we do, at least for myself, it strengthens my bond with him. It lets me feel that connection, and when he answers my prayers, I know that he listened. And when he touches me I know he is there, and that we are bonded.

There is NOTHING in the world as wonderful, as emotionally fulfilling, or as loving as feeling the touch of God during prayer. And if we didn’t pray, we wouldn’t ever have that.

Asking in the name of Yeshua is not meant as some qualifier for acceptance, but as a means to give glory to God, through the glory he gave to his son, the Messiah. I know that sounds like circular logic, but here is how it works: first of all, we should always give all the glory to God. When Yeshua told us that when we ask for something in his name, and if we faithfully believe we will receive it (indicating our faith in Yeshua) then it will be done, that glorifies him (because his name was powerful), but at the same time, it glorifies God because God honored the word of his son.

So, by praying in the name of Yeshua, we give glory to both Messiah and God, but the main glory goes to God because, ultimately, he is the one answering the prayer.

It’s all a little confusing, I know, but the point is that God knows what we want and what we mean and what we really need, and when we pray and invoke Yeshua’s name, it doesn’t have to be for every single request, done over and over, and it certainly doesn’t have to be done when we are giving thanks to the Lord. In fact, invoking Yeshua’s name when praying thanks to God is almost a waste! Yeshua’s name is powerful, and it is influential, so why use it when we aren’t asking for anything?

The biggest mistake I have seen when Believers pray is that they go beyond what Yeshua said, and instead of praying to God invoking Yeshua’s name, they pray to Yeshua. Or when giving thanks, they give thanks to Yeshua instead of to God. He never said to pray to him, he never accepted people giving him the glory or the honor (he always gave that to God), and he certainly wouldn’t want us to pray to anyone else like so many do when they pray to a saint. When Yeshua said “When you pray…” he meant praying to God; praying to anyone or anything else is idolatry.

There is one last thing we need to remember: praying for riches, material rewards, or sinful things will not be honored. When Yeshua talked about praying, he was talking about asking for spiritual growth, real needs (such as health and forgiveness, not toys and fun-to-have junk), or when acting as an intercessor for others. The things we are to ask from God are to be those things that are godly, spiritually rewarding, edifying, and in accordance with the way God tells us we should live, which is found in the Torah. Those are the sorts of things we can faithfully expect to receive.

If you find yourself praying and asking in Messiah’s name often during the prayer, you don’t really need to do that- this isn’t Simon Says. God is understanding and knows your heart- just ask, with a contrite spirit and humility, for what you need, and when you are done, ask that God do this not because of your righteousness or worthiness, but because you are asking in Yehsua’s name so that by his righteousness and worthiness you may receive.

Praying in the name of Messiah Yeshua is sort of like knocking on the Speakeasy door, and when the little slot is opened, saying “Yeshua sent me.” so that you can gain entrance not because of who you are, but because of who he is.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, and don’t forget to subscribe here and on my YouTube channel, as well (you can use the link above to go there, then click on the Messianic Moment icon in the corner.)

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!