For the
first time, the weather was kind! It was kind enough not to bear its volcanic
heat on all who were under its canopy! That day, which I had deposited into my
memory bank because of the special place it held in my life had good weather. I
was still a student at the University in Benue State, Nigeria, when all these
events occurred. I was given the responsibility of keeping the goal post when
we played a soccer match against an opposing team. The other goalkeeper played
poorly, behaving like a basket where goals from the opponents simply filtered
in without any iota of resistance. As his poor performance endued, I decided to
make a rescue plan by taking the responsibility of the goalkeeper.
My
performance shone like a new medallion and soon, everyone was shouting my name
from the four corners of the pitch. Although one or two goals from the opponent
still sank into the net under my watchful hands, my performance reduced the
ignominious defeat we would have suffered. Even when the strength of the
football match had waned, some people still saluted me with smiles from here
and there, GOALKEEPER! Some would say! The remarks were the kindest
appreciation they could offer for the rescue operation I undertook to save my
class from suffering too many goals that day.
Soon, words
have gone round my class about me. And a tall, hanky young man who had been
magnetized by my performance became my friend. Our friendship started. He would
call me Pius.
My
performance on that day earned my name a reputation. And that friend of mine
every time dropped a little memorial of that goalkeeping event in our
conversations.
Why did I
take the time to explain all these to you? I want you to remember that names
mean a lot. That was how the saints of old called God. Based on his performance
and what they have seen him do. He provided, Abraham called him Jehovah Jireh
because he saw provision. He manifested and Gideon called him Jehovah shalom.
All these are the names of God based on the encounters that the saints had. And
truly, God’s word is living and active and God is the same, yesterday, today,
and forever. If he has done it before,
he can do it again.
Why don’t people call the names of their children Jezebel,
Lucifer, and the devil? Simple! The
implication of the name and what the former bearers of the names have done in
the Bible or the secular world. Every name that is given to an individual can
influence the kind of life that the person may lead. Before you raise your
eyebrows, and say, brother Pius, that is not true. There are only a few
exceptions where the names of an individual may not tally with the character of
the person bearing the name. But in most cases, they do. This account for the
reason why people are very careful when selecting the names they want to give
to their children. In modern-day, you will rarely see people bearing the name
Adolf Hitler because of the kind of things that the previous bearer of the name
had done.
There is no one or anything that is without a name. Even God
who created the whole universe has names. And those names have a symbolic
representation of who God is to his children. When God created man in the Garden
of Eden, he gave him a name. The man that he had first created, he called Adam,
means the first man. And the woman whom he took out of the rips of the man that
he had created, Adam called Eve, meaning the mother of the living or the first
woman. God knows the implication of names. Names have a lot of implications for
what a person would be. The name a person bears can also hinder him from
becoming all that God has purposed for that man. When God called Abraham from
his father’s house in the book of Genesis 12:1-3, he had to change his name.
His name was Abram.
Genesis 17:5
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
For as long as his name was Abram, he was limited and the
plan and purpose of God for him to become the father of all nations was
hindered. That name as you would see in the Bible is associated with idol
worship. Until the time God called him out of that lifestyle, and changed the
name Abram to Abraham.
Joshua 24:2
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other
gods.
How can someone who is a worshipper of an idol become the
father of many nations through which Kings and Queens will come forth? It was
when the name of Abraham changed that his destiny and purpose opened for
fulfilment. The name Abram was simply a limitation to what God wanted to do
with his life.
Jacob in the Bible was associated with a lot of suffering.
He was running away from his brother Esau whose blessings he took by subtlety.
When he got to his uncle’s house, Laban, Jacob was employed to take care of the
sheep of his uncle. He laboured 14 years, day and night, tortured by the fierce
cold of the winter and was in constant peril of the wild beasts of the field.
Every loss of the sheep that he was employed to take care of, Jacob had to pay
whether it was stolen by night or by day.
Genesis 31:38-42
38 This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy
she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not
eaten.
39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I
bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day,
or stolen by night.
40 Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the
frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
41 Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee
fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou
hast changed my wages ten times.
42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the
fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God
hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee
yesternight.
His suffering continued until one day when he encountered
God through an angel, his name was changed from Jacob to Israel.
Genesis 32:28
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but
Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast
prevailed.
That was the beginning of a turnaround for Jacob. All the
troubles that followed him with his former name Jacob, changed the moment his
name was replaced. That name was like an embargo, and a limitation upon the
life of Jacob for as long as that name was upon his life, suffering,
affliction, and sorrow will never depart from him. If not for intense suffering,
how can a man serve another individual for seven years just to marry a woman?
It felt like he was under a spell because the moment Laban asked him what shall
his wages be, it was Jacob who said he would serve Laban for seven years for
his younger daughter Rachel. He was used to suffering. No one asked him, he decided to place that
upon his life. No matter how beautiful Rachel was, Jacob would have said I will
serve you for six months or even a year. But he opened his mouth and called
seven years. After the seven years were over, he served again for another seven
years just to secure the hand of the woman he dearly loved because Laban had
deceived him.
All of this sorrow and affliction was upon the life of Jacob
until he met the angel of the Lord at Peniel that changed his name from Jacob
to Israel. And from the moment his name was changed, his life also changed.
While the previous name was associated with so much suffering and affliction,
the present name was related to blessings. His new name became so important
that the whole nation of Israel took the name as a country. The name was changed
because the previous bearer of the name was suffering.
There was a man in the Bible whose name was Jabez. His
mother who bear him as a result of her affliction decided to give him the name
based on the present circumstances of her life. She called his name Jabez, and
in her words, I bear him out of sorrow. The name Jabez followed him wherever he
went. He became a man acquainted with sorrow and affliction. To me, it seems
like wherever Jabez went even if the place was a spring of water, Jabez would
still be in drought. The reason was simple! He was bearing a name that was a
typical representation of affliction and sorrow. Which is the reason why as a
believer we must not limit ourselves to our present circumstances. The mother
of Jabez couldn’t see the future. As for her, life has come to a stall. So she
named her son based on her present circumstances.
Friends, as long as you are a child of God, your present
circumstances do not define the entirety of your destiny. Jesus was born in a
manger, but he did not die in a manger. It doesn’t matter what you are going
through now as long as you have the seed of God in your life, your potentials
are limitless. So do not define your life by what you are going through
presently. If you are going through financial lack at the moment, it does not
mean that you are going to die a pauper. Kenneth Copeland was so poor at a
point in time in his life, but today, he has given more than thirty aircraft as
gifts to people. This man of God was so poor at some point in his life, but he
held on until God changed his life and blessed him tremendously. The same can also
be said of Kenneth Hagin, who has gone to be with the Lord and struggled with
poverty during the early days of his ministry. But later testified that any
money he needed, comes so easily. Why? These men did not limit what God wanted
to do with their lives to present situations. Are you sick presently and
trusting God for healing? That healing will certainly come don’t limit yourself
to the bed of affliction. Don’t be like the mother of Jabez who couldn’t look
beyond her present situation. Out of the frustration she was going through
decided to give her son a name that hindered him throughout his life until the
time Jabez cried to the Lord for deliverance.
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his
mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow.
And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou
wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be
with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!
And God granted him that which he requested.
If Jabez did not lift his voice to the Lord for a change of
story, he would have died a man of so much sorrow. But God showed him mercy
when Jabez cried to the Lord for deliverance, the Bible said the Lord heard and
enlarged his coast.
