Who are you “Because of my Name?”

What do you do “Because of my Name?”

“Because of my name?” Means to confess Christ as Lord and follow His precepts with trust and obedience!

So hard, so easy, so few will… Yet, for by His grace and love, we can know our Lord—who He is and who we are in Him. Then, we can take hold of His empowerment and nourishment and trust—the things we have from our Lord now; what we learn and grow through will remain with us, past our leaving of this life and echoing into the next. What we have in Christ is now and eternal. Christ gives Himself totally to us. He shed His Blood and gave His life so we can have life—new life. This is also about how God's will and His glory will be carried out, and His second coming will come about in His perfect timing!

There are some passages on this (Ex. 25:8; 29:45; Lev. 26:11-12; Ezek. 37:27-28; 43:9; Psalm 96:10; Isa. 42:9; 48:6; 51:15-16; 65:17-25; 66:22; John 2:21; 6:54-56; 8:31; 14:1-23; 15; Rom. 8:24-25; 1 Cor. 2:9; 4:5; 15:35-57; Gal. 2:20-21; Eph. 1:3-14; Col. 1:23; 3:18-4-1; Heb. 2:7; 3:6-19; 1 John 2:19-24; Rev. 7:9; 21:1-8; 22:3-5, 12).

Yet, we have help! We can depend on the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, not in our pride or faulty, worldly systems to be a mature, faithful Christian. We are to be faithful and wise in Christ. See John 14:15-31 Study. The Holy Spirit has a prime role in our redemption, calling and empowerment. He comes from the Father to point to Christ and gives us the ability to know and accept Christ (John 7:39; Acts 2:1-33).

By Him, yes we can! We can Testify. Our role and responsibility are to know and make known who and what Christ is and to speak on His behalf by words and lifestyle. We are enabled to do this by the Holy Spirit. He models obedience for us to do the Christian life rightly with faith, character, and in His True truth because we have been regenerated and now have His interests in mind and in our will. We cannot have a good relationship with God and not with one another, or vice versa (Psalm 37:23; Isa. 42:1; 43:10-12; 44:3-8; Luke 24: 24:48; John 16:2; Acts 10:39-41; 2 Cor. 5:17-20; Eph. 2:10; 1 Thess. 5:18; 2 John 1-4; 3 John 1-4).

Abiding in Christ means total, surrendered devotion to the Lordship of Christ; we behave toward Him as LORD, Redeemer, and Savior, not just a casual friend we can occasionally call "dada." To grow in our Christian formation, our will must be sacrificed to God's will so that we are totally at the disposal of our Lord. Our daily lives, our ministry, our plans and purposes, and our thinking and actions all must filter through the sieve of who He is and who we are in Him. So the refuse of our lives, our thinking and misguided tendencies, is removed and the purity of His percepts are mixed into us. We must come to a point where we are surrendered and totally devoted to Christ. And, if this is a problem (and I am sure it is; it has been for me), remember that it isn't easy; do not give up, but give in to Him. It takes time. We must be in prayer, be immersed in His Word, and be discipled so He can “hit home” in our ways and thinking (Acts 6:1-6; Rom. 1:1; 9:3; 12:7; 1 Cor. 15:3-8; Gal. 1:15; 2:20; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 2:8-3:13; 4:6)!

The Good news of the Gospel is not just a tool for evangelism; it must be the prime staple of our lives as well. In fact, it does nothing good for evangelism, to which this passage attests, unless real love has hit us deeply. Love must make an impact on us so we can make a response back to God. God’s love is what changes our lives to be models for the lives of others. Our complete change from the inside out comes about because His real, true Truth is what the Gospel is supposed to be about in our lives. And, this message of the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ must be in us before it can go out to the entire world! If not, we become the noise, the problem, the barrier…The Gospel message makes sense and is accelerated when we show our love to God and also to His people. Then we will see more of a desire by the lost to be reached. All because of His work and our ability to be used when we obey His commands and call.

What do you need to do to take hold of His empowerment and nourishment and trust—the things we have from our Lord now?