KNOW HIS NAME

Well, hello there dear gist partner. 

7 days to Christmas!! 

How are you doing? How are preparations for Christmas, and I mean that beyond cooking and flenjor, going? It is my prayer that our celebrations and plans do not leave Jesus out of the picture. 

Welcome to today’s gist, which I have once again began to write while sitting in Lagos traffic. 

I read something a while ago that I have been thinking on, and I’ve finally decided to share. I was reading the Bible, I honestly cannot remember the exact portion of Scripture now, when the subject of the name of God came up and when I read that, the thought that came to me was the fact that who you regard God as, what call Him, is usually a result of your experiences in and with God: when Hagar was visited by God through His angel, she met El-Roi –The God who sees; when Abraham found a ram for sacrifice instead of his son Isaac, he met Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides; when Samuel and the Israelites were delivered from the Philistines, they met Ebenezer –The Stone of Help; David whose life had been protected and preserved by God time and again knew The Shepherd; Isaiah who understood the mighty armies of Heaven and The Lord who sits as Commander-in-Chief told of The Lord of hosts –Jehovah Sabaoth; Abraham again was blessed by Melchizedek who was a priest of The Most High God –El-Elyon; the Israelites, in the wilderness, received a promise of health from Jehovah Rapha –The Lord who heals; when the Lord caused the sun to stand still while Joshua led the armies of Israel to defeat the Amalekites, the children of Israel met Jehovah Nissi –their Banner; when Gideon recceived the promise of peace and life through God’s angel, he met Jehovah-Shalom –The Lord who is Peace; Jeremiah saw the salvation of Israel and their retun to The Lord who is their Righteousness –Jehovah-Tsidkenu; and, of course, Jesus, while He walked on Earth, continued to speak with and of God His Father and through Him, Paul writes, we too can now call Him Abba!

The point here is that throughout Scriptures, we encounter people whose experiences with God shaped their perception of Him and made Him even more real to them. Take David for example; he knew His Shepherd who had provided for him, given him peace, exalted him, disciplined him in his time of error, given him refuge, so when he called God his Shepherd, it was a testament of his experienced and a reminder of how God will still be that to him. 

My questions to you now, dear gist partner, are: who is God to you? What do you call God? What aspects of God have you encountered? Beyond the generic, and sometimes rote, answers, who have you found God to be? It is the who you regard God as that shapes how you interact with Him, it is who you know God as that will determine what you think you can do or not do with Him, this is why Jesus asked His disciples: “but who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15). 

In different seasons of your life, God will imtroduce you to different aspects of Himself as you have need; sometimes you will need Him as your Peace more than any other thing else, other times you will need to meet your Provider, at some other times, you will need your Defender, certainly, He will always show up as you need to see Him the most. For me in this year, I have been introduced time and again to God who is my Support; too many things have drained me and made me so unable to carry on that it is simply because I am supported by God that I have not wasted away, He has held me, carried me on His shoulders, supported me and given me balance, that really is the only reason why I am still here. 

So I ask you again: who is God to you? 

If you cannot give an honest answer to this question, I invite you to think about your life and your seasons, in what ways have you seen God manifest Himself to you? Take note of them, write them down as a reminder to yourself of This God you have met with so that you always have a memorial to remind yourself of the manifold ways you have seen God. You know one advantage of having met God in a particular regard? You can always go to Him and say “Lord, I know You as my Xxx, manifest Yourself again in this regard” and He will show up for you, He will never let you seek Him in vain!

But if you are here and you have not received Jesus into your heart, the first way you must meet Him must be as your Saviour and for that don’t have to wait or delay; today you can receive Jesus into your heart: simply come to Him in sincerity, confess your sins to Him, tell Him that you believe in His power to save you, ask Him into your heart and pledge to live life going forward with Him fully involved and according to His terms. It is when you have met your Saviour that you will now begin to get introduced to the different other aspects of God. 

May God help us to truly meet with Him. 

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: our song recommendation for this week is ‘Yahweh will manifest Himself’. This song chants various names of God, different aspects of His personality, and invites Him to manifest Himself; it is a call to God to show up in His capacity to address what needs to be addressed, it is also a reminder of the awesomeness of our God and I pray that as you listen, you invite God to manifest Himself in your life in the capacity that you need Him to. 

Audiomack: https://audiomack.com/lyonoluwasegunfunmidaniel01/song/yahweh-will-manifest-himself-oasis-ministry-worship-lyric-video?share-user-id=140072136 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1JIuXJPKUam5ac8VlShvgh?si=ihd852n2SimqezQXqSFbTQ 

YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=UhFosPCyvr0&si=oCTxwLkwDU57f7MW 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you on Christmas day!!

Love, 

Achenyo. 

PS. Please keep my family and i in your prayers, it is our first Christmas without my father and it really is difficult for us, thank you.