Don't you love sweet smelling spring pastures? I think nothing compares to the fresh Swiss alpine pastures and their honey scent.
We are like that to Jesus when we call Him our Lord. Everything about us changes and we become fresh and vibrant.
For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] to God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Cor. 2:15 Amp).
When we belong to Jesus, we have been given His name. Thus, in His name, we will see healing ((Acts 3:6, 3:16, 4:10), deliverance (Luke 10:17, Mark 16:17-18), and salvation (Acts 4:12, Rom. 10:13). We have been told, furthermore, to do everything in His name (Col. 3:17).
So we have been given His name to demonstrate the presence of God here on earth, but the name is not a fact! The name is a person, not a belief. When we submit to the name of Jesus and seek God’s will in our lives, our fleshly desires that are embodied in our own names must submit to the person of Jesus and His will. We, as selfish human beings, have ceased to exist and we identify with the person of Jesus.
I once was trying to show an elderly Vietnamese woman how to complete a form. To my consternation she kept copying her husband’s form, word for word. Time and again I tried to elicit her own name but she kept repeating that her husband’s name was her name. It slowly dawned on me, that elderly women in that culture lost their individuality at birth, and were simply called by their father’s name and on marriage their husband’s name.
It’s like that with us when we become Christ followers. We relinquish our own titles, names, distinguishing degrees and personas and adopt a new identity.
If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new! (2 Cor. 5:17).
As a part of being made new we are to be given a new name:
I will also give to each one who wins the victory a white stone with a new name (Rev. 2:17).
Everything about us changes when we follow Jesus. And that’s a welcome change!
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*All quotes from NCV.