Today we are going to take a breathtaking journey into the importance of the concept of “naming” as it is presented to us in the book of Revelation. The idea of possessing a name or being named holds unrealized significance to the people of the end times. We either hold and possess a name in Jesus Christ. Or else we hold it in satan, and particularly in satan’s system of world commercial control.
A most prominent theme throughout the years of First Love Ministry has been that of purified identity. We have persistently championed the cause of purified identity as it applies to the heart of the church—specifically the prophetic church—in relationship to the culture at large.
But today, we take purified identity into its most practical theater yet—the end time theater of relationship to the commercial world—a world in which we all dwell (“where satan’s throne is”) and to which we all remain captive. Previously, we have written of God’s general positioning us toward “exodus” from this captivity, and on the responsibility that will befall us when this manifests.
But now we are going into yet deeper meaning and implication of this identity separation. In course of this, you will discover you been deceived under this present darkness to believe yourself to be SOMEONE and SOMETHING in this world that you really are NOT….
You will awaken from a fundamental illusion about your very name, an illusion lying at the heart of your world captivity. And when you do, you will diligently seek and call on the Name of the Lord to begin to find His possessorship of you in an entirely new way that will produce your executable deliverance from this world system:
“Blessed be … God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.” Gen. 14:19
What’s In a Name?
A name signifies chiefly two things. It signifies identity. And it signifies ownership. A name is like a flag. A flag indicates who has authority and possessorship of that over which it is raised. So does a name indicate authority and possession of and by one upon whom it is written, declared, sealed or branded.
The Book of Revelation is about a battle of possessorship over people signified by names. It is about competing claims to naming rights. It is all about who names you and whose name you hold to be your own, and who therefore owns you.
To appreciate this, we turn now to look at what Revelation has to say about our name.
Living a Dead Name
Some spiritual truths become so familiar over time that they gradually lose their significance to us. While they remain something we say we “live by,” in fact we become “dead” to them. Such is true about the name of Jesus. We have spoken and sung so much about the name of Jesus, that we are become numb to His Name. Our prayers ending “in His name” are by rote.
This truth is presented to us in the rebuke to the church at Sardis.
3:1 "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: … 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
So it is we say we live by, are identified by and are owned by “the name of Jesus;” but in practicality, we do not and are not. That is the meaning of “deeds” here. Jesus knows our deeds. He knows what motivates our actions. We may say we live by His name. We may pray in His name. And so on. But the name of Jesus is not our final motivator, our core identifier or the true mark of who really owns us.
[Before proceeding, you will notice (if you can read this in color) that the reference to the living name of Jesus above is in red, but the reference to being dead is brown. There is a reason for this. Red is the color of blood that is alive. Brown is the color of dead dried blood. In course of this article, we will use these colors to accent various thematic contrasts and comparisons throughout the book of Revelation. They will help us more clearly see them. All quotes relative to the living name of Jesus will appear in red. Those pertaining to the realm of death will appear in brown. So watch for this…..]
Eventually, we will apply this truth of living a dead name to an entirely different theater. But for now, we start with this so that we can avoid reading what follows through the eyes of over familiarity and lose the import of what the Lord would have us learn anew.
The Name Above All Names
The book of Revelation is a driver’s manual for navigating the end times. We cannot safely pass through these times without its wisdom. That said, Revelation is jammed packed with references to the name of Jesus and its flagship import in our lives as a name of identity, ownership and effectual power and authority.
Jesus has several names inscribed on and about Him in different places as well as different dimensions of visibility. Let’s take a look.19:12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God…. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "King Of Kings, And Lord of Lords."
So here are a few things we see about the names of Jesus. First, they are of different dimensions. Jesus has a private name and He has public names. He has a name which no one else can know. Then He has names by which He may be made known to all.
The private name is important because it ensconces the concept of the innate right of privacy. Privacy is a dimension of sanctity. Privacy belongs to holiness and to sovereignty. The Lord retains an intimacy of secrecy that belongs only to Him. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Dt. 29:29). And the secrecy of His Name bears witness to this. Such secrecy of intimate sanctity is also to be extended to us, as we shall see.
As to His public names, Jesus wears His names in different places. He is named on His outer robe, and He is named on His thigh. And we are not told where His secret name is written, though I wonder if it is not in conjunction with His many crowns after which it is mentioned. All of this has prophetic significance into which we will not now peer.
Two of His names are specifically given to us. One is “The Word of God” demonstrating His expressive essence (which I have colored separately in blue). The other is the familiar “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” demonstrating the supremacy of His authority, something which will in turn apply to our naming by Him.
I have specially colored the phrase “Word of God” to accent the intrinsic inseparability of the Word and the Name, something which appears repeatedly elsewhere. As the Word of God, Jesus is identified as “the very expression of God's essence” (Heb. 1:3 CJB). And so this expression is embodied in His Name.
Ps. 138:2 declares the exalted union of God’s Word and His name. And it has been observed that, according to certain translations, God has magnified His word “above all Your name” because His name is only as good as His word!
The Promise of Glorified Name Transfer
So it is we see in Revelation 19 the central vital import of the identity and ownership of Jesus as God through His glorified Names amid His unfolding end time revelation. His glorious Name is the Flag, the Banner, the Beacon around which all the drama hinges and is unveiled.
In turn, He holds out the promise of imparting to His followers this same glorified Naming in all its qualities and dimensions! Let’s look further:
2:17 … To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.'…3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you … have kept My word, and have not denied My name….12 'He who overcomes, … I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, …, and My new name.
Again, see the import of the glorified Name in terms of these promises. See how critically core to all we have been recreated to become is the issue of identity in Christ apart from all else. As His Name is the central flag and rallying point of universal glory, so the promise of entering into the powers and privileges of that Name is our stake in the ground amid our slogging it out here below in faith.
To begin, note that the first promise of naming to us is that of a “new name” which contains the same quality and dimension of inherent sovereign privacy as His private Name!—“a new name written…which no one knows but he who receives it.”
Then see throughout in blue the intrinsic intertwine of the Word and the Name. The hidden manna is the Word of God by which man is to live, having the same qualities of the sovereign intimate “hidden” name. See how we stand as keepers of the Word in defending our relationship to the Name.
This comes back to the matter of “deeds.” We can only attain to the promises associated with the glorified identity and ownership inherent in His Name as we prove that we are keepers of His Word in Deed and in Truth. If we do not keep His Word, we cannot lay claim to these promises found in His Name.
Finally, see further how many other glorified Names are associated through these end time promises. We will have written on us the glorified Name of the Father! And we will have the glorified Name of the Bride, the New Jerusalem written on us. And we will have His “new” Name, that is, His secret Name of sovereign intimacy already discussed. No one else can know it, save for those of like Name to whom He bestows it.
Mortal Combat over Population Naming Rights
Between the early promises of glorified Name possession (Rev. 2-3) and the Lord’s manifest glorified Naming with our sharing in that (Rev. 19 and 22:4) exists a theater of conflict over naming fought from heaven above but experienced here below. The conflict involves the deposit (downpayment) of the Lord’s Name into us and upon us as we have already received it into our mortal beings:
God also sealed us and gave the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts. II Cor. 1:22 CEB
Note that to be sealed is to be named, as we shall shortly see. Now the initial deposit of the Name of Jesus into our lives at conversion takes its force and effect from the Redemption that was executed to procure our new spirit identity in Christ. This was our first stage identity / ownership transfer “out of the kingdom of darkness” and “into His marvelous light” of which we have already written in detail.
When we were bought by the Lord through His blood, He obtained the right to rename us by His Name to demonstrate His right of ownership. Furthermore, He instituted an ongoing cleansing program of saturation washing (ie, baptism) “into that Name.”
“baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Mt. 28:19
But, procuring this redemption and ownership renaming right involved a “hostile takeover” from the kingdom of darkness—viewed from its perspective as a “theft of slave property.” And seeing us as such “property,” the kingdom of darkness has already had us “named and claimed” on its terms, which we will elaborate later.
So it is we are first introduced to this conflict over name and governmental ownership in the letters to the churches:
Rev. 2:13 'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells….3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you … have kept My word, and have not denied My name….
Now a throne is a seat of governmental identity and authority. Satan has a throne as does the Lord. The conflict against the satanic throne over our initial identity transfer, our ongoing mortal retention of the living Name—and over our entrance into complete glorified identity transfer—is demonstrated throughout the book of Revelation. In that demonstration, satan moves correspondingly to the Lord to secure and lock down HIS NAME upon the slave population of the world, to assert HIS IDENTITY OWNERSHIP over the entire world population, and to prevent any further defections from HIS PLANTATION through the invasion of Christ’s redemptive buy back.
Revelation goes on to detail the intensity of this combat between two powers over competing naming rights and their claims to ownership by name—a combat that sees millions lose their mortal lives on both sides. This combat with its developing slaughter will occur in context of the world naming system that the devil inspires, which we will detail from Revelation in Part III.
First however, we turn to observe a further sealing work of the Father’s Name upon His own designed to preserve and protect them from and/or amidst the terrors of possessory combat; and to transition the end time faithful from the initial name deposit to the full glorified heavenly renaming convention.
The Father’s Advance End Times Naming Seal
Receiving the impress of the Name of Jesus on our lives at conversion is only the first of several developing and continuous impresses into that Name leading toward the final impresses we are to receive certifying our glorified identity status as His possessions.
Throughout the book of Acts we read about the many invocations of the Name of Jesus for the execution of various deliverances in the spiritual and the natural. All of this is actionable now under the remaining mortal veil. The Word behind that Name works to transform us internally as well as heal and deliver us externally and physically.
But there is a sealing of divine identity and ownership that has been reserved for the very end times. It is a sealing of the Father’s Name on His people’s foreheads ahead of and through the final climactic battles against the keepers and enforcers of earth’s SLAVE PLANTATION. Let’s read about that here:
7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; …, 3 saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads."… 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads….22:4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
So it is here we see that to be sealed is to be impressed with the Name. This intermediary end-time sealing ahead of final glorific Naming puts the Father’s necessary stamp of approval on us for securing us through the intense time of trouble appearing already and still to appear. For the intensity of battle has begun and will grow so great that without this sealing, yes, the elect themselves would be deceived.
Apart from the Father’s end time sealing none of us would have hope of making it through this era, of remaining true to our Lord or of escaping the coming full-blown marking system of the beast. It is, as Peter said, that “the righteous are scarcely saved.” We can thank the Father for his sealing that assures us of final safe transit through this tortuous birth canal to the New Era of Manifest Reign!
(For more on this special sealing of the Father’s Name, please see brother Earls’ article Sealed With the Father’s Name.)
&&&&&&&&&&
Having seen the special core importance of the Name of Jesus to end time salvation, we proceed in Part II to begin exposing and understanding the mirror concept of satanic naming beginning with Death itself, and its bid to enforce its seal upon the world’s people in offset to the Lord’s hostile redemptive takeover.
Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org6/17
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Page updated August 27, 2018
