When you know your name, you will never find yourself responding to someone else’s name. And the name that you respond to, is the name that you take on.If they call you stupid and you respond to the name, you will find yourself doing stupid things. If they call you clever and you respond to the name, you will find yourself doing clever things – creating and innovating.
When you know who are you are, you will not take in or let what others call you shape your destiny. If they call you by a name unknown to you, do not answer. That is why Jesus said “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand…” (John 10:27-28). When you know who you are and what your destiny is, you will not respond to the enemy’s call and lies. When you know what your purpose is, you will not conform to the majority nor do things merely to please the crowd. They were gathered to stone Jesus because of who He claimed to be and tried to intimidate Him into accepting a name that was not His. They said to Him, “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because of you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33).
They wanted Him to accept that He was a mere man, and if He had accepted because of His circumstance, He would have acted as a mere man, thereby becoming what they wanted Him to be. He confused them because He was not like them yet looked like them. He spoke like them yet did not sound like them. He did not fit into their mould and they could see that He was different, so they tried to make Him believe that He was not different. Jesus knew this and replied, “…why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, which you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-39).
If you answer to a name that is not yours, the enemy wins. If you answer to the lies, they gain a hold of you. If you conform to their ways to fit in, you miss out or delay your destiny. They call you by a name not yours knowing the power within you, and the name they call you by is their only weapon to try to subdue you to live a less than life. You are more powerful than you know, and your destiny will leave a mark that you once walked this earth. And so it was for Jesus when He stood strong, “…They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” And in that place, many believed in Jesus.” (John 10:41-42).
Even with Samson, when he was chained to a pillar with a crowd gathered to be entertained and they chanted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us” (Judges 16:25), he knew that though he was in chains, he was not weak and he was not defeated. Samson did not answer for a moment, but answered to his destiny! And so he had the last laugh over his enemies. Do not answer to “Mara” because of the season you’re in. Naomi in Ruth 1:20 said “”Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter”, but when she asked to be called Mara, she did not know that only three chapters later, she would be living in a palace and her name would be remembered forever. Do not answer to a name, not yours. Do not answer to a destiny not assigned to you. Do not answer to a temporary name given to you, reflecting only you temporarily season.
Though you have fallen, yet will you rise. Though you sit in darkness, yet will the Lord light a lamp unto your feet to guide your footsteps until you reach your destiny.
©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2017.
