Month: August 2023

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 31 ~ ~ Philippians 3:8 ~ ~ “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

From “The Power of God’s Names” By Tony Evans

(speaking about acknowledging ADONAI (Jesus) as our master, and we are slaves to Him)

Unfortunately today Jesus has to compete with too many other masters in most of our lives. But Jesus isn’t willing to be one among many. He isn’t willing to be part of your association or club neither is He willing to be relegated to the level of a personal assistant.

“Jesus as Lord” means He is your supreme ruler and master. He calls the shots, and you acknowledge Him in everything you do. The problem is that too many people want a Savior but don’t want a Lord.

The word “confess” means to openly and publicly affirm and declare where you stand on an issue. Aligning yourself underneath Jesus Christ the ADONAI and KYRIOS, includes publicly declaring and demonstrating your commitment to Him.

Jesus declares that your willingness to confess Him becomes the marker of your seriousness about Him. It’s much more than simply believing in God. In fact, Satan believes in God. Aligning yourself underneath the lordship of Christ….putting Him in first place in your live….involves displaying your association with Him in your words and actions.

The less you are a slave to Jesus Christ, the more bound you become to illegitimate strongholds. It’s actually through your surrender to Him that he gives you lasting freedom.

There’s nothing to fear in surrendering to God as your owner. Knowledge of God…through His names and His character…gives you the freedom to fully surrender to His care as your owner. He’s got you covered. He possesses all you need. He has your best interest at heart. He just wants you to confess Him as ADONAI, as Master and Lord.

Now, keep in mind you can’t just say, “Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,” as if it were a magic word. Confessing ADONAI in your life requires actions that verify His ownership everywhere He leads and directs you.

God gave an instruction to each person we have considered in this chapter. Each one had to do something to demonstrate his trust in God and his surrender to Him as ADONAI.

None of those things were all that comfortable either. Abraham wasn’t comfortable trusting God for a son at age 100. Moses wasn’t comfortable confronting Pharaoh. Gideon certainly wasn’t comfortable sending nearly all his soldiers away as he marched into battle. Yet despite their discomfort, they did what God said because they not only called Him ADONAI, but also surrendered to Him and to His will.

When you don’t surrender to ADONAI, you surrender to chaos. That’s why so many problems appear in life. We seek our own way and our own will. Yet when we surrender to ADONAI, we surrender to the fulfillment of our destiny. So throw up the white flag of surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and you can begin to enjoy being owned by Him.

Charles Spurgeon: “It is not MY joy in Christ—-It is CHRIST.

It is not MY hold on Christ—-It is CHRIST.

It is not MY faith in Christ—- It is CHRIST.

Don’t look at my hand grasping Him…..LOOK AT HIM!

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 30 ~ ~ John 14:21 ~ ~ “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest (reveal) Myself to him.”

From Dr. Tony Evans’s book, “The Power of God’s Names”

God has appointed a regent—Jesus Christ, who has been elevated above all—to rule over history as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), as ADONAI (in Hebrew) and KYRIOS (in Greek). Believing in God isn’t enough to access the authority that comes through the lordship of Jesus Christ. Calling on God’s name isn’t enough either. Rather, your relationship with Jesus Christ determines what happens in history because He has been placed above all rule and authority, and by virtue of who he is, He demands ownership of your life. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1), and you—as His follower—are seated with Him (Ephesians 2:6).

In the book of Romans, Paul writes about proclaiming Christ as Lord. These two verses have confused a lot of people over the years:

Romans 10:9-10 ~ ~ “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Paul seems to give us two prerequisites for salvation—confessing with our mouths and believing in our hearts. This creates a theological issue. In every other New Testament passage that speaks of salvation, the only prerequisite is faith (John 3:1; John 5:24; Acts 16:31; Romans 4:4-5). Are these Scriptures contradictory, or does Romans 10:9-10 refer to something else?

The answer is found in the context of the verse in Romans. By looking at Paul’s audience and the setting in which he made his statement, we see clearly that he’s not instructing sinners on how to become saints. His readers are already believers. Rather, he’s instructing saints on how to be delivered (saved). (or put another way……..)

YOU MUST BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO GO TO HEAVEN, BUT YOU MUST CONFESS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO GET HEAVEN DOWN TO EARTH.

When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior (that is, when you believe), His righteousness immediately becomes your righteousness. You are saved for eternity. Yet when you make a public confession of Jesus Christ as your Lord, you receive His deliverance in the here and now, in history. The word “saved” in this context means to be rescued or delivered.

A lot of people who are going to heaven aren’t seeing heaven join them in history because they have believed but have not confessed. They have declared in their own hearts whom they are trusting for their salvation. They have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. But they haven’t made an ongoing public confession or declaration —through word or deed—of Him as their Lord.

Throughout the New Testament, the disciples and the apostles regularly refer to themselves as slaves. The book of Romans opens with these words: “Paul, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ…”

“Bond-servant” is a translation of the Greek word DOULOS, which literally means “slave”. A slave is someone who has a master, or a lord. Believing in Jesus as your Savior takes you to heaven, but declaring and living for Him as your master and Lord brings heaven to you. When you acknowledge your rightful place underneath Jesus as His DOULOS, or slave, you get His delivering power on earth.

If you need to see more of God’s rescue and deliverance in your life, perhaps you have positioned Jesus as your Savior but not as your Lord. Perhaps you are not His slave. Keep in mind that the job of a slave is to do whatever the master says to do. It’s as straightforward as that. (John 14:21-above)

Read tomorrow for the follow up on this.

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 29~ ~ Philippians 2:10-11 ~ ~ “ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

From Dr. Tony Evans’s book, “the Power of God’s Names.”

Scripture tells us that each of us came into this world with nothing and we’re going to leave this world with nothing. Everything we have here on earth is on loan. We’re merely borrowers of God’s resources. That being so, God expects us to recognize Him as ADONAI. Too many people want to use God’s name and what He has made without acknowledging His ownership over all He has made, including them.

In fact, the Bible tells us that if you’re a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, even your body belongs to Him. “You are not your own…you have been bought with a price” (1 Cor 6:19-20). God has a right to ALL of you—spirit, soul, and body.

Friend, unless God truly owns all of you, you won’t be able to experience all of Him. Sure, you may hear a lot about Him in His Word, but your experience of Him is tied to your recognition that God is ADONAI.

I’m not yet a huge fan of computers. I don’t use one. But I do have an iPad, so I’m aware that you need a password to access some things on your tablet, such as email.

Spiritually speaking, surrendering to God as ADONAI is a password for the unveiling of JEHOVAH in your life. “Surrender” is the password that allows God to express, reveal, and manifest Himself in your life.

Jesus framed it this way: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Acknowledging God and surrendering to Him as ADONAI are two totally different things. ADONAI comes with obedience. ADONAI comes with sacrifice. ADONAI comes with a heart that follows what God says and recognizes Him as the owner who calls the shots.

Running your life independently of God is like calling Him “Lord but not doing what He says. The problem is, when you run your life, finances, and decisions independently of God, God can’t fulfill His full responsibility over you. He won’t force Himself on you. He lets you call the shots and live with the consequences.

Until we address the lordship (ADONAI) issue in our lives, God’s revelation to us and His use of us will be limited. You won’t see Him take you to a deeper level because the only people He takes there are those who yield to Him as their owner.

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 28 ~ ~ Judges 7:16-20 ~ ~ “ Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ”

19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”

From the book—THE POWER OF GOD’S NAMES –by Tony Evans

In Judges 7, we find Gideon and more than 30,000 Israelite soldiers about to face the Midianites. God knew that Gideon saw Him as Lord and ruler—as ADONAI– and would obey and surrender to His will, so God revealed to Gideon a plan that reduced the army of 30,000 down to just 300 men. Three hundred men plus ADONAI is worth more than an army of thousands.

Gideon and his 300 men defeated the Midianites because they didn’t come up with plan B. They didn’t try to rationalize and keep some men hiding in the wings. Gideon knew that to win this battle and to defeat this enemy, he would have to do it God’s way. He would have to recognize and surrender to God as ADONAI.

Sometimes that’s hard to do. It’s difficult to see God as ruler and master when so many others are competing for that place. Ourselves, our own thoughts, other people in our lives…many things and other voices try to dictate our decisions. We must not let them.

We see this illustrated in Isaiah’s life as well. “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord (ADONAI) sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple” (Isaiah 6:1) Notice when Isaiah saw God as ADONAI—the year his human king, Uzziah died. Why is this important? Because human kings often appear to be the keys to our victory.

When we look to others for advice or to make decisions, they hold a lot of influence over us. Yet when Isaiah’s human king died, he was enabled to see who really owned and ruled over everything. King Uzziah couldn’t make any more decisions for the nation Isaiah cared so deeply about, but ADONAI was still seated on the throne and still running the show.

Sometimes we can’t see ADONAI until he allows something to die in our circumstances. He allows that thing, person, or idea that we depend on to lose its influence on us. This may not include a physical death, but something happens wherein we can no longer depend on that which we once did. He might let a job go away, or our finances suffer, or a person to be removed form our lives whom we thought we could never live without.

Whatever it is, God often allows this so that we can truly discover He is in charge and dependable—that He is the owner of all.

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 27 ~ ~ Proverbs 3:5 ~ ~ “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;”

From Tony Evans’s book, “The Power of the Names of God”

Friend, you may feel as if you don’t have the qualifications to do the things God as called you to do—and maybe you don’t. But remember that God can make you qualified. We’ve seen what God did with Abraham and Moses, and God did the same thing with a man named Gideon. When Gideon recognized God as ADONAI, his own story changed as well.

We catch up with Gideon at a time when his people, the Israelites, were being pounded by the Midianites. Judges 6:2 tells us that “The power of Midian prevailed against Israel.” God allowed the Midianites, a pagan people, to oppress the Israelites because the Israelites had begun tinkering with false gods and worshipping idols.

The Israelites cried out to God (JEHOVAH) for relief and deliverance (vs 6&7). they had gotten tired of being oppressed by the Midianites and began to ask God to do something about it.

Maybe everything in your life has seemed to come against you and beat you down, and yet you haven’t seen God intervene. So you call out to Him to bring hope into a hopeless situation. This is exactly what the Israelites did.

When they did, the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and said that the Lord (JEHOVAH) was with him and that Gideon was a “valiant warrior” (vs12) yet Gideon felt like anything but a valiant warrior!

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

Judges 6:12-14

Having received his commission, Gideon then wonders aloud how this can be possible. After all, he doesn’t come fro a strong military family. Neither is he the oldest in his line of siblings. Still, recognizing God’s rule and authority, Gideon pours his hesitancy into the cup of surrender:

“O Lord (ADONAI) how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (vs 15)

In other words, “Sir, I don’t qualify. I don’t have the right pedigree or credentials to do what You just said.”

Yet when Gideon recognized God as master and ruler, his qualifications didn’t matter. God, his owner and the one who called him, said, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man (Vs 16)

Gideon goes on to defeat the Midianites in God’s name and with His power. I love Gideon’s story because it is such a graphic illustration of God’s ability to use any of us despite our background or which side of the tracks we come from.

When you or I surrender before our owner, the all-powerful ADONAI, and lay our insecurities, doubts, and hesitations before Him, we will be amazed time and again as God shows up in the most unlikely places and uses the most unlikely people—you and me.

When God is your ADONAI, you’ll see Him overcome the Midianites in your life. You will watch Him overrule the people who hold you down and keep you from maximizing His call on your life and your spiritual potential.

The Midianites in this story represent various strongholds that keep people oppressed, addicted, or defeated. These include chemical addictions, negative influences, poor self-esteem, and people trying to prevent you from living out your destiny. But God makes it clear that when He is your ADONAI you will see Him work things out as your JEHOVAH. He will reveal His surprising paths and plans to you—strategies you would have never thought of on your own.

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 26 ~ ~ Romans 15:13 ~ ~ “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Taken from Dr. Tony Evans’s book, “The Power of the Names of God”

Tony writes:

We’ve just taken a look at the way Abraham’s surrender to God as ADONAI affected the timing of God’s covenant with him, God’s communication with him, and even God’s intimacy with him.

Another example of this occurs in Moses’s life. As we saw, Moses had become a bit unsettled and unsure of himself after being a shepherd in the wilderness for four decades. When god shows up in the midst of a burning bush, giving Moses the commission of a lifetime, Moses balks.

Exodus 4:10-13 ~ ~ Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

Essentially, Moses starts by telling God that the only thing God has asked him to do, he simply cannot do. Moses doesn’t feel qualified to speak on behalf of God to Pharaoh. He believes to do so would require a certain level of articulation, a college degree, notoriety….anything to establish his credibility. He’s convinced he doesn’t possess the raw material for the natural gifting to do what God says. He doubts God’s calling on his life.

However, Moses recognizes that despite his insecurities, God is in charge. God owns him. Moses addresses God as ADONAI, respectfully communicating his timidity. By doing so, Moses confesses that God runs this show. Moses may not see how this plan is possible, but he knows enough to know that God is ADONAI, and so he speaks to Him as he one who is in charge.

To which God replies that He is the maker of mouths, tongues, and all that is necessary to carry out His plan on earth. In essence, God let Moses know that even when people aren’t able to fulfill the calling on their lives, if they will recognize Him as ADONAI, he can make them fully capable. God doesn’t always call the equipped, but He always equips the called.

I can write confidently about this not only because of Scripture, but also because I’ve experienced it in my own life. In fact, when I was growing up, I could relate to Moses in a number of ways.

I often struggled in speaking. In fact, some people would say I more than struggled. There was a time when I stuttered so bad that no one could understand me. I could barely get a word out. Yet at other times, according to my teachers’ remarks on my report cards—I would also frequently try to speak out of turn. As one teacher put it, I would raise y hand to answer her before ever listening to the question. As a child, I had a desire to speak but lacked the necessary skills. Apparently my timing was off.

My teachers never suspected that I would one day make a living as a speaker. “Anthony has difficulty expressing himself orally,” one teacher wrote. Not exactly someone you would expect God to call to preach the Word to tens of thousands of people at a time.

Yet, that’s exactly how God often works. When we surrender to Him as Lord and owner over our lives, He takes the raw materials of our human existence and sprinkles His power on us, suffuses His grace over us, and infuses His Spirit into us. He makes it work despite how feeble our own abilities may be.

That’s why it’s important never to let what other people say to you or about you limit what you do for god and His kingdom. When God is your ADONAI, when you submit yourself to Him, giving Him full control to guide and direct you according to His will, He can use you in ways that will stupefy those who knew you back when. God can give you supernatural ability to do what you can’t do naturally. He did it for Abraham. He did it for Moses. He did it for me. He’s done it for many, and ADONAI can do it for you. And not only for speaking to groups. ( He may use you to give the gospel to individuals, hand out tracts, or help your friends and neighbors to be saved. He will also develop His relationship with you in other ways that will benefit your life on this earth.)

You haven’t even begun to see what God can do if He becomes not only your ELOHIM, the God of creation who made the heavens and earth, but also your ADONAI, the master, ruler, and owner of your life. Unfortunately, any people are content with just the God of creation. In fact, they’re content with many of the names of God, but they push back against this one the most—ADONAI.

In the New Testament, we refer to this as the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When God is your ADONAI, when Jesus is your Lord, His Word has the final say. That is true surrender. Your response to Him is, “Yes, Sir, God. Whatever You say, Lord. I trust You, Sir. I’ll follow Your will.”

If you want to see God freely unleash His power in and through your life, never use “no” and “God” in the same sentence. Moses, a humble shepherd in the backwoods of Midian,confessed God as ADONAI, and God empowered him to lead an entire nation from slavery to freedom. Just think what ADONAI can do in your life.

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 25 ~ ~Acts 17:28~ ~ “for in Him we live and move and have our being, ….”

From Dr. Tony Evans’s book, “The Power of God’s Names”

In Genesis 15:18 we read about the intimacy with God that comes from submission to Him:

“ON THAT DAY the Lord made a covenant with Abram.” Keep in mind that a covenant is a relational act tied to intimate (covenantal) love.

Abram’s submission to God as master, ruler, and owner throughout the entire conversation recorded in Genesis 15 opened the path for him to hear more, for God to give more, and for the covenant to be reestablished on that day.

The best way I know to illustrate this in our contemporary language is with the phrase, “Yes, Sir” or “Yes, Ma’am” Of course, these words don’t always carry much weight, particularly if they are merely a cultural gesture tied to upbringing. Yet when they are spoken with the fullest amount of respect and meaning that can be attached to them, they can open up the door to greater communication, greater revelation, quicker timing, and deeper intimacy in any situation.

What these words denote, quite simply, is the surrender of submission. Submission is a powerful tool in our relationships with the all-powerful ADONAI God. Unfortunately, too any Christians today have settled for JEHOVAH without experiencing the full power of ADONAI.

To experience all that God can do for you as ruler, master, owner over your life, you have to knowingly and willingly surrender to Him. That means He gets to call the shots. He gets to have the final say in your decisions. You consider His perspective as you make your choices and decide how to use your time.

Many people want God to do what His word says He can do, but they don’t give Him the right to own them. God isn’t going to disclose more of Himself as JEHOVAH (revealing Himself and His ways to you) if you’re unwilling to confess Him as ADONAI. If you’re unwilling to surrender ownership over your time, thoughts, talents, and treasures to Him, the information flow stops. It becomes more like a drip rather than a full force of Him fulfilling His Word in your life.

One of our problems in the body of Christ is that we have too many Christians who want God to get them to heaven but who don’t want God to own them on earth. Yet unless you confess God as ADONAI, your experience of His self-revelation as JEHOVAH will be limited. You may hear His Word and even say, “God’s promises are true and amen.” yet the fulfillment of those promises in your life are often tied to your surrender to Him as ADONAI.

God must have the right to own you if He is going to take the responsibility to do something with you. No owner on earth would invest in something that he can’t legitimately access or claim ownership to, and God usually won’t either.

When Abram surrendered to God as ADONAI, he received the promise of a child, further revelation, and an intimate covenant. In fact, he eventually received a new name—Abraham, the “father of nations.”

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 24 ~ ~ Genesis 15;1 ~ ~ “ …… I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

ADONAI in the Bible occurs in Genesis 15:1-2:

“After these things the word of the LORD (JEHOVAH) came to Abram in a vision, saying, “do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God (ADONAI JEHOVAH), what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

God had promised Abram that He was going to make him a great nation and that He would give him an heir—a child—even in his old age. Interestingly, God had made that promise to Abram as YAHWEH JEHOVAH, the self-revealing God.

This is similar to going to church or listening to someone teach about the Bible. You hear the Word of God—what God said. When you come to understand God and His plans based on His Word, you are encountering JEHOVAH, the one who reveals Himself to you.

Then, like Abram, you will often make a decision or perform an action based on what God has revealed. Abram has responded to God by moving his family to the Promised Land. In fact, he had been there for a decade by the time we catch up with him in Genesis 15.

A ten-year gap separates Genesis 12 and Genesis 15. God had made His promise, and yet there was still no baby. This understandably causes Abram to wonder what’s going on. Abram remembers what God said, and yet he sees that nothing has been done. So he approaches God again to try to find out why the gap is there and when the promise will be fulfilled.

Notice the different ways the word “Lord” appears in the first two verses of Genesis 15. In the first verse, it’s written in all caps as LORD, meaning YAHWEY (JEHOVAH). Yet in verse 2, only the “L” is capitalized because the Hebrew word is ADONAI. Abram had heard what God has said when He revealed Himself and His plan, but Abram had not yet seen the fulfillment of God’s promise, so he appealed to God’s character as owner.

Has this ever happened to you? You heard God’s Word, and you believed that God revealed something to you, but you didn’t see it come to pass. In fact, perhaps a long time passed since you believed that God had revealed His will to you, but still nothing happened.

After a decade went by, Abram wasted no time in appealing to God as absolute ruler and owner. Then the LORD (JEHOVAH) reveals even more to Abram.

Genesis 15:4-5:

“This man (Eliezer) will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And he took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be”

Abram believed the Lord, and that was counted to him as righteousness. Then Abram appealed to God once again as master and ruler when he asked, “O Lord God (ADONAI JEHOVAH) how may I know that I will possess it? (verse 8)

Studying which name God uses when he reveals Himself to Abram and which name Abram uses when he responds give us a greater glimpse into the multifaceted nature of God. Abram was in the hopeless situation. At close to age 100, he was old and cold. Helping his wife conceive a child, seemed like a real impossibility, besides, she was 90 years old herself, and childless!!!!

It would have been much easier had God brought about Isaac’s conception some ten years earlier when he had made the promise to Abram, but now things looked bleak. Yet God will often delay carrying out His promises until He sees a heart of surrender and submission. In fact, submission to God as absolute ruler and master—submission to Him as ADONAI—can affect the timing of His promises in your life. In addition, we can see in Genesis 15 that submission also affects our communication with God and enhances our intimacy with Him.

(More about that tomorrow)

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 23 ~ ~ Deuteronoy 3:24 ~ ~ “O Lord Adonai, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours?”

From the book “The Power of God’s Names” by Dr. Tony Evans

PRAYER:

Oh Lord God, my ADONAI, You are the great and mighty God. You have opened my eyes to see Your greatness and Your strong hand. What god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the amazing and powerful things You can do? Who can create a mountain? Who can make the deep where the waters rest, far beyond anything we can see? Who can calm a storm with just one word? None other than You, ADONAI. You are the Master over all. You are the Lord above all. And You are deserving of the highest honor and praise.

Like ELOHIM, ADONAI is a plural word. Whenever it’s used of God, it occurs in the plural because God is a plural person. He’s only one God, but He’s made up of plurality—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The name ADONAI, is found more than 400 times in the Bible and is full of meaning. The name comes from the singular word, ADON, which is translated “master” or “ruler”. It contains the concepts of dominion, rulership and ownership.

The cultural background to the word ADON is associated with masters who owned slaves. Yet it didn’t merely connote ownership but also conveyed a responsibility for the care and well-being of the servants. The master was to provide for, protect, guide, and maximize that which he owned.

Thus when God is referred to in Scripture with the plural ADONAI, He is seen as owner. Psalm 97;5 says that God is “the Lord (ADONAI) of the whole earth.” He’s not only the Creator (ELOHIM) but also the owner (ADONAI). God reveals this ownership in His Word: “Every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10)

In the New Testament, the apostles often called themselves bondservants or slaves of Jesus Christ. They used this language to let everyone know they were owned by Christ. This is a significant statement and not merely a sentient because ownership includes certain responsibilities and duties.

In fact, much to the chagrin of many ladies, the Bible even applies the concept of ownership to a husband and a wife. In 1 Peter 3:6, we read that Sara called Abraham “lord.” the Greek word translated “lord” in this passage is KYRIOS, which is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word ADON, the singular form of ADONAI, a plural name of God.

By Sarah calling Abraham her KYRIOS, (“master” or “owner”), she acknowledged a level of ownership that Abraham had toward her. But what’s more, she also acknowledged Abraham’s responsibility to her.

(I’d like to add that the concept of ownership should increase our faith in God. Owners of servants were responsible for their welfare, healthcare, provisions, protection, even satisfaction as much as possible. The word of God has given us over 8000 specific promises where God promised all these things for us. But, as Dr. Evans pointed out elsewhere, all of the promises are within our reach, but not within our hands. God won’t place them in our hands. It’s our responsibility to find them within the Word, pray about them, apply them, and trust that He will fulfill them within His perfect will. Before all that, we need to have taken our place in total submission to His perfect will for us, trusting that He cannot lie, He cannot make a mistake, He cannot change His mind, and He will not stop loving us and wanting to take care of us IF we have taken the step to accept His offer of free salvation, by making Him our personal Lord, Master, and Savior.)

GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 22 ~ ~ Exodus 33:18 ~ ~ “And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

From the book by Dr. Tony Evans—The Power of God’s Names

So how do we get to know God as JEHOVAH? Exodus 33 gives a good idea. “Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the Lord would speak to Moses…..Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face. (Vs 9 &11)

As Moses went about the work of the ministry, JEHOVAH spoke to him. In the midst of relating to god, Moses asked to see God. He said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (vs 18) JEHOVAH, the personal and relational God, gave this reply:

“He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:19-23)

Moses had come face-to-face with JEHOVAH God, and he wanted to know more. He asked to see more. God allowed him to experienced all that he was able to experience because JEHOVAH is the close and personal character of the living God.

Do you know why so many of us don’t know JEHOVAH and don’t experience Him personally in our daily lives? We’re too busy and too distracted to ask for more.

Moses could have been satisfied with the burning bush. He could have been satisfied with the ten miraculous plagues. He could have been satisfied with the parting of the sea. Yet, despite all that Moses had already experienced of God and with God, he asked for more.

Too many of us stop at the bush. We’re satisfied with an introduction. Yet as we see from our study of the relational attribute of God as revealed through His name JEHOVAH, God will come as intimately close to us as possible—if we ask Him and seek Him as Moses did.

Moses took the time to be in the presence of JEHOVAH and to say to Him, “Lord, I want to know you more. Show me more of You.” If Moses were alive today, that would mean he sometimes turned off his television and radio. He stopped texting or phoning his friends as much. He spent less tie at the do-it-yourself shops or at the mall. He removed the static from the line and quieted the noise from around him, clearing away the distractions so that in the tent of the Lord, he could ask for more.

Many believers today say they want to know god. But when you take a closer look at their schedule, you realize they’re just talking noise. Listen, if a guy really wants to get to know a girl, he makes time to talk to her.

Ladies, if a man tells you he wants to get to know you but then he never calls or texts, never stops by or takes you out, then all he has done is cluttered the air with his lies. He doesn’t want to get to know you unless he willingly invests the time to get to know you. If a guy really wants to get to know a girl, he’ll find time, he’ll make time, he’ll stay up late or get up early…he will do whatever he needs to do to get to know her.

JEHOVAH knows when we’re just spouting words and when we truly intend to get to know Him. Moses had dedicated the time and effort before he made the request. So God gave Moses something no other human on the planet has ever experienced—the personal manifest presence of God’s glory!

Covered by God’s own hand and tucked away in a cleft of the rock, Moses saw God’s back pass by. In today’s technology, this might be compared to the exhaust you see when an airplane passes by overhead. You don’t see the plane, but you see evidence of it.

What happened to Moses after he experienced JEHOVAH in that intimate way is remarkable, and it should motivate each of us to seek God and make a close relationship with JEHOVAH the primary focus of our lives. After that encounter, Moses picked up a pen and paper and began writing:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth……..” He kept writing until the history of the beginning of time had been completed.

Even though Moses wrote Genesis, he wasn’t alive when Genesis happened. So how did he know the details of events that were so far removed from him? HE KNEW BECAUSE GOD LET HIM SEE AND EXPERIENCE JEHOVAH. He let Moses see some stuff that had never been seen before so that Moses could write some information that he didn’t have any cognitive knowledge about.

Friend, God wants to reveal to you things you’ve never dreamed of. He wants YOU to simply know Him as ELOHIM—if you only want to know His power without a relationship with His person. That will come about only when you get to know Him as JEHOVAH—as YAHWEH, the Lord.

He is the self-revealing God to those who want to see Him.