Whats In A Name?

I was struck recently reading the story of Abraham in Genesis, and specifically the point in his life where God gives him the name Abraham. Leading up this point, he and his wife Sarai (renamed Sarah), were praying for a child. God declared that they would conceive, and as part of the covenant between God and Abram, God gave him the name Abraham, meaning father of many nations. This meant that every time Sarah spoke to him, his name spoke as a reminder of God's promise to them. "Father of many nations, your tea's ready!", "Father of many nations, have you milked the goats yet?" and so on.

Abraham and Sarahs' confession would have caused their faith to rise, and eventually, they did give birth to a son, Israel, and Abraham did become a fatehr to many nations. This story is a typical illustration of how a positive confession is important in serving to raise faith for the miraculous (Abraham and Sarah were well past childbearing age, even by todays standards with IVF - Israel was a true miracle child).

However, on reading this passage recently, I noticed something for the first time. Prior to being called Abraham (Father of many nations), Abraham was Abram (Exalted Father). In other words, his confession was still positive and still declared fatherhood. In changing his name, God provided him with a higher confession, a greater dimension of faith and a fresh revelation. Even if our confession is good, and our expectations faith filled, there is still room for God to break in and it is important to allow him to increase our confession to a higher level, allowing the truly miraculous to take place.

Abram (Exalted Father) had a son with a servant girl.
Abraham (Father of many nations) had a son with his wife, and became the father of many nations.

So make the decision to speak out your confession, and let it be raised to another level, and see how God takes up the challenge!