In His written Word (God’s authentic revelation and explanation of His living Word, Yeshua, who represents us in God’s Eternal Covenant), enormous significance is placed on the Majesty, Dignity and Authority of God’s Name. And because God’s Name is so great, the name of every person He creates to be his image and likeness also deserves the utmost respect, honor and care. Thus His commandments reflect the depths to which God’s Perfect Standards of Righteousness require us to love and respect our Creator, and all others like us that He has also created for His purposes.
So as you abide in the Lord’s Perfect Presence, ask Him to impart to you His Spirit of wisdom and understanding so that you can grasp more and more of what He is revealing and requiring of us all in His third commandment:
Exodus 20:7
“You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His Name in vain.” (Emphasis added.)
What does it mean to take the Name of the Lord our God in vain? If you look through the world’s libraries and the internet, at all that has already been said to try to explain this commandment, you’ll be amazed at all of the ideas, insights and opinions that many wise, learned, God-loving Jewish and non-Jewish people over the centuries have offered for our consideration and instruction.
We won’t repeat what has already been said. Instead we will offer something for you to consider that pertains specifically to our FMM purpose. Our purpose is to help our Master’s Last Days disciples gain an understanding of this commandment as it relates to our need to learn to abide and interact with our indwelling Master on a habitual, moment by moment level. We want to help disciples learn to cooperate with what God’s Holy Spirit is here to do to align them, authentically and properly, with God’s Last Days Truth and Reality. If they’re properly aligned with what God will be doing and requiring at the end of this time and space dimension, then even amid the tremendous upheavals, turmoil and fearful uncertainties of the Last Days, our Messiah’s New Covenant disciples will faithfully serve as the embodiment of the Ultimate Fulfillment of God’s promises as He has revealed and foretold them in His written Word.
So let’s prayerfully ponder some pertinent texts. Remember that in Exodus, God promised Moses that He Himself would accompany him as he continued to serve as the human leader and focal point for the newly liberated people of Israel:
Exodus 33:12-14
“Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.’
“And He (God) said, ‘My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.’ Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” (Emphasis added.)
It is obvious, if you reflect seriously on this, that if Almighty God Himself is present to anyone in this world, then He will be preeminent in everything that happens to that person, who, instinctively, will automatically always look to God and follow His leading, every step of the way. It is unthinkable for any of us to assume that we could or should be, the main character, the hero of the story and star of the show, in place of Almighty God, when, through His living Word and Holy Spirit, the Almighty living God of all Creation is actually present within us! How could we be so arrogant as to assume that He is here to help us, live OUR life in a better way, when in Truth, He is here to BE OUR LIFE!
Sabbath Rest, Our Inheritance
We have already written repeatedly about what Yeshua, the living Word of God made flesh, said to the Israelites who did not recognize Him and refused to believe what He was telling them about Himself. They were blind to the Reality that when Moses wrote about God and what He had done in the midst of Israel through His living Word, He was writing about Yeshua who was now standing before them! So Yeshua emphasized that He was the One Moses had written about in the Torah, and that the prophets of Israel had been anticipating and expecting Him, throughout Israel’s entire history! And so, Yeshua was telling them that it was happening to Israel again, in their day: the living Word of Almighty God was once more in the midst of His chosen people, right before their eyes! And just as is always the case, when God is present and is doing everything on behalf of His people, Yeshua, His living Word is there with them, to cover their every care, concern and need, so that His people Israel could share Him with the rest of the world and all of mankind can learn to participate and experience with Him, the enjoyment of His Eternal Sabbath Rest:
Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Emphasis added.)
2 Samuel 7:10-12
“I (through My living creative Word) will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord (My living Word) will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your Descendant after you, who will come forth from you (as the Son of David), and I will establish His Kingdom.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Ezekiel 34:11-15
“For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself, (through My living Word and Holy Spirit) will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Matthew 11:27-29
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Emphasis added.)
John 5:43-47
“I have come in My Father’s Name (place), and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the Glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Can you see what God is revealing to us so blatantly in these passages? Is He not saying that when He, Almighty God, speaks forth His living Word, He wants us to know that He and His creative Life-giving Word are one and the same? Can God and His living creative, sustaining Word ever be separated from one another? Does God not reveal Himself and His Authority solely in and through His Word? Is God not telling us that, regardless of the form in which He decides to send His Word, whatever we do to His Word, we do it to Him? And notice also that God’s living Word promised His disciples that He would always be with them, even to the end of the age:
Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (Gentiles), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So, now we can see that when God speaks forth His Word, the Word is coming to us ‘IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY GOD!’ The Message, the Messenger and the One who gives the Message are one and the same – YHWH – THE ALMIGHTY LORD OF HOSTS!
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord (the Father and His Word and His Spirit) is our God; the Lord is one (Echad)! You shall love the Lord your God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) with all your (undivided) heart and with all your soul and with all your might!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
And we know that the living Word, who is one with the Father who sends Him, is always going to be with us. Therefore we also know that since He is always present, God Almighty will be present to us and naturally, He will always be the Preeminent Factor in our lives…in everything we are and have and do, and in everything that may happen to us along the way. God, through His living Word and Holy Spirit, will be the Initiator and the Prime Mover and Doer of all that exists and takes place in our lives. And instead of going off on our own and being independent, we will naturally, instinctively, follow His lead in all things, and at all times. How else could we be His image and likeness if this were not the case? The Fullness of our infinite, eternal, completely Transcendent God is perfectly contained within His living Word. And He sent His Word to become flesh and appear among us as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. And now, by the Holy Spirit, He can abide within us at all times…to initiate, preside and lead us and reveal Himself through us, in everything we think or say or do.
John 10:11-18
“I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His Life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My Life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have Authority to lay it down, and I have Authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” (Emphasis added.)
So…to know the Word is to know the Father who sent Him. To interact with the Word who is always with us, is to interact with Almighty God Himself. And so, whatever we do in response to Yeshua…we are doing in response to the Almighty Father who sent Him to us. For God’s living Word is here to deal with us IN HIS FATHER’S HOLY NAME! (The Name of YHVH, or, YHWH or, in Hebrew, יּהּוּהּ)
So now we can see the gross error and spine-chilling, gut-wrenching spiritual peril into which people place themselves, when they take it upon themselves to judge, reject, disbelieve, contradict, alter, or try to replace God’s living Word with something else that is created. When we do that, we dishonor and disobey our Master, Messiah Yeshua, who is the risen Lord of Glory. We cannot embrace the Father…if at the same time we are rejecting, ignoring and bypassing His Living Word, His Son! It was Yeshua whom God earlier promised to send to Moses. Through Him God would lead Moses and the nation of Israel on their Exodus trek across the wilderness expanse. He is God’s own living Word about whom Moses was inspired to write, for the instruction and warning He must give to the entire fallen human race:
Exodus 23:20-22
“Behold, I am going to send an Angel (Messenger) before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before Him and obey His Voice; do not be rebellious toward Him, for He will not pardon your transgression, since MY NAME (YHWH) IS IN HIM! But if you truly obey His voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” (Amplification and emphasis added. See also Deuteronomy 28-30)
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
“I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you Life and Death, the Blessing and the Curse. So choose Life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His Voice (living Word), and by holding fast to Him (the Word who comes in His Name); for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” ( Amplification and emphasis added.)
1 John 2:21-24
“I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning (in the Torah). If what you heard from the beginning (Torah) abides in you, you also will abide in the Son AND in the Father.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Our Eternal High Priest
Notice also that the New Covenant apostolic Scriptures reveal that the risen Messiah is God’s appointed, Eternal High Priest…not according to the human, Sin-corrupted Levitical line of temporary high priests, but according to the Eternal, Sin-less order of Melchizedech (King of Righteousness)…
Genesis 14:18-20
“And Melchizedek king of Salem (King of Shalom or, Peace) brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” He (Abram) gave him (Melchizedek) a tenth of all.”
Hebrews 2:16-18
“For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” (Emphasis added.)
Hebrews 3:1-3
“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all his house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the Builder of the House has more honor than the House.”
Isaiah 66:1-2
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand (My living Word) made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My (living) Word.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So God’s living Word, who became flesh, serves God as His Ultimate Eternal Prophet, Priest and King on behalf of the entire human race. Messiah Yeshua is the Prophet who gives the Perfect Revelation of God…and He is the Perfect Eternal Intermediary – our Intercessory High Priest who represents us as our Perfect Blood Covenant Representative before Almighty God…and, as Creator of all things who is endowed with all the Authority in existence, and since by His Authority, He brought everything in Creation into existence and maintains it, He is, of course, the Perfect and Absolute Eternal King over all of God’s Creation.
Matthew 28:18
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘ALL Authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’” (Emphasis added.)
Because God’s living Word is our Perfect Eternal High Priest, and He is always with us through the Holy Spirit, we can abide with Him at all times, by faith in His promises. He covers our spiritual nakedness with His Perfect Righteousness and the Perfect Atonement He made to God in our name.
Genesis 3:21
“The Lord God (through His living Word) made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Since God’s Word is always abiding within His Spirit-filled disciples, He is their Life! And since He is their Life, He is also their Perfect Coverer…and Covering. He is the Perfect ‘Wedding Garment’ that enables His own to appear before the Father who sent Him to us, without any sense of Sin or shame, or guilt or condemnation. The Covenant makes disciples one (echad) with our Representative and High Priest. And therefore we are also echad with God Himself, by the Authority of His Word and the Power of His omnipotent Holy Spirit who act in God’s Name. In other words, the living Word of God, who is the only one authorized to act and speak in God’s Holy Name, has come to be and to do in us and for us, what only God can do. When the Word operates from within us by the Holy Spirit, on that basis, He operates ‘in the Name of Almighty God’…and because we are one with Him, He operates in the Name of God, in our name, as well. Therefore, only when it is He that lives and works in us, can we humans be said to be speaking and acting in the Name of God. We do it only in Him and by Him. Never can we do it in our own strength and by our own devices:
Matthew 10:17-20
“But beware of (decapitated religious) men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you!” (Emphasis added.)
Remember also that God promised Israel that He would bless them with these words:
Numbers 6:26-27
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ’Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: ‘The Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.’
“So THEY (the human high priests who prefigure My Son, the Word, Who is The Eternal High Priest) SHALL INVOKE MY NAME on the sons of Israel, AND I THEN WILL BLESS THEM.” (Emphasis added)
So when the blessing God entrusted to the human high priests in the Torah (Numbers 6) is pronounced over God’s people, those Sin-corrupted human priests are not the ones who actually impart God’s blessing upon the people. God imparts His Blessing upon them…through His living Word…the Eternal High Priest…the risen Messiah whom those human high priests were commissioned to prefigure. God’s living Word alone is our true, authentic, Perfectly Sin-less Covenant Connection. He unites God and Man. Only He can make those who obey Him, one with Him, so that He can represent them, and also make them one with God in a Blood Covenant sense. And He also makes those who are one with Him, and one with God – one with each other:
Hebrews 5:7-10
“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears (as our Perfect Atoning Representative) to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety (Perfect Obedience). Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Ephesians 2:11-18
“Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our Peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into One New Man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one Body to God through the Cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”
Hebrews 5:11-14
“Concerning Him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you (Israelites that waver in your faith in, and devotion to, Messiah Yeshua) have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the Word of Righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Amplification added.)
God’s Living Word, Revealed throughout History
So this awesome living Word of God appeared to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And He also interacted with Joseph. Then He appeared to Moses. In every instance, it was God’s living Word, appearing in a variety of forms, revealing directly to His chosen people, Israel, the living God who spoke Him forth. He is the same living Word about whom Moses was inspired to write throughout the entire Torah!
Deuteronomy 18:18-20
“I will raise up a Prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME (in My Place), I Myself (Almighty God) will require it of him! But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My Name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’” (Emphasis added)
So if we take another look at the third commandment, perhaps we will see more of the awesome Truth, and more of the dire warning that is embedded within it. And perhaps then it will hit us and pierce right through to our innermost being with the Truth it is expressing. God says that He will put His words in the mouth of whoever will be speaking (or acting) in His Name. And in this text, He is speaking about His own living Word, with whom He is one. He is the one that will become one of us and take on our flesh, and appear to Israel in the first century as her Messiah. He is the only one authentically authorized to speak in God’s Name. Therefore, any imposter who is not truly connected with Him through the Holy Spirit, and who dares to claim that he is speaking in the Name of God, will be taking God’s Name in vain. And, just as God declared, the consequences will be dire:
Exodus 20:7
“You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His Name in vain.”
Is the Lord not telling us to beware of acting in the decapitated state of presuming to speak or teach in the place of, or contrary to, His living Word? When we do that are we not proving that we are in fact, separated from God’s Word? Is God not warning us that there is only One…only His own Word…who is authorized to speak for Him? Who else but God’s Word can adequately convey the Truth and Reality that are in Almighty God with accurate, precise, God-given Authority and Authenticity? And so, isn’t this commandment warning humans against daring to act as radically independent agents, separated from Yeshua and failing to draw Life, Power and Authority from our one and only God-given Source – the living Word of God? And is that not what all the ‘prophets’, ‘teachers’ and proponents of false religions, that contradict or ignore Messiah Yeshua are doing…daring to utter things that do not truly come from God, through His Word and His Holy Spirit? And if that is what they are doing, is it not also true that the one who is actually speaking through them is – the Serpent?
John 14:6-7
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
We can only act ‘in the Name of God’ when, through the Gift of the Holy Spirit that He bestows upon us, Yeshua Himself becomes our Life…when it is He alone who lives, acts and speaks from within our yielded, crucified flesh. When Yeshua is our Life, and not just a separate, distinct theoretical idea or a remote, historically distant ‘role model,’ He can truly live and operate within us…in God’s Name. And when, through the Holy Spirit that God gives to us, the Word can operate from within our yielded hearts, the way electricity operates within an appliance, God’s creative living Word will do what only He can do…in our name! But He must be the one who does the work. And we, while we rest in Him, can participate in the Perfection of all that He is and all that He has done to Perfection, at His Father’s command.
John 5:19
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’” (Emphasis added.)
John 15:4-11
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish (for you will truly be living and acting in My Name), and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments (I am truly your Head and you are truly My living members, and) you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that (we may remain Echad with one another and so that) your joy may be made full.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Scripture reveals to us that only God’s living Word is authorized by God to speak and act in His Name. And if we are ever to be included in what God is doing here on Earth, we must become one (echad) with God’s living Word, Yeshua. He must be free to operate within us and do what only He can do, for us, in us, to us, through us and, as us:
Ezekiel 36:26-29a
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness…”
Philippians 2:12b-13
“…work out (express and reveal the reality of) your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Unshakeable Faith, or Unbelief and Disobedience – the Choice is Ours
Now we can more easily detect the Serpent’s ploy when it comes to what he wants human beings to do. To fulfill his demonic agendas, he must effectively separate us from God’s living Word, by infecting us with his own unbelief, rebellion and disobedience. And it is by this ploy that he deceives the fallen human race to ignore the necessity to be ‘Spirit-filled’, and get them to settle for being ‘religious’ and self-righteous and hyper-controlling, instead.
Genesis 3:4-5
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
As long as true disciples of the Word believe, obey and remain as one with Him, we remain one with Almighty God! And our oneness with God’s living and written Word, gives God freedom to live and work in us and through us. The Word is our Qualification and our legitimate set of Divine Credentials. The Word, living and operating within us, is what qualifies us to live, speak and act in the Name of Almighty God. And when that is truly the case, there’s nothing the Serpent can do about it. Nor is there any way he and his dupes can, apart from God’s permission, have authority or ability to manipulate, control or do us any harm.
The Serpent can only harm what legally belongs to him. The decapitated people who remain enslaved within his deceptive coils are the ones that he can continue to deceive and keep separated from Humanity’s Life Source and Shepherd and Protector. So, as long as the fallen human race remains in its original ‘decapitated’ state, they remain in violation of God’s Perfect Standards of Righteousness, and His commandments. And nothing they try to say or do or accomplish in that ‘decapitated’ state will be acceptable to God, nor will He allow it into His Holy Presence:
Matthew 7:18-27
“A good tree (a person who is echad with God’s living Word) cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad (radically independent decapitated) tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice Lawlessness (Torah-lessness).’
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on The Rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on The Rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.’” (Amplification and emphasis added)
And so now we know the will of the Father. Scripture reveals it to us, so that we are able to do it:
Matthew 17:5
“While he (Peter) was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to (follow and obey) Him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, ‘Get up, and do not be afraid.’ And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.” (Emphasis added.)
From God’s written Word, we learn that when we remain as one with His living Word and abide with Him like living branches abide and interact with their vine, we can properly live and speak and act in God’s Name. It is only ‘In Him’ that it can happen. The Spirit of God must be in us to render God’s living Word real and alive and fruitfully active within us before God’s Holy Name can be truly honored within our flesh. And so we see that throughout Scripture, when someone is shown to be properly acting ‘in the name of God,’ it is happening because they are actually abiding and operating as one with God’s living and written Word. We can see this in the case of Israel’s true prophets. We can see it in Yeshua’s apostles. And we can see it in people like Boaz. When Boaz was moved by the Holy Spirit to embrace Ruth, a Gentile woman, and marry her, they were cooperating with the Redemptive Plan of Almighty God, who intended them to be Israelites according to God’s heart, and ancestors of King David. And because they were ancestors of David, God was also commissioning them to be ancestors of Messiah Yeshua, the God-ordained ‘Messiah, Son of David.’
Ruth 4:9-11a
“Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, ‘You are witnesses today that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are witnesses today.’ All the people who were in the court, and the elders, said, ‘We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the House of Israel…” (Emphasis added.)
2 Samuel 18:18
“Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar which is in the King’s Valley, for he said, ‘I have no son to preserve my name.’ So he named the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.” (Emphasis added.)
So we see that the Son who preserves and reveals and acts in the Name of Almighty God, is His living Word. And the living Word became flesh and appeared among us as Yeshua of Nazareth, the Son of David and Messiah of Israel. It is He about Whom the Scriptures speak, from start to finish.
1Kings 5:5
“Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your Son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, He will build The (Eternal) House FOR MY NAME.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
1Kings 8:15-16
“He said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hand, saying, ‘Since the day that I brought My people Israel from Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house THAT MY NAME MAY BE THERE, but I chose (My Messiah, the Son of) David to be over My people Israel.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Revelation 21:22-27
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple. And the City (the New Jerusalem) has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the Glory of God has illumined it, and its Lamp (Menorah) is the Lamb (God’s living Word). The nations (Gentiles) will walk by its Light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
John 15:14-16
“You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father IN MY NAME He may give to you.” (Emphasis added.)
Our Risen Messiah Unites His Disciples to Father as He abides with Him on the Perfection Side of the Chasm of Transcendence
Colossians 3:1-4
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our Life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in Glory.” (Emphasis added.)
So, from Scripture we see that only God’s living Word has the Authority to speak and act ‘In the Name of God.’ The Nature and Name of Almighty God is in His living Word. And when we are one with the Word, and He lives and operates from within us, we are commissioned to speak and act in His Name! And so this is the way God intends to be with and in His True Israel. Israel is meant to be Almighty God’s ‘embodiment’ on Earth. This is for the benefit of all the other families of the earth that do not yet know and serve Him. So when Israel becomes one with the Word…she becomes one with the Father who sent His Word to save the world. And she is commissioned to live and speak ‘in the Name of God.’ This is Israel’s true identity and purpose and destiny…to serve God’s purpose of making the whole human race one with Him. But she can only realize it when she becomes echad with her risen and glorified Messiah, Yeshua.
Exodus 23:20-21
“Behold, I am going to send an Angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before Him and obey His Voice; do not be rebellious toward Him, for He will not pardon your transgression, since My Name (YHWH) is in Him!” (Emphasis added.)
So, since we are created and intended by God to serve as His image and likeness, unless God, through His Word and Holy Spirit, initiates what we do, we will continue to act as decapitated radically independent agents. That is, unless it comes to us from God, as His Holy Spirit gives it to us from God’s Eternal Perfection side of the Chasm of Transcendence, we will continue to bypass God’s Word and try to initiate things ‘in God’s Name’ that do not actually come from Him. In that case, no matter how soulishly ‘perfect,’ ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ we may appear to the world’s ‘decapitated’ eyes, and no matter how ‘heavenly’ our teachings, religious rituals and organizations may seem to such people, we will be in violation of the third commandment, ‘taking the Name of the Lord our God in vain.’
When Yeshua came to Earth as our Covenant Representative, to make Perfect Atonement for our decapitated lifestyles of radical independence, the life He lived as ‘The Son of Man’ was the Perfect Human image and likeness of God! His humanity was perfectly Sin-less. But because He was representing us, and came to be The Way that would lead us into perfect reconciliation with God and redemption and forgiveness and restoration, His human life had to be crucified to the radical independence of Sin, throughout each moment of His earthly existence! He had to be perfectly free from every speck of the radical independence that the rest of the human race craves, and in which it revels. Only such a Perfect, Infinitely Pure and Sin-less High Priest and Covenant Representative as He would be able to deliver the rest of us from the death grip of Sin.
Spirit-Led and Spirit-Empowered
Yeshua never drew from any source other than His Heavenly Father’s Holy Spirit. Nothing He said or did arose from our corrupted, limited side of the Chasm of Transcendence. He was led and empowered in all things by His Father’s Holy Spirit. Thus, He drew continually from God’s Perfect Eternal, Finished Work of Creation which abides in Eternity, with God, on His Infinitely Perfect side of the Chasm of Transcendence. So in Truth, our Exodus is actually a spiritual migration from the Sin-ridden side of that Chasm…over to God’s Perfect, Eternal Side. That truly is what God’s Torah revealed to us in the very beginning:
Genesis 1:1-4
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be Light’; and there was Light. God saw that the Light was good; and God separated the Light from the Darkness.” (Emphasis added.)
Yeshua was drawing from the Perfect Original Blessing that God’s Eternal living Word was sent to give and to be ‘The Light’ for Adam and Eve and all of their children. As our Representative, He was drawing from the Perfect Eternal Covenant…drawing from the Perfect Eternal Atonement of the Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world. All of that which comes to us from God’s Eternal, Perfect side of the Chasm of Transcendence, was Yeshua’s sole Source throughout each moment of His human life on Earth. Thus only He, in God’s sight, was truly ‘Our Image and Likeness.’
John 8:22-24
“So the (Judean) Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” And He was saying to them, ‘You are from below (the Sin-corrupted, limited side of the Chasm of Transcendence, but) I am from above (from God’s infinitely Perfect side of the Chasm); you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He (the incarnate Word of God and your Messiah), you will die in your sins!” (Amplification and emphasis added)
Most humans, even some of the most religious ones among us, have not yet realized this. They do not know God or His ways because, for one reason or another, they are not yet able to take God’s living and written Word seriously. Instead, they wittingly or unwittingly bypass God’s Word and in His place, they idolize and place their own self-derived substitute hopes and false expectations above God and His Word. But all of those created things originate on our Sin-corrupted side of the Chasm of Transcendence.
For example, many people, even religious leaders, identify with and idolize and place their hopes in created temporary things such as: Racial and ethnic heritage, skin color, gender, nationality, cultural values, family traditions, man-made religions, arbitrary human passions and desires, man-devised dogmas and ancient man made traditions. They look to soul-driven, intellect-based philosophies, geo-political structures, God-less sciences, worldly economies, material advantage, ever-changing academic theories and a vast variety of other man-centered, soul-driven agendas.
But only true disciples of God’s living Word can have the Word and the Holy Spirit of God, abiding within them and transmitting into them what can only come from the true living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Only they are able to live, act and speak IN THE NAME OF GOD! What comes out of them is what God Himself is putting into them…His own living Word! And thus, their ways are heavenly, spiritually authentic, God-approved and holy.
Luke 6:39-40
“And He also spoke a parable to them: “A blind (decapitated, Word-ignoring) man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil (disciple) is not above his Teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his (Spirit-led and empowered) Teacher.”
James 3:13-18
“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of Wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the Truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder (hatred, strife, division and competition) and every evil thing. But the Wisdom from above (given by God) is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the Seed, whose Fruit is Righteousness is sown in Peace (God’s Eternal, Perfect, Word-given Peace-Shalom) by those who make peace.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)