Title – Name

There is a difference between “title” and “name,” but when joined together, oh, the possibilities!

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Acts 10:38 – How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

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Take a moment and consider our Text for Today.  The Trinity is revealed in this verse.  There is God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Ghost.  And there is the term “anointed.”  That term is in reality the Title of our Lord and Savior, for the “Anointed One” is Jesus the Christ.  We could legitimately declare that God “titled Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ with the Holy Ghost and with power, Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.”  Note in this verse that with the conferral of a title came accompanying power.  But it was not the title that was behind the will to do that good and heal; it was the Name.  A title unconferred is an inanimate thing, but a title conferred is revealed through the will of the person upon whom it is conferred.  Within  a title may be a clear understanding of what that title should represent, but it is still out of the will of the person upon whom the title is conferred that the power of that title flows.  Though a man’s title may be police officer, it is out of his will that law enforcement flows.

“Christ (Anointed One)” is His title, but it is out of His Name, Jesus (the Word of God) that His will to do flows.  Now what of you?  Your title is Christian (little Christ [anointed one]), but from where does the will to do flow?  It flows out of your soul, a soul that should be renewed by the Word of God to think with the mind of Christ (an anointed mind), always in a place of “reason(ing) together” with God.  Now receive what I say.  We already know the power and will of God, both “to will and to do” His pleasure, and that is that you “prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”  Now will you align your will with His will, and in so doing, fully accept the title He has conferred upon you?  Remember, it is God Who is “at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”  Your title indicates you can do the works of Jesus, and greater.  But will you?  Is your will strong enough to pursue faith to that level?  Will you plunge into the Word by which such faith can be built, fed, and kept strong?  If you WILL, you CAN!

Manna for Today – Acts 10; Philippians 2:5 & 13; Revelation 19:13; Romans 12:2; 2:5; Isaiah 1:18;        3 John 2-4; John 14:12-14