3 The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD’S name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. 4 For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies… 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile in Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.
Jeremiah 20:3-6, New International Version.
1. A Name in the Spirit
a) Pashur
Pashur was “the chief officer in the temple of the LORD” (v.1, NIV). He was a priest, the deputy high priest, a top shot in the affairs of the house of God. His name, according to Smith’s Bible Dictionary, meant “freedom.” According to the Cruden’s Complete Concordance, it meant “most noble,” and Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, in its notes to our passage, offers “staying on” as the meaning of the name.
Whatever the correct interpretation, there was the idea of freedom and nobility in Pashur’s name; nobility in his person as well as in his religious and social status. That status of nobility offered him a kind of immunity and power that every other person did not enjoy. But whereas his natural name meant “freedom” and“nobility,” he had another name, by which he was known in the spirit realms; a name that was going to chart the course of events for the rest of his life towards the disaster encoded in it. Sadly, Pashur did not know about his change of name in the realm of the spirit.
Not too long ago, there was a national commission of enquires in Nigeria: the Oputa Panel, which was set up to address some of the grievances of the past. One of the cases that came before that Panel involved the Pyrates Confraternity, a campus-based confraternity popularly conceived of as a cult, but which has begun to claim the name of a social organization. The prosecuting lawyer, seeking to prove that the Pyrates Confraternity was a “secret society,” a cult, confronted one of its ex-student leaders in the witness box with a copy of the Confraternity’s register, which had the names of their members, except that it was not their known natural names. There were such names as Butcherman, The Spy, Knifer, The Bullet, Son of Satan, and other such esoteric and very unpleasant names of violence and blasphemy. So, whereas their friends at school probably called them by such nice names as John, Mr Wisdom, Bestman, etc., their names in the cult were Butcherman, Killer, and so on. At least these knew their ‘new’ names.
Do you have a name by which you are called in the spirit? Do you know it?
It is possible to have more than one name, especially a name in the spirit, and not know it. If anybody had told Pashur the priest that his true name was Magor-Missabib, which meant “terror (or fear) on every side,” he would never have believed. His international passport, if he had one, bore his natural, beautiful name. That name was on his driver’s license and all his certificates. The media houses, and everybody who knew him, called him by his natural name, his beautiful name of nobility and freedom. But that was not what they called him in the spirit realms. That was not the name that was to rule the rest of his life.
b) Pharaoh
It was announced of Pharaoh,“Pharaoh king of Egypt in but a noise, he hath passed the time appointed” (Jeremiah 46:17). The Good News Bible states: “Give the king of Egypt A NEW NAME – Noisy Braggart who Missed his Chance.” So, whereas men still called him “Pharaoh king of Egypt,” his name had changed in the spirit realm to“Noise,”which meant that he had expired, or “missed his chance.”
There is a change of name frequently taking place in the spirit realms. Has your name been changed already? To what?
c) Gideon
Gideon was a frightened young man who lamented the backslidings of his nation and bemoaned also the good old days when God used to be with them. When the angel of God addressed this apparently cowardly man, he was called a “mighty man of valour” (KJV); a “valiant warrior” (New American Standard);a “mighty warrior” (NIV) (Judges 6:12). Gideon was surprised. He could not believe that he had such a name in the realms of the spirit. He had been calling himself by all the terrible names of failure and defeat. The radical and rather mysterious turn-around of the circumstances of Gideon’s life from a fearing defeatist personality to a conquering mighty warrior began from that angelic announcement of his new name in the spirit.
d) Elizabeth
When Angel Gabriel spoke with Mary about her immaculate conception, he also notified her about the conception of her aged cousin Elizabeth, “who was called barren” (Luke 1:36).
Who “called” Elizabeth “Barren”? Everybody knew her to be “Aunty Lizzy.” Her certificates all bore “Elizabeth.” Her ID card carried the same name. Nobody had been so callous as to call her by the reproachful name of her aged childless condition. Only the angel could have known that, besides her natural name of “Elizabeth,” there was another name by which she was also being called, a name of which men knew nothing, not even Elizabeth’s husband who was a priest. Elizabeth’s miraculous change of status from “Barren” to “Mother,” from “Reproach” to “Praise,” all began from the encounter with that angel that revealed that she used to be called (we are not told by whom or in what register) by a reproachful, limiting name.
As unto Jacob and Gideon and Elizabeth, may God send His messengers to reveal the hidden names that should be changed, and to announce the new names that should usher you into your new status of glory. Amen.
e) Change of Fortunes
Sometimes the change of fortune has been tied to the change of natural names, as with Abraham, Sarah, and Israel who used to be called Jacob (Genesis 17: 1-8, 15-16; 32:28-34). But sometimes it has also been tied to the change of a hidden spiritual name, as with Pashur, Pharaoh, Gideon and Elizabeth.
Do you know the name by which God and angels call you? Do you know the names by which devils and wicked persons call you? And what names do you call yourself?
2. The Power of the Name in the Spirit
Pashur was a deputy high priest; the No.2 citizen, as far as the affairs of God were concerned in that religious society. He was such a powerful man that he could at will imprison and release a man as respected as the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:1-3). His arrogance and wickedness earned him a change of name in the spirit realm, and that name was to order his life thenceforth in specific ways, as the prophet enumerated.
Pashur was going to see Terror everyday of his life everywhere he went. He would freeze in an oven and burn in the snow. With guards all around him, he would scream in terror about assassins that only he would see. If his car should break down on the highway, he would be too frightened to get out, yet too frightened, still, of the approaching darkness of night. The same food on which others grew fat would make him lean. The same water that refreshed others would choke him. In as safe and comfortable a place as his palace in the Temple, he would suffocate with the Terror that would have surrounded him “on every side.”
Besides the invasion of Terror, there would also be terrifying close-shaves with Danger, and actual visitations of Disaster. He would begin to see his secured friends die violently one after the other, fearing that it could soon be his turn. “With your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies” (v.4).
Spiritually, Pashur, with all his household, was also uprooted from his place of nobility and popularity in Judah to a place of captivity and obscurity in Babylon (v.6). He was going to lose his congregation and himself to the superior power of Bishop Nebuchadnezzar. His temple would empty itself to populate the congregations at Babylon. His ministry as Assistant High Priest had come to an end. He and his household were going to die in exile. All of this was going to be simply by the power of the new name that he had received in the realm of the spirit. It was not going to be the work of a wicked sorcerer. So, if Pashur should begin to attack people without addressing his new label in the spirit, he would have been deceived, and would have been wasting his time.
Is it possible that the recent turn of events for the worse in your life has its origin in a change of name that has been made for you in some coven by some prophet of darkness? Is it even possible that it is God Himself who has changed your name from “Pashur” to “Magar-Missabib,” because of your stubborn ways? Is it possible that men still call you by your beautiful natural name of Mary, Happiness, Glory, David, King, whereas your new name, your true name in the spirit, has become Jezebel, Sorrow, Shame, Saul, or even Slave?
Are you called Mr. Wealthy, but wealth seems so far from you? Are you called President, but you live the life of a beggar? Is it possible that whereas your natural name is Success, it has been changed in the spirit realms to Failure, which is why success seems so always to elude you? Have you been spiritually relocated from Judah to Babylon, even though you still find yourself at present in physical control at the Temple palace in Jerusalem? It was going to take some time, before the effects of Pashur’s new judgment-name began to show on him. Is your clock ticking towards an ultimate disaster in spite of your apparent present bliss?
3. Naming Your World
After God had created everything as well as man, God told Adam and Eve to “have dominion over all” that He had created (Genesis 1:28). As an immediate expression of that dominion, God brought all the animals that He had created before Adam, for him to give names to them. Whatever he called them, that became their name (Genesis 2:19-20).
For anybody to name a child, that person must have some authority over that child either as a parent, grandparent, or somebody so empowered by the parents. A stranger cannot simply walk in and stamp a name on a child, not even on a dog. Everybody would ask that stranger, “But who are you? Whose power or dominion are you exercising over this baby?” When Abram’s name needed to change to Abraham, God did the change of name. But when Abraham’s wife’s name was to change from Sarai to Sarah, God told her husband, who had dominion over her as her head, to effect her change of name (Genesis 17:5, 15). Naming, therefore, is an expression of authority or dominion, and naming has the power to make things into the image of the names they are called.
God prophetically told Judah that her walls were to be called “Salvation” and her gates “Praise” (Isaiah 60:18). What name do you call your gates? Do you have a name for your house? Your business? Your car? If you do not call it a name, to establish your dominion and God’s over it, then your enemies might do it for you while you sleep (Matthew 13:24-25). Give your dwindling business a good name. Call it daily by that name, until the prophecy that is its name becomes a reality. Give a name to your house, which should spiritually guide the course of events for everyone in that house; a name not towards terror and disaster but towards life and godliness.
Jacob had a memorable encounter with God in a barren open land. He gave the place a name: Bethel, which means, “the House of God.” Meanwhile, the land still carried the label of its natural name, Luz, which perhaps appeared still on the world’s maps and on all the official earthly documents. Several years later, that land became indeed a Bethel – the House of God. The new name had stayed (Genesis 28:18-19).
4. Prophetic Praying
a). Pashurs in the Land
There are trouble makers in the land; Pashurs, who because of their religious or political status have often threatened the prophetic voice and purpose of God in this season. They are most noble leaders, who use their power and freedom to threaten and attack the prophets and people of God. We need to get from God a spiritual change of name for them, irrespective of what ‘Pashuric’ names the newspapers and other men might still be calling them. And may we prophetically proclaim those new names of judgment over them. Thereafter, we may leave them to their fate. The names will follow them, until they and theirs are cut off into captivity. Amen. Babangida is a wind. He has passed the time appointed. Atieku is an illegitimate son. He shall not inherit to the throne.
b). Personal Deliverance
Personally, do you suppose that your name has been changed in the spirit? Could the sudden mysterious and unfortunate change in your fortunes have an origin in such a change of name? It took a prophet of superior anointing to Pashur’s high priestly office, to publicly announce Pashur’s change of name in the spirit. Call an anointed person of the Lord, to cancel from the realms of the spirit every name of terror and failure by which you are called, and may such prophets of God also announce for you a new name of glory.
c). Renaming the Land
Whereas the nation of Judah still had its official, natural name, by which everybody knew it, the prophetic word by Jeremiah revealed another name in the spirit realms, by which that nation was being called: “The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruits” (Jeremiah 11:16). Also, the Bible states in Isaiah 62:2-4:
2 …you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow [or “designate” - NAS]. 4 No longer will they call you Deserted, / or name your land Desolate. / But you will be called Hephzibah [“my delight is in her”], / and your land Beulah [“married”]; / for [according to that new name] the LORD will take delight in you, / and your land will be married (New International Version). Amen.
It is obvious from this passage, that we can give our land a name, irrespective of what ‘official’ name it is being called on the maps and in the diaries and gazettes of the world.
Secondly, it is obvious from this passage that if you do not give your habitation a name, others will name it for you, to your shame. It says, “No longer will THEY call you Deserted….” Who are “they” to “call you” by a name of their own wicked design? What power have “they” over “you” to so stamp a name of shame on you? We do not know who “they” are, except that the voice of God reveals the name of reproach by which the land was being called by them, in counteraction to which God Himself asks His people to begin to proclaim the new names of divine restoration.
Some of us intercessors should be careful what we say. We often pray ‘powerful prayers,’ only thereafter to give our land a bad name through our contrary confessions. Some would say about their country, for instance, “Nothing works in this place.” In Nigeria, for example, the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), because of its apparent characteristic outages, has been named “Never Expect Power Always.” May our bad names not keep canceling out our good prayers. Amen.
Thirdly, whereas the people were still being called by the name “Deserted,” and their land was still being called by the name “Desolate,” God had begun to see into their future restoration, as well as the restoration of their land. It appeared the only way to begin to call forth that future, in spite of the many, apparent, present, dismal challenges, was by beginning to deal with the old names by speaking forth the new names of “Hephzibah” and “Beulah” respectively for the people and the land; new spiritual names in anticipation of God’s promised New Move in the land. That was God’s prescription in the present case for a desolate land.
Couldn’t God simply have sent down a Revival from Heaven? Couldn’t He have simply brought about a Pentecost and turned around everything without bothering about the old names and the speaking forth of new names that were a far cry from the realities on ground? Could not that future Restoration have come about by any other means than by dealing in the present with names they might never have been aware of, had not the mouth of the Lord so revealed it?
In Isaiah chapter 60, we have another witness to this truth. From verse 1, the prophet begins to announce: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” Then he proceeds to enumerate the things that the Lord would do in that glorious future:
“The multitude of camels shall cover thee… they shall bring gold and incense… and I will glorify the house of my glory… And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls… The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee… to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.”
The prophecy of future bliss runs on and on from verse 1. But note verse 18:
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; BUT THOU SHALT CALL thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
Why this addition? What has names or naming got to do with future economic, political and social restoration? “But Thou shalt call…” why should I myself call, or begin myself to proclaim those new names? And why does God say “But”? In contrast to what other contrary proclamations does He so stir me to also begin to prophesy by naming, or re-naming?
Is there “violence” in your land? Is there “wasting and destruction within thy borders” through the activities of cult groups, rival gangs, armed robbers and civil rebels? Your city gates might need the new name of “Praise” or “Peace,” so that whoever goes through those gates into your city would be under the power of the names of the gates through which they shall have passed.
There is some prophetic praying that now occasionally takes place at our city, state, and nations’ gates. But often, the prayers end with ‘raising an altar’ in those places. What about changing the names of those gates? What about giving the gates, the land, and the borders (walls) new names?
There was a Temple gate called Beautiful. A poor lame man sat there long enough to be beautified one day with an unexpected, unsolicited miracle (Acts 3:1-11). The name of the Gate eventually caught up with him.
Not only the gates but the Temple itself had a name apart from the natural names by which the Jews described it. It took Jesus to reveal that name when He remarked, “My house SHALL BE CALLED of all nations THE HOUSE OF PRAYER” (Mark 11:17). Disciples like Peter and John went through its Beautiful gates to pray therein “at the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1). The place attracted prayers and pray-ers. A good name is better than silver and gold (Ecclesiastes 7:1; Proverbs 22:1).
A noble man, an honourable Federal Minister for Food and Social Welfare, had himself trampled to death at the gates of Samaria. The gates had received the prophetic word the day before, to let food through, but not to the man. He was merely to see though the windows of divine grace the abundance that he was never to have, because he was an opposer to God (2 Kings 6:32-33; 7:1-20). Gates hear. Probably that was why God often sent His prophets to the gates (Jeremiah 7:1-2; 22:1-2).
The city of Jerusalem had gates which had such names as Lion’s Gate, Golden Gate, New Gate, etc. Give your gates a name.
Your walls (borders) might also need a new name in the realms of the spirit; a change of name from whatever it used to be called in the spirit, to Salvation, so that all who come within those walls will be under the power of salvation, not destruction and wasting anymore. Do this for the land. Do this for your home. Do it in your office. Do it over yourself, with a superior prophetic ‘Jeremiahic’ witness.
d). The Weapon Against Evil Names
God has provided a blood, the Blood of the Lamb, to deal with all kinds of bloodguilt (Hebrews 12:24), so has He also provided a name, the Name of Jesus, to deal with all forms of evil mystery names.
The name of Jesus is “a name above EVERY NAME,” whether they be names and “things” in the astral and metaphysical planes of “heaven” above, “things” in the natural plane of men and the “earth,” or “things” in the netherworld “under the earth.” At that name, tongues that used to curse by means of the previous names of shame will cease their enterprise and begin to “confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord,” producing results that would be “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
Wherefore God also hath HIGHLY EXALTED him, and given him a name which is above every name (v.9).
Another look at this text shows a connection between the high exaltation of Jesus and His new mystery name “given” from the realms of God. That is in the same way as Pashur’s demotion in life, for instance, was connected to his new mystery name of encompassing Terror. Also, just as merely the Lord’s new name was going to compel all things to respond or “bow” to Him, so was Pashur’s name going to compel all things to begin to go against him.
The name of Jesus is the weapon “highly exalted above” and against every other name, no matter the planes at which they operate.
5. A New Name in Glory
The story is told in Mark 5:25-35 of an anonymous “certain woman,” who is more specifically identified only by her sick condition and the duration of her tribulations at the hands of that sickness. “A certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years” (v.25). What a name! What an identity! However, when this woman met Jesus, He did not only heal her, He also changed her name. She used to be popularly known as the Woman with the Issue of Blood. But when Jesus addressed Himself to her after her healing, He did not call her by that name. He called her, “Daughter” (v.34).
Any good Sunday school child remembers the story of the man popularly known as Blind Bartimaeus. It appears his first name was “Blind,” and his surname, “Bartimaeus.” Was “Blind” the name his parents gave him when he was born? No. One day he heard… (at least he could hear, even if he could not see. There was still a window through his ears, by which God could still reach him). He heard that Jesus was passing by. He called out to Jesus above the tumult of the crowd and got the Master’s singular attention. He got a miracle. His eyes were opened. And, of course, the name of Blindness dropped off him automatically (Mark 10:46-52).
Matthew 9:27 and 20:30 tell the story of two desperate men. They are identified simply as “two blind men.” What a name! When they realized Who was in their vicinity, that it was Jesus the Healer, they “followed him” until “their eyes were opened.” “Have mercy on us,” they had pleaded, and He did have mercy on them, as He always does (Matthew 9:27-31). Their old shame disappeared automatically with their old name.
Today could be your own day. Jesus promises in Revelation 2:17:
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
When anybody does a change of name, they usually advertise the change in one or more newspapers. So demands the law of the land. God, however, promises here to publish your new name not just in a paper that could be torn or burnt up, but to engrave it on an enduring white stone. That “white stone” shall become, significantly, your ‘white paper,’ beyond controversy by any opposing Satanic legislation. God also changes names, and still does. To Judah, He said, “The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit…” (Jeremiah 11:16, Living Bible). Receive today your own white stone bearing your engraved new name of glory. Amen.
And I will write my God’s Name on him, AND he will [as a consequence, too] be a citizen in the city of my God – the New Jerusalem… and he will have my new name inscribed upon him (Revelation 3:12, Living Bible).
When God writes His own name upon a person; when God stamps His own label on any person, that person’s identity changes to the identity of God. Such a person ceases to be merely themselves. They have become “God”; they begin to be called by the One whose Name has been inscribed on them.
Why do you call one bottle “Coke” and another something else? It is not because of the look or make of the bottle. It is because of the name that its Owners, its ‘gods,’ have stamped upon it. So, you merely read the label of the name off the bottle, and it becomes the name. If the owners should decide to change the name tomorrow from “Coke” to “Coky,” that is the label we would find on the bottle. That is what everybody would read off the bottle. And that will become the new name, the new identity of that bottle.
May God change your defective identity today by stamping His Name upon you, so that you shall henceforth be known by the new and powerful name of your God. Jeremiah once had to remind God, “We are called by thy name; leave us not” (Jeremiah 14:9). May the Lord not leave you, when you are called by His name. Amen.
Beasts and beastly men may carry upon themselves “the name of blasphemy” (Revelation 13:1); let the Mothers of whoredom carry upon their foreheads the mystery name of “Mother of Harlots and abominations” (Revelation 17:5); but may the elect go forth with the “Father’s name written in their forehead” (Revelation 14:1). May they be called by the name of their God. Amen.