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Revelation 3 says:
I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone, which no one knows or understands except he who receives it.
I have often wondered what my new name is. He has a special name for each of us. Dixie means “girl of the south”. I am not even from the south. I tell in my book, “Climbing Out of the Box” why I was given that name at birth in the first place. I want to read you an excerpt from my book to show you where I am coming from:
“I don’t want her! That’s not my baby! Take her away!” These are among the first words I was told I heard as a newborn. My mother was expecting a boy. In fact, the whole family was expecting a boy, and I was a keen disappointment. I was supposed to be named “Dickie” after my Grandpa. However, upon learning that I was a girl, my parents didn’t know what to name me. They finally decided the closest thing to Dickie was Dixie. Besides the disappointment of having a girl, no one in my family had ever seen a newborn with hair like mine. They expected a blonde baby because they were fair people. I am blonde now, but at birth I looked like the Cherokee Indian that is in my bloodline. It took three days before my own mother would accept me. I would be brought to her for feeding and she would yell that I wasn’t her baby, and to take me away. At times I have felt like crying for the poor little girl that was rejected in the first few days after birth and wished I could pick her up and love on her. This early experience began instilling into me that life was all about abandonment and survival.
From the very first act of incest, my emotional development came to an abrupt stop. Everything I did from that point on was from a new perspective of who I was and of my own lack of value. Where was God through all of this? I learned to compartmentalize the Dixie who was her Dad’s mistress and the Dixie who longed for God to deliver her and take her away from it all.
The day my Dad violated me was the day I became ugly. And from that moment on, I was on the outside looking in as life passed me by. A bomb had been dropped into my life that first day, the effects of it rippling out for years to come. This violation of my body and soul would be behind every decision I would make in life, until thirty years later when I would find complete healing, though not without a price.
The lies that Satan told me every day were many and powerful: I was worthless, all men will hurt me, when they do hurt me I am powerless to do anything about it, I couldn’t say no, I would never be as good as my friends, if people really knew the real me they would be disgusted, I could never tell the secret or I (and my family) would be destroyed, I was the only one this has ever happened to, and it is all my fault.
So, as you can imagine…I never really liked my name much. So, I will be welcoming the revelation of my new name in heaven. I am sure it is a beautiful name and I would expect no less from my Lord.
Matthew 10:30-31 says:
“But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
There is no eloquence like the eloquence of Jesus—He knows even the hairs on my head. In one of my bible studies a woman said that if we went into a home that Jesus lived in our pictures would be hanging on His wall. Oh, to actually imagine being so treasured by Him that he hangs my picture on His wall!
Yet we are indelibly imprinted in His heart.
Isaiah 49:16 says:
“Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”
The picture of us is not only on His wall, but ON HIS HANDS!!! We never leave His thoughts. We were made for relationship. He is the lover of my soul. He is the lover of our very hearts.
The interesting part of this scripture is that it was His hands that were pierced through at Calvary for our ransom from the clutches of our enemy. Those scars purchased our freedom . Those piercings went right through the very place our names are written. The symbolism in that fact overwhelms me.
His love won me back from what the enemy thought was his best plan.
Our walls or boundaries we have up to stand against the enemy are continually before Him. We are not alone!! He stands with us. What bridegroom would leave his betrothed out there without defense to keep her enemy away?
He has given me a new name that only I will know. My enemy doesn’t know this new name. I will only hear my King’s voice.
He has numbered the very hairs of my head and has my picture on the palms of His nail scarred hands. He is my King and He intimately loves me with a love that earth cannot compare to. Ask Him for the revelation of these words to your own heart.
I have a word for you that comes from scripture but put into a personal word just for you!! It’s a quote from an article by Wayne Jacobson, that so resonated with me I now share with you:
“No one on this planet ever has or ever will love you like I do. The great lie is that I cannot be trusted with your life. Oh, but I can! I will take care of you and teach you to follow me so that you can know the fullness of my life. I will hold you close to my heart as we walk through the days ahead. Even in the face of pain and death, I will ensure that nothing will take you out of my hand. I will draw you to myself, wipe every tear from your eyes and through it all transform you into the person I created you to be.
I know you haven’t always seen that, nor yielded to me so that I could do it. You wandered in places where you got hurt and sought out easy answers that could not work. I have not been the source of your pain, but the one who has offered you healing. All the while I wanted to teach you how I work. I do not put band-aids over your life so it will look better but seek to heal you at the deepest places. It is not something that you can do, but it is something that you can thwart if you won’t let me teach you how to yield to my wisdom and power. You have nothing to fear. Your entire life is in my hands and my hands are sure.
No More Strangers for My sheep know my voice. I call you by name and point the way for you to go.”
God is there for us no matter what we go through. Put Him at the forefront of your life today and allow Him to minister to you!
For more about healing, recovery, and discovering God’s plan for your life, visit ReflectionsOfGraceHome.com, where you can find my blogs and purchase my books: Climbing Out of the Box and Fifty Ways to Meet Your Lover.