This page is intended to go deeper into a teaching offered by Morgan at a recent Boot Camp on The New Name.

If you haven’t already, listen to it before continuing to the content below.

We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody… Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only god could do; raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.

When everything else was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do…

Abraham plunged into the promise, and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.”

But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless.  The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

(Romans 4, The Message)

What would it look like for you to “plunge into the promise” the Father is offering you?

Scripture

“For we are God’s masterpiece.
He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”  Revelation 2:17

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
The nations will see your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.”
Isaiah 62:1-2

“Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from God.”
2 Corinthians 3:17-18

“When God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”  2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (The Message)

“Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you…” Jeremiah 1:5

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from where every family in heaven and earth derives its name [parcels out Heaven]. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:14-17

Quotes

“We are all under the same mental calamity; we have forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are.” G.K. Chesterton

“What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“The giving of the white stone with the new name is the communication of what God thinks about the man to the man….The true name is one which expresses the character, the nature, the meaning of the person who  bears it. It is  the man’s own symbol—his soul’s picture, in a  word—the sign which belongs to him and to no one else. Who can give a man this,  his own  name?  God  alone.”  George MacDonald, An Anthology

“Your actions reveal your belief 100 percent of the time.” Dallas Willard

“Christianity is more of me belonging to more of God.” Dallas Willard

“We were built to count, as water is made to run downhill. We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does.  That is our destiny.”  Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

Wild at Heart Resources

Waking The Dead

Other Books

Films

The films below are powerful, redemptive stories that explore the theme of a man’s journey from the poser/false self into his true self/new name.

Reflection Questions

Take an inventory of your actions.  If actions reveal beliefs 100 percent of the time, what do your actions (in a day, in a week, in a year) reveal about what you believe about your identity?

We can either live from a deep-seated identity or live for identity—constantly seeking to validate ourselves as men through externals and outcomes. Where are you living from a deep-seated identity in the truth?  Where are you seeking to prove yourself and your identity?

Take an inventory of things that have most deeply touched your heart: stories, pictures, experiences, scriptures, dreams, heroes, films.  What names has God been speaking into your life that you have failed to receive, hold on to?  Take some time to gather those together and begin creating a tapestry of the Name the Father is bestowing upon you.  Commit to a regular way of revisiting that name and drawing from its supernatural reality in your life.