“My Shining”

My Shining

In a previous post I shared a revelation I had about the concept of God having a secret name for me, but at the time I did not receive that name specifically.
What’s My Name

To be honest, I did not ask to receive my new name for two reasons:

1. I was satisfied with the revelation of the significance of God having his own name for me.
2. I figured it was something that I would learn when I arrive in heaven.  A welcoming of sorts.

This weekend I attended part of an intimate gathering called The Father-Heart of God.  It was a 2 day event held at our church, but I missed most of the first 2/3^rds of the event due to fatigue and prior commitments.  Near the beginning of the last 1/3^rd of the event, we returned to this subject of receiving our new names, the identity that God has for us, and the Godly characteristics that God sees in us, whether we see it or not.  Pastor Paul told us we were to ask God and receive our new names, and do it within 15 minutes.

At first I thought this was a little unlikely.  First, I already shared that I believed this would come in heaven.  Second, I had missed most of the teaching prior to this point, so I felt a little unprepared.  Third, wasn’t it a little pushy to expect God to answer me in my time frame, now, and in no more than 15 minutes?  I had my doubts.

And I felt a little pressure too.  I didn’t want to come back from the prayer time empty handed, and I didn’t want to fabricate anything from myself.  But it’s very easy to let the mind spin up and try to come up with something on your own.

So I started the prayer time with hope and hesitation.  For a few minutes I prayed and had ideas come to mind, which I tried to form into better ideas, but I started to get frustrated with myself.  Like I said, I didn’t want to fabricate anything.  If this is a new name from God, I want to it hear it completely, in its entirety.

I’ve learned that using your prayer language is a good way to ‘turn off the mind’, so to speak.  Actually, it’s not that your mind turns off, it’s more like your mind moves into the passenger seat and lets the Holy Spirit drive.  This is not natural for our mind to do because our mind is used to being in control at all times.  But God would never want us to turn off our mind completely, afterall, he created us with a wonderful mind.  I’ve previously written about praying in tongues here Bait and Switch and here Secret Wisdom.

Anyway, I started to use my prayer language.  What I’ve experienced when I pray in tongues is that at first it’s a stream of babbling, very little recognizable pattern and no meaning to me.  That does not mean it’s ineffectual prayer, it is still the words of the Holy Spirit, but it’s beyond my comprehension.  But within a short time my babbling will begin to boil down into a small repetitive pattern.  If I take that repetitive pattern as a prophetic message from God and ask for his interpretation, it is almost always something significant for me or someone else.

This time it was no different, “Moya shanieta”.  That’s what I found myself repeating.  I asked God for the interpretation and very quickly received “My shining”.  I thought to myself, “wow, that’s pretty cool, but it doesn’t make sense.  My shining what?”  I tried to fill in the blank, “my shining son”, “my shining star”, I thought my shining was an adjective, an incomplete phrase.  But God quickly corrected me, he said “no, shining is a noun, not an adjective”.

I questioned this at first, until I realized that even in a technical sense, I suppose God’s right that shining can in fact be a noun, a substance.  Photons have properties of both energy and matter.  They exhibit a kinetic force that can be measured.  They carry energy that keeps our planet alive in numerous ways.  And they come from a source much greater than themselves, but no less important.  If the sun did not expel its energy, it could be as great and brilliant as it wants to be but no one would receive the benefit of it.  I thought to myself, “wow, this must be from God because this is both far too creative and far too clever to be from me!”

God was revealing to me that God sees me as part of his radiance, part of his glory, part of the light He uses to fill the world.  I am not just a recipient or benefactor of these things.  I’m not a mirror or a prism that reflects or disperses his light.  I am in fact part of the very essence of God’s brilliance and shining glory.  Wow!

As I write this I am moved to tears.  It is a subtle but paradigm shifting view to consider myself part of the glory of God, not just an observer.  Not only did he meet me “on demand” in those 15 minutes, but he gave me a message of belonging and significance that I never received before.

The story doesn’t end there…

I did not know this, but the day before, Pastor Paul encouraged everyone to be listening to the Spirit regarding gifts for individuals that would be given during the name-sharing session.  People brought material gifts, songs, scripture verses that they felt were intended for specific individuals.  It was very interesting how many times the gifts were very closely related to the names people had received.

I received a package of night-light light-bulbs.  The individual who brought them said he felt the Holy Spirit tell him he needed to buy this 4-pack of light bulbs, and even gave him a message to share, but he did not at the time know who the gift and message was for.  It wasn’t until I shared my new name that he instantly knew that God wanted to use this as an affirmation for me.  The message was essentially that I am in fact His Shining, but moreover that my light has a specific purpose.  Just as the moon has a different purpose than the sun, the purpose of a night light is to provide safety and security in dark places, sometimes guiding people to a greater light.  Hey, I’ll receive that!

Another person gave me this verse:

Isaiah 60:1-3

The Glory of Zion

¹ “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
² See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
³ Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Hallelujah!
Nate

P.S.  I shared this testimony during prayer and praise on 12/16/2011 and received even more revelation.  Continuing on the importance of light in the world, the water cycle and the food chain could not exist without light and heat.  In the same way, things of the spirit could not exist or take place without God’s light in this world.  Light scatters the darkness and brings new life.  Think of the authority and importance this places on your role in this world as being God’s light!  Nothing of eternal significance can happen without our contribution, those of us who have received Christ and are a new creation.  And think of how much God values that new creation, not just as a vessel that carries his glory, but instead to become an actual part of this glory and radiance!  This puts Matthew 5:16 into new light for me (pun intended):  We aren’t just supposed to just ‘let your light shine’, but we are in fact God’s light, his active agent in this world.  Amen!