Recently, ABBA has been directing me to places in His Word speaking about His months, His feasts, His commands, His ways of doing things. He’s giving me a love for His story from the beginning, and an understanding that many of His rich truths and original ways have been stolen from us, literally “lost in translation,” through the years. This has quickened in me a strong desire for better understanding, and for a restoration of all His truths and ways.

I’ve gradually been realizing just how many beliefs I’ve accepted through the years “just because,” receiving them blindly, instead of looking into the Word myself and asking ABBA for truth. He’s such a faithful Father. He’s been drawing me to cry out to Him, to be stripped of every false belief. It’s been a consistent, serious invitation to Him, to uproot, tear out, and burn away any and all false thoughts and beliefs I’ve ever had.

Most recently, the topic “names of God” has come up, and ABBA has given me a strong desire to only call Him what HE wants me to call Him. There is so much information and heated debate surrounding these things. As with anything else, I can only go directly to my Father and seek His truth on the matter. Anything I ever share is my own personal conviction, so as with ANY topic, I suggest to EVERY person, “GO DIRECTLY TO THE FATHER, BECAUSE ONLY HE KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS FOR YOU.”

This passage really speaks to me, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘ABBA, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:14-16a) Ever since realizing this truth, the Father has had me call Him “ABBA.” It just flows out naturally and there is complete peace in it.

The next thing which started standing out to me was all the debate surrounding the name “Jesus Christ.” All these years, I’ve known my Lord and Savior as “Jesus Christ.” It rolls off my tongue readily, and there is power in it. I know ABBA has honored my surrender in this name. I know demons flee at this name. But, upon learning it’s been translated/changed numerous times from the original name HE went by, in the language HE spoke, when He walked on the earth, I’ve sought HIM for what would be pleasing to HIM for me to call Him, with no preconceived notions.

So, I’ve been crying out to ABBA, with everything in me, to please tell me what to call Messiah, because again, I ONLY want to please HIM – and He answered me, in the most interesting way, last night. (Thank You again, ABBA. You truly amaze me!) I was driving a long distance, not feeling the best, just crying out to my Father. (The last few years have been a journey of really getting to understanding more and more just how much HE IS our ONLY Help, our ONLY Hope, our ONLY Salvation, and our ONLY Deliverance.) I was weeping, whining, feeling desperate for Him, and in the midst of this pouring out, “ISHI!…..” came out of my mouth.

I paused mid-prayer, realizing what had just happened, and I wept even more. I remembered hearing recently that ISHI in Hebrew means husband. He then brought my mind back to a section of His Word which had already been meaningful to me, but now even more so, as I realized He had just revealed to me what HE would be pleased for me to call HIM, by having me cry out TO HIM in that name!

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of expectation/hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it will come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “that you will call Me, ‘ISHI’ (‘my Husband’), and no longer call Me ‘Baali’ (‘my Ba’al/Lord’). And I will remove the names of the Ba’als from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more.”

“And in that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping creatures of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, and the sword, and war from the earth. And I will make them lie down in safety. I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in right-ruling, and in loving-commitment and compassion. And I will betroth you to Me in trustworthiness/faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD.”

“It will come about in that day that I will respond,” declares the LORD, “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth, and the earth will respond to the grain and to the new wine and to the oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. And I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they will say, ‘You are my God!’” (Hosea 2:14-23)

There is so much meaning to this passage, and I could share so much more about why ABBA prompting me to say “ISHI” (“my Husband”) is so meaningful to me personally, but I’ll save that for another time. After last night, I knew He wanted me to look up the word “ISHI,” so I just did that, and what I found made it even MORE amazing.

There are two ways to spell “ISHI” in Hebrew (excerpted from: Abarim Publications’ Biblical Dictionary). One spelling is אישי , which means “my man, my husband,” and is used only one time, in Hosea 2. It is interpreted here as a symbolic Divine name. The second spelling is ישעי , which means “salvation/deliverance.” A root word of this spelling is a verb which means “to be unrestricted and thus to be free, and thus to be saved (from restriction, from oppression and thus from ultimate demise). A doer of this verb is a savior.” Another form of this word means “to cry out for salvation.”

For the last few years, ABBA has been steadily teaching me He is NOT some distant, abusive deity, far away from us. In the beginning, He walked WITH Adam and Eve in the Garden in the cool of the day. Then, when they fell and we were separated from that intimacy with our Father, He sent His Son to restore us back to that CLOSE fellowship with Himself. He LOVES us and wants to WALK WITH us. He doesn’t go by formulas, and He doesn’t do the SAME thing ALL the time with EVERY single person. He is a PERSONAL God, our Father, who tells us that through Messiah we can call Him, “ABBA (Daddy).”

Now, He is PREPARING A BRIDE FOR HIS SON, our ISHI, and He tells us to have our lamps burning bright, full of oil, with extra to spare, as we await His return! This comes ONLY from intimacy with Him – giving HIM the time and focus He deserves – prioritizing WORSHIPING HIM ABOVE ALL THE DISTRACTIONS – LISTENING to Him, and OBEYING all He reveals to us!

Father, make us ready!!!!

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UPDATE – Since writing this, the LORD has brought me full circle regarding these things. Although I still very much value what He revealed regarding “ABBA” and “ISHI,” He also settled me into RESTING in the relationship He initiated and has continued with me through His Son Jesus Christ alone.

I have witnessed several people pulled into the “Hebrew roots” movement, told to denounce the name Jesus Christ (and be baptized into the Hebrew names Yahuah and Yahusha only, instead), and when they did, they became plagued with mental and spiritual unrest, anxiety, insomnia, and a host of other things. I now believe this ‘movement” is dangerous, and to be avoided.

Some Scriptures the LORD gave me regarding these things…..

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. (Titus 3:9)

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. (Revelation 19:11-12)

Jesus is called many amazing names and titles in the Bible, all depicting His greatness and the beauty of who He is. In addition, the above passage states clearly that He will have a name written on Him which NO ONE KNOWS EXCEPT HIMSELF. This is an exhortation to those who are trying to force people to call Him only one specific thing, stating that all the other names and titles by which He is called are false. This sparks of pride and control, and is not God’s way. God alone is the Ruler of these things, not man.

May God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit alone get all praise and honor and glory, in every way, from all things, and at all times!