What's in a name?

A lot more than we ever knew. Before Chad and I ever got married, we decided that if and when we had kids, we wanted to name them the right name from the beginning. What I mean by that is the name that God has named them. The Bible says that God knew us before we were even in our mother’s womb. If so, what did He call us? Also, when people would have supernatural experiences their name would change. Example: Abram to Abraham, Saul to Paul, etc. Our desire is to name our children not a name that we choose, but one that God shows us is right for our baby. I’ll explain how we perceive He has done that.

SAMUEL
Like I said we were always pondering this philosophy from the start. I felt drawn to the name Samuel. It kind of went on my mental list of baby names. As I began to read more and more about Samuel in the Bible I realized that kind of anointing was something I wanted for my children. The first year we were married I went on a womens retreat and received some prophecy. I think this was the first time anyone had ever prophesied over me, ever. A number of different things were said, but three things were said about our first child. The first was that this baby would be so highly prophetic that the pregnancy would even change my spirit as I carried the child. The Lord was marrying prophecy and worship in this baby. The second was that the child would have a spirit of Agabus and would be so very accurate in prophecy.:
*Agabus was a "prophet," probably one of the seventy disciples of Christ. He prophesied at Antioch of an approaching famine (Acts 11:27,28). Many years later he met Paul at Caesarea, and warned him of the imprisonment and affliction that awaited him at Jerusalem should he persist in going there (Acts 21:10-12). The last word was “don’t rush what God is doing. His time is perfect time.”
Well, Samuel in the Bible just happens to be one of the greatest prophets Israel has ever known. Also, we found out that we were pregnant on our third anniversary, 3/21/2003. That was very special and perfect timing to us.
Now that we knew we were going to have a baby, we really felt to ask for confirmations that we were in fact going to have a little boy and that he truly was to be called Samuel. We got all of those answers in June. 1) First, we were on our way to Chad’s Nanny’s and had the Bible in the car. We still didn’t know if it was a boy or girl so I said, “God can show us right now.” I told Chad I was going to open the Bible and just read whatever I opened it to. If there was a girl’s name, it was a girl. If there was a boy’s name on the page, it was a boy. What can it hurt? I opened to Isaiah 58. No names in the whole chapter, but a phrase Samuel says to the Lord when he is hearing his name audibly for the first time. “Here am I.” (1 Sam 3) It was a stretch, but I assumed this was the sign of a boy. About 30 minutes later I did it again and opened to 1 Chron 9. We knew then it was a boy and what his middle name should be too. I’ll tell you that story later. 2) We went to worship practice the following Wednesday night. A women there, Diana Mossimoto, was telling a story when we came in about the stone of Ebenezer ( 1 Sam 7). I knew this story well after doing some research for a shoot on Martine Luther King Jr.’s church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta for Restore America. Apparently she had thought it meant something else weeks ago and was correcting herself. She went on to explain that Samuel was at the battle of the Philistines and anointed a stone with oil at Ebenezer. The word now means “stone of help.” So here we are talking about Samuel. 3) The very next day I get an e-mail from April Samuels, formally April Wilson, my high school friend who I have not talked to since her wedding 5 years ago. She said I had been on her mind and she did an Internet search on my name. Our wedding came up on Microskapic’s old webpage with Chad’s e-mail address. She e-mailed Chad and asked if he was married to me and that she was trying to get in touch with me. I took this as yet another sign that Samuel was the name.

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