As recorded in Exodus 1:1, the 11th son of Jacob who went into Egypt was Asher. The meaning of number 11: Incomplete, imperfect and rebellion. And, the meaning of the name Asher: Happy, blessed, call, go, guide, lead, relieve, level, right, straight, be honest, go forward and proper. And this is a testimony the name of Asher proclaims about the Lord.
Happy are you, O Israel, and blessing is yours! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the Shield of your help, the Sword that exalts you (Deuteronomy 33:29 AMP). Who gave this command, “Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God and you will be My people, and walk in the whole way that I command you, that it may be well with you. But they were rebellious and wouldn’t listen to and obey Me or bend their ear to Me; instead, they followed the counsels and the stubborn promptings of their own evil heart and mind, and they turned their backs and went in reverse instead of going forward, “Jeremiah 7:23 AMP.
CALL: So, God sent Malachi to share His Word, “Look! I am sending My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to the Temple. The Messenger of the Covenant, Whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming. But who will be able to endure it when He comes? Who will be able to stand and face Him when He appears? For He will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes.”
“He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify God’s people, refining them like gold and silver, so they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord,” Malachi 3:1-4 NLT. Yes, the Lord will have people who will bring Him offerings of righteousness (Malachi 3:3 NIV). Know the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself! The Lord will hear when they call to Him! Psalm 4:2.
So, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His doings among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing praises to Him! Meditate on and talk of all His marvelous deeds and devoutly praise them. Glory in His holy name! Let the hearts of those rejoice, who seek and require the Lord as their indispensable necessity. Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength – His might and His inflexibility to temptation! Yes, seek and require His face and His presence evermore (Psalm 105:1 AMP).
LEAD: For in His unfailing love He will lead the people He has redeemed. In His strength He will guide them to His holy dwelling (Exodus 15:13). Until Christ came God’s people were guarded by the Law, kept in protective custody so to speak, until they could believe in the coming Savior.
RIGHT: Paul continued: Let me put it another way. The Jewish laws were our teacher and guide until Christ came to give us right standing with God through our faith. But now that Christ has come, we don’t need those laws any longer to guard us and lead us to Him. For now, we are all children of God through faith in Jesus, and we who have been baptized into union with our Lord and Savior are enveloped by Him. We all share the same identity as Christians! We are one in Christ Jesus, and all God’s promises belong to us (Galatians 3:23-29 TLB).
HAPPY: There should be no other way than offering sacrifices to our heavenly Father in the right spirit, because we trust the Lord (Psalm 4:5 NLT). We should give ourselves – body, soul and spirit – to God because of all He has done for us (Romans 12:1a NLT). So, we can proclaim with all our heart as does the Message Bible: I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed. My heavenly Father has canceled my ticket to hell – that’s not my destination! Now He’s got my feet on the path of Life, all radiant from the shining of His face. Ever since He took my hand, I’m on the right way (Psalm 16:9 Message).
RELIEVE: How sad God’s Word, Christ Jesus, asks, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46. Your heavenly Father has always sent His Word to try and relieve your fears: “Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way, He is fighting for you,” Deuteronomy 1:29 Message.
GUIDE: Put God’s Word into practice and bless the Lord who guides you! Know with certainty the Lord is always with you. Know He is right beside you, and you will not be shaken (Psalm 16:7 NLT). Truly worship the Lord your God with a living and holy sacrifice – YOU! Body, Soul and Spirit – by refusing to copy the behaviors and customs of this world. Do what is acceptable and pleasing to Him by letting His Word and Holy Spirit transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn from your own experience how God’s ways will really satisfy you (Romans 12:1-2 TLB).
GO FORWARD: Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own vanity and conceit (Romans 12:16 AMP). Instead, forget what lies behind and go forward toward what lies ahead. Press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which God is calling us upward (Philippians 3:13 AMP). Refuse to repay evil for evil. Take thought for what is honest and proper – aim to be above reproach – in the sight of everyone. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:16 AMP).
Did you ever play the game hot potato? Trying to transfer something as quickly as you can from your hand to the other person. Well, more often than not, we don’t catch the depth of meaning and intention God wants us to catch from His Word. To live at peace with everyone, to walk in love, to forgive 7x70x’s may cause us reason to embrace negativity instead of doing as Hebrews 10:24 instructs stirring ourselves up with acts of service – helpful deeds, noble activities – for this will stimulate the growth and development of Holy Spirit’s fruit – Love, Peace, Joy, Kindness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Patience, Goodness, and Self-Control (Galatians 5:22).
We are told to seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the Hope we cherish, and to confess our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable, sure and faithful to His Word (Hebrews 10:23 AMP). Yes, we may drop this amazing gift of Hope, but God! He continues to send His Word time and time and time again because Jesus is that Hope, our living Hope. Until the perfect arrives we will make mistakes in judgments, in the way we try to express our intentions with mere words that seem on occasion to miss the mark, but there is always Hope.
We don’t have to seek perfection because that is most definitely an unrealistic expectation. Instead, we can embrace our perfect imperfections as we aim for excellence knowing God has given us His Word and Holy Spirit, and together They are always passing to us God’s Message of Love. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 assures: God loves us and has given us everlasting consolation and encouragement and well-founded Hope through His grace, which John 1:17 explains God’s grace and the truth come to us through Jesus.
For those listening to this podcast, the infinity symbol ∞ is included in the blog of Asher and though it cannot be seen, it is known to be a symbol, a representation of a permanence that is eternal. A symbol in possession of everlasting meaning. A meaning with the greatest intent and purpose for it personifies what is endless, limitless, timeless – spiritual life – life that continues after what each of us are destined to face – God’s last enemy – Death (1 Corinthians 15:26).
As Christians we believe the free gift of God is eternal Life, and the wages of sin, of self-centered desire, is Death. Two eternal, everlasting destinations. One the Life of abundance and blessing, the other Death the absence of all that is Good. The question being raised: Who are we co-laboring with? For how devastating to confront the Truth when time and opportunity has ceased. When the sheer darkness of what evil produces – misery, regret, shame, pain and sorrow – can no longer be soothed, healed, reconciled and relieved by God’s Word.
Instead, the heart whose desire to be god-like will throughout eternity realize the gamble that was taken without understanding of the hazards of – chance, fate, luck, kismet, destiny… that make obscure – undefined, unrecognizable, unimportant and insignificant – the One and only Way to gain knowledge and understanding so the inheritance God desires to bequeath could be received.
God bestowed this gift of time so people would not be forced to enter eternity knowing the gamble, the risk of being groomed by self-reliance, self-gratification, self-importance and preoccupation for the wages earned by glorifying such vanity results in facing Death a second time – The Reaper! The one who for eternity will work to destroy every memory of Love and Mercy and Goodness!
In Outdoor Life Charles Elliott wrote: Any perennial outdoorsman can recount many experiences when the reaper’s scythe just missed him. How many people are allowing themselves to be controlled by self-righteousness, complacency and arrogance ensuring the reaper’s scythe will not miss the gathering of their soul. God has done everything in His power to prevent this eternal consequence from occurring.
I have heard it said with all the evil in the world this must be hell. Without God’s Word of Truth, without Holy Spirit no eye will ever see, no ear will ever hear, no mind will ever be able to imagine what God has prepared for those who love, respect, honor and obey Him (1 Corinthians 2:9). Well, the flip side, and there is always a flipped side, heads or tails, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive what awaits those who are actually “Cutting of their nose to spite their face” by rejecting God’s life-saving intervention.
We have in are possession the knowledge of Good and Evil, and yes, human hands perpetrate the hellish activities that encompass the globe, but thank the Lord there are hands extending Love so God can be known. However, when time comes to an end our soul, our spiritual being will spend eternity either in the complete absence of the presence of evil or the complete absence of the presence of Love.
Speaking for myself, when I realize what Jesus had to go through so He could prepare a place for me in the Kingdom of God, Who is Love, when I realized the patience and kindness and compassion the gentleness and faithfulness He extended year after year until I was able to look past that mountain of ego to recognize and accept His out-stretched hand, how could I not fall head over heels in love with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The sad truth is the Lord continues to extend Himself – the Word – year after year after year because selfishness is woven into the core of my soul. Thankfully, Holy Spirit continually clothes every Christian with Christ, the Word of Peace and Life and Truth, throughout our sojourning on the earth so we receive comfort and can encourage our heart, strengthening them, making them steadfast and keeping them unswerving, willing to do every good work that God’s Word prompts us to extend (2 Thessalonians 2:17 AMP).
We are all God’s workmanship progressing to the goal of acceptance. Accepting His ways, His will, His Word as Lord to be honored and respected, obeyed and followed until we arrive at heaven’s glorious Door, Christ Jesus, Who Himself is waiting to accept the sons of God, who will be given entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, into the eternal experience of Peace and Joy in the presence of the only One Who is Good.
For now in the presence of time, the children of God are blessed to be in possession of a living Hope, to receive the deliverance of God’s CPR – Christ Powered Redemption, Restoration, Renewal, Reconciliation, Recovery, Relief – the ever-flowing, ever-filling, ever-resuscitating and reviving breath of Life delivered by the indwelling presence of God’s Word and Holy Spirit.
How many years it took my heart to acknowledge and proclaim when all I have is Jesus then I truly have all I’ll ever need! The fear of the Lord – the awe and amazement, the wonder and reverence for the Lord – truly is a fountain of Life (Proverbs 14:27) living water we can drink to refresh our soul anytime, anywhere.
It never ceases to amaze me how Holy Spirit manages to guide my hand as the pen of a skillful writer. Now Psalm 45:1 says my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer, but I’m not there yet my social skills still require honing. I say all this because I write about Jesus, God’s Word, Who Holy Spirit loves to share. On the website ForGodForeHisGlory.com Holy Spirit has helped me to compile lessons and booklets to share information about God and His Word and the perfect imperfections of the worldly conditioning of humanity. The first 60 plus years there was no way I would have or could have accomplished such an undertaking on my own.
From the first booklet “In The Beginning” I have chosen a few excerpts to share, and they fit perfectly with what we have been discussing.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of Life (Prov. 14:27).
Heavenly Wisdom is a fountain of Life as refreshing as water from a mountain spring. Those who drink from it become aware of the pitfalls and snares of Death (Prov. 13:14). Over time as the Word of God, which is a title given to the Lord (Rev. 19:13), is absorbed our natural perspectives will simply change, if there’s a willingness to think a little differently. We change! Why! Our Deliverer, Christ Jesus, is the Word of God!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is God. The Lord was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. In Jesus is Life, and that Life is the Light of mankind. The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood (John 1:1-5)
Many people just don’t get it. They don’t acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God. They don’t acknowledge every good thing – hope, love, kindness, encouragement, comfort…- God shares with them. They have not chained God or His Word within their soul; sadly, they have chained themselves to thinking that is in agreement with the ways of this world. Ways that make it impossible to obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with all its eternal glory.
If only their trust was not in the words they have used that paint our soul with the dark shadings of doubt and denial, fear and disbelief. If only they would allow Holy Spirit to apply the Light of Life, for surely they would discover it is the Lord who delivers our lives from death, and our feet from falling so we may walk before God (Ps. 56:13 AMP) with the light of the Righteous One within us constantly growing brighter. Why? The lamp of the wicked only furnishes a derived, temporary light and shall be put out shortly (Prov. 13:9).
Yes, God sent His Word, the Light of Life, to shine and proclaim to the world: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6. So let us continue to discover how the meaning of the name of Asher will help us to taste and see how very good God’s Word, Christ Jesus, truly is:
PROPER: Test and examine and evaluate yourself to make sure you are solid in the faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and proof yourself not Christ (2 Corinthians 13:5 AMP). Don’t continue drifting along, taking everything for granted. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test do something about it. Paul continued: We’re rooting for the Truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise (2 Corinthians 13:5 Message).
STRAIGHT: So, don’t just quote Scripture, apply God’s Word and train yourself to truly trust in the Lord with all your heart, so you no longer depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do. Know – realize, understand and appreciate; Recognize – honor, celebrate; and glorify; Acknowledge – wise up, agree and allow God’s Word to make straight and plain which path to take (Proverbs 3:6 AMP).
LEVEL: So, don’t be impressed with your own wisdom, fear the Lord and turn away from evil (Proverbs 3:5 NLT). For the way of the consistently righteous is level and straight. For the Lord, Who is upright, will direct aright and make level the path of the uncompromisingly just and righteous (Isaiah 26:7 AMP).
There are two locations in the Bible Isaiah 40:4 and Luke 3:4 where God’s Word assures: Every valley and ravine shall be lifted and filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be leveled and made straight. The rough places shall be made smooth and crooked places revealed. And all mankind shall see – behold and understand and at last acknowledge – the glorious salvation of God, Who decreed the deliverance from eternal death through His precious Son, Christ Jesus (AMP).
Since God’s Word is personal and persuasive and pervasive this is how I have interpreted that promise from the Lord. Those things that have caused us unhappiness, sadness and depression will be lifted as God’s Word fills us with Christ Jesus – the Truth, the Life, the Way that gladdens our heart/ causes our tongue to rejoice and our body to rest securely.
Why? Because our heavenly Father gives us His Word – we have no power or authority to break His promise – “I will not abandon you to the grave. You will not face Death a second time – that lake of fire. God’s Word makes known to us the path of Life. The Lord fills us with joy in His presence, granting us the pleasures of living with Him forever (Psalm 16:9 NLT).
Those mountains or hills where our pridefulness is exalted will be leveled and made straight because God’s Word has said, “I will not share My glory with idols. Whatever those idols may be money, people, fame, power, prestige, self…I will not let My reputation be tarnished; I will rescue you for My sake – yes, for My own name’s sake (Isaiah 48:11 NLT), that you may share in My glory (Romans 8:17).
The rough and crooked places will be smoothed out by God’s Word of Truth so we don’t give anyone the power to deceive us in any way.
REBELLION: The secret power of lawlessness is already at work in the world, but the One Who now holds it back will continue to do so until He is taken out of the way. That day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendor of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8).
GUIDE: Now, if we are children, then we are heirs; therefore, in everything you do, put God first, and He will guide you. He will direct you and crown your efforts with success (Proverbs 3:6 TLB). If we can humble ourselves as children, then we can become heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if we indeed are willing to share in His sufferings, for He made Himself – body, soul and spirit – a living sacrifice in order that we may also share in His glory (Romans 8:17).
This is worth repeating, if we are will to humble ourselves as children, then we will become heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we do share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.
BLESSED: In your struggle against sin and temptation, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Hebrews 12:4). How blessed – happy, fortunate, to be envied – are those who trust and take refuge in God’s Word. Beloved! Fear the Lord! Yes, you His saints, who have tasted and seen His goodness. Revere and worship Him, Who is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.
But the Word says, “Go, My people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God’s wrath has passed by,” Isaiah 26:20.
“For those who touch you, My Father’s most precious possession, touches the apple of His eye. I will swing My hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you shall know, recognize and understand the Lord of Hosts has sent Me, His Messenger.”
“Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you! Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of you,” Zechariah 2:8-11 AMP.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.
Lord, stretch out Your hand to heal
And perform miraculous signs and wonders
Through the name of Your holy servant Jesus
Acts 4:29-30