My journey into the Hebrew heritage of my faith began several years ago when I first saw the names of God in Hebrew with their meanings on a poster in Western Australia. Something rejoiced inside me as I read who Yehovah (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey) said he was; Yehovah Shalom (The Lord is Peace), Yehovah Jireh (Our God provides) and Jehovah Saboath (The God of heavenly armies.)
I bought myself a book on His names and began to sing them whist on the piano as declarations and reminders that He is God and He is who he says He is. One that particularly touched my heart was Yehovah El Roi – The God who sees and watches over us.
In Genesis 16 God sends an angel to speak to Hagar who is in distress in the desert. After the encounter with the Lord’s angel she says ‘The Lord saw me, the Lord was watching over me’. Now isn’t that so encouraging to know and remember that God is watching over us and cares for us like he did for Hagar.
Another one of my favourites to speak in prayer is Yehovah Ropheka – Our healer God. Sometimes I find it hard to find the faith to pray for healing for someone, but then I remember his name and I begin to call upon God using his name Yehovah Ropheka and my faith has risen to see his power displayed.
Ask for the ancient paths
‘This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’ Jeremiah 6:16
Learning about the names of God led me down a new journey into the Hebrew roots of my faith. In the last four years I have; bought a Jewish bible, took a course from an Israel Bible school and purchased a Queen Esther prayer shawl from Israel. I have tried blowing a shofar, celebrated Passover, lit candles for Hannakuh and prayed for the shalom of Israel with Messianic Jews.
I have listened to teachings which unpack the Hebrew words in scriptures, and it has been a wonderful time of discovery and spiritual revelation.
The Torah
As I have continued on this journey I realised that a lot of what we are taught in Churches these days has lost some of the heritage, truth, richness and power of the original Torah (Bible). I heard one person describe it as ‘It’s like we’re now drinking water downstream where the water has been muddied instead of straight from the source’.
When we go back into the Hebrew and what the original picture-characters meant we find completely new meaning behind words and entire scriptures and get the power that God always intended on communicating to us. I was blown away by how each picture character of people’s names in the bible comes together to tell a story of their destiny. Well worth researching for yourselves!
Yeshua
My artist husband has also gone on this journey into the Hebraic foundations of our faith and for the last four years he has been signing his paintings with the Hebrew name of Jesus – Yeshua - in the actual Hebrew characters. Powerful to think these paintings and prints are going out in the world declaring the name above all names – Yeshua – which actually means ‘Salvation for all’. Hallelujah!
So get back to the source! Where the water is fresh and find out for yourself just how amazing our Yehovah is! Drink deep from the revelation of the ancient paths and the original Hebrew. Celebrate our rich heritage!
Liana Monaghan is a trained teacher working as a nanny currently. She is also a songwriter and singer working towards her dream of releasing her first EP.