God the Father named Jesus before His son was born, and a number of others in the Bible were also named before birth. In rare cases today, He continues to do so. Why? and what does this tell us about our God? This topic is explored in more depth in Newsletter 17. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletters, please fill in your details at the bottom of this topic.

Katy Robertson, Brisbane, Australia

I had been married for a couple of years and longed to have a baby. I was praying about the matter and studying my Bible when God very clearly impressed upon me that I was in fact pregnant and would have a son.  It was not an audible voice but a Word of Knowledge – I just knew.  

I was to call my son Joshua because he would be like Joshua in the Old Testament, who spied out the land of Canaan to give a report back to Moses and the Israelites. Joshua and Caleb were the only two who stood on the promises of God when all the other spies were too afraid of the enemy. In the same way, my son Joshua would stand on the Word of God when those around him did not.

Joshua was born in due course just as God had told me.  He continues to grow in the knowledge and ways of God who is working through him to build His Kingdom. The Lord blessed my husband and I with two more children but we did not receive any revelation about their names or destinies.  They also love and serve the Lord.

     Katy’s testimony shows that:

1. God cares about the children He gives us, even on rare occasions to choosing their names. We find this in scripture as well as in modern times.
2. God named Bill and Katy’s eldest son. God named him Joshua.
3. God may name children in advance of birth according to their future character and actions. And in the bible, and nowadays, He gets the gender correct.

Ivan and Brenda Rudolph in Malawi

What’s In a Name? asked Shakespeare famously in his play Romeo and Juliet.

To my surprise, names are important to God even today. In the Bible, we find Him involved in naming different people (I found 16 examples in scripture – use Google if interested). God had named his own son Jesus, because it meant “saviour”, in advance of the birth. Jesus also changed the name of Simon into Cephas (Aramaic) – who became more widely known as Peter (Latin) during his missionary calling to the Gentiles. Both Cephas and Peter mean “Rock”.

Very occasionally, God still names someone nowadays, sometimes even before birth.

Our family comprised two daughters and our eldest son, each of whom were very special and whom we had named. Then the doctor in Malawi told pregnant Brenda that our fourth child was going to be another girl. He deduced this from his external examination, including the size and heartbeat of the foetus. When we broke the news to our children, my eldest son was very upset because, with two sisters already, he wanted a brother to play with! When I was kneeling by my bed and praying about something unrelated, God ‘spoke’ to me, not audibly, but so definitely and unexpectedly that I knew it was God:

 “The baby will be a boy and you are to call him Jason”, God said.

That was all. Once only, but definitely God speaking. I was very surprised at this, not only because of the doctor’s earlier analysis but because of the choice of name – “Jason” was not and would not have been a name on our radar.

I broke the news to the family that we were having a son and not a daughter, and that our son would be named “Jason”. They were delighted!

In due course, our beloved son Jason arrived.

Why the name “Jason”? I am still unsure why, but Brenda as a wise and godly mother has her theories.

             Ivan’s testimony shows that: 

1. God knows our children intimately and cares about them even before they are born.
2. God does not always reveal why He chooses the names He does. However, if scripture can be taken as an example, the chosen names will be appropriate to their developing lives.
3. God named the Rudolph’s youngest son Jason.