3. A New Name

Once during the Bible study we read Isaiah 62: 2, "You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow." The Lord's servant, Uncle Chang, made a remark: " Some of your names are not good. You can pray for a new name." This remark fitted in exactly with my mind. I had always disliked my name because I felt it was too vulgar. I wanted a name which was pleasant in sound, beautiful in written form, and feminine and elegant in nature. I had heard that the character with many strokes was beautiful in written form. Then I looked for characters from the Bible, and I found Mega to be my name. From the book of Revelation, I read that God said He was the Alpha and the Omega. So I used in "Mega" these two characters. I looked this up in the dictionary and learned that "ga" meant pure and independent. Mega in Chinese meant aloof from material world, (as the plum blossom and being purely independent) -- what a beautiful name it was. Therefore, when China won over the China-Japan war, I used "Mega" as a pen name to submit an article to a newspaper. This article described how we students rejoiced and were excited over the victory. However, when I asked everyone to call me "Mega" on the mountain, it turned out that no one could remember it, and they still called me by my old name. Then I thought that I should pray to God to bestow on me a new name! When I knelt down to pray after the Bible study, suddenly an idea came to me: "What if the name God bestows is a name that you do not like? Will you take it? I hesitated a while: "If God bestows on me a name such as "Doggy" or "Kitty," can I accept it? Finally, I decided if that was truly what God bestowed, I would take it. I did wonder, if He was God high above the masses, how could He let me, a lowly human being known what name He bestowed? On that day, I wrote down in my personal prayer book: "On this day I pray to God for a new name." And I thought to myself that I would like to see how God would bestow on me a new name.

It was about one month later, I had almost completely forgotten about this incident. One day when we had a time for individual fellowship with God, I went to my old place. It was a slope on the back of the mountain. As I was closing my prayer time, the Holy Spirit suddenly reminded me: "Did you not pray to God for a new name?" In a flash I remembered, and in a split second, there was a Chinese character, "one." The character, as bright as a fluorescent lamp, appeared beside my left eye. My eyes were closed, yet I clearly saw this vision, and I was so happy that I called out: "One." I did not see the next character, so I asked repeatedly: "One and what? One and what?" All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit used my own mouth to shout it out, and made me know in my heart at the same time that it indicated the Chinese character of "heart." Ah! "One heart" -- God bestowed me a name with the least strokes. This amazing experience made me feel that Jehovah was truly on this holy mountain. Indeed, God was living with us. If we grasp the word from the Bible by faith and pray to God, we will get answers. Since I have received this experience, I sincerely believed with the certainty of the Word I had been taught.

I had always been the last to believe when people talked about seeing God or ghost and assumed it was made up or some irresponsible imagination. I had never expected that I, myself, would actually see vision.

"And afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will

prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." (Joel 2:28)