Jan Harrison - Becoming a Woman Who Knows God by Name: Protected, Encouraged, and Strengthened by His Promises

To my husband, Frank, and my daughters, Morgan, Caroline, and Carter. Each of you has faithfully prayed, pushed, and prodded when I doubted myself and offered generous praise to encourage me every step of the way. I love you more than you can ever know.

To each woman who attended Women of the World Bible Study in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and revelations with each other and with me.

This study was originally created the year following Jamess death. Through the support of Margaret, Jackie, Katie, and especially the small group leadership, I was freed to grieve, and you enabled me to begin healing. Your love and prayer allowed me to return and find strength and courage, one baby step at a time. You hold in your hands the fruit of what seemed like a barren period in my life.

To Robert Walker, who first sowed the seed of possibility that God wanted to do more through me. You continue to challenge and inspire me to remember that God uses all things that we surrender to Him.

To my team at Stepping Toward Hope, especially Savanna, Sarah, Nadia, and Steve. Without you, this book would not have reached completion. Thanks for the fun we have had along the way.

To Bob Hawkins Jr., LaRae Weikert, Hope Lyda, and the supportive Harvest House team. Thank you for helping me find my voice and honoring my message. Your care and patience have set me on an amazing journey that has allowed me to share what God has placed on my heart.

Last, but not least, to my prayer team. Anything of eternal value begins in prayer. This message is credited to your account in heaven.

Jan Harrison has been inspiring women for more than 20 years as a Bible teacher and speaker at womens conferences and retreats. She served on the leadership committee for Anne Graham Lotzs Just Give Me Jesus revivals.

She wrote Life After the Storm to share how the unexpected death of her son transformed her life and tested her faith, and to offer readers hope and the tools to experience the transforming faith that only a storm can unveil. She shares Becoming a Woman Who Knows God by Name to encourage women to lean on the strength of Gods character for their every need and to live out the benefits of His character in their lives.

In late 2015, Jan created Stepping Toward Hope, a platform that exists to empower individuals to embrace peace, strength, and comfort in Christ by encouraging everyone to be equipped with His Word. Her desire to minister hope to other people continues to flow from her heart.

Jan and her husband, Frank, live in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are involved in the local and global faith community and are leaders in an international ministry, With Open Eyes, founded by their late son, James F. Harrison IV. They have three grown daughters and three grandchildren.

For more information or to contact Jan for a speaking engagement, visit www.steppingtowardhope.org.

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Stepping Toward Hope with Jan Harrison empowers individuals to embrace peace, strength and comfort in Christ by encouraging everyone to be equipped with His word.

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A sweet and substantial relationship develops between a woman and God when she calls on Him as Creator, All-Sufficient One, Shepherd, Healer, and the other names we will embrace during our time together. Before I did this study, I may have wondered, Whats in a name? Why is it important to know the multiple names of someone? But even then, had I thought much about it, I wouldve realized how greatly that knowledge strengthens a relationship. Have you discovered that the better you know a person, the more their name means to you? When you hear it or speak it, that name brings to mind an image and an emotion. The name begins to represent the character and heart of a particular person, not merely a label.

I recall reading and dwelling on Song of Solomon 1:3 ( NKJV ), Your name is ointment poured forth, and my heart cried, Yes it is! Lord, I want to know You more intimately and personally. I want to learn to call on You in a deeper way. A way that will reflect Your character and not merely a label for who You are. That verse sparked an awareness of how much more I had to grow in my knowledge of my God. I sensed Him responding, Know Me through My names! Perhaps this verse caught my attention because of the personal pain I was feeling deep within my own heart. The image of ointment being gently and tenderly applied to a wound gave me comfort and healing I desperately needed. The words from Song of Solomon, written thousands of years ago, spoke clarity into my haze of sadness and sorrow and beckoned me to come closer and receive the power in the names of God revealed in Scripture.

Sometimes we forget that God is not playing hide and seek with our faith. He is not trying to taunt or frustrate us in our pursuit of Him. It is His hearts desire for us to know the many aspects of His character and to learn to find strength, refuge, and identity in Him through those names. His many names unfold into the deeper heart of His divine nature. Throughout Scripture His many names are used to highlight the unique attributes of His character. With each new level of discovery, we are enriched in faith as we learn to address God with the name that is specific to a particular need we have or blessing we long for.

Gods deepest desire is for us to truly know Him. He is not satisfied for us to simply know about Him. He wants us to know the genuine depth of His love and provision for us through deep personal revelations of His character. Those personal insights and unveilings are found in His many names. He created us in His image so that we would live in relationship with Him and cleave to Him with deep dependence and unwavering trust. So what better name to start with than the very first name God shared in Scripture and the one that means creator: Elohim .

God often draws us to Himself as our Creator. We are made in the image of God.

Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Allow this truth to sink into your inner being for a minute. He prepared His creation with infinite wisdom, perfect order, and meticulous attention to every detail. At the completion of each days creation, He declared, It is good. Then He made male and female and gave them rule over all that had been created, and God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

We have been designed with a God-given purpose from the very beginning. No matter what your personal circumstances are, you are not an accident, a mistake, or assigned to a life of pointless, purposeless existence. Gods plans and preparations since the beginning of time include you! The prophet Jeremiah spoke these words of promise from God: For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the L ORD , plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). The message of these words is given in countless ways throughout Scripture to communicate encouragement and a deep sense of purpose. Certainly this insight helps us build our trust in God.