Not only Abraham's name was to be changed but also Sarah's. The name Sarai, which means my princess, has to be changed to Sarah, which means princess. "My princess" has to be changed to "princess," to "a mother of nations." Your particular character has to be changed into a general one so that you can be a mother of nations and take care of many people.

While every brother likes to be an exalted father, every sister wants to be a "my princess." When our name is Sarai we say, "My husband, my home, my day, my children, my position, my function in the meetings, my everything." Although the sisters may say "my princess," God wants them simply to become "princess" without any "my," to be general, not particular. We should not be exalted but multiplied, not particular but general. Particularity always goes with exaltation; they make a good couple. In the church life, none of us should be for exaltation or in particularity. We all have to be multiplied and general, to be a "father of nations" or a "mother of nations" (17:5, 16).

The church life depends a great deal upon the changing of names. If the brothers still insist on being exalted and if the sisters still prefer to be particular, how could we have the church life? We could only have a religion with a Sunday morning service and come together once a week, greet one another, and then go our separate ways until the next Sunday. In order to have the church life, there must be a great multitude of people that has been built up and compacted together, a people who truly know and practice the communal life. When the brothers no longer want to be exalted but multiplied and the sisters no longer want to be particular but general, then we shall be able to live together and have the proper church life and the multitude for the fulfilling of God's purpose. Then we shall live together day by day and be a churching people all the time. Nearly every time will be a meeting time. We shall be meeting together constantly because no one will want to be exalted but multiplied and because no one will want to be particular but general. This is not merely a doctrine. The changing of names is not only a change of term but a change of our being, of our person. Thus, we may change the title of this message to "the unveiling of the divine Being and the changing of the human person for the fulfilling of God's purpose." Although God's divine being has been unveiled, if we remain the same, His being unveiled will not profit us. His unveiling depends upon our changing. We need to be changed not only in name but also in person. Then we can enjoy the unveiled God and drink at His rich udder.

The changing of names in the sense of changing the person is also seen in the case of Jacob and Peter. For the fulfilling of God's purpose, Jacob's name was changed to Israel (Gen. 32:27-28); a heel-holder, a supplanter (Jacob), was changed into a prince of God (Israel). If Jacob had remained a supplanter, he could never have been used by God in the fulfillment of the divine purpose. Jacob had to be changed into a prince of God. For the building of the church, Peter's name, Simon, was changed to Cephas, which means a stone (John 1:42). Peter's natural being was muddy, and he had to be transformed into a stone, even a precious stone, for God's building (1 Pet. 2:5) to fulfill the divine purpose.