And His Name Shall Be:

Shiloh Vandeput

Obviously that is not his entire name. Jonathan is in charge of the middle names and just doesn't feel like he "knows" them yet.

But we are for sure in knowing that his first name is Shiloh.

So why Shiloh? you may be thinking.

Yes it's unusual, but normally first mention of the name will bring thoughts of Brangelina. Well Jon and I both feel really strongly that this is our little boy's name, and if you care to know our reasoning in detail, please continue on.

Not too long ago, I was reading in Samuel and I came across this passage in 1 Samuel 3. It was talking about how Samuel was serving at the Temple in Shiloh and the story of how he first heard the voice of the Lord. He was lying in his bed and heard someone call his name. He thought the first few times it was Eli the priest, but after being awoken a few times, Eli recognizing who it was, told him that if it happened again to say "speak Lord for your servant is listening". So when Samuel heard his name being called again, out of obedience, he answered directly to the Lord. That's when the Lord gave him a powerful word. "Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle..." He then gives a pretty direct word about the current priesthood. We all know this story, but what struck me the most was the last few verses.
"Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail. All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord."

I was sitting in Church when I read this, and I immediately started crying. I don't know why, but I just knew that his name was going to be Shiloh.

That he was going to be known as a man who was visited by the Lord, just as the place Shiloh was.
That prophetic words were going to come out of him and spread across Israel and the nations, just like they did from Shiloh.

I handed the Bible over to Jonathan and he looked at me strangely as I was crying and I whispered what the Lord had just spoken to me. From then on in my mind, if this was a boy, his name was going to be Shiloh.

When reading further about Shiloh, I read this verse that just emphasized its significance even more: "But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first..." Jeremiah 7:12 I just feel like it's who he is.

To back it up even further, before I even was pregnant, I feel like the Lord gave me words about my first daughter and my first son.

When I was in Cyprus I had a dream where Jonathan and I were sitting in a living room in a foreign country with a little girl with blonde hair sitting with us. A year or so later I was asking the Lord about this little girl and I felt that he spoke to me some of Lyric's prophetic destiny.
I felt like the Lord told me that Lyric would have a gift of words. That things that she would write would touch the hearts of people in dynamic way. I wrote this song about her that you can read at the end of this blog.

The words about my first son actually began in Cyprus too after I had dedicated my life to the Lord in 2004. One night in Cyprus when I was praying the Lord showed me this picture. In this picture I saw this young man who was speaking with an older man who I just knew was very high up in politics. Then I heard the Lord say that one of the reasons there has been such a fight over my life, was that I was going to have a son who would have incredible impact on key figures. I immediately was drawn to Jeremiah 1 where the Lord calls Jeremiah as a young boy to be a prophet to the nations. Because of this, I had always thought I was going to name my first son Jeremiah. Well that's until I read about Shiloh and I felt that even more the name Shiloh depicted what I feel his prophetic destiny is.

Anyways, here was the song I wrote about him about 2 years ago and his name fits perfectly into it now, gotta love how that works out :)

"Shiloh, listen to the voice of your Beloved,
listen to the Love that will never fail you,
learn to know His voice as He's singing, over you.
Shiloh because you will listen,
at a young age, you'll be empowered with wisdom,
and the Lord will appoint you to speak with kings and the nations.
And you will be known as a man who can hear the voice of God.
And you will be known as a man whom the Lord calls friend."

There are a few different meanings of Shiloh.

From what I've read, translated literally it means "His Gift". Other meanings are resting place, or sent by God. Yet another translation is peace. Click HERE for some more info about the meaning.

You can also read more about Shiloh the place HERE. It's really interesting all the historical/biblical significance that place carries.

So that is our little boy's first name. Hopefully before he gets here he'll have his 2 middle names, but for now it's just Shiloh or "eye" as Lyric calls him. :)

Also, he has his own Israeli wine named after him