On September 14, 1991, I was home praying at my favorite place. For many years I had used an old chippendale armchair as my place to kneel before the LORD. My routine in prayer was well established; I knelt, observed the verses of the Lord’s prayer as found in Matthew 6. From there as was my custom, I waited on the Holy Spirit to inspire me.
I am not sure how long I had been praying, but I heard myself say the word ATLAH: then the Holy Spirit stopped me. He then said, “see now the word you have spoken is the new name I have given for the land formerly called Harlem.”
For the past thirteen years I have been preaching The Vision of 50,000 Righteous Men Living for the Lord in the community formerly called Harlem. Essentially the answer to the problems of this Ghetto can be solved by the men becoming Righteous Men, but more importantly Almighty God will get the glory when He raises up a people who are now not a people; and the world will have to acknowledge it was the Living God who raised up this community.
The name ATLAH came from the LORD in the middle of the week, and my first opportunity to tell the congregation was Sunday.
The worship on Sunday was per-usual, but during the worship I made the announcement, that Almighty God has given me a new name for the community formerly called Harlem and it is ATLAH. Some members took out pens and wrote the name on scratch paper, some asked how to spell it, and we all returned to our normal worship.
Two weeks later while at prayer at the altar in the sanctuary, the LORD spoke again and said, now the word ATLAH means, “The land where the people shall walk barefoot, because the land is Holy Ground.” I need to say that when I first heard the word, and what God said about it being a new name, I did not like it. I thought that it sounded too much like the word Allah, the Muslim deity. Beyond that it did not have the usual english sound that I am so accustomed, so I did not like it. I bordered on being ashamed of it, but continued in many smalls ways to talk about ATLAH.
Shortly after that time the LORD spoke to me again in a prayer meeting, and said the word ATLAH is from Him, and if I would look in the Bible I would discover that
nearly every name of power in the Bible ends in the letters “AH.” I began to look and discovered that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Noah, Sarah, Deborah, Shiphrah, Puah, Micah, Zephaniah, Zachariah, Moriah, Hallelujah, Jehovah, Messiah, Elijah, and the list goes on and on, all ended with the “AH.” In fact, nearly every name in the Bible ends in “AH.” I had studies at Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and was aware of the “EL” endings, and that it meant God, for instance Emmanu-el means that God is with us.
The “EL” was the prefix for the various names of God; Elohim, El Shaddai, and others, but never in all my studies had any one ever pointed out the “AH” endings to names in the Word of God. ATLAH ends in “AH.”
During that same time the LORD led me to the Book of Genesis 2:11, there it talks about the land surrounding the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve’s paradise. It names the rivers that flow out of that land, and the name of the land is Havi-lah. There we again have not only the “AH” ending, but we have the “LAH” ending, and it is related to the land. The LORD showed me further in the Book of Isaiah 62:4, where it talks about the land that the nation of Israel did conquer, and the name of the land is called Beu-LAH, again with the Anointed “LAH” meaning.
Formerly known Harlem has been renamed: ATLAH
ATLAH means, the land where the people shall walk barefoot, because the land is holy ground.
Given to Pastor James David Manning, by Almighty God, 14 September 1991
