Who Are You?

I hope that today’s entry will encourage you to find out more about you than any other post I have done thus far because I ask the question who are you? This is last series message I did last year (2011) on identity. I’ve noticed something about Christians nowadays; we are so quick to allow ourselves to be defined by people who aren’t spiritual and have no relationship with God. We allow them to define us, our children, how we worship, and even how we serve our God. I don’t talk down about others religious beliefs nor about others beliefs period (atheists and agnostics included). I talk to a lot of people who believe differently than me in an attempt not necessarily to convert them (oh no we are always supposed to convert others…….shut up you overly religious spirit). I talk to them in an effort to sharpen me. People who believe differently than I have a way of challenging me that pushes me to seek God more and hear Him more clearly that I don’t get swayed from the faith. I want them to give me questions I can’t answer that I can seek God for wisdom like never before in areas that I wouldn’t have known I needed wisdom in if not for the encounter with them.

The thing is that though I may interact with them, I don’t let them define me. I don’t change who I am for them or anyone really. I heard a great statement made by a man who did all kinds of mess in sin and got his life together and accepted Jesus as his savior. He says, “I was who I was and I am who I am and I’m cool with both of those people”, do you realize the freedom power in that statement? That is a person who understands who he is and realizes he doesn’t have to adjust for anyone because that is who he was created to be. My good friend the late Minister Robert Jackson (R.J) used to always tell me that “God has a way of changing your destiny and not touching your personality. People want to change your personality to suit them and make them feel comfortable but God made me who I am and that is who I intend to stay.” These statements aren’t a license to just sin and say hey it’s part of who I am because the reality is it is not who you are. That part of you is the mask that you wear. It may have been put on by you or by others but it’s not you. It’s not who you were created to be.  But see therein lies the problem. We as believers in Christ don’t know who we are nor who we are called to be. We have no idea about our identity and because we don’t we become susceptible to every and any wind of foul demonic doctrine dressed as Christianity that comes along. We become spineless jelly fish  who couldn’t stand up for the God we served if someone had a gun to our head and told us to profess our convictions or die. It’s all because we don’t know who we are.

A huge part of us not knowing our identity comes from not knowing what your name really means. Parents I blame this on you (especially African American parents, that’s right I said it and you know it is true). You can not just name your child any random thing that comes to mind.  You name your child Damien and wonder why you have a hellish rebellious child. Or worse yet you make up some random name (Oceanna for example) because it sounds cute, but the name has no real meaning and when a word is created the creator has to give it a definition otherwise it is subject to the definition of the person who finds one for it and usually the person finding a definition for that name is not the child. Their peers or significant other or what ever define the name by causing the child to act whatever way the child acts. Lots of you reading this may think I am crazy but understand your name has meaning. I challenge you to look up the meaning of your name if you don’t know it and see if that definition doesn’t fit your personality. Your name is the beginning of you finding your identity and walking in your purpose.

The other biggest part of us not knowing our identity is because we don’t know what God says about us. We listen to what others including our pastors and church leaders say about us but we don’t hear what God says about us. If we seek Him to find out His word concerning our lives and allow Him to give us not just the direction but the definition to our lives we as believers will be much more effective.  If you ask the average modern day Christian who are they, they will inevitably say I am a child of God. The problem with that statement is they don’t know what that means nor entails. Jesus said that we are of our father the devil when we don’t hear what God has to say nor speak the language of God (John 8:42-27). How can one call themselves a child of God when they do the things that aren’t Godly and do not please God? According to Jesus you can’t. Because you don’t know who you are, you do and say anything. A facebook friend of mine pointed out a scripture I hadn’t read in years concerning false prophets. They prophesy falsely because they don’t know who they are and haven’t gotten in God’s face to find out. They don’t seek Him for direction of word nor of life. They live a life of a false identity (Jeremiah 23:21-34).

There are consequences to living a false lifestyle (i.e  operating with a fake I.D). I encourage the body to find out who you are in Christ and walk that out regardless of what people say about you or what they think of what you say. You walk as God has commanded you, you walk under the direction of the Spirit of God as Jesus did. You’re supposed to say things that people won’t like. People don’t want to hear the truth. But you speak and you stand on it. You walk in the truth of God.  For God has called you a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (I Peter 2:9). If God is saying this about you (those who are truly His) how dare you live beneath what God has called you because you refuse to find your identity in Him. Seek God for your name’s meaning, seek God for the definition and purpose in your life, seek God for your identity that you may walk stronger than you ever have before and tear down the kingdom of Satan and the perverted spirit of religion that dwells and walks this earth as if it owns it. When doing this you can stand in the face of those who disagree with you and what God has truly spoken to you and stand firm without waver and unafraid to continue to seek God for deeper understanding and stronger revelation. Unafraid to speak what God spoke to you even when unbelievers or people of other religions and backgrounds come against you. Speak because you know who you are and whose you are. You hear your father and have your identity in Him. God bless and as always remember to Grow in God’s Grace and Abide in His Love!