Identification

Greetings, our Beloved Family,

Over and over these past couple of weeks, as we have been asking people about what the Lord has been putting on their hearts right now, one word stands out as a common theme: identity. Identity touches so many areas of our lives. Over time, we have likely taken on many of the identities assigned to us in the roles we have in the world. These might include our professional roles, our roles within the body, or even the roles within our own family. Some of these roles may look nothing like what God would have placed us in, and yet, through time and circumstance, we found ourselves wrongly identifying with them.

Many of you right now may be finding yourselves in that very same position of questioning what it is you have been telling yourself about who you are, versus who the Lord says you are. In these times we are living in, the Lord is stirring us all to walk out our divine destiny and be who He created us to be. The world around us needs us to be just that: the kings and priests that we are. We are called to bring light into darkness and to make disciples. In this role, we ideally lead others into places reflective of this very priesthood. Yet, if we ourselves don’t understand our identity and are not walking in our purpose, how can we expect others to know what this looks like and to follow suit?

1 Peter 2:5
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9
But ye are a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Then how do we move from a place of false identity and the world’s perspectives to a place of true identity within Christ? First, it comes back to intimacy. As parents, we can’t possibly expect that our children would accept what we are telling them about who they are if we don’t spend intimate time with them. We might tell them how kind, generous, and loving we see them, but if they haven’t spent any time with us in true connection, those words will be meaningless and empty.

Very much like in the natural, building a relationship with our heavenly Father takes time and being purposeful. We begin by putting the Word, Jesus, in our hearts. Every page of His written Word is an invitation to learn more about the way God sees us and about our identity. We carry God’s image and we were created in it. The more we can spend time reading the love letter the Lord has written to us, the more we learn about the nature of God, and, inadvertently, the nature of who we are in Him.

Genesis 1:27 (KJV)
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Being in His word takes effort and time that will bring greater rewards than you can imagine. Then, with the word in your heart and mind, spend time in conversation with the Lord in the same way that you speak with humans. Tell Him that you love Him and thank Him for loving you! Listen to that still small voice as He shares His heart with you, His divine plans for your life, and answers questions that you have perhaps not yet asked. In order to hear from the Lord, you must be quiet…we know…the hard part. God gave us two ears and just one mouth, so perhaps we are to listen twice as much as we speak.

For us, our quiet times with the Lord, just listening, are very rich and rewarding and allow us to continue growing deeper in Him. These are times where He shares His thoughts towards us and reveals to us who we are, and sometimes even more importantly, who we are not.

Finally, our true identity can also be revealed to us by those people the Lord has blessed us with in our lives. For us, this is YOU, Beloved family! Every one of you is an opportunity for God to reveal what part we all are meant to play in the body and to remind each other of the identity we have been blessed with in Christ.

In His grace, love, and mercy,
Pastor Bob and Ali Lindquist