Our Identity, part 3

15th of February

OUR IDENTITY

Part 3

I have now written two parts where I have described a little about the factors that are important when we form our identity. I could write a little book about every factor.

I will now write about us Christians. What are we identifying with and with Whom? I have recently written 8 chapters about the Holy Spirit and wrote about the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. This theme is important when we talk about our Christian identity. I have also written about our spirit, soul and body. I said that when we were born again, the nature of God moves into our spirit and we received a perfect part of us. OUR SPIRIT IS BORN OF GOD AND GOD IS PERFECT. We do have a soul and a body and they are not perfect. We also have a flesh that stands against the Spirit. The fight between the flesh and the Spirit can partly be won depending on where we have our identity.

When we were born again we received a new nature that we had not had before. Everything that belongs to God belongs to me because I became a child of God. In the letter to the Ephesians we read about being IN CHRIST. It says that God and the Father of Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. In Him we were adopted to be sons and daughters of the Father. In Him we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness of our sins. In Christ we have obtained an inheritance. In Him we were sealed with the Holy Spirit Who is the guarantee of our inheritance. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. We are One. Do not try to understand this with your brain, but ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

Some people think that it is difficult to identify with Jesus. Some say that if I should identify with Jesus, I loose my personality. I wonder if you think that Jesus had no personality. Secondly I wonder if you really think that God would take away something that He had created in you. He has created you with spirit, soul and body. He has created you with a will, thoughts and emotions. He has created you with abilities which are to be used. He does not want you to wipe away your personality. He wants you to live to the fullest of your capacities. He gets happy when you are satisfied and when you live a life giving Him the honor. He planned you long before your parents did and He thought carefully about your looks and personality. He also planned your place in the Body of Christ. IT IS IMPORTANT TO GRAB HOLD OF GOD’S THOUGHTS FOR YOUR LIFE AND IDENTIFY WITH THEM.

Some people come a long list of negative things when we talk to them. “I can’t read well. I can’t write letters. I can’t sing. I am no good in making food. I am not good with children therefore I can’t teach Sunday-school. I can’t draw. I don’t like needlework. I do not have a green thumb. My plants always die.” I am sure you can make your own list. I want you to change this. You should find out what you CAN. Take pen and paper and ask the Holy Spirit to help you. You can start with something as simple as walking. If you cannot walk, you might write to speak. When you feel that you are finished, write down what you would like to know better. Make concrete suggestions to make the changes possible. STOP IDENTIFYING WITH THE NEGATIVE. YOUR MOUTH’S CONFESSION MAINTAIN THE NEGATIVE. God has never created you to fail. Jesus says in Phil.4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Sometimes we compare ourselves with others and cry when we cannot do the same as them. Just maybe you are not created to do the same. Just think if the world only existed of plumbers and electricians. We would not come very far then. Each and everyone of us is different. you must get to know God’s specific plan for YOU. We might easily say what we think others should do, but that does not help YOU.

I watched a Christian TV-program a few days ago. There was a man who had been longing for God to speak to him. He did not know how that should come about, so he took a chair and invited Jesus to sit down and he took pen and paper to write. The Holy Spirit was there to convey thoughts from Heaven and the man decided to activate his faith. He did not hear an audible voice, but he got thoughts that he understood was from Heaven and he wrote them down. When you honestly seek God, He is always there through the Holy Spirit and you will get an answer.

In the letter to the Galatians we read about the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. (Gal.5:19-23) IDENTIFY WITH THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. I meet people and they say that they do not have any love. That is a lie if the person is a Christian. In Rom.5:5 it says that God’s love is poured out in your heart. You might not feel so full of love, but then you identify with your emotions more than your spirit. Don’t allow the emotions to become more real than the truth. In your spirit you have the power of resurrection and it says that THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. If you do not know the truth, it is impossible to IDENTIFY with the TRUTH. You really need the Word to be revealed to you. The devil knows this and he will try to keep you away from the Bible. Maybe he takes the Word and keeps it against you. Maybe he condemns you. I knew a person who got scared every time he read the Bible. Others get sleepy every time they open the Bible. Others might read but do not understand much and they stop reading the Bible. I get really angry when I see that the devil keeps big groups of people illiterate. I meet this in India. I see how helpless they get when it comes to identify with the truth and how weak they are in the battle against the devil. I always try to get in the Word anyway. We cannot identify with the truth unless we have revelation. When the truth is revealed, then you and I can choose if we want to identify with the truth or not. God has given us a free will and He cannot force us. The truth lives on the inside of us so we do not have to stretch ourselves very far.

I can remember some years back. I was suffering with fear. It was really bad and it was tough. I know that many people are suffering with fear an anxiety. The fear took over and I walked around saying: I AM SO AFRAID. I HAVE SO MUCH FEAR. You can see that I identified myself totally with the fear. I was the fear and had the fear. I hope you know that words have great power. You become what you say. The world was created by a Word and words are creating either positive or negative things to-day. One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said that I had to stop identifying with the fear. “THE FEAR IS NOT YOU”, He said. He also said that the fear was more afraid of me than I was of the fear. He reminded me of the fact that I had authority over the fear in the name of Jesus. I cannot say that the battle was over immediately, but it was a turning point. It was a daily battle and I had to choose. The truth had been revealed and would I listen to the Holy Spirit or the devil.? The demon behind the fear was cast out. I received healing and that made it easier to choose the truth. I really hope that this will help some of you. It was a process, but it was worth the battle.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU IN THE PROCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mother Else