We Are His

The matter of knowing our identity is of upmost importance, yet so many of us do not have it settled yet.  I believe God wants to eradicate this identity crisis that so many of us deal with once and for all.  I hear it in different posts, sermons, worship songs...He is speaking through all avenues to tell us something.  Something of great importance and significance!  He wants us to know, with all our heart and mind, that we are His sons and daughters.  We have an identity, and our identity is that we are His.  We belong to a Family - a family that should be growing by the day.  A heavenly family that will one day be established for all of eternity...peaceful, joyful and overflowing with love.  Our Father is adopting sons and daughters and preparing them for Kingdom living.  

The family unit is clearly under attack, and it is losing values and morals by the minute, let alone forfeiting its intended purpose.  It’s no wonder we struggle with understanding and accepting our true identity.  The enemy is wreaking havoc in homes across the world, creating a perversion of what family was intended to be.  Generational patterns of destruction - abuse, abandonment, and neglect - cloud our conscience and vision.  Just turn on the news and you’ll see it.  Fathers abandon.  Mothers check out.  Brothers and sisters fight and struggle to learn how to make it in a world that lies and cheats and hurts.  It is producing bitterness, resentment, a great deal of fear, disrespect, and a generation that disregards authority because of a lack of trust.  It shows up in schools, in the workplace, in entertainment...this brokenness of heart which often finds it’s outlet through violence or addiction.  People attempt to either numb the pain with their drug of choice or just unleash their internal rage upon whomever is nearby.  Walls are erected around the heart leading to isolation, which strangles the life right out of its captive.

If I’m honest, sometimes our culture seems so broken, that it almost feels too far gone.  And I begin to feel helpless...perhaps even a tad scared.  Watching the news is a challenge for me because of the negative tone - the continual bad news that is presented.  Sorting truth from lies.  I hear all sorts of stories and see things unfolding in schools and homes and workplaces that makes me nauseous.  But if I allow these bad reports to make me cringe in fear, what hope do I have?  That would be none!   But that’s not the case...

THERE IS A SAVIOR!  And His name is Jesus!  He fought the battle and won.  Now it’s our turn to put on our salvation helmets and step into a place of agreement with this identity we have in Him.  He lives in us.  Do we live like we believe that?  Do we live like we are sons and daughters?  Or do we live like slaves to fear and sin?  Where is our faith?  Our hope?  Our dreams?  One by one the enemy is stealing, killing and destroying these treasures in us.  So what are we going to do about it?  

My spirit screams inside to do something!  I listen to the Bethel crew sing the anointed songs on the “We Will Not Be Shaken” CD and I am encouraged to stand!  To believe...that despite the way things look, He can change it all in an instant...a word...a breath.  He can save and deliver us like He did with Gideon and crush the enemy that seems so overwhelming!  God called Gideon a ‘mighty man of courage’ and Gideon said ‘Huh?  Oh sorry - You’ve got the wrong guy’.  But God saw the treasures in Gideon and called them out.  He brought life to dead places.  Gideon’s family must have bought into the lie long before that they were nobodys, weak and poor.  God knew better.  He knew what He created.  And He knew what His Spirit could do through a willing, obedient vessel.  

In Song of Solomon we find God calling forth the bride’s beauty even before she knew it was there.  She saw herself as dark.  He called her lovely.  She became what He called forth in love.  We are becoming what He’s calling forth in us.  Much like the bride, or Gideon, we are believing we are weak and poor.  But God says differently.  He says we are way more!  I found a picture that made me think of this.  It’s a picture of a new planting, but the beauty of what it’s to become is staked in the ground next to it.

We are ever-maturing into what He designed and created us to become.  We are seedlings, planted in the rich soil of His love, part of His Family.  We may feel fragile and small, but He gives us a picture of what we will become when fully grown.  He prophetically speaks over us what we will look like and what we will produce.  Be encouraged and satisfied knowing that if you’ve made the decision to call Him Lord, if you are pursuing Him, He will grow you into His very image.  You’re already starting to look like Him...there’s a family resemblance for certain. Put a stake in the garden of your heart to remember what He says you are growing into.  Something beautiful!  Something fruitful!  That way when the enemy comes with lies they don’t stand a chance in taking root in us.  God’s truth is already established there.  

Let’s resolve this identity crisis.  Let’s become the sons and daughters He’s called us to be.  Are there things we need to learn that fall under this category?  Yes.  But let’s settle the basics.  In all honesty, I believe that we HAVE to be secure in our identity in order to stand and face what is going to come against us.  We have to know who we are and Who’s we are (which should make us feel very humble and very thankful and very motivated to share!).  If we don’t and if we doubt, we will not be able to stand strong on solid ground.  The new plantings will be choked out by weedy lies.  We have to get it.  We have to understand who we are so that we will not be shaken.  We have to stand strong in our identity so that we can win the hearts of those still lost.  Many want to be found.  Many are looking for a light in their darkness.  Many are longing to belong to a family that loves them.  Knowing who we are and what we have makes it much easier to tell someone what they’re missing.  The confidence of knowing we are sons and daughters of a good God that loves us deeply - that is key to sharing the gospel.  

I pray God will release revelation to us all about who we are.  I pray His word, His truth,  will reach the heart and not just the mind.  I pray our hearts will grasp how deeply He loves.  How confident and sure He is in calling us His.  How sincere His promise of forgiveness is.  I pray He will open our eyes, ears, minds and hearts to know the hope we have in Him.  The power that resides within us as we welcome Christ into our heart.  I pray that we would become aware and awake to the possibilities around us to share the Good News and the goodness and love of God.  And that our God of LIGHT will pierce through the dark places and release hearts to worship Him.  You alone are worthy, Lord God!

Kerri Barfield