There is a major identity crisis happening right now. No...I'm not referring to identity theft (although we could make the application). The identity crisis that I am talking about is happening in the church. We simply do not know who we are.
When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus he said, "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power..." (Ephesians 1:15-19)
The reason for Paul's stated prayer is simple: When we do not know who we are and what we have, we will continue to operate as who we were. I may catch some heat for saying this but eventually we need to move from the mindset of "sinners saved by grace." That's right!!! The Bible says that we are "joint-heirs with Christ", "we have been seated with Christ in heavenly places", and "as He is, so are we in this world." Does this sound like anything you have heard before? Or are you still wallowing in who you used to be?
Because we have struggled to realize the fullness of our inheritance, the church has struggled in her identity as well. The church is the Bride of Christ. We are not a business, a social club, nor a charitable organization. We are the gathered together saints of God to shine the light of God's glory in the earth. Since the church does not understand her place in the world, we have sought to build her up like any other organization. Only when we recognize who we are collectively will we begin to walk in our God ordained authority in this earth. Until then...we will simply pray about the storms of life rather than release the peace what we possess in Christ.
My encouragement to you is to get into God's Word. "Dig In" and "Mine Out" the incredible treasures that can be found within.
You are forgiven!
You are the righteousness of God in Christ!
You are holy!
You are blameless!
And You have authority in this world!
You are so much more than just a sinner saved by grace. You are a child of God! Start living like it!!!
If you will join me on this journey, God will continually reveal who you are in Him. Go ahead and walk in the abundant life that Jesus promised. You will never be the same!!!
3 comments:
There is a more important and humbling point that should cause us to bow down.... we did nothing to deserve any of our inheritance... quite the opposite. We can have no pride in who we are. It is a fine line that we should walk carefully.
Anonymous,
You are right that we did nothing to deserve our inheritance. All glory, honor, & praise goes to God.
I don't believe that I promoted any exaltation of self. However, knowing who you are in the Lord gives you the confidence to walk in everything He has made available. Confessing who I am in Christ brings glory and honor to God.
I will join David in saying that "my boast is in the Lord!"
Thanks for reading and sharing.
I apologize. I wasn't saying that you did promote self. I was just saying there is a quick switch in our minds and hearts that we have to be aware of. It is easy to make and sometimes hard to discern. Keeping ourselves mindful of both our position and our identity is the only defense. That's all.
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