Who We Are
Published January 08, 2008
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17 NASB)
The verse above says that the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are suppose to be kingdom people with kingdom authority and kingdom living with a kingdom mindset – the truth however, is that many Christians are not joyful in the least bit. So man believers are run down, hopeless, depressed and simply burned-out. This doesn’t seem like Kingdom living does it?
Have you ever stopped and pondered the order of the words in that verse? Why is it righteousness, peace and then joy? If we do enough prayer and meditation on God’s word, we’ll soon find that our joy will fluctuate in direct proportion to our peace. It only makes since that if we are living without peace we will naturally be living without joy. We will also discover that our level of peace will fluctuate in direct proportion to the level of the amount of righteousness that we understand. Notice that I said the level of righteousness that we understand – if we are born-again than we are righteous – the blood of Christ was sufficient for that. The righteousness we understand is the amount that we know that we are absolutely blameless before God. Now, the amount of understood righteousness will fluctuate in direct proportion to the level that we go to God for identity, acceptance and affirmation.
If we get our identity from the world, our friends, the news media – even our pastors – we will always come out with a false belief system that tells us that we are not who God says that we are. The world will come with lies that you need to be smarter, work harder, get in better shape, make more money and act nicer before you’ll ever become acceptable. But it doesn’t stop there; no matter how “good” we think we are we always think that we are somehow barred from acceptance – never able to be good enough, no matter how hard we try.
Satan will come at us with the “who do you think you are? Don’t you remember that sin you committed last week?” and we are often apt to simple give in and believe the lies. What does God’s word say? It says that we don’t deserve it – but by the blood of Christ we have been made worthy. The word of God says that we are acceptable before God and that we can come before Him without fear because of His love for us. The Bible says that there is now therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus? If you have accepted Christ into your life than you are – so why believe the lies that you’ll never be good enough, that you were never wanted, that no one needs you, that we’d all just be better if you were gone? No! We turn to God for identity and purpose. We turn to Him to find out who we are and if we are acceptable. The blood of Christ was enough for us.
The Bible makes much mention of lineages, especially who a person’s father was. Why is that so important? In a father’s name there was honor, acclaim and authority. A father’s name was thought of as an identity for the children, and this is true with our Heavenly Father. If we want to know who we are, we need look no further that our Father in Heaven. Who is He? Who does that make you? The deepest part of each one of us is just like God - we were created in His image. So, who do say that you are? As a man thinks in His heart, so is he. Accept who God has called you to be - taking that identity upon yourself and walking in it, you’ll find much satisfaction in it and the struggle you’ve found in trying to please everyone through a masquerade of lies and masks will fade away and you’ll finally be free to simply be you – the you that God designed. And the destiny that He has planned for you will become clear and open for you to walk in. What can you do? Where are you going? What authority do you have? That all depends on who you are, and who you are depends on who your Father is… and our Father is the creator of the universe. And who does that make you? You're his child. You are beloved of God. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You are above and not beneath. You are loved no matter what, simply because you are his child.
I hope to share about what God has been leading me into concerning the Kingdom soon... Lord willing.
