Kay Keith Peebles
RECLAIMING OUR IDENTITY
Kay Keith Peebles 08/28/20 20.32
“But now I have grown and become a bride, and my love for him has made me a tower of passion and contentment for my beloved. I am now a firm wall of protection for others, guarding them from harm. This is how he sees me—I am the one who brings him bliss, finding favor in his eyes.” Song of Solomon 8:10-11, The Passion Translation.
We were born for greatness! We were created by the most amazing God who is pure love, pure goodness and pure holiness. He cannot lie; he can only speak truth. He can only do what is good, loving and holy. He is and knows what we have not yet fully seen or known. He is passionately in love with us and we were created to carry His name, His DNA and demonstrate His power and glory so that the world might be saved by and through Him.
C. S. Lewis wrote: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
When He knit us together in our mother’s womb, He formed us for the incredible purpose He has for our life. He also programmed us to be able to know He exists and to choose to seek and find Him when His Holy Spirit gave us the hunger to know Him.
“Lord, you know everything there is to know about me. You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence. You know every step I will take before my journey even begins. You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past. With your hand of love upon my life, you impart a blessing to me. This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible. Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength…You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I thank you, God for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something. You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book. Every single moment you are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought!” Psalm 139
When God created mankind, He gave us a perfect world with everything we would need for our sustenance. He clothed Adam and Eve with His Glory and they walked with Him in the garden every day. He also gave them dominion over everything on earth. The Lord gave only one simple instruction to Adam. He told him everything he saw was available to him and Eve with the exception of the fruit of one tree. He did so because He knew that to be loved completely, there must be the opportunity to choose to love in return. Adam and Eve had no knowledge of anything evil. They knew nothing of sin. Their home was furnished with continual love, peace and contentment while their every need was supplied.
All the Devil (Satan) did to destroy Adam and Eve was cause them to doubt who God created them to be. He caused them to question their identity to the degree they willingly gave it away.
Satan told them if they would eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would be like God. It was a lie. They were already made in His image. “God said, ‘Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.’” Genesis 1:26, AMP.
The moment they ate of the fruit, their identity had been stolen from them. Death and decay entered their bodies as it did the earth. Evil gained the possession of the garden and every part of creation. The animals were no longer all tame, they became carnivorous beasts and dangerous to all other animals and mankind. Sickness and disease entered the earth. Pests and pestilence that destroyed crops, animals and humans came in swarms to devour the beautiful garden God had provided for them.
Evil also brought great immorality, every perverse and vile thing, anger, fighting and murder. Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Abel sought to please God but Cain rebelled against God’s authority and killed his brother Abel. Death entered the earth and destruction affected every human being and animal.
Ever since the fall of man, the Lord has been trying to reach out to absolutely each and every one born to show them their identity in Him. He did so with individuals in the Old Testament like Enoch and Abraham. Through Abraham’s obedience and love of God, the Lord created a people group called the Israelites that would follow Him. Their purpose was to be the ones to share His light to the world but many of them also rebelled against God. When Jesus came to show us the way back to the Heavenly Father, He left His throne in heaven and completely humbled Himself by taking the form of a human being.
“Who although being essentially one with God and with the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God, God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, but stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.” Philippians 2:6-7, AMP.
Because man’s sin caused death, salvation required a sacrifice of pure, holy blood to buy back the dominion of the earth. Jesus never sinned. He showed mankind the love of God for His people, and laid down His holy, obedient human life to be the pure sacrifice for all our sins.
“And after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!” Philippians 2:8, AMP.
The Bible tells us “All have sinned and fallen short of the honor and glory that God bestows and receives.” Romans 3:23, AMP. The Greek word Doxa-glory means: “appearance, reputation, glory. Romans 3:23 speaks of coming short of or lacking the glory of God, meaning man is not what God intended him to be. He lacks God’s image and character.” Keyword Bible Study NKJV, Levitical Aids To The New Testament.
Today, all of us who have sinned and therefore lost our identity in Him are invited to come and receive the redemption of our identity with which God created us. We do so by repenting of our sins and choosing to believe in Him as our Savior and Lord. When we allow Him to lead us and guide us into His ways, all the bondage of sin goes as we grow into His likeness. This is not a casual, “I believe in Jesus.” It is a true Biblical call to “die to self” and be “conformed into His image.”
“My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine!” Galatians 2:20, TPT. See also John Chapter 17.
Adam and Eve were created in the image of God: they were sinless and they were “clothed” in His glory communing with the Lord daily! They had no evil thoughts and they did nothing evil until they believed the lie of the devil over the truth of God. Ever since Calvary and the Resurrection, mankind has had the opportunity to become the “divine reversal” of sinful man by re-gaining what Adam and Eve had before the fall.
The call of God is for us to “become holy as He is holy”. “But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living. For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call upon Him as [your] Father Who judges each one impartially according to what he does, [then] you should conduct yourselves with true reverence throughout the time of your temporary residence [on the earth, whether long or short].” 1 Peter 15-17, AMP.
Have we truly laid down our lives for the Gospel of Christ or do we live our lives the way we want to? How do we know if we have become holy? Jesus said, “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” John 12:49. “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30.
Jesus’ final prayer before His death is found in John 17. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23.
When we are truly one with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit, we will do the works that Jesus did and more! “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works that these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:12-13.
If we become the sons of God instead of merely the sons of men, we will: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:8. See also Mark 16:17-20.
It’s time for us to take off our grave clothes and reclaim the identity the Lord originally gave us through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us by faith. When we do, we will be clothed in glory and He will live in us and work through us to touch a world full of darkness. We were meant for greatness—Christ in us, the hope of glory!
