Identity
There is a song I love by Israel “You are my Father You are my Father ; You are my future my destiny You are my Father in You I find my identity”. Faith is a discovery! I am approaching this topic from the comfort God my Father has given me regarding my own identity. I have said before I do not know my biological father and like other children in similar shoes I have been met with awkwardness whenever I say I do not have a biological dad. The latest incident was during my civil marriage in 2021 as I had left the father’s name in the documentation blank. 2 Corinthians 3:3-4 All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.
This conversation is largely influenced by gratitude of the immense love I have received from God in practical ways, and I am eager to open the door and share with you all the treasure of being a child of God that is available for you as a child of God.
As we explored Grace in 2023, we discovered a few things: That the purpose of our gathering is to fellowship, pray, break bread and be fed with knowledge and understanding. We gather to become the image and likeness of our Father. We learned that understanding is the -given perception of the nature and meaning of things, resulting in sound judgment and decision-making; in particular the ability to discern spiritual truth and to apply it to human disposition and conduct. PRACTICAL LIVING OUT OF OUR NEW IDENTITY AS THE SONS OF GOD HERE ON EARTH. Let us begin our identity journey at Psalm 139.
God knows you, God our father knows me – this is our starting point.
Psalm 139:1-6 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. You have laid your hand on me! This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible! Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength.
Here is a section from the poem Who Am I? by Deitrich Bonhoeffer – who was executed for his beliefs in the second world war in Germany. Who am I? This or the Other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine.
This is where we begin our journey that God knows you, He knows me ! I hope this knowledge gives you rest. John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Let us explore a couple more scriptures Colossians 1:13 says He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son. 14 For in the
Son all our sins are canceled, and we have the release of redemption through his very blood. Another version (Mirror) says Colossians 1:13 He rescued us from the dominion of darkness (the sense-ruled world, dominated by the law of performance) and relocated us into the kingdom where the love of His Son rules.
Darkness – what is it ? Living in the futility of one’s thinking- being sense dominated. Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
Ignorance = lack of knowledge, uninstructed.
No wonder Paul prays “ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. God knows you. God loves you. God has a plan for you.