Identity Who I am(2)
Belief influences behavior!
The answer to the question who I am is found in the Word of God. We are here to renew our minds, to remember what we have been taught from the scriptures which impart to each of us wisdom to experience everlasting life through the faith of Jesus, the Anointed One! Let us remember that God has transmitted His very substance into every Scripture, The Word is God-breathed. As we open our hearts It will empower each of us by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead us deeper into the path of godliness. THEN 2 Timothy 3 says one will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you.
I was reading a book yesterday and it mentioned identity politics. Identity politics is what we see in the physical location we reside in – USA – politics based on what the world calls identity “race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, caste, and social class”. The worldly journey for identity can lead to self-centeredness and positions that are ungodly – because they are based on the idea of identity derived from the deeds and desires of our self-life. In this particular Our pursuit for identity is for the glory of God and having Jesus Christ as the center of our lives. I want to say we are not the color of our skin, the gender, nationality, or religion of the clothes we wear. We want Christ to be the one who determines our true self.
Our true identity can be traced to Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”27 So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Reading the previous verses of Genesis 1 story of creation we see these words “so God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
There is a significant change here in the pattern. What is this image and likeness issue about? Man is made after God’s kind!
Genesis 2:7 Voice One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.
Adama- Hebrew=Earth, man being made from earth Soma – Greek – life =bios= life that physically dies- man within context of natural life- biology.
Within man He put the soul=Psuche – psychology. How man interacts with & understands the created world. The seat of the feelings, desires, affections. This breath that gave man life is Pneuma- Zoe = exact life from God. It is eternal life. It does not come from creation. It is eternal aware. God is spirit & those who worship Him must do so in spirit & in truth.
“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” – Job 33:4 Being in the image & likeness of God means that God’s life can be manifest in a human’s life- His character, His attributes can be found in man . We can say this with certainty because The Son in Hebrews 1 verse 3 we learn that The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature—his mirror image! He holds the universe together and expands it by the mighty power of His spoken word. Someone may say- this scripture in Hebrews is only referring to Jesus Christ, so let’s check out John chapter 1 and establish our identity as sons of God. The Word says that those who embrace the LORD in salvation, in believing Him, in accepting Him take hold of His name and from Him receive authority to BECOME the children of God! If you have received the LORD as your Savior, Master, and LORD your birth is not by the joining of human parents or from natural means, or by a man’s desire, but you are born of God. Let us settle this in our hearts. I Ciiru- I am born of God! It is the entry point by Grace through Faith. To buttress the point of our birth so as to establish the source of our identity – the origin of true our life let us turn to the book of James 1:17-18 Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, streaming down from the Father of lights, who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness and is never subject to change. 18 God was delighted to give us birth by the truth of his infallible Word so that we would fulfill his chosen destiny for us and become the favorite
ones out of all his creation!
Furthermore, let us check out Hebrews 2:10-11 For now He towers above all creation, for all things exist through Him and for Him. And that God made Him, pioneer of our salvation, perfect through His sufferings, for this is how he brings many sons and daughters to share in His glory. Jesus, the Holy One, makes us holy. And as sons and daughters, we now belong to His same Father, so He is not ashamed or embarrassed to introduce us as His brothers and sisters!