Over the last several weeks, I have been diving into some important keys that many of our Bible heroes, like Moses and Daniel, understood about prayer. However, today I want to dive into another key element of their lives that I believe made them usable by God to bring forth His Kingdom to the earth in mighty ways.
Church, everything in our Christian walk, both good and bad, can trace is roots to how we see ourselves and how we use the authority that God gave to us.
Genesis 1:26-28 says “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Do you see what God did here? He created us, every single one of us, in His perfect image. He gave us an identity that was modeled after His own! In His perfect image we were created. This means that there are no defects in us! There are no disabilities. There are no mistakes in our design. Psalm 139:13-14 says “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful…”
He did not just stop there either. He then gave us an assignment and the authority to make it happen. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion….” Psalms 8:6 says “You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet”.
Do you see what we are to do? We are created & called to multiply (disciple), bear fruit (ministry), and fill the earth (establish His Kingdom everywhere we go). Not only that, but He has given us the authority to do it (subdue it, have dominion)!
Church, the first attack the enemy will always make in our lives is to distort the way we see ourselves. This then causes us to doubt the promises of God in our lives which in turn freezes us from fulfilling the mission we were called to. This is exactly what the serpent did in the garden with Adam and Eve. “For God knows that on that day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God..” (Gen 3:5) This is also what he did with Jesus when He was in the wilderness preparing to begin His ministry when he started his first temptation with “If you are the Son of God….”
Where Adam and Eve failed, is where Jesus succeeded. In the case of Adam and Eve, the enemy got them to question who they were and thus doubt God and His purpose for their lives. Jesus, on the other hand, did not fall for the bait. He clearly knew who He was and understood that the enemy was just trying to distort His understanding of it.
It is crucial that we, as believers, recognize these attacks on our identity and cast away all thoughts that go in contrary to the Word of God. James 4:7 says “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” If the enemy can get you to doubt God and who He made you to be, then he can keep you from making the Kingdom footprint you were born to make on this world! Church, we must resist and reject these lies of the enemy!
One of my favorite stories to demonstrate how the enemy assaults our identity is found in the story of David when he went to battle Goliath.
The story actually begins years before when Samuel comes to Jesse’s house to anoint one of his sons to be the next king of Israel. Each of his sons passes in front of the prophet, except David who was left out in the field to tend the sheep. It takes Samuel asking if there are any other sons in the family that we see Jesse bring David from the fields. Later, when the Philistines are battling the Israelites, Jesse sends David, who was kept back from going into battle, to see how his brothers were doing.
When David arrives at the battlefield, his oldest brother Eliab immediately attacks his identity and says “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart, for you have come down in order to see the battle.” In other words, his brother immediately question his motives, his purpose, and whether he was worthy to be there.
Later, when David approaches King Saul and asks about facing Goliath, Saul tells him he cannot fight the experienced Goliath as he was nothing more than a young, inexperienced boy. (How often have we heard that same phrase, or something similar in our life?) Saul then tries to get David to where his armor and use his sword, which of course, never fits David. (There is another lesson we can draw from this… but maybe that will be in a later blog).
Finally, when David gets back to the battlefield and faces Goliath, the Philistine looked down on him because he was young, ruddy, and handsome. He then tells David, “Am I a dog that you come at my with sticks?” In other words, the enemy began taunting him, belittling him, and tried to make him believe he was inferior.
The great news it that David knew who he was and, like Jesus would later do, did not allow the attacks of the enemy on his identity to deter him from what he was called to do. Had he forgotten who he was and who he represented, had he forgotten all the incredible victories he had already experienced in his walk with God, he may never have faced Goliath that day and likely would have never become the king that he became!
Church, it is time that we wake up and realize who we are! It is time that we get in the word, get into His presence and let Him reaffirm our identities that He intended for us from the beginning of time.
For too long we have allowed the enemy to distort our view of ourselves and our mission. For too long we have allowed the principalities in this world to define who we are and what we are called to do. It is time that we open our eyes and recognize the deceptive lies of the enemy and cancel them with what the Word of God says about us!
In closing, I want you remind you and encourage you with something the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian Church. “For we are His workmanship (His own master work, a work of art), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10.