Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1-3 (emphasis added)

We have all of us humans (male and female) been made in the image of Elohim (Genesis 1:26). It doesn’t matter our location, race, ancestry, beliefs, education, or sex – male or female. We have been made in HIS image. What were we made from? Dirt. This Earth. The material creation. We start at ZERO. We were made from dirt (Genesis 2:7-9). Elohim KNOWS we’re dirt and remembers it (Psalm 103:14) – not holding us to a standard we cannot achieve. But we’re not bargain basement dirt. We’re good stuff. Have you ever seen a baby? That bundle of joyful, cute, completely selfish, wonderfulness? That’s GREAT dirt. As we grow, that’s when things change. That’s when IDENTITY comes in.

We tend to choose our identity without thinking. Because identity in the world isn’t really about identity. Remember that identity is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. Increasingly though, it is a name tag. A single thing by which we can be spotted in a crowd. For example, for years if you asked a man what his identity was he would respond with his profession. That was how men identified, and in many cases still do. I’m a doctor. I’m in construction. I’m a delivery driver. I’m in finance. It goes on and on for as many professions as there are. It is so prevalent that it can be the cause of marital discord with the male identifying as their job and their spouse identifying as a partner, mother, and often several other things. That can leave the female feeling along and isolated. Here they see themselves as a partner and their partner sees himself as his job. Where does that leave the relationship? In more modern times that hasn’t shifted that much, except the female often adds HER job to the mix and frequently doesn’t see her role as a ‘homemaker’ anymore.

We do it as older kids and teens and on into our twenties (sometimes thirties). I’m a student. I’m so-and-so’s child. I’m a . I’m a dancer. I’m a painter. I’m into fashion. I’m a car person. I race. I game. I take pictures. A hobby, a school, an interest. Only young children are clear. They are their name. They are their age. That’s about it. If they’re proud of doing well, they’ll be their grade too. Usually though it’s name and age. Like soldiers and their name, rank, and serial number. We grow out of that (unless we go into the military) and become things instead of names. Number of years participating instead of age. We seem to crave identification with a simple formula that helps us stand out and be seen.

We’ve done it so well, we tag our memories of people to it. Hey, there’s that doctor, lawyer, garbage man, framer, teacher, yard guy, farmer, secretary, fashionista, actor or actress, artist, therapist, etc. We do the same with wrongdoers as we do with productive members of society (or the ones not caught yet). He’s/she’s that rapist, robber, gangster, etc. We do it over those we’d rather not deal with. Homeless. Challenged. Handicapped. Orphaned. Widowed. Addict. But have you noticed that by this point it isn’t so much an identifier as a fence? A classification to keep the ‘other’ AS other? Words to identify in order to separate instead of words to identify in order to celebrate? Lately we’ve added other levels to identity that make things even more complex. It’s an on-going and evolving process.

The thing with identity that I’ve noticed, is that we are becoming less and less. We are starting to not be professions, hobbies, jobs, roles, or relationships. We’re starting to only be a piece of a person. We’re a political party, for example. Or the supporter/follower of a public figure. We’re taking the whole myriad spectrum of character, personality, and mental ability and making a single thing the focus of what makes us, us. Imagine designing a new racing vehicle. When you’ve finished, you reach in and take a single cog from the engine, or a stitch from the seat material, or the knob of the gear shift, and take that to the unveiling. You hold it up, let the spotlight shine on it, show it to all the clamouring crowds, and declare ‘This IS my racing vehicle’. It’s not an accurate statement is it? As a society we’re starting to demand of each other ‘what is your piece’?.

The devil wasn’t content to have us betray our trust in Elohim. He wanted more than to steal our dominion. He wants to kill us. To kill who we are. If he can convince us to reduce our complex, intertwined, and vibrant selves into a single thing, he is killing who we could be with who we’re choosing to be. We are more than the sum of our parts, so we are doubly more than the value of a single one. In an age where even identifying as a NAME is fraught with hidden landmines, he is doing a spectacular job and keeping us down. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10a). The world is as lost as lost can be. The devil takes advantage of that to muddy the waters. Both sides have been spending YEARS, DECADES even, to push their agenda or their attempt to not offend anyone or their attempt to include everyone and it has gotten messy. We have become less and less. We’re into the negative now. No matter what type we are discussing, the world has embraced (on its own or under the suggestive influence of the devil) negative identity. Less than. Single words. Single things. Single aspects. Instead of being vibrant and versatile, we’re one. A period at the end of a sentence that we no longer write. We are FAST on our way to destroying any real sense of identity.

This is not what humans were meant to be. This is CERTAINLY not what believers are meant to be. Adonai has ALWAYS been clear about who we are. “God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you. Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). “O Lord, you examine me and know me” (Psalm 139:1). That’s just humans PERIOD. Believers? “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). “Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). “For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them” (Ephesians 2:10). Adonai knew WHAT He wanted us to be and WHO He wanted us to be. He had an identity in mind. Something more than one word. More than one characteristic. More than one hobby, profession, job, activity, habit, or hobby. We were designed to have an identity that was as ABUNDANT as the lives we’re meant to live in Jesus.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). That is not negative. That is POSITIVE identity. It is so much more than we can possibly be on our own. We NEED Jesus to be this. “Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). It is IN JESUS that our identity is realised. When we die to our self and are raised in Him, everything changes. “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

In Jesus, we are more than the sum of our parts. In Jesus, we’re a whole paragraph and not just a sentence. We CERTAINLY aren’t punctuation. We are a temple. We are a race of His children. We are a nation. We are a priesthood. We are a body. We are reflectors of His light. We are His people. We are hotspots of Mercy: shown to us and shown to others. We are lightning rods for the IMPOSSIBLE. We are dead. We live in Jesus. We are those who love others. We are purchased people. That’s a lot. It informs everything we are. What we do. How we work. How we speak. It informs things like how we dress, our sex lives, our employment, the vehicles we drive and where we live, and how we speak. Instead of being a single thing in this life, we are a collection. We cannot be reduced to a normal identifier. Instead, we have two SUPERNATURAL identifiers. Jesus gave us one and Paul gave us the other. These are labels that are easy to understand and easy to say.

“Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). We are those who love. We are the people who love. Not some cheap behind the bleachers for ten minutes love. But real, actual, heart-based love. Patient love. Kind love. Generous love. Humble love. Truth-loving love. Hopeful in expectation love. Enduring love. Believing love. Love that doesn’t have a limit, or and end, or that gets given up on. True LOVE. That kind of love is REALLY noticeable. It is so different from how the world acts. It is so different from how religious people act. The only people that act like this from the heart, through the mind, through their words, and through their actions right out into the world are disciples of Jesus. It’s because we need HIM in order to love like that. We can’t do it on our own. We need to be connected to Him so that we can get the juice straight from Him (John 15:5).

Paul gave another identity for us to be noticed by. “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are those in right-standing with Adonai Elohim. More than that, we are those living in right relationship with Elohim, other people, and all creation. Good stewards who live justly, honestly, faithfully, and in humble submission to Adonai. Recognising that it isn’t US who are doing it. Not proud. Not holier than thou. Humble. We were lost too. Just like the world. But now we have been found, called, washed, and made NEW. In Jesus, through Jesus, and by Jesus we can be righteous and live righteously (John 15:5).

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The devil made the world in his image so that he could slaughter us after stealing all our everything and then destroy our memory. Jesus came to stop that and return to us LIFE. His life. His resurrection life which is more than one would or COULD normally expect or anticipate. More identity. More living. More of our needs met. We don’t have to be a one word slim picking. We don’t need to be a dot that ignores all the words written before it. We can BE abundant in identity. We can BE abundant in how we live life. Outside boxes. Outside fences. Actively moving from territory to territory. From group to group. From those who identify as one thing to those who identify as a different thing. Loving everyone we see. Being the light that will show them to be standing in darkness. Not condemning, judging, or guilting them. But loving them in TRUTH and in FULL.

Say this after me: I identify as the Righteousness of Elohim because I am in Jesus and Jesus is in me. I identify as a person who loves in full according to the Word and the Will of my Source, the Father. My identity will shine in it’s WHOLE form and bring GLORY to Elohim every day of my life. Amen.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:7

“He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth.” Messiah would be oppressed and afflicted. Not deserving it, He would choose to bear for us SIN. All of it. All sickness. All disease. All lack. All shame. All toil. All the twisted mess of this fallen creation. He would take it ALL. “Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe around him, and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” They spat on him and took the staff and struck him repeatedly on the head. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him” (Matthew 27:27-31). Jesus was treated worse than a slave. Jesus was brutally and horrifically tortured. By soldiers, the religious elite of His own people, rulers, governors, judges, thieves, and average people. He took our sin on Himself, which is WHY He was so oppressed and tormented. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b