From the moment a doctor can lay eyes on us, we are identified, and from the second we are placed in our parents’ arms, we are called by a name.
As children, we look at others in an attempt to discover who we might become – perhaps a doctor, writer, singer, teacher. But somewhere along the road we trade in our identity for the labels others assign to us.
For many of us, that road ends in an tumultuous storm called an identity crisis with one paralyzing question… who the heck am I?
Last year, the loudest cry of my heart was one harassing question that I begged to have answered.
“Who am I Lord, and how do you move through me?”
Trials and tribulations during any season can be overwhelming, but add in the question of your identity and it leaves you in a place of vulnerability. A place where the liability rate can be higher than any other season. Because if God isn’t answering your question, I can guarantee the enemy is, and when he’s not speaking the world will fill in for him.
Now in retrospect, I can see where God told me the answer years ago. However, it took an intense season of chaos, gripping fear, and overwhelming circumstances to have it permanently branded on my heart. Even as I write this, He has yet to remove His branding iron…
The silence of God’s voice, this past season, left ample airtime for Satan’s lies and the world’s voices. As my child’s life was spinning out of control, the enemy was screaming I am a Failure as a mother. As my ministry came to a complete halt, I was hearing I am Forgotten. As my insecurities grew, I owned the name Insignificant. As our finances were being strained, I accepted that I am Overlooked, and as my health and body image deteriorated I possessed the name Unattractive.
So many more labels and lies were being heaved upon my head. The faster they were thrown the smaller my God became. I had no idea how to find my way out of the mess I was buried under.
My friends shared how they saw me, and what they felt I should do. They had theories to my season, and encouragement on how to persevere. Oddly enough, I had this instinctive nature to try and please them – to be who they said and act out what they were speaking. Yet, all the while, that perpetual nagging question to God would not be silent!
“Who am I Lord, and how do you move through me?”
By the end of the year, I owned another new name, Defeated, which was quickly becoming my identity. And like Peter, after the rooster crowed, I just wanted to run and hide.
What more could I do? I wasn’t the captain of this ship anymore. Yet, as I shared in Coming Out Of The Clouds there is always a break in the storm.
And my break came with a familiar reminder…
Therefore, if ANYONE is IN CHRIST, he is a new creation, the old is gone, and the new has come!
You might be reading thinking yeah, that’s good for you, Beth, but I’ve heard that scripture before and, I still can’t shake the labeling voices!
I SO understand! That is where the branding iron had to come in for me. Ultimately, it was God who had to answer my plaguing question, not people. But when God speaks there is no question to whom the victory over my identity will go to!
In 1 Samuel 17, one Philistine solider, paralyzed the entire Israeli Army with fear. An army with a reputation rich in military victories was being defeat by one very loud giant! Goliath captivated God’s army not with lies of who they were, he tormented them by telling a degree of the truth.
Those from our past, the enemy of our souls, and the voices of the world are powerful because they all speak a degree of truth! If it was an obvious lie, it would be super easy to deflect! However, partial truths… they stick!
Yet, it took only one boy, to defeat one giant man, who was holding an entire army hostage! Why was he so successful, because he knew that they were MORE than what the giant solider called them. The young boy’s victory did not come through his weapon, but it came through his declaration!
I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies – the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you…
Do you hear that Friends! Victory is ours because of who we belong to, and He is the conquerer of our enemies, He is who makes us MORE!
In battle, our weapons are our words! So SAY IT OUT LOUD!!!
You may call me a failure as a mother, but God calls me a Success in Christ!
You may call me forgotten by man, but God calls me Known in Christ!
You may call me defeated, but God calls me an Overcomer in Christ!
You may call me unattractive, but God calls me Beautiful in Christ!
You may call me insignificant, but God calls me His Beloved in Christ!
You may call me weak, but God calls me Strong in Christ!
Are you hearing me, friends?! You don’t have to cower under the labels of your past! The battle is not ours to fight! Remember, when the labeling voices come calling, because you are IN CHRIST, they are speaking directly to Jesus Christ!
Imagine the one who resides inside of you is being spoken to at that very moment! The devil doesn’t want to destroy us, He’s trying to destroy the one we hold inside of us! And that victory has already been won, and the God of Heaven’s Armies won’t take that smack-talk off of anyone anymore!
Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ, to be holy and without fault in His eyes. Ephesians 1:4
Friends, sisters, readers, can you see it?! You are MORE! You belong to God! You are loved, chosen, and seen as holy and faultless! The doctor may have identified you, your parents may have named you, and the world may have labeled you, but your TRUEST identity lies In Christ Jesus! – all that He is, so are you! And all that you were – well, that no longer exists!
Here’s to knowing who we are,
