Identity

When we’re asked “Who are you?” We usually respond with our names which indicates our family or tribe because most people are given their parent’s name or we give our religious or political affiliations or we say what we’re called to do in life – our destiny.

Acts 21:39 But Paul answered, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city.

Ruth 4:10 Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon…

Daniel 4:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king, To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you.

This is also how people identify us.

What a person values most is what they usually introduce themselves as or what they perceive the listener will value.

“I’m so and so… by the way I can shoot rockets out of my armpits.” That’s an extremely random example, but it suffices. Here’s a more practical one…

“I’m so and so junior… I own a multimillion dollar company.”

When Moses asked God “Who are you?” He said…

Exodus 3:14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

The Hebrew word for I AM in that verse basically means ‘to be’. In the next verse, God identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and said that that was how He would be identified for every generation following. I think that means that He had built a foundation for people to know Him and that He wasn't going to build another. Later on, God introduced Himself to Moses as “Yahweh”…

Exodus 6:2-5 God also told Moses, “I am the LORD (Yahweh). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself known to them. I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they lived as foreigners. Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

It’s like God started off with “I AM” then from His being defined a purpose and will that He started with Abraham and would continue with the Israelites. So God has no identity in things that are passing away or in actions that are temporal. They are like guiding lights pointing to Him. Only He is not passing away.

I think that’s the end goal in life. To be so lost in being in I AM that we don’t place our identity in anything else and find it in Him alone. “Who are you?” “I am loved by God.” “I am being in God.” “I am gaining oneness with God.” Ok, saying that out loud to someone that just wanted to know about you may be too spiritual, so being identified by people by outward things is cool, but how we see ourselves and other people beyond the outward things is the most important thing.

Someone may say “God gave us names, aren’t these our identities” I believe names are significations of our roles for a time. Like Abraham – father of many, Peter – the rock of the Church, Jesus – the saviour, but these aren’t our roles forever, in my opinion. Like God is known as El Shaddai, El Roi, Jehovah Jireh and so on, but that’s not His identity. Those are His actions. Those are His works. He worked for 6 days, but on the 7th day, He rested. Is God restricted by time? Couldn’t He have created everything in a millisecond? Since He could create everything at the blink of an eye, we can conclude that by creating for 6 days, He was setting a foreshadow for us His children. The Bible tells us that there are seven spirits of God yet it also tells us that there is one spirit of God. There are seven days, but there is one day through which the six spring forth. That balance of doing and being. Children have a hard time being… they’re always running around to the next gadget or toy.

Matthew 11:16-17 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not lament.’

Children discern outward looks and actions but sons discern the spirit. Children want the way things have been but sons are led by the spirit.

It's even worse (more deceptive) when a person derives their identity from something related to God. Like being Jewish…

British Israelism – is the belief that the people of Great Britain are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Black Hebrew Israelites – are groups of African Americans who believe that they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Those two movements might be true (they’re probably not) but attaching one’s identity to the flesh will lead to works of the flesh and not seeing things according to the Spirit...

Matthew 3:9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing.

I believe identity is highly linked to self-love. A person that doesn't see their worth as a child of the creator of the universe bearing His image will put their worth onto other things, not their oneness with God. Self-love apart from God is deception because God is the source of the worth/value. Apart from God, His creation is depraved. That's just how it works, according to the Bible.

1 Peter 1:24-25 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.

God is the only self and we're like extensions of Him. The more a person gets caught up in God, the more they lose their self, their will, their desires so they simply become a channel of God. A body part connected to the whole. That union/love/connectedness is our greatest desire. It only comes when we let God be the mind (glorify God) instructing the rest of the body...

Luke 22:42 “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

A spirit that has communed with God in this ‘life’ has life even if the body dies. One day the body will live again when God commands it to... but life doesn't mean 'being alive', God is life, Jesus is life, the Holy Spirit is life and whoever is intertwined with them has passed from death to life. There are many that are 'alive' but dead. There are many that are 'dead' but alive.

It takes years of testing by God to continually move into Him. I believe this testing comes in terms of either adding or taking away a valuable thing. Then He whispers "Am I still your priority?" Prosperity is just a big a test as poverty. Adding is the same as taking away.

The self-aware Agur said this in Proverbs…

Proverbs 30:8-9 Give me neither poverty nor riches – Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.

He was basically asking God not to test him anymore. In self-awareness or in fear of losing the level of relationship he had with God, I think he was disconnecting from the human experience, but that may mean stagnation in the spirit. In school, we only progressed through tests.

A daring/courageous prayer is this...

Psalm 26:1-3 A Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.

There are some ‘tough time’ psalms after that one… so clearly God tested him.

Psalm 54:2-3 Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen up against me, and oppressors have sought after my life; They have not set God before them. Selah

Why would a man ask for that? What child asks for an exam? Only one that wants to progress. Only one that has tasted the sweetness that comes out of the bitterness of moving from one realm to another. Agur basically said “this sweetness is enough for me, thanks.”

Judges 14:14 “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.”

David’s prayer could also be seen as an overly ambitious or prideful prayer if the person isn't ready while Agur's prayer could be seen as a "holding God back" type of prayer or false humility if God wants to take the person to another level. Anyway, it all depends on context. What is pride for one person could be humility for another. God judges and weighs the progress of spirits.

“Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear.” – from the movie Gladiator

A spirit’s readiness isn’t the mind’s resolve or focus to go through a trial, in my opinion a spirit’s readiness is determined by its union with God (or Truth/Logos, in the case of the ancient Romans and Greeks).

Once upon a time God's realm was a monarchy where closeness to Him was by birthright. Now, it's closeness by merit (love, submission, obedience). From sons of God by birthright to sons of God by adoption. Like Jacob (whose name means supplanter) and Esau.

Love, for me, is the realisation of union. It means to treat the person as if they were you. While hate is separation.

Mark 12:31 ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

God tells us to do, then we understand. Love your neighbour then you’ll realise what you are. True understanding comes from action/obedience to the law/conscience. Not action for other people to see and reward, but action to please God. So the intent behind the action also matters. That kind of action only works by faith/trust. Faith that an all-seeing judge exists and that He will reward what is done in private. Plus, God doesn’t reward as man rewards. So that takes trust too. Believing that His foolishness is wiser than man’s greatest wisdom. God told Abraham that through Sarah his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. He died with one child through Sarah.

Back to the main point… Some of God’s other names are…

Genesis 16:13 So she named the LORD who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?”

Genesis 17:1-2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

That word LORD is Yahweh. Moses wrote the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy so he was writing the name God gave him. “Yahweh said…” “Yahweh appeared…” We all see God from the lenses He gives us (His actions at that time) but I think He mainly wants to be known for who He is (I AM or 'being') and not what He does.

He also asks us to find ourselves not in outward things but in Himself. Not even in what He did in the past but in Himself, in who He is.

Philippians 3:8-9 that I may gain Christ and be found in Him

That was Paul's greatest desire when his eyes were open. He confesses to us that before his eyes were open, he found his identity in God's religion and not in God. The equivalent today would be a person that is more zealous for Christianity than they are for Christ or for God's law than they are for God.

Philippians 3:9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

Genesis 15:5-6 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

I think that what Paul meant there is that God prefers that we have a walk with Him rather than relying on the traditions of our forefathers because God can change operation so He requires a person to be in the I AM, not attached to the El Shaddai, El Roi and other ways He has manifested Himself in the past.

Galatians 1:14 And I (Paul) advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Since everyone's being vulnerable here, I like cars. I often attach a person's value to the car they drive. Bill Gates could come meet me in a Toyota corolla 1995 model and I'd cry on the inside.

"Why that one Bill? Cheap things are never cheap. You could've saved a little longer and bought a 2007 Volkswagen Passat at least." I never used to think this way. I need to re-center somehow because my Saviour could show up on a donkey and I would pass by.

It has to be continual. A person could be in the I AM for 10 years, then build their identity on some other shiny thing and lose true peace.

Having one's identity outside of the I AM breeds classism, ageism, racism, sexism, 1995 Toyota corollaism and every other 'ism' in the book. God didn't ask us to totally abolish 'isms' but asked us to supplant them all with a new ism. An ism based on submission to Him. A discrimination based on a person's walk with Him.

2 Corinthians 5:16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

Jesus was a Jewish carpenter but now we know that He is actually God’s only begotten Son. So that verse is telling us to get our discrimination out of physical things and onto the spiritual state of a person.

We can also find identity in those that have chosen to live in I AM. What the Bible calls the Church. Not the nominal Church but the true Church. A Church isn’t the Church just because they’re direct descendants of the early apostles just like the Jews weren’t sons of Abraham because they were his direct descendants. It’s only those that emulate the faith of these forefathers. There is a oneness with such people…

Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

I’ve found that that oneness comes naturally the further one goes into the I AM.

The Church is the spiritual Israel. "Church" means "called out". Called out of the world yet still in the world. The sons of Abraham. Those that have wrestled with God like Jacob...

Genesis 32:28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have contended with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Esau was chasing the outward things while Jacob was chasing the I AM…

Genesis 29:30-34 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

The birthright was basically the first born blessing from God. So Esau didn't see the point while Jacob wanted God's blessing and he didn't even know what it was.

Genesis 4:3-5 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Abel and Jacob did that by faith. If someone else came and did the same thing they did and didn’t have their heart, I think they’d be like Cain and Esau. It’s not about the actions. It’s about the heart. I think that both Cain and Esau said in their minds “I can help God with my great bounty.” They didn’t actually have a relationship with Him for Him to speak so they could give Him an offering of His choosing. Both Cain and Esau probably prized food, money, women, prestige over the I AM while Abel and Jacob prized the I AM then food, money, a good wife, honour among men came to them.

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

I think "His righteousness" in the above verse means learning from Him and doing what He says is right, not doing a thing we see as right then offering it to Him.

In conclusion, that I AM identity is the Light that shines and heals a shattered soul. It makes a person whole. A soul isn't shattered by difficult situations, it's shattered/divided by misplaced identities. There is deep joy and peace in dark situations when the soul is rooted in God and yet there is deep distress in happy, amazing situations when the soul is divided or finds its identity in anything else but God.

Proverbs 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?

This lesson isn't learnt once. I believe it's the lesson of all lessons and the song of all songs. Relationship. Heart. Priority.