True Identity
We are in a season of massive attack against identity. If the enemy can confuse us on who we are, we are rendered listless and powerless against him. BUT GOD is using the attacks to expose and root out of us anything that isn’t in line with our true selves as He creates us to be.
When an attack is intense, we should actually be encouraged, because it means the enemy is scared! If he’s working overtime against us, it’s because God is working something great in and through us that will advance His good plans on earth and defeat the enemy.
And yet almost all of us are living with our spirits hunched over, like an elderly person who can no longer stand up straight. We are weighed down by the burdens of life, by pain and sorrow, by disappointment, by hope deferred, by false responsibility.
The burdens actually become our armor, protections against vulnerability, and a sneaky source of ego. We pride ourselves on all we have to bear, and how well we think we’re handling it. We think the heaviness of our burdens give us rights to sympathy and praise.
Jesus calls us to the cross and invites us to dump our burdens off there, so we can live freely and lightly again as we were meant to, as a child does, as the children of God we are.
This is Matthew 11:28-30 played out:
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
But what if our burdens have become our identity and purpose— we don’t know who we’d be without them? We say we don’t want them, but deep down, we’re scared to let them go, because we don’t know who we’d be on the other side.
Jesus’ invitation requires vulnerability on our part, and this is where the enemy inserts some of his most devious work. He tempts us to believe that being vulnerable will expose us to all that’s ever hurt us, all we’ve been trying to protect ourselves from. He tries the original lies of the Garden of Eden on us…. eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — that knowledge will keep you safe. It will show you what to look out for. It will equip you to live on your own strength. We all know how that turned out.
The reality is that we’re vulnerable wether we like to admit it or not. When we ignore our vulnerability, claiming we can stand on our own strength, we’re living in the deception of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We’ve stepped out of the protection of the Tree of Life, exposing ourselves to be controlled by the deceptions and manipulations of the enemy. We become controlled by the very thing we think we are controlling, and we become blinded, so that we don’t even notice what’s going on!
Turning to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is rejecting the Tree of Life. It’s pride — self-reliance. God in His goodness is exposing our pride to bring us to humility, which is the gateway to His heart, to our true identity, to every fruit of the spirit, to walking in His glory and power.
When we humbly admit the inescapable fact of our vulnerability, we can let God into that place. Instead of being vulnerable to the enemy and his abuse, we can become vulnerable to Jesus, who loves, accepts, heals, and protects us. The Tree of Life provides true strength, unlike anything we could get on our own.
Psalm 68:28 says, “Your God has commanded your strength…strengthen what you wrought for us.” God gives us His (true!) strength when we give Him our (false) strength!
1 Corinthians 1:20-31 explains it in more detail. “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Aka, what we think is our strength is actually our weakness. “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men…. God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty.”
And what do we get when we, feeling foolish, vulnerable, and probably completely crazy, admit our weakness and vulnerability to God?
Look at Psalm 84: Blessed is the man whose strength is in You! Our place of weeping becomes an abundant well. We go from strength to strength — from God’s strength to a greater measure of God’s strength!
Shedding our burdens takes time. We’ve carried them a long time, and the line between us and the things we carry has become blurred. Our Heavenly Father is patient and gentle. He doesn’t expect us to immediately drop everything and be completely transformed in a day, just like someone who’s been in a coma isn’t expected to run in a marathon the moment they wake up. God knows how to walk us through the process of showing us what we can give to Him and replacing it with a little more freedom in that place, giving time for deep restoration to take place. Sometimes many things will fall off at once, and we’ll literally feel lighter. Other things will feel like they need to be surgically removed with great intention and care over a period of time.
It’s a life-long walk into deeper and deeper freedom and destiny.
I believe there are two ways to approach this:
1) from the place we are right now on earth, and
2) from the place we are ultimately, as God created us to be.
From the place we are right now, ask God what one burden you can give Him today.
From the place we are as God created us to be, speak out loud the truth of who God says you are.
Below are some verses of identity for you to speak out loud, as decrees from God over you.
(I chose these specific promises because they speak to me right now. Repeat the ones that resonate with you. God’s Word is full of so many more promises of who we are, and you can undoubtedly find other scripture promises that meet you where you’re at today.)
⁃ From Isaiah, 43, you have called me by my own true name (vs 1) given me Your name, and created me for Your glory (vs 7). I am precious and loved by you. (Vs. 4) I don’t need to be afraid because You are always with me (vs 5). You do new things in and through me, despite impossible situations. (Vs 19)
⁃ You direct my steps. (Prov. 16:9)
⁃ You establish the work of my hands. (Ps. 90:17)
⁃ I am known, set apart, and appointed. (Jer. 1:5)
⁃ When I put my trust totally in God and not in myself, every plan I make will succeed. (Prov. 16:3)
⁃ You will fulfill your purpose for me. (Ps. 138:8)
⁃ I am Your masterpiece, and You’ve prepared a masterpiece for me to co-create with You. (Eph. 2:10)
⁃ I press on to take hold of that for which Jesus took hold of for me. (Phil. 3:12)
Prayer:
Let my burdens get as uncomfortable as they need to in order for me to embrace the vulnerability of shedding my old perspectives and patterns and receive the new life (Tree of Life) You have for me! Reveal the ways I’ve been eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so I can repent and receive Your healing. Don’t let me revert back to my own strength anymore! That’s picking up false burdens again. It is by your mercy that I’m weak and that on my own strength I fail. Bring me into deeper humility to receive Your strength in my places of weakness. Thank You that You have to come to make all things new in me.
Responses for self-reflection:
What burden is God revealing to you today, for you to give to Him?
What verses speak identity to you right now?
P.S. The artwork featured in this post is available in the shop! To purchase, click here: www.widemeadow.com/shop
