Identity part 3

Hubby and I were loving our week in London after a mission trip to Israel. Sunday evening found us in church – Holy Trinity Brompton (where the Alpha Course originated). Excited about a well-known minister praying for us, we went forward for prayer at the end of the service. Both hubby and I were gob-smacked as the minister said something about me discovering my true identity. We believed he had ‘got it wrong’ as I seemed very secure in my identity. I certainly was not concerned with what others thought about me.

Around this time, we were also trying to get pregnant. Ten years went by with no success. Before this, whatever I wanted to do, I did. I achieved much. I was able to accomplish a lot, and my identity was based in what I could do. Suddenly I was faced with something I had little control over. This caused much heartache. I realized that my identity and self-worth were in my accomplishments and what I could achieve. During this period, I faced the fact that my identity needed to be in God. I went on a journey of discovering my identity based in Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him, rather than what I could or couldn’t do.

When someone is struggling with their identity, it is common to believe that it manifests with low self-esteem, lack of personal confidence, difficulty accepting both your strengths and limitations, focusing on negatives, thinking others are better than you, feeling anxious or depressed, fear of other’s disapproval or rejection, not accepting compliments, sense of inferiority, fear and rejection looming large in your life, unfulfilled etc. Less common traits are perfectionism, controlling personality, comparison, acting differently around different people, maybe only wearing name-brand clothes, etc.

The foundation of our identity comes to the fore when we experience failure, significant miscommunication, relationships fracture or an adverse life event.

Last blog post, I addressed the issue that our identity is in who God says we are. We need to know who God is and revel in Him with awe and wonder to understand who we are, how God made us, and our identity.

Who God says we are is always in relationship to either God or others. We were made for community, not isolation.

Practical steps to help embed a Godly identity:

1. Worship God

Spend time in awe and majesty, worshipping your Creator. When we realize who we belong to, we can then discover our value.

2. Declare Scripture over yourself
To find out who God says we are means we need to spend time with God – listening, praying, meditating, asking, waiting, watching. It means devouring the Bible, God’s Word, to discover what He says about us and why He made us.

There are many Scriptures that help gain insight into how God describes us. You can easily google and find them. You can also take the time to read the Bible and allow it to sink into your mind and soul. Unfortunately, there is usually a gap between our heart and mind – intellectually knowing what God says and practically believing it and living it out.

I find an effective method is to declare Scripture over myself about who God says I am. I find Scriptures and write them out, and then declare them over myself. A great starting place is Ephesians 1. “I declare that Father God created me and blessed me with every spiritual blessing. He chose me before the creation of the world. I am called, chosen, special and equipped to spread the Gospel.” You will discover your identity changes when you declare over yourself how God sees you and believing that which is written in the Bible about yourself.

3. Prayer

I have created a prayer calendar for June based on our identity in Christ. There are 30 days of prayer from Scripture outlining our identity as a child of God. I created this over at my other blog http://www.raisingworldchangers.com.au to pray over our children to help them with their identity. I realize it is also powerful and effective praying it over myself. Here is a pdf version. Feel free to download it here or contact me to receive an emailed copy.

4. Deal with faulty beliefs

Our perception can influence our thinking and beliefs. Often, we can incorporate lies or faulty beliefs into our life through our perception of events or words. An easy method to deal with this is to take a few moments to spend time with God and ask:

  • Father God, is there any lie or faulty belief I am believing?
  • Grab the first thought through your head and explore that.
  • Ask God to show or tell you why you believe that.
  • Ask God if there is anyone you need to forgive. If anyone comes to mind, forgive that person. Bless them. Do you need to forgive yourself?
  • Ask Father God to show, tell, or give you the truth.

Healthy self-esteem and identity come from being who we are designed and created to be in community.

Next blog post, I will address how identity is a journey and helpful hints along the way.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every week I list 5 prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation:  Gather craft supplies and cut-out cardboard crowns. Ask everyone to decorate their crowns with how they are known in Heaven. Finish with everyone placing their crowns on their heads and declaring over themselves how God sees them.

2. Group Activation: Gather craft supplies, textas etc and create pictures/collages of the godly identity of the person on your right. Give this to the person on your right, blessing them in their royal identity.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to show you how He sees you dressed (eg princess, paratrooper, lover, explorer etc). Spend time asking God more about the picture He shows you. Then declare it over yourself.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone struggling with their identity. Spend time with God, asking Him to show you how they are known in Heaven and how He sees them. Find a way to communicate this effectively to that person and encourage them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a powerful voice in your life at the moment. Ask God the true identity of that voice and prophesy into the effectiveness of that voice and their reach.

Eyes on God or my circumstances

Small cat with big angry male lion shadow

The other day I had my eyes on our circumstance and was saying to God, “I don’t understand, hubby only has a little work (we have a small business) at the moment and not even any quotes. What is happening? We desperately need some money.” I immediately then went to, “Hang on, God has said He will be our provider. Therefore, what do I need to know at the moment? Who does God want to be for me at the moment?” I paused and reflected on that for several moments, getting my focus back on God and not my circumstances. Then I was able to thank Him for the provision that was coming. It didn’t mean that we could just sit back and wait for the money to come in. No. We still have to work but God can orchestrate the circumstances for work to come in.

What do you do when you find that your circumstances don’t match up with your identity and your prophetic words and your promises from God’s Word? How do you react? What’s your ‘go-to’ position/thinking?

If we truly believe and understand who God says we are and who he wants to be for us, then we will live a supernatural lifestyle, not a natural lifestyle. Our prophetic words that have been spoken over us are conditional on us becoming the person who has the identity and character that is needed to steward those prophetic words.

Identity is so important. Who we believe we are in relation to God and how we see ourselves tells us our identity. How we live that out in everyday life says a lot about our beliefs, our theology and our identity. How we see ourselves (our identity) is often reflected in how we pray. Can we decree and declare with confidence or do we approach God like a servant?

I believe that most, if not all of us, don’t actually fully see ourselves as God sees us. He believes in us far more than we tend to believe in ourselves. We need to know who we are in relation to God and let that permeate our own life and change how we act, how we react, and how we think.

Our actions and our doing must flow from our identity. If we see ourselves as God’s child, His beloved, a princess, then that influences every action I make from how I react to my children when they ask the same question for the umpteenth time when I have a 1001 things to do, to how I respond to the car driver who just cut me off in peak hour traffic, to my boss with their huge demands, to the neighbour’s barking dog at 2am.

Take a few moments to ask God how heaven sees you, how you are known in heaven? Ask God to highlight certain things to make it very clear for you. Then reflect on whether your actions and thoughts over the last few days line up with how you are known in heaven. Ask God to show you if there is any part of your identity that He wants to tweak or that He wants you to think differently about. Don’t rush these steps but go on an adventure with God, exploring your full identity in God. I find it worthwhile to journal as I am doing this so that I can go back over it later. It also helps me to stay focused and to really flesh out the hard parts with God. My focus when doing this is that I want to grow and become more God like so I need to allow God to show me the things/ parts/ beliefs/ attitudes/ thinking etc that I need to work on and also how to change them to be more God like. I also line up the things that the Bible says I am and go through and challenge myself as to whether they are my core beliefs too.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy!

Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Have paper and crayons available and ask everyone to draw a picture of how God loves them. Share what your pictures mean. Then choose someone else to draw for and draw how God loves them.

2. Group Activation: Get into pairs. Ask God to highlight a slogan from a business to you that fits your partner and to show you how it relates to them. Share with your partner. Then ask God for a new slogan for your partner – one that describes who they are and who they are becoming. Share with your partner. Then pray for each other, declaring the new slogan over them.

3. Beginner Activation: Put some worship music on and spend some time enjoying being with God. Ask God to show/tell you how you are known in Heaven. Journal what you sense God saying/showing you. Reflect on your feelings associated with that and then how your behaviour and attitude reflects your heavenly identity.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a person who needs some encouragement. Ask God to show you how He sees them and how they are known in Heaven. Contact this person and share what God has shown you about them with them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you someone who is going to influence local history in a huge way in the coming year. Ask God to share with you how He sees them and their part in influencing local history. Share this with that person in an appropriate manner.