Accepting Your True Identity

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to share a craft and a message with the homeless in downtown San Diego. To read more about that experience, please visit my blog that documents weekly love actions or random acts of kindness: 
https://flowerchildministries.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/bestow-on-them-a-crown-of-beauty/

I do wholeheartedly believe however, that the message I shared is something everyone should know and come to believe as truth. That is why this month' s ramble is on trading shame for your true identity. 

This is the message I shared last week: 

Hello everyone! My name is Rachelle and I recently returned from a mission trip all around the world. Right before I went on this trip, I actually spoke here at God’s Extended Hand and shared my testimony. I shared about how horrible things others had done to me in the past left me feeling hopeless and ashamed, but how Jesus healed me from those things and had truly saved me. What I didn’t share though was how that very morning I seriously considered calling up our missions director and telling her I couldn’t make it to speak that night. I didn’t share with anyone how I was even considering no longer going on my five month long mission trip. Two nights previously, I had really, really messed-up. I hurt myself and hurt someone else too because of some really stupid behavior. I was filled with so much doubt and kept wondering, if Jesus has saved me, if I am supposed to be a Christian, how could I do something so dumb and harmful? I knew that it was only through Jesus that I had been healed from the hurts of my past, but at that point I was so stuck in shame, that even though I also knew that Jesus forgives me for my sins, I couldn’t get past what I had done wrong and allowed that to identify me.

Since then I have learned so much, and while I still have so much to learn, I feel confident in saying that I better understand my identity and that it is 100% in Christ. I am not defined, you are not defined, no one should be defined by the mistakes they have made. That is not ‘who we are’ those are ‘things we have done.’ Here are a few verses showing what the Bible says about our identity:

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Paul lists some serious types of sinners that were common then and are common now, but then he writes “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

John 1:12 says: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

In Ephesians 1:4-5 it says: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

We are children of God. The King of all Kings has invited us into His family, which means we are all princes and princesses together with Him. I want to read you another verse, Luke 17:6, which I am sure many of you may know.

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

We read that and think, yup, awesome, with enough faith we can move trees. But what if we replace mulberry tree with the word lust. With the word addiction. With the word anger. With any word that describes whatever we struggle with. “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to your shame, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” We don’t have to sit here and say that these things are just a part of us, that they are just who we are. We can uproot them and cast them away in the name of Jesus Christ, and with faith and following Him, we can leave them behind and clothe ourselves with the true identity He has for us instead. 

Tonight we brought supplies to make crowns like the one on my head. In Isaiah 61:3 we learn that Jesus came to:

“Bestow on them [on us] a crown of beauty, instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

And that is what I hope this craft will represent. In her book ‘Breaking Free’ Beth Moore imagines a different ending for the story of King David’s daughter Tamar who was violated by her brother and left wallowing in shame. I am going to read it to you now:

“Imagine Tamar:  Grief-stricken, sobbing, ashes on her head. Her body in a heap on the cold floor. Soot covers her beautiful face and smears the rich colors of her torn robe. Her outward appearance echoes the cavernous darkness in her soul. Hopelessness and death well up in her. She is nothing but a tomb. The door of her room slowly creaks open. A stream of cloudy sunlight pours through the door. A figure of a man takes form within it. Not Absalom. No, she would recognize Absalom anywhere. Her heart jumps with sickening terror, then the figure steps through the door and His visage becomes clear. Tamar has never seen Him before, yet He looks so familiar. Not frightening. And she should be frightened. No man should be entering her chamber. She should run, but she cannot seem to move. She glances down at the hands that seem paralyzed on her lap, suddenly shamefully aware of her ash-covered appearance. Wretchedness sears her heart. She is certain her violated state is obvious. She despises herself.

“Tamar,” the man speaks gently and with warm familiarity.

Her heart sobs, “She is dead!” A slave of shame has taken her place.

He approaches and takes her face in His hands. No one has ever done that before. The overwhelming intimacy turns her face crimson, not with shame but with vulnerability. His thumbs sweep over her cheeks and wipe the tears from her face. As He takes His hands from her face and places them on her head, her throat aches with fresh cries as she sees the filth on His hands. Her filth. He draws back His hands, and she senses something on her head. Perhaps in His mercy He has hooded her disgrace.

The man offers her His hands, still covered with soot, and she takes them. Suddenly she is standing. Trembling. He leads her to the brass mirror hung on the wall. She turns her face away. He lifts her chin. She gives the mirror only a glance. Her heart is startled. She begins to stare. Her face is creamy white. Her cheeks are blushed with beauty. Her eyes are clear and bright. A crown sits on her head, and a veil flows from its jewels to her shoulders. Her torn coat is gone. A garment of fine white linen graces her neck and adorns her frame. The King’s daughter, pure and undefiled. Beauty for ashes.”

I pray that you will keep these crowns and that they will remind you that your true identity is as a child of God. If ever anyone else or that little voice in your head starts trying to tell you that you are worthless, that you are bad, that you don’t deserve anything good; imagine Jesus picking you up, placing a crown on your head, and telling you that you are royalty. That you have been made pure and new. That you are beautiful. That you are His and He thinks you are worth everything.

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There are a few points from this message that I would like to elaborate on now that I am sharing in a medium not limited by time. I would first like to talk more about overcoming the doubt I had when I wondered how I could be a Christian and still do/feel/desire certain things that are so completely opposed to Christ. I honestly felt concerned during a season of my life that maybe I was not really saved. After all, I had gone to church for awhile, but then I went through a stage where I totally declared God to be a lie. I thought of how Jesus says that blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin in Mark 2:28-29 and Matthew 12:32, and kept thinking, what if I denied the Holy Spirit and now it is too late for me to be saved? What if no matter what I do or say God won't accept me back? Truly though, if anyone is thinking those things, just the fact that they are worrying about it shows that they have not committed this sin. The unpardonable sin is denying the truth, denying Christ, up until the day you die, despite seeing and hearing all that He has done and all He is doing. If you are genuinely seeking and desiring salvation from Christ, then you definitely aren't denying Him. If you are still feeling perplexed, here is a link to an article which goes more in depth into this question and addresses it really well: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/unpardonablesin.html

But then how is it that you can receive a new spirit from Christ and still mess up, still struggle? 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." From this verse we see that as human beings we have 3 attributes. We all have that which is physical, the body, the soul which is your mind, emotions and will, and your spirit, the new part of your being from Christ. Yes, you receive a new spirit in Christ, but your soul and your body are still there making you up to be human as well. I think sometimes there can be this false idea that as soon as you accept Christ and receive this new spirit, you will be totally healed and revamped, and will never have to worry about anything or deal with the past ever again.  But your soul is still there and can still harbor your experiences, temptations, pain, and sins of the past. Your body, the flesh, is still driven by that sin nature and desires things that are no good for you. That is why true healing comes from not only accepting Christ as your Savior, but from working through the things within your soul and body by giving them up to Him and letting Him mend them over time. That is why you can be a Christian and still have those things within you. That is where the casting them out through faith comes in. Give them over to God, He is the only one who can heal them, but first you have to relinquish them over to Him! It is a journey, but it is one where God is right alongside you, teaching you and growing you each and every day. 

So, once we truly accept Christ into our hearts: We cannot lose our salvation, all our sins (past, present, and future) are forgiven, and we are given a new identity in Christ, as a brother or sister to the King of all Kings, a child of God. This is something to not only keep in mind for yourself, but also for everyone you meet. Saved or not, every person on this earth was made by God, He makes no mistakes, and as 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says, He "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Just as we should not base our identity on the things we have done or the things we are doing, we should not base the identity of others on these things either. So often that is how we define people, and we treat them accordingly. We say that person is a liar, a loser, a murderer, a prostitute, a druggie, etc. But really we should be saying that person is a child of God who told a lie, who lost their job, who committed murder, who is trapped in prostitution, who struggles with drug use. You don't have to deny what someone did, you don't have to condone it, you don't have to let that person keep going on without any consequences or a call to change; but just remember, that those things are not who they are. We live in a fallen world filled with people who have sin deeply imbedded into their nature. Don't ever think to yourself 'I could never do something like that.' With a certain kind of upbringing, with specific circumstances, struggles, or misfortunes, all of us could commit even the worse thing we can think of. 

Accepting you true identity comes from accepting Christ and all He promises. Once you have accepted it, stand firm in your identity, and remember what should be defining the identity of others as well! Even though we don't deserve love and grace, even though other people around us don't deserve love and grace, God says we are worth it, that this is what He gives us, and this is what He wants us to give ourselves and others in return. Personally, I think that when we remember our identity and the identity of others, loving and giving grace becomes a little bit easier. Getting God's perspective on a person, and asking for His help and guidance, is how we are able to reach out to even the person we think of as the most unlikely candidate of our time, service, and love. Getting God's perspective on ourselves is how we move beyond our shortcomings and walk into the wonderful calling and purpose He has for each one of us.