Identity Theft...Part 2

A chief deception I have found that the enemy uses against the brethren is to identify ourselves by what we do or don’t do rather than who God is. This can be a really tough sin to sniff out and won’t be done unless the Holy Spirit brings this darkness to light. Even good things we do like witnessing to people, praying a lot, eating right, or exercising daily are types of things that we do that we probably use to label ourselves. When someone comes against this identity that is not found in Christ, even unknowingly, the tendency will be to lash out against the person in our selfish defense. We will feel deeply hurt and may not know why. These feelings are not to be ignored but instead considered in light of Scripture and the Holy Spirit to see if they are leading us to the root of a stronghold the enemy has in us. Here are two recent examples from my own life:

My freshmen year in college, before I was a true believer, I began to eat healthy on a regular basis. I became practically a smoothie-and-protein-bar-addict and I lost a lot of weight and put on a lot of muscle by working out often. Really what I did was I cut way down on fat and let my sugar-consumption run wild, but since I was picky about my foods and drinks, I began to let people call me a health nut and I joined in. This mentality kept up until recently when my amazing wife began to really speak up about my eating habits.

One day I was making grits for lunch and started to pour on top of my grits my usual load of sugar and Nicole really started getting onto me about how much I was putting in there. I snapped at her and she passively mentioned that I was probably getting mad because I thought myself to be a healthy eater and she was stepping on my toes. I stopped, stunned for a moment, and prayed to see if this was true. It was. I then asked Jesus to break this false-label off of me and to take back any ground the enemy had taken through it. I also asked Him to heal my heart and fill the wound this broken identity left. What a blessing.

Being a part of a trans-denominational ministry, I run across just about every shape of believer there is. In our missionary training, we had everything from Mennonite to Pentecostal. To go along with this mixed bag of believers comes a plethora of conflicting convictions concerning just about everything but the essentials of the faith. (Which, in my opinion boils down to Who God is in His Tri-unity.) At the beginning of training, everyone signed contracts saying we wouldn’t drink alcohol as active members in ministry. This brought out the two sides of a discussion that I think I have found the right side of. Many would label themselves the “type of Christian who thinks drinking is wrong” and the other was the “type of Christian who did drink at times”. Everyone agreed drunkenness was out of the question, but each had their points centering around what “freedom in Jesus” really meant but here’s where I landed.

Instead of labeling myself “a Christian who doesn’t drink” or “a Christian who does drink” (or anything else I do or don’t do), I only identify with who God is and who He makes me. I must resist the desire to create a law or label one way or the other, but instead push every decision back to Jesus because I have a living relationship with Him. Thus, when the decision “to drink or not to drink” comes up, I go to Jesus and ask Him what He would have me do. If the Spirit has me to order something, it will be for His glory and delight rather than the focus being on my own pleasure. I don’t even really like alcohol (from the very small amount I’ve sampled), but taking this principle into all of my life has drawn me so much closer to Jesus and has freed me of ungodly identities and legalism that used to confine my life and keep me from intimacy with my King.

I encourage everyone to, “examine yourself, and make sure you are in the faith.” 2Corin. 13:5 Be blessed with the King’s presence.