| One of the greatest problems facing most believers today is that they suffer from an identity crisis. They do not know who they really are. They do not stand for something (the right thing) and so they fall for anything. This has resulted in mismanaged potentials. A cat that does not know its identity will attempt to swim and an eagle that forgets its identity will scratch with the chickens! Are you scratching when you should be flying?
There was a time in my life when I used to wake up every night to pray to God to give me more power and grace to do exploits for him. Sometimes I would be so moved by my prayers that I would begin to cry. I did this for several months with no visible progress in my life. But glory to God, I later understood Ephesians 1:3 and immediately realized that I had been scratchingall the while. What do I mean?
Ephesians 1:3 says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hathblessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
I was scratching because I was telling him to bless me with more power but His word says he has blessed (past tense!) me. I was asking for power and grace, which are spiritual blessings, but His word says as far as spiritual blessings are concerned, then it has already been given to me. And then I wondered … but that man of God used to tell us to pray hard for these spiritual blessings, or I think I have seen it somewhere in the bible. Then these words echoed – whose report will you believe? Wow! I was wallowing in an identity quagmire. But why hadn’t somebody enlightened me all the while? It could be likened to me asking God to make me male, it does not make sense. Did that mean that all those nights of waking up to ask for what was already mine was a waste? Several questions kept running through my mind.
But what I do now, I asked. I shared my experience with a friend and he said – “don’t confuse me, I have been doing this all the while and it has been working for me”. Many Christians make similar statements when their lifestyle is in contrast with God’s word. But if a 2 year old boy cries every time he is hungry, does that make crying for food a good thing, even though it “worked” in the past? Our God may overlook our time of ignorance as babes but he desires we grow up (Acts 17:30). He wants us to stop scratching when we should be flying. He wants us to stop crying when we should be teaching. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and that makes us the best set of people living on earth. As we continue in this series, we will discuss how to express these blessings in our daily lives. Till then, keep basking in the euphoria that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
– tope aladenusi
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As a secondary school student, I lived in boarding house and my cohorts and I were big time pranksters. While effecting some hideous practices we made sure we avoided some school prefects and teachers whom we had identified as very strict and law entrenching. But we didn’t avoid those school prefects and teachers whom we identified as weaklings, in fact they covertly or overtly co-operated with us.
As a banker, I know that key marketing calls are not meetings held by mere team members of a unit in the bank and mere team members of a prospects organization. Key marketing calls are meetings with divisional heads of a unit in a bank and top executives of a prospects organization. These people are identified as the decision makers. They decide whether a deal would be brokered or not.
As a leader I’ve learnt that every profitable organization in the world has a team of egg heads (executives) who drive the growth and profitability of the organization in the market place. They have no mean identity. They belong to a special uncommon class. This is because position and the perception of an organization in a market place is a consequence of the identity of its leaders. Nobody would be comfortable identifying with an organization where the leaders are known fraudsters, because he’ll be afraid to be defrauded himself.
As a Christian I’ve learnt that your ability to sell your unique divinity in your vicinity is embedded in your identity. In the market place your prospects become your clients because they buy your identity ahead of your products or services. If you can’t show a good understanding and patronage of your products or services when making a presentation to them they wouldn’t buy. If you give your community a wrong self perception you would run at a loss with respect to soul winning, but if you give your community a right self perception you would gain souls for the kingdom and you would be rewarded by the father.
Jesus could ‘sell’ His unique divinity effectively because he celebrated His peculiar identity (Jhn.5:17, 26-27). Jesus didn’t function outside the will of the Father (Jhn5: 19-20) that was why he was extremely successful with his quest on earth (Jhn.10: 15 -18, Acts 10:38). Christians have been endowed with this same identity (Mark 16:17) because we are one with Jesus (Hebs.2: 10-11) and our bodies belong to God (1Cor.6: 19-20). We are therefore left with no other choice than to work and walk in accordance to God’s will as Jesus did (Eph. 5:15-18).
As Christians our impact on the face of the earth are dependent on the choices we make daily. We could choose to be like the “conniving” school prefects and teachers who aided my mediocrity in secondary school or choose to be like the school prefects and teachers who upheld the principles of love and justice so I could be a better student. We could choose to be men who win souls from the kingdom of darkness like those leaders who drive the growth and profitability of their organization in the market place or we could choose be like mere team members of a unit in the bank and mere team members of a prospects organization who are not relevant in a key marketing call. The choice is all ours. As a Christian your successes and failures are consequences of your identity so make a choice daily to show your true identity. You are God’s property.
– emeka ofia