WHO AM I?

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.”

1 John 5:1 NKJV

For many years I remember being ashamed of myself. I saw myself as someone that failed, that could not keep relationships/friendships and loved to travel and as I travel I create new friends without regard for the feeling of others I moved on. I considered myself a good person but I was one of those people that woke up on the wrong side of the bed most days. I had a child right out of high school. With every attempt to succeed on my own I put myself through a few years of college until I could not continue. Life had so many other things for me to do rather than sit in a class. I wanted success but I never counted the cost of what I wanted. I was in a social scene waiting for the next big event! I was certain I would have to marry a social butterfly like myself. I was identifying with who I was by what I was doing during that time in my life and based on the mistakes of my past. This was not God's desire for me and that was not who and what He called me to do, but I thought it was right. I thought I was right! I know the plans I have for you, one that has a bright future and hope-Jeremiah 29:11. First of all, there are two things our identity is made of and that is the purpose and a name. Every child was given a name whether they liked it or not, even John Doe or baby doe. There are a few people who had their name changed throughout the Bible and after the name change, there was also a significant change in who they were. They stepped into their purpose. How is that even possible? Prophetically we speak what we desire, what we want to come into being. When our names are spoken or called there is a manifestation that comes from it. 1 Chronicle 4:9 says that Jabez was named out of pain and Rachel did the same thing naming her son Benoni which means son of my pain (Genesis 35:18). Sometimes declarations have been made over you before birth but God has assigned people to help you and in some cases to change your name. Saul who was also called Paul had dual names and in the latter used Paul as he shared the word of God. The name Saul identified a man that persecuted Christians having them murdered and now even after all that we call wrong God made him right. Saul stepped into his purpose after meeting with Ananias. Saul was exuberant, he believed in this new truth. Secondly, Esther was also Hadassah with no father or mother but an uncle that loved her like his own. Esther as we know her became queen but imagine what she experienced or how she felt before that. She was Hadassah which represented a culture. Her name defined her as a group of people; culture ties us to traditions, practices and doctrines that are many times not scriptural. When she was known as Esther we read of the favour that carried her into the palace. What people call you matters! Third, there was Abraham who was Abram. In Genesis after an account of who Abraham was and his age it says that the Lord made a covenant with Abram, he would no longer be Abram but he was now Abraham and told him that he would be a father of many nations. Do you think some of the promises God has for we can imagine or comprehend? Ephesians 3:20 says God can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, in accordance to the power that we have in us. I wish I could talk to Abraham to see what he was feeling after rescuing Lot. I can imagine he moved had his cousin come along who was not serving God and making plenty of mistakes. Did he feel like what he saw, the family he came from. Imagine Lot doing his own thing and having the heart to argue about Abraham thinking he was better. Making comments that would remind him of his roots, the country he was from, the tribe he belonged to and the city he grew up in. Remember Jesus experienced the same thing on his journey. Who is that? The carpenter's boy. There are times when the family we came from can carry weight (good or bad) and God needs to define who you are, not what your family can do and how far that can carry you. In conclusion, for a long time life played in a cycle of the same things happening over and over again. For the sake of the example, there were certain people I dated and it seemed like I would go back to the very person with another name. I remember feeling like why should I expect more if this is all that comes my way. Imagine Jesus crying to God saying the devil always tries Him when He is going to help people or when He has fasted and never gotten past the test/temptation and reliving the test over and over again. We are more than conquerors, we are known before birth, God knows the count of hair on our heads, he loves us despite our flaws. Jesus came and died so we can be tied to a new life, a new kingdom. You do not have to live life in a cycle or tie yourself to people that do not allow you to walk into the destiny God has for you. Today we defined who we are not. We are who people say we are, we are not just who we are based on culture, family ties, our past nor based on the attacks we have experienced.