Identity Theft

By Mary Ann Wray

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is.” 1 John 3: 2

When Jesus was introduced by the Father publically on the day of His Water Baptism and at the beginning of His earthly ministry, the Father announced, “This is my beloved SON, in whom I’m well please. Hear Him.” He didn’t say this is my wonderful Savior, anointed evangelist, deliverance healer, anointed prophet, or any other title.  He introduced Him to the world by His identity-a Son….a Beloved Son. However, not everyone heard Jesus’ words, but this reality then and now never dimished His approval by the Father or His sonship. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah 7: 14, he said, “You shall bring forth a SON and call His name Immanuel.”  In Luke 1: 35 the angel told her that her Son would be called the “Son of God”. Matthew 1: 21 recorded the angel giving her His specific name “Jesus”. 

It’s important to note that when the angel appeared to Mary he first declared the Father’s blessing over her (Luke 1: 28). A father’s blessing in Hebrew tradition identified a child’s heritage and inheritance. It was important that she receive and know the Father’s blessing before she could ever understand the prophetic function she was called to as Jesus’ mother. She would suffer much misunderstanding and ridicule. After this blessing Gabriel identified Jesus’ function to her as well... “He shall save His people from their sins”. 

In later years, after Jesus resurrection, Mary would accept Jesus as her Savior just like everyone else who believed in His eternal blood sacrifice. That’s when she gained her true identity. Scripture records that these prophetic proclamations delivered to Mary by Gabriel were hard for her to grasp. Nevertheless she pondered them in her heart and didn’t ‘go and tell’ everyone what she was called to be and what she was commissioned to do. She meditated on theses prophecies while the Spirit of God brought more understanding to her through many different encounters in her life-time. It wasn’t until after Jesus’ death and resurrection she was named among other Disciples. Her function changed from mother to a witness of His power. She remained blessed among women before and after she became His earthly mother but through the New Birth she became God’s daughter. We have to believe and know within ourselves that we are a blessed son or daughter and have it firmly established in our psyche before we can fully operate in our giftings and calling (function).

As a side note, many parents struggle to disciple and bring up their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord because they are seeking personal identity through them rather than identifying with Christ and the Father as Sons and Daughters. How can you function as a mother or father unless you know how to be a son or daughter? The result is dysfunction and a lack of family harmony. Children are not an extension of us. They are entrusted to us by the Father and belong to Him as souls needing salvation and redemption. Our part is to point them to Christ and nurture them early on so they can discover their true identity and purpose in the Father-not what we want them to do or be. Yes, we want the best for our children but their ‘bent’ may be completely different than ours. A wise parent understands that the purpose of a child(ren) is not to fulfill their emotional needs and earthly desires but fulfill the desire and design of their Heavenly Father.

Holy Spirit gifting(s) help define your function in the Body of Christ but they do not define your identity. People who look for identity in their giftings will easily fall prey to performance, pride, striving, rebellion to authority, and false personalities. Others fall into materialism gaining a false sense of importance by what belongs to them rather than Who they belong to. People who struggle with rejection have an especially hard time with this. I know. I am one of them who is overcoming daily the tendency to identify myself with things other than being His beloved daughter. Your identity is found in your relationship with the Father; not in what you were called as a child derogatorily by other kids or a parent. He is the One who has adopted you into HIS family. He calls you His son or His daughter. He doesn’t call you by your function or title either i.e., pastor, prophet, administrator, helper, teacher, evangelist, apostle. He calls you by your true identity-His child. Our identity only changes once because of the New Birth. At the moment we receive Christ, He translates us out of Satan’s Kingdom of bondage into His Kingdom and Family as an adopted child (Romans 8: 15). He rescues us out of Satan’s dominion, the Father of Lies, and stamps our adoption papers “Paid in Full” by Jesus’ shed blood! It’s irrevocable unless we purposely walk away. Always remember that before there was any type of ministry function on the earth, Old or New Covenant, God created a family first! Ministry came about and has been necessary only because of the fall. Initially, and to this day, God wanted and wants a family first. That is why He made man in His image and likeness after He created the earth as a place to have intimacy and fellowship with Him as Father God!

The Holy Spirit gives each of us varying gifts and measures of grace to be a blessing to other Sons and Daughters. Therefore, our giftings aren’t about us. The Father’s desires and designed us to help meet the needs of others as members of His Body. Therefore, giftings are not the way to measure our worth. That’s a really bad idea! We should measure ourselves by Christ-likeness and character. Comparing ourselves with what others have or do steals our true identity! Giftings should always take a back seat to our personal identity and character. If we emphasize our anointing or function over Christ’s atonement and personal character, that is a sure sign of a mistaken identity. The identity theft is clearly at work!

Have you ever thought about how Holy God is, yet He calls us in all of our humanity to serve Him? His Holy Standard is so high; can we really ever achieve it 100% of the time? So then, how does the Father measure us compared to how the world measures itself? First, God measures us by our complete and total dependence (faith) in His only begotten Son for forgiveness of sins and our complete salvation-Body, Soul and Spirit. Then He measures us by our obedience to do His will for us. Finally, He measures us by the agape love we demonstrate, no matter what gifts and calling we may operate in (1 Corinthians 13). Jesus is the embodiment and epitome of the selfless God kind of love. There is no comparison with Him. We all fall miserably short of it at times. Yet, as we measure ourselves against Him and His standard, we can clearly see where we have failed but never with condemnation or a need to compete with our Savior. Instead, we come under conviction by the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth, thus gaining the desire to repent, change and be transformed into His image from glory to glory. We understand that everything we accomplish in His name is only by His grace and power-nothing of our flesh or soulish nature.

When we compare ourselves with other gifted brothers and sisters or measure our value on how well we prophesy, teach, preach, cast out devils, heal the sick, or some other supernatural manifestation, we will always come up short and feel inadequate. We’ll see our worth as less than somebody else’s because they have subconsciously become our measuring rod. This leads to more striving rather than rest. Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light. Taking on the “yoke” of someone else requires striving and mimicry. It’s self-defeating and only leads to frustration and more bondage. Sooner or later this character flaw will manifest and our world of self-worth will come crashing down. Taking on the yoke of Jesus requires surrender and submission but results in righteousness, peace and joy-Kingdom Fruits!

When we compare our giftings with others as a way to identify ourselves, we begin to carry a false image of how we are supposed to look, act, and operate in our calling. When you get right down to it, this type of imagery is a form of idolatry because we are attempting to conform to a self-made, man-made image rather than the image and likeness of Christ. We were created in His image and likeness, not another’s, so that is the image we need to conform to! (Romans 12: 1-2)

When Paul was addressing the Corinthians in his first letter, he corrected them for many sins and character flaws. He told them they were carnal and fleshly because of sexual sins, even though were lacking in no spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 1: 7). He also addressed schisms and division in the church because these saints were comparing their worth based on who they followed versus who they were in Christ. Quarreling and strife was the result. Clearly Paul was an Apostle but Apollo and Cephas were not. However, some of the saints felt they were superior because they were under the leadership of Paul versus one of the others. Paul pointed out that it was Christ who died for them, not a man. He went on to define his earthly function: a servant of the Lord who was called as an apostle to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He understood his function better than the Corinthian Church did. They measured their self-worth based on something of their own imaginations and choosing rather than Christ who was crucified for them. They didn’t differentiate the function of Paul versus Cephas and Apollo. They did not properly discern the Body of Christ. That always gets us in trouble! The same thing happens to us when we compare ourselves with another brother or sister’s anointings or giftings versus appreciating our differences and understanding that we are NOT called to function the same way. Paul describes this beautifully in 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31 using the various parts of a body to illustrate this point.

Paul goes on to settle the issue about who was greater or not as follows...  “Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?”

God may have called you to be a planter and another one who tends to what was planted, but let’s remember He is the only one who can bring the full measurement-not us. Our striving and competing against one another isn’t what gets the job done. It’s not by might or power but by His Spirit! One day all of the functions and giftings the Holy Spirit has graciously given to the Body of Christ in this dispensation will pass away when the perfect One comes again and judges the quick and the dead. When He returns He’ll call us by the name written in The Lamb’s Book of Life! Then as we feast on His hidden manna He’ll give us a new name that is only understood by the one He gives it to (Revelations 2: 17). Talk about uniqueness! Our personal identities will be fully realized at His appearing and our names will reflect His full and complete nature within us! Selah!