Welcome to my blogspot! I am Pastor Brad J. Penner and have decided to start blogging to encourage all who would feel led to be a part of this outreach. I am believing this will be a place that you will encounter the love and grace of Christ Jesus, the unconditional embrace of the Father, and the sweet fellowship of Holy Spirit.
The subject of identity and who we are as children of God has been really on my heart lately. What we find is that what we really have inside of us or what we focus on will eventually be what overflows out of us. We all have the potential for living a life that exemplifies the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), and that potential was deposited the day we said yes to Jesus and received His Spirit. We have the treasure of Christ in our earthen vessel..in our spirit man. All the identity of Christ, all the potential to live a God honoring life is there just waiting for us to decide to fully die to our self and let Christ be the life that "leaks" out of our earthen vessel.
So, our identity has to be founded and then grounded in the revelation of our "sonship". We are joint heirs with Jesus, we are seated with Him in heavenly places, and as He is so are we in this world....the word clearly states this. If we really knew and believed what His word says and what He says to us by His Spirit, then we would be secure in love. Perfect love casts out fear, right? Well most Christians are so focused on doing right before God, looking right before man etc...they forget to or may not even have been taught to RECEIVE ongoing love from their "Daddy God" so that they are not dependant on the opinions of man or the people closest to them. See, man will always let you down in some way shape or form...eventually. His unconditional love, mercy, grace, and provision is stable and ever flowing towards you...His heart to yours...its a receiving kingdom, not a doing to please kingdom....that was the Old testament system that God says in His word He found fault with.(Jer 31:31, Hebrews 8:6-8)....Man can't be perfect, yet we are hinging our identity and self worth on people being perfect and filling our need, wants, and desires which they never will be able to. I personally have found that when I stopped looking for my identity in others (or even myself for that matter)..and began looking to my heavenly Father for approval-things began to change.
If you don't understand or believe that you are accepted the same way Jesus is accepted (Eph 1:6) then you are always trying to earn or work for approval by what you do for others and God. Stop trying to become someone you already are...Christ shed blood is the payment for your entrance into the forever loving arms of Father God....from this positional righteousness can flow a life that becomes a lot less striving and a lot more flowing by His Spirit...Amen?
Hello,
ReplyDeleteOur identity is not just formed by receiving our Father's love. It is formed by acting upon the word spoken to us individually by the Holy Spirit, our teacher, so that our minds can be renewed in Christ Jesus. There is a word 'synergy' which comes from the Greek word synergia, meaning 'joint work and cooperative action'. It describes perfectly the process of 'working out our own salvation' that we are encouraged to do 'with fear and trembling' in Phillipians ch.2 v.12. I have always found God a most loving Father, and because He loves us so much have found it extremely important to realize that what He reveals to me as I seek His guidance must be acted upon in order to bring the change required in order for me to grow up in Jesus.