Identity Issue

It’s official, the Lord has brought my 9 months of consecration unto Him in the NightWatch to a close. He has brought me full circle experimenting with how to live my life before Him. Even though I feel like this season of my life has come to a close, I feel like my journey in this new revelation of how to walk forward in my christian faith has only just begun. That like David, I have taken the time through the mundane of life to figure out it all comes down to Love! I have the empowerment and ability to walk through this life because of this simple yet SO profound truth, “I am Loved by God, and a Lover of God, therefore , I AM SUCCESSFUL! No longer, if I walk in this truth, will I be the judge of myself, because it’s not about what I think (I’m Sinful) He alone is the only one that can Judge me in Righteousness and Truth! I will walk in Freedom of no longer being bound by what people think, because I will be consumed by the thoughts of the Bridegroom God that is ravished by one glance of my eye, or that tiny ‘Yes’ of my heart! I will walk forward in the power of His Sanctifying Grace, because I will realize that it’s not by my Righteousness that I’m saved, but by Grace, and Grace alone. That my strivings in the Pursuit of Righteousness is found as filthy rags if I do not come to the realization that it’s by His Unfailing, Unending Love that I am saved, and continue to be saved from the Pits of Hell! No matter what my striving of Righteousness may succumb to, I will never increase upon the amount of Love and Enjoyment the Lord has over my life! The only thing that will change on this journey of Sanctification is my understanding of enjoyment found in Him! That as I continue to break off sin’s grip, I will become more of Christ’s likeness, therefore my friendship with Him develops all the more, and I am now able to feel the enjoyment over my life more because I have made one step closer to walking as He did. Making my communion with Him increase and became closer knit with Him, it DOES NOT INCREASE HIS LOVE TOWARDS ME IN ANY WAY! BECAUSE JOHN 17 SAYS THAT HE ALREADY LOVES ME TO THE FULLEST OF HIS GODLY CAPACITY! The love of the Father cannot be increased upon in any measure, ZILCH, ZERO, NONE! So why do we think we can increase in His enjoyment over us by our strivings of Righteousness!? The only thing that is going to increase is our ability to be able to feel His love and enjoyment over us. In this reality we have to be found as ones that place our sole identify, the only thing that drives us forward in being, “Loved by God, and being a Lover of God, therefore Successful!” Then we get a reality that we had VERY, VERY, little to do with our coming to love Him. Because when we were lost in our lifestyle of hating Him, and selling ourselves to the sinful desires of our wicked hearts, He was pursuing us, Loving us with the same infinite amount of love then, as He has for us now! When we were dead in the wickedness of our flesh He chose to demonstrate the greatest gift of Love, the giving of His life! Just for the chance, the smallest tiny chance that we would say ‘Yes’ to His love. His infinite Love then that lead Him to the cross is still very real, and very much the same today. He does not change yesterday, today, and forever more! Our walking in 100% obedience and in an identity of a lover of Christ actually brings His love to fullness, because now He can enjoy us! The fullness of His love and enjoyment over us could not be over our lives until we chose to come into alignment of the pursuit of Holiness, because it would go against the very nature of Love! He can love someone that is in sin, but He CANNOT enjoy them or take delight in them in that place. The definition laid forth in 1st Corinthians 13:6 “Love does not rejoice at wrongdoings (sin), but rejoices with the truth.” states right there that Love cannot rejoice (delight) in sin! It can’t, it goes against the law of love. Last time I checked “God is Love” 1st John 4:8, therefore God cannot delight himself in someone that is living in opposition of pursuing 100% obedience! This does not go against the “Dark Yet Lovely” principle from Song of Solomon 1:5. Because we are all sinful in nature, we are only transformed by the power of His love to choose Righteousness over wickedness out of a motive of choosing to love Him, and Him alone. Even when we stumble and give into that besetting sin that we have been fighting for so long, we are still enjoyed by God if we are choosing to make war against that issue, and not let it become something we agree with.

Picture it this way, You’re in a boxing match, and your opponent throw’s a quick little fake so you expecting the right hook, get smacked in the face when you weren’t expecting the left hook to come across and mess you up. You took a shot, true, but you didn’t lose. It’s your ability to stand and continue to make war against this opponent. You might even get knocked off your feet every once in a while, but it’s the resolve in your heart that you’re not going to get knocked out or give up in the fight! As long as you keep fighting, YOU’RE WINNING! So when that sin creeps its ugly head up, and even if you mess up and indulge yourself in it, as long as you repent, bring it into the light and tell the Lord that you still want to pursue Him in love, THEN YOU WIN! That small ‘Yes’ in your heart is what the Lord loves and enjoys. When you bring all that you know you are struggling with into the light, you are pursuing the Lord in 100% obedience. Once again, even if you stumble, if you repent and put it before the Lord, you are still pursuing 100% obedience, and the Lord takes full delight in you! Now the moment you stop making war against these issues, and just settle that it’s just to difficult to pursue the Lord in obedience, that’s when He can’t enjoy you anymore. Once again, coming back to the fact that “Love does not rejoice (delight) in wrongdoings (sin), but rejoices (delights) with the truth (righteousness).”

For some reason we get this idea in our head that when we mess up that the Lord is standing in heaven with His arms crossed looking at us like we’re stupid, telling us we need to get it together. For some people that’s what comes to mind everytime they think of God and that is a false thinking pattern. God is so kind, merciful, and loving, “He delights in mercy” Micah 7:18. That is amazing to me. That when we mess up, we repent and ask Him for forgiveness, that He is actually happy and excited to give it!!! This is such a good picture for me. That we are all like infants learning to walk in different areas of our lives. We are pursuing a holy lifestyle and for some we’re just that little toddler that is crawling around and building up our strength so that one day we can start standing. For others they are standing already and trying to take their first steps. And still for others they have learned to take steps and are even starting to run around. Now what does any earthly father do when their son or daughter falls while trying to walk. He runs to them picks them up, loves them, and encourages them! What dad when their 1 year old kid falls trying to walk runs over and yells at them while their on the ground telling them that they’re never going to get it right, you just keep failing, you’ll never be enough. NONE, it’s a 1 year old baby! Then why do we see God that way? He’s the best Father there could ever be!!!

Jesus portrays the ultimate bridegroom of love, in that He was pursuing me with perfect love when I was living not only in my grotesque sin, but in hatred towards Him. When I was in this place He passionately pursued me with perfect love! He loved me unconditionally! He was long-suffering, pursuing me through all my wickedness. It even led Him to the cross! With every stroke that He was beaten, He had me in mind thinking that I would be worth it all! That if I said yes and came to the knowledge of Him it would be worth it all! But it didn’t stop there! Even now He is in heaven making intercession on behalf of those that are still choosing wickedness. He gave His life, and He’s still pouring Himself out in the longing that He might be able to marry them! When the people that He so dearly loves give themselves away to lesser things of this world, He is still crying out to them, asking for their hand in marriage! Everytime His people choose to give themselves to sexual perversion, love of money, pride, love of possessions, alcohol, drugs, careers...etc. He still pursues them in perfect love! He is still declaring to them that He longs to make this people His bride! “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord!” Hosea 2:19-20 This is all done in His extravagant love for us as His people, so that we might have fellowship with Him! If we let our identities be found as lovers, then we will be able to walk in humility and power, as Jesus did. Because He knew from where He had come, and to where He was going (John 13:3)! He was able to operate and do the will of the Father, because He was free from every other influencing factor. Because He knew what His status was before the Father was, nothing else could stand in His way. It’s an Identity Issue! If we only knew the success we had in the Fathers eyes as being loved by Him, and being lovers of Him, we would live our lives drastically differently in every area of life. We would finally be free to operate in the move of the Spirit because we would know our identity before the Father, and wouldn’t have a fear of moving in the supernatural!

That was a mouthful. But God is Good =)

Be Blessed,

Isaac