Friends, I have something that I need to share with you. This is a long post. I have been pondering this for months. Today I feel a release and an urgency to share this.
I have recently seen so many posts and messages on identity from popular charismatic ministers that are full on New Age and exalting of self. The identity message has become so detached from Jesus, most of it is new age positivity and glorifying of self these days. The big part of this message focuses on declaring and meditating on how amazing and wonderful you are in God. Unknowingly this works to feed love of self and our tendency to pride and independency. Many religions and self help guru’s in the world use declaration and meditation to develop a strong personal identity. “If you think it, believe it, and declare it, you will be it.” or as Buddha put it, “What you think you become, What you feel you attract, What you imagine you create” This is helpful, it can work to make you Holy and mortify the desires of the flesh, but it isn’t Christianity. We have drifted so far from the simplicity of devotion to Jesus Christ.
Paul said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” And “it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Meaning our image comes from Jesus. Our image isn’t self made. Jesus Himself is the new creation. The new creation isn’t some detached positive royal identity. The new creation, the new man, the new Adam, is Christ. We are called to bear His image and likeness. I don’t take on his image by talking to myself in the mirror and cultivating positive self talk. I take on his image by submission and surrender. I die to myself and behold him in the place of intimacy. I serve and obey Him as Lord and King. Jesus humbled himself to take on our image, in the same way, we must humble ourselves to take on His. I could live from the principle of being a son and it would bear identity. Or I could live from the presence and person of The Son and bear His image. I yield not my life to a principle of positive identity, but to the presence of the Lord Christ Jesus.
Far to often we cling to the principles of God above the presence of God. We seek the values of the kingdom above the voice of the king. We prefer these things due to our love of self. We grasp to keep self on the throne. We’d much rather walk in independency and pride then put God on the throne and walk in dependency and humility. Our deep need for Principles, explanations, discussions, and methods all work to keep us as the Lord of our lives.
We can walk in the values of the kingdom but not submit to the voice of the king. We can explain and discuss the principles of God but not submit or yield to the presence and person of God. It’s much easier and better for self and our pride to live from the principles and values of God then to walk in humility, dependency and participate in the very person of God. We must yield up our very lives to His Lordship and His presence. Well I can maintain the image of Christianity from good principles and values, I will never bear the image of Christ through these means. It is only when I yield myself to God himself that his nature and image Is formed and perfected in me.
We come to know Him and in turn ourselves, through adoration and participation. As we adore and participate, the Holy Spirit and the Word are the sown in the heart to conceive Christ. We are conformed into His image by the Word and the Spirit.
Adoration and participation in the Godhead is the complete end of self. We find Him where He is all and we are nothing. Self, along with its independency and pride is dethroned when I cease to cling to the principles, values, and methods of God and simply come to the person of God.
In adoration, we have first hand experience in his presence as we look upon Him in worship. We gaze upon him. We adore him. We identify with Him and His passion. We see ourselves united to Christ. Infused into oneness. In union with Him. We dive into prayer and communion with Him. In the secret solitary place of our inner man. We eat Him! He is the bread of life. We can’t live without Him. We will die if we don’t feast upon Him. He is the living water. He is the most precious thing. Without water, we die. He is the water. He is the bread. We must eat and drink Him to live. We feast on him in prayer, in meditation and reading of the Word. We gaze into Him, abide in His presence, and take on His image.
In participation, we identify with Him among the body and the world. We submit and surrender to His will. We suffer. We die to self. We lay down our lives and serve. We fast the world and self. We fast pride. We live a fasted life. We fast the world in participation with His character and nature. In suffering. In joy. He love. In humility. We deny ourselves and follow Him. We submit to the way. Jesus is the way! We follow Him as the way. The life way. The way of living. The way of humility and love.
The Apostle Paul warned us about what is happening in the church today.
2 Timothy 4:3-5 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 “I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.”
I encourage and exhort you to stand on the truth of the Word of God and to not be led away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ. Don’t happily put up with whatever anyone tells you. Look at the fruit. It doesn’t matter if they have a big social media following or speak at the latest conferences. Jesus is King and Lord. Align yourself to Him. Follow Him. Obey His Word. Submit to Him. Gird up your loins with Truth.
Written by Micah Level