Identity

Identity is not a label. It is not who or what others say you are. It is not a bank account, a medal, a persuasion, a job title, a way of dressing, or an ability.

This generation seems to be overly labelled and highly confused. Their voices do not become quiter as discoveries of new identities are made, but rather, they become increasingly restless and loud as their identities become more detached, complex; even elusive like a cruel game of hide and seek.

I feel for this generation. I really, really feel for them. I find myself praying the same thing for them again and again: “please, please remember Who your Father is. Please remember you are not alone and please remember you are loved.”

I witness churches and pastors, religious elders and the like, trying to shape the Gospel / Christianity to fit their own narratives. In fact, the Gospel / Christianity has become a religion or identity ideology all of its own. It was never intended to be a religion—it is not a doctrine, a formula, a liturgy, or a club. It was always intended as the amazing news of Jesus.

The Gospel / Christianity was always about walking in freedom as we reconnected with our Heavenly Father and reflected Him into the world, doing the same things He did (freeing, healing, delivering), and NOT the other way around:

‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ Galatians 2:20.

People take offence at Jesus’ words, His way of being, and His identity, largely because Christianity has (in many ways) become a system of religious practice far removed from relationship.

When Jesus walked the earth, there was no such thing as ‘Christianity’; there was only ‘Followers of The Way’ or ‘Followers of Jesus’. Jesus said He was ‘The Way’. People followed Him. They got set free. They got healed, delivered, loved, encouraged, and they found… their identity. Organically. Without the religious lists of ‘to do’s’ people have to navigate today. The truth is, we were loved and accepted before we even DID anything. We were seen before we were born.

In many ways I feel humanity is enduring a season of acute or overt lostness because the first fire love of ‘The Way’ has largely been stamped out by people in high places—or by people who live down the street from us—who keep telling us that there are ‘many ways’… or that there is only ‘their way or the highway’.

Religion does not bring identity; it steals it. Intellectual indoctrination or ‘education’ does not bring identity; it confuses it. Removing THE truth in favour of ‘little truths’ corrodes.

We were not meant to make Jesus bow the knee to us and our own ideologies; He already took our place in death and then raised us up from the grave with Him. It would be so amazing to see people encounter that victory instead of reliving the defeat of death. Trading in death eventually leads to a final failure to thrive; trading in eternal life leads to a freed mind and a heart lighted with peace, joy and liberty.

‘For sin’s meager wages is death, but God’s lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One’ (Romans 6:23)

Walking in union with Jesus opens the door to His supernatural Kingdom becoming a part of our everyday worlds in the here and now. It opens the door to love dwelling among us because the word says that if we know (agape) love, we know God. Walking in union with Jesus also removes the need for us to prove who we are because we grow to understand that we are ALREADY known by Him.

So I say to this generation again: “Please remember Who your Father is. Please remember you are not alone and please remember you are loved.”