Who am I?

This week I turned 21 (for the third time - do the math)...and it is very common for people to reflect on "who am I?" as they grow older and older. I first asked myself this question when I turned 21. The question of "who am I?" is not only a question of identity but also a question of definition, which means that when we ask this question we want an answer that will in a few words define who we are so that we can use this definition to begin to understand ourselves and to make sense of our lives and our purpose on earth.

For a long time I thought that the answer to this question of identity was to be found in ethnicity, sexuality, talent and many other labels that we are bombarded with. Everything around us says "it's either you are black or white, either you are a good person or a bad person, either you a fat or skinny, tall or short, ambitious or lazy, rich or poor" and many other things that we feel we need to fit to ourselves in order to understand our position in life's "food chain", and so we search for external things to define who we are.
This whole defining-yourself-with-the-external thing made sense to me until I read the following scripture and understood identity from a biblical context:

" I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that lives but Christ who lives in me, and the life which 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

It was at this point that I understood that the answer to "who am I?" can only be truly found in Christ. That when I accepted Christ in my life, I (as I knew myself) died, so that Christ may become alive in me. That everything about me has been left on the Cross where Christ died, and that I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This means that I can never define myself by my race, culture, religion, background, gender,etc - as the bible says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female (Galations 3:26-28)

One of our biggest problems in South Africa is we want to find our identity in the external, and therefore put unnecessary emphasis on race - both negatively and positively. But the truth is that in Christ we can no longer magnify ourselves, but only who we are in Him - which is the sons and daughters of God and thefore, seeing ourselves through the eyes of a God who loved us ALL equally and gave His Son to die for ALL of us, so that we could ALL be saved when we believed (John 3:16).

So, who am I?
I am who I am in Christ and without a revelation of Jesus Christ, I am nothing. Without a relationship with Him in my life - I am nothing. Everything I am is found in God. I am everything that He says I am.

So, if you are wondering about who you are, get on your knees and ask God to reveal to you who He says you are, for our identity is only found in Him. Everything else does not define us at all!!!

So, I believe that the journey of self-discovery, begins with a search for God and a desire to know Him - not as everyone else describes Him, but as He Himself, reveals Himself to you as you spend time getting to know Him.

Be blessed.

Purpose-Driven, not crowd-driven!!!

Luke 4:42-43
"Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them.
But He said to them, "I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also because for this purpose I have been sent".

Even though Jesus was popular with the crowd described in this verse, He knew that He could not stay with them because His purpose was to preach to people far beyond this crowd.
He did not stay because the crowd liked Him, He left because thats what God wanted Him to do.

Are you purpose-driven or are you a crowd-pleaser???

Our identity in Christ

I have read this scripture before, but I saw it again when someone posted something about it on facebook about 2 weeks ago, and it hit my heart like never before...I have been saying it over and over since then and today (on facebook again) someone posted another scripture that just tied in perfectly with it and I just had to share.

Galations 2:20 says: "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that lives but Christ who lives in me. This life that I now live in the flesh, I live through faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

This scripture is such great knowledge and revelation that just fills my heart with joy.
It says that in Christ we are a new creation, that our past has died (crucified) and that Christ now lives in us, and we live through Him. Simply because He loved us enough to give His life for us.
Makes me wonder, what does God sees in us that makes Him love us enough to give His only Son to die on the cross for us. (John 3:16) What a great love!!!

Colossians 3:1-3 goes on to say: :if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting, at the right hand on God.
Set your mind on things above and not on things on earth.
For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God

This means that we are no longer to focus on the things of the world, but the things of the word of God.

What are we not to focus on:
Colossians 3:5,8 fornication (consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other.), uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (which is idolatory), anger, malice (desire to inflict injury or harm), wrath(anger usually associated with violence), blasphemy (the act of insulting or showing lack of respect for God), filthy language out of your mouth

What are we to focus on
Colossians 3:12-14 tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering ( Patiently enduring wrongs or difficulties), bearing with another, forgiving one another, love!!!

These two scriptures give us a clear idea of our identity in Christ, which is very important to know, because if we are children of a king, we ought to behave like princes and princesses!!!
A lot of people hate themselves, are angry, are in pain because they don't understand that in Christ we have a new identity, and we can no longer keep identifying with our past.
Our spirit knows this but our minds have to catch up with it, and therefore everyday we have to remind ourselves (by declaring out loud and confessing it upon our lives) that "we are crucified with Christ, it is no longer we that live but Christ who lives in us"
As long as we invite Christ in our lives to be our Lord and Saviour and turn our backs on our past, then we have the priviledge of being a new creation.

So if you have never invited Him in your life, do so now, say a little prayer "Jesus, I come before You to repent of my sins and to invite You in my life as my Lord and my Saviour. I accept Your sacrifice for me on the cross, and I accept that You died for me and rose again. Thank You that from today onwards, I am a new creation. Amen"

Now, walk in your new identity!!! God bless you!!!

Even in the storm>>>

I have learned so far, that as certain as the sun will rise in the morning, and the stars come out to play at night, so are hardships and trials a part of life.

A lot of things happen that threaten to shake our faith, if it is flimsy and based on things that fade away.

Some of us put our faith in money - and then when we are broke we feel like it is the end of the world.

Some of put all our hope in our relationships - and then when they fall apart, or people betray us or we lose the ones we love we end up feeling lost and hopeless

Some of us put our faith in success, defining ourselves by our achievements - and then in the unfortunate event that we do not reach the goals that we have set for ourselves, we feel like life is not worth living.

The truth is that money will dry up, relationships may end and we are only as successful as our last achievement. Everything is fleeting, it all passes.

But the word of God is so clear on the fact that if we put our trust in the one who was there yesterday, who is there today and who will be there tomorrow, we will never ever lose out.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord

and whose hope is the Lord

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters

which spreads out its root by the river

and will not fear when heat comes

but its leaf will be green

and will not be anxious in the year of drought,

nor will cease from yielding fruit"

Jeremiah 17:7-8

The above scripture clearly states, that a man or woman who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in Him shall remain standing no matter the time or season, nothing will shake their faith and they will remain rooted,  no matter what goes wrong in their lives.

When we trust in the Lord, there's a certain peace that comes over us. For we know that everything rests in His hands and His abilities. And we rest on the promise that: He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above ALL that we can ask or imagine according to the power that is in us (Phillipians 3:20).

So no matter what you may be going through, rest in the knowledge that God is still in control. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Maybe you have never experienced the peace that I speak about, and that's okay. It is available and free to all of us.

So don't be ashamed to stand before God and pray: Dear Lord, thank you for coming into my life. Thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ, to die for my sins. Take over my life right now as I give it all to you and put ALL my trust in you. From here onwards, take over. Thank you that I am now a new creation in You, who trusts in You, Amen!!!"

"You will keep him in perfect peace

Whose mind is stayed on You

because he trusts in you

Trust in the Lord forever

For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength"

Isaih 26:3-4

and then there was light!!!

There's a song by Hillsong which says "It used to be darkness, without You (God)" and this song best describes the story of my life before I knew who God was!!! Last week when I read the scripture of John 1:1-5 I got reminded of this song and of my spiritual journey, and I just had to share a little bit of where I come from.

John 1

 ¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 ²The same was in the beginning with God.

 ³All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

 ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

 ⁵And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

This scripture really describes the story of my life... Before Him there was darkness in my life and this darkness was in many forms.

I was angry, at my mother for passing on, at my sister for being my responsibility, at God for allowing pain to infiltrate my life, at my grandmother for trying to be my mother.

I was bitter...that I hadn't achieved all the things that I had set out to achieve.

I was filled with sadness at the thought of all the dreams I had let go of because of fear.

I was full of fear - afraid to do anything because I felt out of control.

And then one day I said "Jesus, I cannot do this on my own. I have had it!!! I need you to take over from here. I need You to take control"!!!

And He came and shone as a light in my life... and everything fled...all darkness left. The anger, the fear, the sadness, the bitterness, the pain, the disappointment, the illnesses... everything left in an instant and I was made completely well and whole.

All voids in my life were filled, because when the true light came, there was no place for darkness to camp within me. He came and set me free from all emotional chains.

His light shone and the darkness could not comprehend it, indeed. The darkness had no choice but to flee the strong presence of the saviour.

Sure I still felt angry after that, but that only meant that my mindset was yet to catch up with what Jesus had done in my life.

Imagine this: you were born into slavery, your mother having been abducted while she was pregnant with you, and all your life you had known nothing but slavery...and then one day your father, who had been looking for you for 25 years, finds you and reveals to you that you are actually a princess of a certain kingdom and that he has come to take you back so that you can claim your place as a princess.

How long would it take for your mind to catch up with the fact that you are no longer a slave and no longer have to labour for someone else? it surely wouldn't be easy for you to catch up with your new-found status in life.

It's the same when Jesus comes to set us free in our lives. It takes us a while to catch up and get used to what it means for Him to have set us free, but that doesn't mean that the job has not been done or that it is incomplete. When He comes, He destroys all yokes and sets all captives free, instantly. The sprititual journey and process happens because you have to catch up with what He has done and also get to know Him as your Father, Saviour and Friend!!!

So tonight, I hope you understand that Jesus has done it all. He came, He died and was raised up to be seated on the right hand of the Almighty God. And He took us with Him. We are above all principalities and powers. We have overcome. we have won the battle.

May God keep reminding us of who we truly are - conquerers in Christ Jesus, that we may find it easy to comprehend what it means to be truly FREE!!!

p.s. If you find yourself in the same darkness that I spoke about above, and you feel you want that light...just say a little prayer and invite Jesus in your life, and let Him be the light that ends all darkness!!!

be blessed

Likeleli

True Friendship

The subject of love cannot be explored without also exploring the subject of friendship; and this is what I found myself doing in the past two weeks.

Ever since I learned that "who you are is a reflection of the people you surround yourself with", I have been very careful of who I let into my life, although it's not so easy because some people show up into our lives unexpected, and before we know it become a very important part of our lives, even before we can evaluate whether they are the kind of people we want to be associated with or whether the friendship is built on a good foundation.

I really believe that the foundation on which friendship is built is love. I'm not talking about the emotional type of love - the one-day-I-love-you-and-one-day-I-don't kind, but love that comes from the depths of our hearts, the love that is inherent in us - creatures of a loving God.

In assessing whether my friendships are based on love, I have used 1 Corinthians 13 as a measuring tool.
Some of the characteristics of love that are mentioned in that piece of scripture about love are:

• love is long suffering
• love is kind
• love does not envy
• love does not parade itself and is not puffed up (pride)
• love is not provoked and does not seek its own
• Love bears all things, hopes all things and endures all things
• Love never fails

There can never be friendship without love. Any friendship built without love will never stand the test of time, and will fall at the first sign of challenges and hardships - which will always be there where there is any sort of relationship.

So every time I have a friend, I continuously assess whether I am still willing to put in the time and effort to love them as 1 Cor 13 suggests, and whether they still put in the effort to love me the same way (because friendship is a two-way thing - never a one-way thing).

A lot of people claim to have friends that they are not willing to love (which includes respect, care and consideration). People will usually just look to see what they can out of a friendship than what they have to offer to a friend and this has led to many so-called friendships that result in friends giving each other wrong advice, betraying each other's trust and leading each other astray - which is a manipulation of the true meaning of what friendship is.

Jesus Christ is the perfect example of what a true friend is...in John 15:13,14 he says:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends

So, my challenge to you, dear reader regarding friendship is this: are you willing to lay down your life for the person whom you call your friend, are you willing to love them as Jesus commands us to love one another???

This is the meaning of true friendship!!!

The foundation of love

Wow, it's 2012... I cannot believe it has taken me so long to write my first post for the year. This time I decided that I would wait a little while and let the unfolding of 2012 guide me in terms of what I should be focusing on this year, and since Christmas day I have been meditating on the subject of love.

On Christmas eve, my younger sister and I had a serious fight, I mean it got physical, and I actually thought that it would turn out to be the fight that ended our relationship. Not that we had never had a fight before but, for the first time, I felt like I would never speak to her again.

A few weeks later she is visiting me for the weekend and we are having the time of our lives loving each other. I really found this amazing. That you can love someone so much that no amount of bad words exchanged and fighting done could ever get between the bond that you share.

While I was reading the bible in the past few weeks, I came across many scriptures that spoke not only about the love between God and man but also of love amongst ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ.

The most amazing love of all is the love that God has for us as human beings, that He gave His only Son to be crucified for our sins!!! We do wrong against Him and He takes it upon Himself to redeem us, simply because He loves us!
What's even more amazing is that God requires of us to love one another with the same love that He has for us.

While it might have been easy for God to decide that He would send His Son to death for our salvation because of His capacity to love beyond human understanding, it is a bigger challenge for us to honour His request that we love one another because we are weak in nature. However, it is not impossible because God also says in His word that our weakness is His strength. And therefore, if allow God to take over our lives, we find that it is easy to love our fellow human beings.

Last night, God challenged me with this:
  The gift of friendship is more important than the question of who is wrong and who is right!!!

This made me realise that the relationship that I have with the people in my life ought to be of much more importance than the problems that we are going to face together.

So, as I begin the year of 2012, I choose to begin by building on the foundation of love.
This means that love has to be on the forefront. That everything I do should be motivated by love.
The plans that I make and the vision that I have for my life should be birthed out of love and nothing else - a love for life, a love for people, a love for my country, a love for my family, a love for myself and most importantly a love for God.

And I challenge you to do the same, to begin 2012 on the right foot, to start with love in mind.
If you were thinking of letting some of your friends go, do it because you truly believe that it is what's best for the both of you, and if you were thinking of beginning new friendships, do it because you are motivated by love.

This is love, that when we feel we no longer have it in our hearts to love, that we lay it down before God and allow Him to teach us to love again... when everything else fails (careers, studies, plans etc) then all we have left is love and the people that love us.

lots of love
Likeleli