For All She's Worthনমুনা

Who Are You?

Identity theft isn’t a new concept. It’s been around a long time and Satan is the instigator.

It started on the sixth day of the creation sequence. “God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!”(Genesis 2:7) We were the only ones of His creation in whom He breathed its very first breath. God gave Man mouth-to-mouth suscitation (not re-suscitation since Man had never breathed before). Someone once pointed out that God gave His human creation the “holy kiss of life.”

He also said that He made human beings to be like Him.
“God made humans in his image reflecting God’s very nature.” (Genesis 9:6)
Before long, God had made the perfect couple, Adam and Eve, of which He was extremely proud. “[It] was so good, so very good!” (Genesis 1:31)

Shortly after that, Satan, disguised as a serpent, met them in the garden, told them a lie about themselves and stolen identity entered our world. Here’s how it happened:
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”

The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

The serpent’s ploy worked. Adam and Eve forgot who they were—creations of a sovereign God—not God Himself.
This lie was propagated through every generation after that. Even the most faithful in biblical history thought they knew better than their Maker. Moses, for instance, thought he had a better plan than God.
God spoke to Moses: “Take the staff. Assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron. Speak to that rock that’s right in front of them and it will give water. You will bring water out of the rock for them; congregation and cattle will both drink.”

Moses took the staff away from God’s presence, as commanded. He and Aaron rounded up the whole congregation in front of the rock. Moses spoke: “Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?”
With that Moses raised his arm and slammed his staff against the rock—once, twice. Water poured out (Numbers 20: 7-11).

Moses, struck the rock instead of speaking to it. He got what he wanted—water—
but he forgot that he was the creature and God was the Creator—a classic example of mistaken identity.
When Jesus came, He reminded us who we were. “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. (John15:5-8)

Then the Apostle Paul chimed in to the new believers in Rome who had already started letting their identities be stolen. “We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! (Romans 8:17)
Paul wrote to the Christians at Galatia.

You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance. (Galatians 4:47)