The Scandal of Identity TheftSample

Do You Know Who You Are?

To get started, before I can answer the question “Who are you?” I must lay the groundwork to the events that led to it. At the end of the year 2013, while getting myself ready to usher in the New Year, I was pondering the question of how to take God’s people forward in the New Year and what God’s direction was for us as a small body of believers. One question that presented itself in this time of meditation was “Who are you?” I had written my first book by this time, and the book was centered on fulfilling your “God purpose.” I thought to myself, this is a strange question because I know my purpose—I know my God-purpose. And as for me, I was living out my purpose being an author and minister of the gospel. The question played around in my mind for weeks, and I knew God was trying to tell me something important. You see, after launching my first book, I thought I had reached a milestone in life; I was hopeful of a successful upward life now that the world would get to know who I was. To my surprise, authors were popping up all around, and according to Answers.com, some eight hundred books are published every day in the United States alone, and that had put a bruise in my ever-so-soft ego, and this inspired the question “Who are you?” 

After the reality check of the staggering statistics, I became wounded and disillusioned by the fact that even though I knew my God purpose, I did not know who I was. I saw that my identity was wrapped up in the title of what I did or the actions I performed, and that made me shakable and very unstable. I realized that I had no clue of my true identity, and because of this lack of knowledge, I was living my daily life on an emotional roller coaster, and I was using the measuring stick of the world system to gauge my success.

The truth is that most of the time this world's system equates success with material possessions, and this equation results in one being identified as elite, set apart, and excluded from the rest of the world. Many people daily are following this mold of the world system to make a “name” for themselves, all the while ignoring and even losing who they are in the present moment. When I use the phrase "world system", I mean a system that does not include God and His teachings, instructions, and precepts.  This world system is based on self-effort and self-smarts; it is self-centered, and it leans toward the wisdom of human understanding, which is so limited without God. In reality, it’s a flawed system, and sadly even believers are living by this system to gain happiness.

There are many people in the world doing what they are gifted to do but still very much lost because there is no God factor in their lives, and they don’t know who they belong to or where they are going.  This is because of not knowing their true identity. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of identity is who you are, the way you think about yourself, the way you are viewed by the world, and the characteristics that define you. It also means “exact likeness in nature and qualities.”

Isn’t it interesting that one meaning of identity is the way we “think” about ourselves? It is clear from this definition that our identity has a lot to do with our thought pattern or belief system. Thoughts are being formed all the time in our minds; some of our thoughts come from statements we hear, pictures and movies we look at, and books and any other material we read; and some thoughts are even fed to us by the enemy of our souls.

As we look further into the definition of identity, I want you to pay close attention to this part of the description: “exact likeness in nature and qualities.” This definition would seem to suggest that we get our identity from someone or something that already exists.

Our identity does not come from what we do or the titles and positions we hold; our identity comes from God Himself.