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Day 2 - Remember who you are

Praveen Emmanuel 

When I was a young boy I remember going to a local zoo in my city and found an elephant under a huge Banyan Tree without any fence or walls around him. On his feet were iron shackles but it wasn’t chained to anything. They were loose! But the giant pachyderm didn’t move an inch from the spot where he was standing. Surprised and scared, I asked the zookeeper nearby, how does the animal not know it’s free to do what he wants and go wherever he wants to? He replied that when the Elephant was a baby, the trainers would chain his left hind leg so that he would not run away and as he grew up all they had to do was latch the shackle on his foot and the elephant thinks he is chained and cannot move. 

In the Bible, we find Moses facing a similar situation with the Israelites after he sent a team to explore the ‘promised land’. The men reported back saying, 

“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

– Numbers 13:31-33

These were the same Israelites when God heard their cries delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians, helped them cross the Red Sea in an epic manner, sent Manna from heaven in the middle of the wilderness! Even after personally witnessing and experiencing all of this, the Israelites forgot who they were! Only Caleb and Joshua knew who they were and silenced the people and declared, 

“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

– Numbers 13:30

In Disney’s animated classic, The Lion King, it took a crazy-hermit-monkey to lead a confused young lion to a moment of self-realisation. Rafiki leads Simba to a cave, shows him a pool of water and seeing his reflection, Simba remembers who he truly is! 

As we get ready for The Cave this week, ask yourself these questions: 

If we are called the children of the Lion of Judah, have you forgotten who you are? 

Are you wandering around in a camp of pigs singing “Hakuna Matata” or majestically standing on top of ‘Pride Rock’ where you belong? 

Remember there is a contention on your calling. The enemy wants to chain you down, but God wants you to MOVE. The enemy has muted your voice but God wants you to ROAR!