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Identity Theft

Psalms 55:22 (AMP) Cast your burden on the Lord [release it] and He will sustain and uphold you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken (slip, fall, fail).

Way back in the early 2000s Facebook was emerging. I started out with MySpace as my first social media platform. Then came Facebook, it took me a year to finally join. In those days we did not have apps on our phones. We opened up and checked our profiles on our computers. The computer I most used was my work computer. It was in my office. If I did not log out of Facebook and someone else would use my computer, I would get a fun status update left. These do pop up on my memories every once in a while. Things like “is a goober monkey,” “thinks John is hot,” or “really needs to start logging out of her Facebook.” Most of them were left by my husband.

I remember a special post hid did because he used my phone to take with him to the bathroom. I had the better phone, and he wanted to scroll as our men tend to do these days. The number of responses I got from his post thinking that it was me.

So here I am after nearly fifteen years and how does this equate to what I am going through right now. I had a moment of allowing the enemy to put a new identity on me…”not wanted.” Where did that come from? Did it come from my need to be seen as good growing up? My own father chose not to be a part of my life growing up. After my parents divorced, he did not visit or call that much. He did not even send gifts for birthdays or Christmas. This weighed heavy on me growing up and that is where the “not wanted” came from. It surfaced from a text message that someone sent out. My question was, “why could they not call me?” Why did this text come from a third party? The identity of “not wanted” started to surface. I battled with it most of the morning and I had had enough.

1 Peter 5:7-9 (AMP) Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour. But resist him, be firm in your faith [against his attack—rooted, established, immovable], knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being experienced by your brothers and sisters throughout the world. [You do not suffer alone.]

I am taking the groceries out of the car and talking waving my hands back and forth in a fit at the enemy. Casting my cares on God and just letting it all out. Yes, I am in the front yard. My husband calls and asks, “who are you talking to?” (He can see me on the Ring camera). I told him what I was battling and how I was handling it. He laughed and told me it was going be okay. The individual is rejecting me because of their own insecurities, and I told him I knew that, but it still hurts sometimes. I had to really allow God to do a deep work in me and had to repent even of my mindset towards this individual. I have to be careful not to assassinate their character just because of the way they are treating me. Keeping your words in check can be tough. However, I had to be reminded by the Lord that others battle this too. This was going on the same week that the SBC was voting on whether women should have the title of pastor. Guess what they call me in my church? We are not a part of the SBC, but it still was a main topic that was constantly on my news feed. I do have family that are. So, I intercede.

Acts 14:21-22 (AMP) They preached the good news to that city and made many disciples, then they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening and establishing the hearts of the disciples; encouraging them to remain firm in the faith, saying, “It is through many tribulations and hardships that we must enter the kingdom of God.”

What we put our minds on really has control over us; it can become an idol. Wanting to be someone to this person was taking over my mind. I had to release and pray. I can tell you that it did not disappear right away, but it has gone further from my mind. You can say that I am just really starting to get over it. However, you do not know how much this individual has hurt me over the years and is still involved in my life. I am standing firm on my faith. I am casting those cares to God; He actually does care about me. That is what I had to battle the “not wanted” identity with. He cares about me. Keeping my heart and mind on Him battles that identity theft that tries to come in. How about you? Do you battle identity issues? Have you believed the lie that maybe you are not loved, or that you are like me and feel like you are not what they wanted, or that you are a failure because of the mistakes that trip you up? None of them are true. That is why it is so important to read your Bibles. God also plants us in churches to build us up, especially when these lies are exposed. They need to be exposed so that real healing can come.

Why did this happen when I have come such a long way? I think it is because the enemy is looking to halt the discipleship that I have stepped into. He wants me hurt so that I cannot build up and point others to Christ. He wants me going back into dark places because there I cannot be a light. I am not ashamed of the battle. Those attacks are going to come. I would misuse His grace by living with that wrong identity. That is not who I am. I do not want to live with those thoughts, and I do not have to. What happens when they say it to my face? Recognize that it is not of God and who’s voice it really is.

1 Thessalonians 1:4 (AMP) Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you

I am chosen! I am cared for! I am wanted! I am deeply loved!

Abba Father, our Creator and our Banner, You are Marvelous and Wonderful. That You for Your Son, that put us into Your family. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit, so that we can learn more about our identity. We come before You, recognizing that our true identity is found in You. Thank You for making us in Your image and us Your children.(Genesis 1:27; 1 John 3:1). Help us see ourselves as You do—loved, chosen, and precious in Your eyes. Guide us to live in the truth of our identity in Christ, free from the enemy’s lies and the burden of past mistakes. (Proverbs 4:23; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Help us see our true worth, not through the world’s standards, but through Your Word, knowing we are blessed, redeemed, and victorious by Your grace. (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21). May we stand strong in the truth of Your love, and be empowered to walk confidently as Your children, sharing Christ’s love with others. (Romans 8:16; Ephesians 3:17-19). Help us to hear Your voice clearly and trust Your guidance, so we can live a fruitful life and fulfill the purpose You have set for us. (Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 1:9-11). May our lives be filled with Your love, and may we keep growing in understanding and embracing who we are in Christ. (1 Peter 2:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:3-5). We choose forgiveness today. We choose love today. We choose hope today. We choose joy today. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Mirror the Glory

2 Corinthians 3:18 (AMP) And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.

Progressive is an adjective (a describing word) meaning: happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step. I am progressively being transformed. What am I transforming into? His image. By glory to glory.

We were created in His image. What image? His glory! When He breathed His Spirit into man (Genesis 2:7) we took on His likeness. This is part of the restored purpose that Christ came for.

Genesis 1:26 (AMP) Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness.]

You were created for more than just to exist. You were designed to take on His spiritual personality. John 15:4-5 tells me that I am nothing in myself, but in Christ, I am everything I need to be. My self image matters.

Ruth, often preached as a love story, is a story of perseverance. Ruth was a brave woman. Being a Moabite, Noami’s sons were not supposed to marry them, but they did anyways. Why? Moabites are from Moab, the son of Lot and his oldest daughter. They worshiped idols. In Ezra we see the Levites disowning their wives and children from those unions because they were told not to marry them. However, Ruth set out to change her destiny. Do you know what the future held for a woman that was widowed and had no children? They were either to become a beggar or a prostitute. Ruth did not have to follow Naomi, she chose to. Ruth did not have the right to glean in the field, that is why she went behind everyone else. Everything was set against her. Her race, her culture, her status.

Ruth 1:16 (AMP) Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God.

According to the US Census Bureau data released in 2015, the poverty rates for women are substantially higher than the rates for men. The overall poverty rate is 3.8 percentage points higher for women than for men, and difference in the poverty rate among those over the age of sixty-five is even higher, with nearly one in five women who are over sixty-five and live alone in poverty.  (nwlc.org/resources/national-snapshot-poverty-among-women-families-2014)

Ruth is in the lineage of the direct descents of Jesus. Do you think that your past, or what you went through, can keep you from wholeness?

Break the generational bondage in your family. Break the poverty spirit. Break the orphan spirit. Break the spirit of anger. Break the spirit of not being able to accept love. Break the abandonment spirit. Break the spirit of rejection.

What holds you in bondage has control over you. Often we do not understand why we react a certain way is, it is because there is a form of bondage that has been attached to you. It is time to break free.

For me, I battle with not feeling accepted or wanted. There are many women in my family that struggle with the same thing. Where did this root come from? Where did it start? I have no idea. It started to take root in my oldest son and then I became aware that it was generational. What made me feel rejection was starting to show in him.

Ephesians 3:17-19 (AMP) So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

I was created to present His glory. He came to make me whole so that I could fulfill that purpose. We were given the Holy Spirit so that we can fulfill that purpose. I am not the result of my past. I am the result of the Holy Spirit taking root in me. I am rooted and grounded in Love!! Do those thought still come up? Yes, I have to choose to put them aside and think on what is true, honorable, confirmed by His Word, what brings peace, and anything worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). It takes practice. We can choose different because we were created to reflect His glory.