Stolen Identity & The Tax Piece
It was an early March morning, and God and I were sharing the first (quiet) moments of Friday together in the top level of the barn. I had the sense He shared His heart not only for this generation but also for His Body... and I soaked in it for weeks as He continued to expound on the subject. So I wanted to write what He said that March morning as well as a little from what He expounded on. Please take it personal (not as a generalized thing - it is a personal message to each one that reads) And be encouraged!
"Open your heart to Me - every door." He began, "I am knocking. If you hear My voice, open and I will come in and dine with you. I will fill every room I enter with peace... Because perfect love drives out fear (I Am Love) Spend time in the intimate place with Me, in the word because your identity is found there. If you do not know, you were created in MY image - God's image. Your identity, then, is wrapped up in God's image. But if you do not know who God is, you don't know who you are. And if you don't know who you are, you need people or things to tell you who you are (you need them to define you). And when they don't (affirm who you are positively)... your whole world comes down. You react and fluctuate based on what they say and do. Your focus and purpose is drowned in a shifting sea. (I want to insert something here: Does it upset you when they say something about you on social media, or if you don't get invited, or if their house is nicer, or if your hair isn't perfect that day, does it shake you when someone criticizes you or if your spouse is in a bad mood and isn't giving you what you need? Does your parents' disapproval crush you?)
"Where is your identity?" He continued, "What props you up? And if those props fell out from under you, would you be shaken? How would you react? You were created in the image of God; designed to find your identity in Him... Without knowing Him...you will never realize your identity (let alone become comfortable and secure in it)."
Listen, the Jews asked Jesus a curious question in Luke 20:22-25 "Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, yes or no?"
Jesus answered "Show me a denarius... Whose image and superscription does it have?"
They answered and said, "Caesar's."
And Jesus said to them, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.".....
Just as that coin bears Caesar 's image, we bear God's image on our heart. Genesis 1:26 And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness'. Do you see it? We were created in His image; a treasure hidden in a field for which Jesus found and paid all to redeem. (Matt 13:44) Because of this, render your heart and every room in it to Him.
Why do we have to render our heart to God? Don't we all belong to Him? Go back to the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Satan tricked the original bearer of that coin (Adam and Eve) and defaced that image in sin. He mutilated it with transgression until the image of God in man was twisted, perverted, dirty - hideous with sin. Mankind was now enslaved to Satan. (Romans 6:16) And there we were... a soul with a "lost" identity; still a treasure, but hidden in a field of sin.
Matthew 13:44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure (your heart) hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.
Jesus paid the price for that field so that you would have a choice... You could render to God what belongs to God. Your heart. And by so doing find identity, oneness with God, and thereby purpose. Without Him, you are a lost coin trying to find your value and function in the dirt.
Luke 15:8-10 What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I (Jesus) say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents (renders his heart to God).
If you are that lost coin, that sinner, it says in: Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him (Jesus) from the dead, you will be saved. (no if about it!)" 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
It wouldn't be fair to you if I did not say this also... to make no choice (to give your heart to God) you choose to remain in sin's field. To remain in sin's field means you still belong to Satan and thereby will follow that master, the devil, to his destiny - Hell.
No choice is a choice. Sin and Satan are the default because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans3:23) and you are a slave to whomever you obey, sin leading to death... (Romans 6:16-18). There is no in between. But there is a choice because Jesus paid the price for you to choose. Render to God what belongs to God - your heart.
To the Christian
Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to (the image created by) this world, but be transformed (into Christ's image, your identity) by the renewing of your mind (to His word), that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
To you who call yourselves Christians but are sad or/and stressed... Step back and take a hard, long look... You have an identity. But do you know your identity? If you never spend time with your Creator, your Beloved, and you never open His book to you, you will not know who you are. You surrendered your heart to God, but locked the romance room, the baggage attic, the financial office, and the entertainment room, the kitchen... Even the scale in the bathroom is behind a locked door so that Jesus cannot come in. There are rooms in your heart.... God is Love and perfect love drives out all fear. Anxiety comes from not knowing your identity, not knowing Love Himself (in whose image you were made!). You were not designed to have you identity in what's locked behind doors - fear festers bondage there.
Revelations 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me."
Hebrews 3:15 While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts (by locking the doors in your heart), as in the provocation.
Matthew 11:28-30 "Come unto me, (open the door) all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
The choice is yours... not God's - He's already made His in His word and that's unchanging. It's in your court now. Open and dine on His word in order to know Him intimately. Thereby you find your self... in Him (because that's where you're identity is established, your purpose fulfilled, and your laughter found) . Out of your identity you live. Powerful statement.
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