NEWSLETTER

Weekly Articles: Extract for PEM Newsletter Volume 1.
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IDENTITY:
When someone knocks on your door at night and you can’t see who the person is. The first thing you ask is ‘who is it?’ When you are meeting some one for the first time, you greet one another and share your names with each other. When you have a choice of which restaurant to eat at or which designer clothes to wear or which airline to fly, you make your decision based on the value you place on the identity of the thing in question. Identity is very important in life. Every thing both physical and spiritual has an identity. Your identity consists of attributes that make you unique as an individual and different from all others. Knowledge of personal identity and the identity of things around you may determine success or failure in life. There are different ways to look at the concept of identity. For example; there is cultural identity, gender identity, digital identity, corporate identity etc. No matter what aspect is being considered, identity may be considered as the properties or characteristics that make one entity distinguished from another. This includes, name, appearance, behavior, ability, logo and motto. Many times identity is tested to prove its worth. From the scientific perspective various test exist to establish the identity of a chemical (e.g. Litmus test in Chemistry), or the identity of a microbe (e.g. Gram staining in Microbiology) etc. Likewise, your life will experience many situations that will serve as tests to determine your true identity. Be of good cheers, from a Christian perspective, God has a lot of input in determining your identity. He is the source of your identity.

Personal Identity. Who are you? What do you look like? What are you able to do? Why are you here in the world and where are you going? What is your purpose in life? These are a few of the many questions that a believer can not answer accurately outside the knowledge of God. The more of God you know and understand the more of yourself you will come to know and understand. Because, those who know their God shall be strong and will do exploits (Dan. 11:32). So to give Biblical answers to the above questions- You are a child of God through faith in His Son Jesus (Jn. 1:12), you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14) to bring glory to God by achieving for yourself and others things considered to be humanly impossible. Your destiny is connected to that of many others, much more than you realize. The destiny of many people is in hibernation until such a time as when you make connection with them. Your destiny may even be in hibernation at the present moment awaiting connection to the one God has appointed to touch you. When hibernating destinies are touched, they will hatch to declare God’s life transforming power. Your purpose therefore is to make your calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10) by being everything God intends for you to be through the operation of His power in your life. He has called you to a blessed inheritance both on earth (Rom. 8:17, 1 Pet. 3:9) and in heaven (Phil. 3:20, Jn. 14:6).

In the psychological world there are a few personality disorders that a child of God must avoid being trapped by. One is called low self esteem (caused by low self worth or in other words, devaluation of one’s personal worth. Similar to when money is devalued). These people are usually shy and always will go out of their way to do whatever someone they admire wants. The problem with this abnormality is the people concerned look for affection and encouragement in the wrong places and many times get themselves involved in abusive and immoral relationships, or may become gang and cult members. The solution is not to allow the world to place a value on you, but for you to accept the value that God has placed on you. You are created a little lower than angels and have been crown with glory and honor (Ps. 8:5). Even if every thing around you indicates that you are a trash, God’s testimony is that you are a treasure. Keep that in your heart at all times and convey it to the coming generation. The devil has no new tricks. His deceptions follow the same pattern from one generation to the next.
If your name does not indicate God’s agenda for your life, you may need to change it or pray against negative influence upon your life caused by your given name. As you know Abram was changed to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Cephas, etc, while Jabez prayed against the evil influence brought about by his name. I believe Ichabod should have followed the foot steps of Jabez and pray the departed glory back to his life.

Identity Theft: This is a serious crime that is increasing in frequency in the West Worlds. This crime involves one person using the identity of someone else with or without their knowledge to bring about personal gain and gratification. For example, one person may use another’s passport to get into the country, or he may use an innocent person’s name, social security number to get amenities such as a driver’s license, credit card, insurance etc. So an undeserving person taps into a good person’s identity profile and uses it to benefit himself. This terrible crime also occurs in the spirit realm. By demonic means a person or the devil himself can get hold of various aspects of your identity and use it against you or transfer it to another for their gain. Every child of God who has come to appreciate the contents of his identity must guard it passionately. For the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy (Jn. 10:10).