I wonder what would happen if we couldn’t see each other according to the values which modern culture has glorified? What if we didn’t stop at the face in front of us, or the shape of the body? What if, somehow, we could see beyond that and into the heart of every person we meet with? This is how the Bible actually urges us to live, because it’s the way God lives. Man, the Scriptures say, looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)
But it wasn’t always that way. And it certainly was never intended to be this way now. Quite the opposite, man was made in the image of God. Man and God were supposed to view things the same way…until man (actually woman first) got seduced into a conversation with a deceiver and took the risk of seeing things differently than God. That day, man and women’s eyes were opened to see the same things God saw, but to see them through the eyes of perversion.
Before that fateful moment, the man and the woman stood naked together in the midst of a perfect environment, in perfect relationship with one another and with God. All was good. After that fateful moment of tasting the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened to a reality they were never meant to know. Suddenly all that was good only a moment before was now shameful; no longer perfect and no longer good. They lost much that day, the least of which was not their ability to see each other beyond a stained surface.
But all was not lost, because God remains good, even when we fail and falter. And immediately He put in motion the plan of the ages – because He knew that moment would come. He knew man – and woman – would fail to see the goodness of His plan and reach for something that “looked” better, but delivered only destruction. And so He promised a seed to the woman. He promised that life would come from her womb…and ultimately, that life would conquer the power of the one who had stolen her life and her vision and her identity. That life would heal her, and every woman after her, and bring mankind back to their original purpose and identity.
That seed, of course, was Jesus.
But God didn’t just wave a magic wand and then Jesus appeared. Instead, He started a family, and through that family came many families, and through them came many more families, until baby Jesus finally arrived. He came through the lineage of mankind, because He was the cure for mankind, broken by the deceptive power of sin. This side of Jesus, we should be different. This side of Jesus, we should carry a new identity. This side of Jesus, we should see things differently, more like God.
But do we understand why, or how? Do we know who we are because of Him, and what’s really inside of us?
Somewhere in the lineage of Jesus, which traces back to the lineage of Eve, there is a hidden key to our identity. His name is Abraham. Father Abraham, to be exact. He is, the Scriptures say, the father of faith (the Father of all those who have put their trust in Jesus – Galatians 3:6-7). And the key is that, when He had faith in God, when He chose to believe God’s promise for a son who would eventually usher in The Son (Jesus), that faith positioned him to carry an inheritance which all of his children would possess. God would bless Abraham, and through that blessing (as he received it by faith), he would become a blessing to the world.
So you and I, as children of Abraham, which ultimately makes us children of God (born into his family in Christ), become the heirs of a faith that gives birth to blessing. And as we receive the blessing of God, we become agents of blessing to the whole world. A blessing is a statement or action that is creative in nature, given from one who possesses the capacity to reverse some nature of what has been cursed.
So let me put this plain for you: if you’re wondering who you are beyond the surface, go back to your roots. Your roots are found in the family tree of Jesus, and the mark of your identity traces back to the father of faith: Abraham. Through him, we have received a faith that trusts Jesus to reverse the curse on our life, and bring us into a new identity that then lives to reverse the curse in the lives of others.
You were born to be a blessing whose life displays the heart of God! And as you step into that identity, you become able to see others as God sees them, and invite them into the same identity and family.
It’s a beautiful picture, really, and one I cannot do justice to here in one blog. Dear Woman of Breakthrough, I urge you to get alone with God and open His Word and find yourself in there! Discover and take full possession of your new identity and go out into the world today and live it! Can you imagine what the world will look like when we begin to do so?? I can, and it is my earnest desire to see it unfold!
Pray with me today that the sons and daughters of God would see and believe their identity as the blessed children of God who are called to be carriers of blessing to all the world, and that we will begin to release what we possess!
{Photo images courtesy of http://www.pixabay.com}
She Dances Over Graves 