There is an old Red Indian tale about an Indian who found an eagle’s egg one day and decided to put it with his chickens. The egg hatched and the eaglet grew up among the chickens. In almost every way he behaved like a chicken. He clucked like a chicken and pecked food like a chicken. When seed was thrown on to the ground he would flap his wings, just succeeding to raise himself enough above the ground to get to the seed.
One day he was looking up and he saw a beautiful, majestic bird. It was flying very high and gliding with such ease on the air currents. He said “Wow! What’s that bird up there?” Another chicken replied “That’s the eagle the king of the birds, but don’t worry yourself about him. You are just a chicken and you can never be like him! So the eaglet grew old and died, without ever experiencing who he really was.
As sons and daughters of the Living God, we have a powerful new identity in Christ. We are now like the eagle. But we often still live as chickens because we don’t take advantage of our new identity. What can we do?
1.Start with Jesus, our model, our identity comes from him alone
“Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and YOUR LIFE IS NOW HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD.” (Col 3:1-3)
When Kim Walker Smith, the now famous singer of the band “Jesus Culture” was in her early 20s and unknown, she began the Bethel Supernatural School, in California. She would work in the morning, do the Supernatural School in the afternoon and then she would go to the prayer room in the evening, every night!
God told her not to audition for the worship team or even tell people she sung, so that she could spend time with Him! This was really difficult at first, because the thing that she knew that she was good at was singing!
She realised later that God wanted her to grow her identity in Christ and not in her singing, so that whatever she did with her life, the source and foundation was her identity with Him.
2.To understand our identity in Christ requires revelation
“The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (Jn 10:3)
Kim Walker tells of many revelations she had of her identity in Christ during this time set aside every evening in the prayer room or at home in her room. She tells how Jesus specifically answered two questions she really wanted to know:
- How much do you love me?
- When you created me, what were you thinking?
3.Intimacy leads to identity
The first place to start is the Scriptures e.g Eph 1 that is full of things about our identity in Christ then listening to him.
Kim talks about worship being responding to the love that God pours into our lives every day. So her sense of worship grew as she spent time with Jesus, and later this worship exploded outwards when she began singing for Jesus Culture. She simply reflected her new identity in Christ and how God had poured His love into her life.
4. We need a change in thinking (Rom 12:2), to change false identities
Kim’s autobiographical book, “Brave Surrender: Let God’s Love rewrite your story” tells how God began to change her image of herself. She had grown up insecure because of the divorce of her parents and because of abuse from step-fathers.
But as she spent time with Jesus, Jesus began to give her a new story and a new identity, and she began to rise up like the eagle.
What now? Link to Divine Visitation
During this period of lockdown, God is calling us to grow our identity in Jesus. Evan Roberts spent 3-4 months every night early in the morning receiving a Divine Visitation because of this:
But one night, after I had been in great distress praying about this, I went to sleep, and at one o’clock in the morning suddenly I was woken up out of my sleep, and I found myself with unspeakable joy and awe in the very presence of the Almighty God. And for the space of four hours I was privileged to speak face to face with Him as a man speaks face to face with a friend. At five o’clock it seemed to me as if I again returned to earth.”
The result was that later that year God used Evan to start a mighty revival that lasted 2 years and converted 100,000 people and spread to the nations!
So let’s seek the Lord afresh and our identity in Christ and who knows, we may receive a powerful Divine Visitation.
For more stories on revivals and Bible passages that will help get you ready for Divine Visitation, do read my book GRACE OUTPOURINGS: 21 DAYS REVIVAL DEVOTIONAL for a great devotional experience.