Living from identity by shaunspirit

Living from Identity

The Vine Church Poole Parkstone Christian Centre Commercial Road Parkstone POOLE DORSET BH14 0JW 01202 733580 www.vinechurchpoole.com

Living the Adventure that is Christ

Original Material: David King Editing and Publishing: Penny Sills Issue 1 January 2014

Living the Adventure Series

Dreaming is about hoping for more. Dreaming is about seeing something which is hidden, often deep inside us. Our dreams should challenge the reality surrounding us. Our dreams should ask why. They should not accept the truths we see as truths. Our dreams should stretch and pull and poke at such truths to find out if there is something we have never seen before.

Contents

1. 2. 3. 4.

“There are those that look at things the way they are and ask why..... I dream of things that never where and ask why not?” Robert Kennedy

Who Are You? Growing in Who You Are Living from Identity Identity, Vision and Dreams

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“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible.” T.E. Lawrence Sometimes without a dream and without understanding of our true identity we adopt false belief systems we say to ourselves. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I can’t do this. It’s too hard for me. It isn’t even worth trying. I’m not smart enough. That will never work.

All perceived truths. All worth challenging. Have you known any truths in your life that turned out not to be true? Do your dreams challenge perceived truth? “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Harriet Tubman

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achievements into context by juxtaposing them against those of the great and not-so-great figures of history, lining up everyone at the same starting gate. The book can be used as a yardstick by which to measure your performance in life, or as a series of signposts pointing out the paths other people have taken. Life is not a foot race, but looking over your left shoulder at the competition can give you that extra push towards excellence. The examples of those who met untimely ends remind us that the finish line can be anywhere. There is no deadline quite like death, so you may as well go ahead and become who you really are, while you still can. This book can be used for setting goals and monitoring your progress. Simply skip ahead to future years and pencil in things you wish to achieve. Then sit back and watch as milestones are met, setbacks are encountered, and goals are reached or abandoned. If you are secure in who you are you can allow yourself to dream. We live in a world where there is much disillusionment and despair and even depression. Vision and dreams are the “Why” of why we in God do anything. Be a dream maker. Dream makers ask questions like - “If you could do anything you wanted to do and money and time were no object, what would you do?” However Godly dream makers do call accountability into action. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them” Walt Disney. God has an even bigger dream for each of us. God is the true source for making all of our dreams come true. Not the mistakes in the past or the mountains in front of you. Only the dreams within you matter. If you lose hope, you can't pass it on. Vision should always be submitted to God first. Our vision must flow from God. Whatever vision we have we must surrender it to Lord in the same way that Abraham surrendered Isaac to the Lord. He may take the vision or he may not but whatever the possible consequence it must be surrendered.

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Identity relates to vision, so often we are squashed and put down by life, by cynics, by sarcasm and belittling Everyone has dreams. Whether they are realistic or not, it's through our dreams that we find hope and drive and passion. But we are not the only ones who have dreams for our lives, dreams bigger than anything we can imagine. God, has an even bigger dream for each of us. And he shows us that when we sync up with God's dream, we realize the true source for making all of our dreams come true. Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it, so if goes on flying anyway! “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” Eleanor Roosevelt Walt Emerson said: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." That is so true. It's what's inside you, what you believe, the size of your faith, and the hope in you that matters. Not the mistakes in the past or the mountains in front of you. Only the dreams within you matter. If you lose hope, you can't pass it on. The Book of Your Life is not a blank book. Nor is it already completed, filled with someone else’s words, leaving nothing but narrow margins in which to scribble. Instead, the book, like the proverbial glass, is half empty and half full; the achievements of others are interleaved with those of your own. Your identity is given for you grow into and from! The Book of Your Life is shorter than you might think, and longer. You can read it in a day, but it will take a lifetime to write. There are an infinite number of phantom pages before the first page and after the last, pages on which you will never write a single word. You must colour between the lines labelled ‘birth’ and ‘death.’ This book is intended to allow you to chronicle your achievements over an entire lifetime, giving you a broader perspective than you would get from a day-to-day diary. It also puts your Living from Identity

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1 Who Are You? How do you know who you are? “You must begin with God - your creator. It is only in God that we can discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end “ (Rick Warren The Purpose Driven life) We see our lives from God’s perception not ours (Eph.2:10; Col 3:1-2). Our new way of thinking must be from trust (Dan.3:17) and faith (Heb.11:1,6), not despair or selfreliance. I believe as citizens of heaven, it is time to switch gears from doing things from an earthly perspective to a heavenly perspective. Jesus said the 2nd greatest commandment was to love yourself as your neighbour! The Pharisees never had a problem with loving themselves - they knew they were special, God’s chosen people, world changers; their problem was who on earth was their neighbour? Faith matters; what you believe about your identity determines what you do and how you live. Love yourself – you have to know, value and honour yourself (i.e. to thine own self be true); bless yourself and others (be missional Gen.12:3). Today in the west we don’t have the issue with loving our neighbour - we give (“Children in Need” etc); we work with, we live in a multinational nation. Our problem is loving ourselves. We think it’s weird to love ourselves. In our culture often we are taught that it is wrong to love ourselves. Religion condemns it and we are educated into rejection. The media and advertising and celebrity worlds combine to Living from Identity

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make us distinctly and fearfully image conscious. Life becomes about our ‘size’, our looks, our abilities, our performance, our achievement or qualifications. The world compares, competes. Constantly we are told, or it is implied, that we must do better, try harder, get more, earn more, have more - more more more! Instead of truly loving ourselves as God intended we have become selfish, self-absorbed and self-focused. You may have heard that Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year is “selfie.” Clueless? It’s a reference to a smartphone selfportrait, now shorthand for any self-taken photograph. Pictures used to be taken, and later shown, as a way of saying “We were there.” Now, they are taken and instantly relayed through social media to say, “I am here.”

which is the Japanese word for reflection. Hansei is the rigorous review conducted after action has been taken. It’s a huge and absolutely vital part of learning. With a few notable exceptions, our Western culture is just plain miserable at it. Hansei is not about confirmation. It’s not about celebration of success. It’s a sobering reality check, regardless of a project’s outcome. Were you to attend a hansei meeting following a resounding success, you would be shocked at the tone of the meeting. It’s stern and serious. Fine, the team greatly exceeded expectations. Guess what, that means they didn’t understand their process. Their objectives should have been met. And even if they matched perfectly to the target, the team must still examine the course of action and the interim measures, not just the final results.

“Selfie” is a good word for our day, as without a doubt, it has become a very “selfie” world. Or as Christopher Lasch presciently noted, ours is a culture of narcissism. In Greek mythology, Narcissus is the character who, upon passing his reflection in the water, becomes so enamoured with himself that he devoted the rest of his life to his own reflection. From this we get our term “narcissism,” the preoccupation with self.

In Western culture, when projects meet their objective, we celebrate. Unfortunately, there’s little in the way of deep learning in that approach. Our bias for action doesn’t value reflection nearly as highly as it should. Horrors, if we catch anyone in their office staring out into space, they must be daydreaming, goofing off. We just don’t seem to get it. It’s about thinking. Hansei fosters real learning and insight.

More to the point is the prevailing value of "narcissistic hedonism," the classic "I, me, mine" mentality that places personal pleasure and fulfilment at the forefront of concerns. Or as Francis Schaeffer maintained throughout his writings, the ultimate ethic of our day is the pursuit of personal peace and individual affluence.

Hansei is indeed an Eastern cultural artefact. Its true meaning is closer to introspection than reflection. Hansei finds its roots in Buddhist philosophy, but it is a profound skill to be mastered. Japanese school children are taught from kindergarten how to perform hansei, and it is a significant tool used to improve one’s self.

Feasting on yourself is a very sparse meal. But the names say it all: YouTube. MySpace. And, of course, the “i’s” iPod, iTunes, iMac, iPhone and iPad. “Selfie” fits right in.

The key insight is this: Hansei is performed regularly, irrespective of performance!

Tom Wolfe had earlier labelled the 1970s the “Me Decade.” In her book Generation Me, Jean M. Twenge Living from Identity

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experience?” without doubting your worth. DEVELOP A GROWTH MINDSET - turn challenges and failures into opportunities to overcome and don’t play the blame and shame game! A growth mindset is a buffer against defeatism. It reframes failure as a natural part of the change process. People only persevere if they see falling down as learning rather than failing - you can see this in the life of any toddler! A school offered only four grades - A, B, C and NY NY - Not yet! Motivation comes from the confidence we have to feel we are capable of overcoming. “Our fundamental allegiance and loyalty is always to another kingdom. Hence we can expect a tension, a clash, between the calling of that kingdom and those purposes to which societies and nations want to give themselves.” Mark Hatfield “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” Michael Jackson “If you are trying to achieve there will be obstacles but they don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” Michael Jordan. Everything is hard before it is easy - remember learning to drive a car! What looks like a person problem is often a situation problem. We often attribute people’s behaviour to the way they are, rather than to the situation they are in or feel they are in. People are incredibly sensitive to the environment and the culture. They want to fit in, behaviour is contagious. This is true for the Gospel - we need to make it feel “cool”, meaningful, normal, sensible and exciting and wise - It is!

writes that compared to today’s generation, “they were posers.” But across all generations, the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said it best: “Man is the being whose project is to be God.” However man will never be God. Man will only ever be man; man made in God’s image, but man nevertheless. However God does give man honour and glory and love. Also this has NOTHING whatsoever to do with loving yourself. To truly love and value yourself you have to start with God - He is your creator and the source of your life. As a man in the twenty-first century I can find it hard to think of myself as special, precious, a hero or a warrior. God looks at you and says you are amazing. Instantly negative thoughts come into our minds with reasons as to why I am not! Look at how your body is made, isn’t it amazing - your circulation, your brain, your eyes, your whole body. Now agree with what God says - you are amazing. It’s a fact, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God says He made you in His image AND He has put the same Holy Spirit in you that raised Christ Jesus from the dead! You are amazing because God has made you amazing! You don’t have to do anything to be amazing, you are! You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). When we look at a mountain or a bird, or a flower we may say that’s amazing, has it done anything itself? No, that’s how it was made; it is the same with us. We need to praise God because He has made us amazing! There is no room for pride, only delight. Don’t put yourself down or belittle yourself. Praise God for what He has made You!

In Japan one their key strengths is the art of hansei (hahn-say), Living from Identity

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We are all different, but equal before God. When we say I am no good, or I am not amazing we disagree with God and belittle His creative gift and stop His power and heaven’s resources flowing through us to others. When we praise God and give Him glory for making us so amazing we open the door to heaven’s resources and allow them to flow through us for the blessing of others and the nations (Gen.12:1-3). This is about who we are, NOT what we do! Being amazing makes us world changers! The Good news is that being amazing means growth is not the ultimate issue. At the heart of being amazing is “sharing the amazingness” of each other and delighting, praising, enjoying and celebrating it! Being amazing leads to celebration, joy and delight. Acceptance of one another in place of competing brings true contentment.

Being amazing and acknowledging and proclaiming the amazingness of you, your family, your church, your job, your business means that instead of being in competition you celebrate your and their “Wow!” factor. Just as when you see an amazing orchid, an amazing tree, an amazing lion, amazing bird, or amazing mountain, or amazing waterfall, you just go “Wow!” You don’t compare, you celebrate and enjoy the amazing sight you see or experience you’ve enjoyed.

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The most important vision is your vertical vision - how do you see God? Reach for Him, to glorify His name. Your vision must be to serve God first and foremost, not please people or meet man’s desires or goals no matter how good or how urgent (remember Jesus and Lazarus!) Vision comes as people sense either God’s inspiration or human need and have the courage to respond to that inspiration or need themselves. Vision leads, it paints the target. It sparks and fuels the fire within. Enjoy the journey, not just the destination. “Show me a person without vision, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t going anywhere (John Maxwell) “A Vision is not a dream but a reality that has yet to come into existence.” (Neil Synder)

Each individual, family, tribe, church, business, people, nation is to be amazing and enjoyed and celebrated for who they are, not competed with! We celebrate the amazingness of different people, skills, abilities, looks, trade, business, skills, education, and enjoy them in God. The true measure of a nation’s wealth is not gross national product but gross national happiness!

Living from Identity

4 Identity, Vision and Dreams

Knowing our identity calls us to look out and not in! Lech Walesa said “It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevails.” The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted. Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it. Knowing our identity encourages us to bless (Gen.12:2). We adopt a growth mindset. The growth from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is significant. Instead of trying to prove yourself and your value, you accept yourself for who you are, whilst seeking to learn and develop wherever and whenever possible. A growth mindset asks “What can I learn from the

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adopt a victim, survivor, control, don't be controlled inner belief system. We need to learn to revert to 'the habit' of being who I am in God. Out of our identity we know we are valued, adopted and chosen (Eph.1:4ff; Rm.8:15; 1Peter2:8-9). Without honour we revert to law - external control; this is the old Testament value. The world uses a culture of guilt or shame relating to law either formal or informal. If we live without honour we put the cart before the horse! We are to live from Heaven to earth, to see as God sees and reveal His heart and character.

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We are called to live as amazing beings with amazing lives not in competition or opposition with others but in celebration of them. Competition ultimately destroys; it destroys people, families, educational establishments, football teams, businesses, nations; ultimately this competition rooted in greed and envy destroys everything! Being amazing overcomes the need for competitiveness, rather it outworks that amazingness and spreads it binding up the broken hearted, setting captives free, opening prison doors proclaiming the amazingness of God and you who are made in Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s amazing image!

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2 Growing in Who We Are The slogan in the Dr. Pepper soft drink ads says, "Be you, do what you do, Dr. Pepper." The first and most basic rule of peace is to be you. It seems such a simple statement, but it's true. Don't try to be someone or something you're not. It is good to work on developing and sharpening the personality and skill set that God has given but be true to who you are. . Too many of us try to change who or what they are. People best respond and connect with you when you present the genuine you. So just be the person God designed you to be. Study Others. Being yourself does not mean that you can't learn from others. You can always find new ways to grow and communicate. But the key is, as you learn from others, build your own identity and style. You cannot be me, and I cannot be you. I do, however, think that we can all learn from each other in creative and compelling ways.

What I believe or perceive about myself determines my behaviour. I can choose to be a loving, honouring, blessing person irrespective of how others behave (Dan.3:17). If love rules my interactions, relationships, I must refuse to agree with any fear, punishment, blame, shame or control. This takes true power, power of the fruit of the Spirit to exercise self control and not be controlled or try to control. When we truly believe we are the only ones who can control ourselves, and exercise self control in loving God, loving self, loving our neighbour, spouse and family, God’s kingdom begins to be evidenced amongst us. This is the flow of the river of blood (redemption).

God blesses us so we in turn are a blessing (Gen.12:1-3). Blessing is about enlargement, growth, development. Our identify from God is not a fixed aspect like a name but a developing and growing gifting in continuous development of our God given identity. It is a heavenly identity and is not limited to earth - it is a ‘new name’, one that empowers us to prosper in our calling,

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As children we depend on our environment (parents, authority figures, society, culture etc) to tell us what is good and bad. If that is never challenged it becomes our core inner belief system or ’truth' and directs our thinking and our behaviour. We trust stories of ‘Father Christmas’, Easter Bunnies and Tooth Fairies etc. It is only when we challenge them that we find out whether or not they are actually true.

Study what others do and use what you can, what works with your own skill set. Never stop finding new ways to grow; because when we stop learning, we stop being innovative. Creativity counters complacency. It is a fluid exercise that should continue to grow and change over time.

Living from Identity

Our beliefs determine our interpretation of events. The way we reinforce what we believe to be true is by the way we behave. (Sometimes we think we believe something, and say we believe …… but our actual behaviour reveals that we in reality believe something quite different). It is important to be willing to choose to learn to examine our behaviour and ask where it’s coming from! Because we believe and absorb our family values and beliefs for so long we can become unable to separate actual truth from what is false. Also we find it hard to separate what is truly important from what is unimportant.

So if I get stressed, react, be angry, defensive, irritated, confused etc that reveals my inner belief system - fear etc. These come from things we have learnt as a child. We Living from Identity

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creativity, capacity and capability. Our God given identity is given so we don’t settle and are comfortable but that we keep ‘sharpening our saw’, continually progressing - not because we have to prove ourselves or achieve anything, but merely because we can and it provides fulfilment and excitement and fun.

3 Living From Identity Ed Young writes, “We are made in His image by our creative God; because of that He desires and expects our participation in His creative process. He wants us to make His nature and character known through our lives by impacting those in our sphere of influence.” As Steve Godin writes, "Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.” Every word, thought and life need context and perspective. We either form our own or we allow God to give us His context within His story. When we know who we truly are (in God); we no longer gain our identity from external sources or values. Instead we can tell ourselves, “I don’t need to react or respond to their negative assessments; I am more than this.”

A new name means we are not dependent on our natural heritage, but our supernatural one! (John 17:3) This identity encourages us to push into God and His attributes. With God there is always more to discover and uncover. This in turn draws us into deeper intimacy with God, with our spouses and with others. Abraham was blessed - the word means to speak well of, celebrate with praises. In other words when we bless we say you are amazing! Through Abraham all the families of the earth were to be declared amazing, not competed with but praised and valued (Gen.12:1-3)! All the families of the earth are to be brought into the reality and understanding of their uniqueness, blessedness (completeness).

Walt Emerson said: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Israel was commissioned as God’s special and amazing people, chosen to bless - declare the amazingness of God and of all the peoples of the earth.

Knowing our true identify empowers us to challenge our natural and basic belief systems. It enables us to identify what we are actually feeling and why. Then we can identify how to change or influence those feelings.

The church in Acts 2 had all things in common. They were to live as amazing unique people, not in competition but delighting in, enjoying and sharing each others amazing attributes.

We all have belief systems we have grown up with which involve having “our truth” and “perceived truth” which may or may not be true or even objective truth. Asking ourselves questions enables us to discuss what those ‘truths’ are and challenge them.

Jesus in the beatitudes makes the startling statement that God’s Kingdom is a present kingdom and His blessed ones (are amazing with a deep and unique joy) which comes from living in the reality of that kingdom and the truth of being amazing whatever is happening around them! They have an inner experience of being amazing even when their

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lives can be seen as challenging or difficult by men. GOD cares for man “In all their distress he too was distressed” (Isa. 63:9). We can know that in our distress God too is distressed. Jesus understands heartbreak, betrayal, abandonment, loneliness, sorrow, and pain. He is acquainted with grief. He cares. He cares for you. God promises, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). The original Greek is difficult to translate because of the strong emphasis on never—it’s a triple negative. God wants you to know that you will never, never, never be abandoned by him. Ever. Never ever. He promises to never leave you or forsake you no matter what you’ve done or what you are suffering. We hold on to that. God by definition is ‘unknowable’ by man unless God reveals Himself. The Muslim view of God is one - “Allah.” This means they do not have any reference for what “Allah" is like. Muslims therefore cannot be certain of anything! Hence fatalism is how they cope with life. God as Trinity however means God is pure unity, expressed in vibrant plurality! Supernatural LOVE. The Father always loved the Son and the Spirit; and this was replicated in and throughout the Godhead. From the beginning God is Trinity and Love, and therefore must always have been the basis of God’s nature. Without love in and for himself the trinity could not exist and function in pure unity. Hence We CAN know what God is like. He is love (1Jn.4:7-8).

or natural ability. Flowing in our God given identity empowers us to live out our gifting in joy and fun, not having to perform or accomplish, but resting in what brings us fulfilment irrespective of what anyone else thinks of it or us! This is because it flows from us supernaturally naturally and isn’t something that we have to “screw up” our faith to do or do to try and impress others. The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does. Sing in your own voice. Picasso was a terrible colourist. Turner couldn’t paint human beings. Saul Steinberg’s formal drafting skills were appalling. T.S. Eliot had a full-time day job. Henry Miller was a wildly uneven writer. Bob Dylan can’t sing or play guitar. But that didn’t stop them, right? So I guess the next question is, “Why not?” I have no idea. Why should it? Stephen Covey (the 8th Habit), writes, “……find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.” Voice is your unique personal significance. Voice lies at the heart of a person. (Voice here relates to your natural gifts and strengths, passion (those things that naturally energise, excite, motivate or inspire you), need (including what the world needs enough to pay for) conscience (that still small voice within you that assures you what is right and prompts you to do it and Spirit - being led by the Holy Spirit and empowered by Him to do God’s will and purposes – Romans 8:14))

God gives us a ‘birth gifting’ or identity, by grace, when we are being formed in the womb (Psalm 139). When we flow and function in who we really are there is fulfilment, excitement and joy. The world constantly wants to tell us what we are not. It seeks to confine us to a role or position Living from Identity

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