CWW Week 19 - Day 2 - Who Are You?

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Devotional

This verse emphasises the transformative effect of being in Christ. It highlights that a relationship with Jesus brings about a fundamental change, where the old way of life is left behind, and a new, renewed existence begins.

Who you think you are has a huge bearing on the outcomes of your life. Our perception of ourself can be a powerful motivator or a crushing rock. How are these perceptions formed?

Imagine a Pavarotti who, at aged five was yelled at by his father when he was singing in the shower? “Will you shut up that dreadful noise? Have you actually listened to yourself?” The world may never have heard that wonderful tenner voice. Our opinions about ourselves are formed in the early years often called the formative years for good reason.

The brain is a very intricate device easily corrupted by the thoughts and feelings of others. 

Let’s take a closer look at the fictitious Pavarotti situation. In that situation his father may have been in a bad mood that morning. Perhaps he was on the phone and couldn’t hear the person on the call. Imagine you’re destiny being snuffed out because someone else was in a bad mood?

My own father was gifted in many ways. He had no education and always worked hard with his hands. Growing up in the Great Depression, he had to start working young. He was a talented stone mason and brick layer and he was a deep thinker. He could have gone on to do what ever he set his mind to do. But one day when he was twelve, his much older brother told him that “You had better be good at working with your hands because you don’t have much of a brain.”

My Dad passed away at age ninety two and I must say that I heard him repeat his brothers words a thousand times, even just before he died. It didn’t matter how often I told Dad that he was a clever man, he kept repeating the words of his brother as though he had just heard them. A throw away line in a brothers spat, set up my fathers self belief system when he was just twelve.

The simple truth is that you are what you say you are. Our subconscious mind does a great deal of talking to us. If it is not programmed correctly the outcomes in some cases can be catastrophic. If you tell yourself that you are a certain kind of person then you will behave in a way to prove yourself right. It’s like a computer. Garbage in garbage out.

I was once told that I could not be trusted. This was in my teens. I took that to heart and my subconscious bottom line belief of who I was became,  I am un-trustworthy.  How often did that haunt me in later life, and formed a huge part of my desire to end that life. Yes it can be that critical.

Our beliefs formulate our behaviours and this is critical at this time in earths history. With such a lack of confidence in the world today, so many people are exploring darkness in order to work out where they belong, thus running the risk of becoming what they behold. Sinister conversations held in front of children can create formative feelings in the young ones, that the world is not a safe place. Insecurity and anxiety are at record levels in todays society.

There is good news however. Our beliefs can be changed and there are several processes that we take for granted every day that can bring these changes about. We can change our sources of information. We can mix less with people who bring us down and we can always get a second opinion.

I always told my children that if someone told them they would not succeed in a certain aspiration then keep seeking another opinion.

I was told by a young vocational guidance counsellor when I was twelve years old that I would never fulfil my dream of becoming an airline pilot.

I thank God that his assessment of my IQ made me angry and stirred my passion to go even harder. I had a wonderful career in aviation and achieved everything I set out to do, but it may have taken another turn.

Lets look at todays verse again.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Jesus is waiting at the door to come in and clean out our tired old misconceptions of who we think we are, and create something new;Someone new. In Jesus I have found my true identity and I have not looked back. Jesus allowed me to go to the edge. He never left me even when I mocked Him and those who believed in him.

In Jesus I have been able to live in honour and integrity and my new identity is in Christ. My name is Graham Hood. I have my struggles in life but I am forgiven because I have a risen Saviour and His name is Jesus Christ. He is my identity.

The power of life change in this cannot be overstated. Satan told me all my life, who I was and that I belonged to him. There was no escape. When I realised that the cross gave me Kingdom authority to rebuke Satan and his influence in my life everything changed for the better.

Satan fills our head with the lesses of life. He told me my whole life that I was hopeless, helpless and useless. Since I found Jesus my heart is filled with all of the ables.

Jesus tells me that I am loveable, capable, adorable, teachable, washable, forgivable, salvageable and saveable.

It is a gift from God, that we can now turn off the old misconceptions and turn on to the new in Jesus.

The old things have passed away and in Jesus I am a new man.

Questions.

1. What has always been your own sub-conscious bottom line belief about who you are?
2. Has this been a destructive force in your life?

3. Are you now entirely ready to have Jesus change your beliefs about your    identity?

Prayer.

Dear Lord, Papa God.

Thank you Papa for the greatest second opinion of my life. Thank you Lord that you have shown me my destiny is in my relationship with you. I am what I behold and my greatest desire is to see you Father God. Give me a heart of flesh and turn off all of the lesses in my life and replace them with all of Your ables. For this is my prayer in your most precious name Lord. Amen.

Have a great day with Jesus.

Graham Hood.