Have you ever heard of the National Radio Quiet Zone? The United States designated a radio quiet zone in which any radio transmission is heavily restricted by law covering a land mass of 13,000 square miles in 1956. This quiet zone contains the largest, fully-steerable radio telescope in the world. It’s located in Green Bank, West Virginia.
The dish alone is larger than a football field. This telescope can capture infinitesimal signals from space. The government prohibits the use of cell phones, cordless phones, Wi-Fi, microwaves and wireless speakers within a ten-mile radius that could cause any interference with radio observations. This “quiet” allows scientists to “hear” and to listen for any noise from outer space.
Where is your intentional “quiet space?” How do you quiet yourself so you can hear and listen to the voice of the One who created our universe? There are so many voices that require our daily attention, but there is One we must hear.
In Job 33, God said to Job, “Pay attention and listen to me; be silent…and I will speak.” There is a time for speaking our petitions and there is a time to listen. When we position ourselves to listen, we position ourselves to hear direction, to receive wisdom and to feel loved.
There are more than enough distractions in our lives today. Renew in your heart to allow your heavenly Father undistracted and unrestricted access and time by turning off those devices, reading His word and listening to Him. You will not regret one minute of it and neither will He.
There is a thief among us. It will rob us of peace, of joy and of sleep. We weren’t created to carry stressors which lead to worry that ages us prematurely. Worry wrinkles the skin, darkens the eyes and hunches over the shoulders.
To worry is to be in a constant attempt to figure out or manipulate the future. It is self-torment and the heavier the worry becomes, the more effort it takes to move forward. To be in a state of worry inhibits rest.
I heard someone once say when we live life out of rest, we release God to work on our behalf. But when we live in a lifestyle of carrying our own load, God rests. He will allow us to stumble and fall with worry.
One evening for devotions, my wife and I read this verse out of Isaiah, “My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” Wow, we stopped and asked God to give us the grace to live in that very place, a worry-free place of peace and undisturbed rest.
“There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.” — William Barclay
It has been the goal of this thirty day devotional for you to discover why you were born and to never let go of those truths. Thank you for joining with me and allowing me to be a small part of your devotional life. I pray that every day has been a blessing to you. Enjoy this final blog on identity and don’t forget to purchase your own book.
In the Scriptures,God chose to call Himself “Abba” or “Daddy.” It has always intrigued me that He used family language. Jesus repeatedly said that He only did what He saw His Father doing. If Jesus, the Son of God, looked to His Father, how much more do we need to get lost in His approval, esteem, identity, and love? The following verses describe this relationship so accurately.
The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” (Romans 8:14-16 The Passion Translation).
No one will force you to receive your security and identity in the Father’s love and acceptance, not even God Himself. According to the verses above, He says you are already good enough. He desires that you receive the “Spirit of acceptance” and approval. You are part of His family, never an orphan. Allow His Holy Spirit to make His Fatherhood real to you as He whispers in your innermost being: “You are God’s beloved child!”
It is unknown who first said these words, but I think they are so relevant as we close this book. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” Together, let’s change the ending and commit to starting that change today.
It is said that we become like those whom we spend time with. We will pick up their language, their mannerisms and sometimes their attitudes. Spending time with God is never wasted. As we learn His language, His word, His mannerisms and His attitudes, we will find ourselves becoming more and more secure in that identity. You will no longer be who you once were or thought you should be. You will become the distinctiveness of you!
It has been a pleasure to connect with you on a daily basis. You can sign up for my weekly blog at: calledtogether.wordpress.com
To obtain a copy of the book Identity: The Distinctiveness of You just clickhere.
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day29
We have been justified by His blood. Romans 5:9
We have redemption through His blood. Ephesians 1:7
I blamed my father for most everything negative in my life. After all, aren’t parents supposed to be kind, generous, loving and placing their children first? Yes and no. Not every parent is whole enough to be all those things to their children, as each one is in a different stage of healing and growing up themselves. But still, I expected perfection from my father. He was older, wiser and stronger than me. I held him up as the one who should take all the blame for my messed-up life and for a while that worked for me.
Then one day I heard God whisper these words, “It is true, Steve, you did not have a perfect father, but you were never a perfect son and you, yourself, are not a perfect father.” God was confronting me, kindly and with His truth. I decided that day the blame game was over and that Jesus’ prescription to me read, “Forgive as you have been forgiven.” It was the only way forward and it would be the only way I would really find God as my heavenly Father and not project upon Him that imperfect image of my earthy father.
God is the perfect Father. He loves us perfectly. He forgives us perfectly. He disciplines us perfectly. He has our best interest in mind. God created a perfect garden within a perfect world. He created mankind and placed him there with the perfect job. He then created the perfect life mate and by Genesis three they were walking away from Him. Not long after that, in Genesis four, Adam’s and Eve’s son committed murder when in a fit of rage Cain killed Abel.
If we find ourselves becoming hurt over and over, we are very effectively creating a cycle of hurt and pain within ourself. We must, according to God’s word, “put off” this “earthly nature” from the ways we “used to walk,” receiving hurt after hurt, and “put on” our “new self…the image of [our] Creator.” “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (See Colossians 3:1-14.)
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.(I John 3:1-3)
Our identity must guide who we are becoming and with this new identity we have new authority, so that everything we say and do flows out of our identity in Christ. This is the goal of God in our lives and the goal of our life in God. This then is where it all ends, “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (I John 3:2,3)
We shall be like Him. We shall walk in His identity, His life and His purpose. There is no greater life to be lived than the one life in which we know who we are and Who we serve, Jesus Christ Son of God.
Question for reflection:
In what ways have you cast blame on certain others for your imperfections?
Order your book today for yourself or your small group.
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day27
I am more than a conqueror. Romans 8:37
I have been given fullness in Christ. Colossians 2:10
The gospel of John chapter 4 gives us an amazing story of insight of Jesus. It’s a story of a woman at a well. She had been married five times! She had repeatedly tried to find security and identity in men. Plus, Jesus revealed to her that the man she was presently living with was not her husband. Jesus does not say one condemning word. He did say that drinking water will make you thirsty again, “but whoever drinks the water He gives them will never thirst again…a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
When the Samaritan woman asked for this water, what was Jesus’ answer? He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” Do you notice the dialogue going on? “Give me the water; go get your husband.” Jesus tells her He has living water with which she will never thirst again and she yearns for it.
What would you do, but ask for it? He does not answer her request in the typical way. He puts His finger directly on the drawback in her life, the issue, her place of missing the mark, her one area that is out of control: the need of looking to men for security, identity, emotional and physical needs. She then attempts to redirect Him in verses 19 and 20. Jesus makes it clear that one day all will worship in spirit and in truth. Then in verse 26, Jesus reveals Himself to her, not in a parable, not in an allegorical story, but simply saying, “I am He.” How often was He that straightforward about who He was?
Jesus knew that she had been selling her identity to men, but He also knew an encounter with the One who could give her living water, water that would quench her insecurity and her identity thirst forever, would radically change her life. I will never believe this meeting was accidental or a random encounter. It was a sovereign confrontation, a meeting that was orchestrated by heaven itself because of the love of God for that one single woman at the well.
To you and to me He says, “I am He.” I am your living water. I am your security. I am your identity. I am your foundation for relationship so that your neediness issues can be resolved. I am your healthy boundary keeper. I am your esteem. I am your beginning and your end. I am your employer, your real-estate agent, your banker and your lawyer. I am your retirement, your health insurance, your accountant. I am your father and your mother. I am your security and I am your identity. I am He.
Have you found Him to be all these things? It’s okay to be at the well, but it is not okay to leave The Well still thirsty. He is present to quench your thirst regardless of how you came to the well or where your heart was at when you first encountered Jesus. He speaks to you today, “I am He.”
Question for reflection:
When you consider Him as the “I am” in your life, what do you know to be true about your identity?
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day26
I am seated with Christ in heavenly realms. Ephesians 2:6
I am loved with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3
I am qualified to share in the inheritance of the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:12
Imagine that you lived 2000 years ago and you just recently heard of this One named Jesus and most of what you have heard has been negative. In some strange way, this man and the controversy that surrounds Him intrigues you. You would love to meet Him and you think about traveling to His town.
The thought leaves you until one day you hear that He is coming to your region and your town is in an absolute uproar. There are so many questions, so many reports circulating; why is He coming; will you see Him; will He see you? You determine to get to the Main Street to get a closer look; you see the crowds making their way toward you and here He comes. A strange anxiety and nervousness intensify within you as you anticipate His closeness.
Suddenly, He’s right there in front of you and He looks your way. You want to look down, but don’t know why. In reality you can’t look anywhere but straight at Him. Surprised, He’s looking straight at you—eye-to-eye. You don’t know how to describe the feeling: His eyes, are warm, inviting, questioning. You can’t look away; you’re undone, you’re lost in His presence and your heart is pounding. He opens His mouth to say something, but to you it’s all in slow motion as you hear the words, “Come follow me.” You want to say, “Who me?” but you can’t utter a word. Without thinking, you find one foot going in front of the other and you are, in fact, following Him.
His latest teaching is strange, like He’s going somewhere that you cannot come. You feel almost rejected, pushed out of the nest. Being thrust into the future without Him is incomprehensible and unimaginable. For you there’s no going back, no return. You have caught something from Him and there is now no other way to live life. It’s even stranger how He prays these days. His prayer focus has shifted to something about returning to the Father and sending another to be with you and your eleven friends. You don’t desire another; you desire only Him.
You remember that first glance on Main Street and how His eyes met yours. You remember feeling unclean but accepted, all at the same time. You reflect on so many things now, things that you took for granted over the past three years. “Go away, Jesus? Where would you be going and why would you be going away from us? We gave everything to follow you. We gave up our businesses and our families. We gave up our homes and our belongings. We gave these things up to follow You and now You leave us and promise another?” You scream inside, “I don’t want another. I want You.” You go off to pray and He goes off to pray.
Where did Jesus end and His disciples begin? Where did His disciples end and He begin? The relationships are so interwoven in this story and yet there is such clarity of who you are and whose you are. Even though Jesus walked with these men for over three years, He did not request of the Father to bring them with Him or to stay a while longer with them. Jesus knew who He was and He knew whose His disciples were. He was not comparing Himself with the Father or in competition for the relationships. He was not jealous or possessive of His disciples’ relationships with His Father and neither did He try to manipulate His Father’s plan. Jesus did what He came to do and now He was leaving earth without His disciples. (See John 17.)
Even though the Father had given these relationships to the Son, the Son respected the boundaries given Him and handed them back to the Father. (See John 17:10 – “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.”)
Walk with Him today. He does see you and you can see Him. You are His and He is yours.
Question for reflection:
What were you feeling as you read today’s devotional and placed yourself in the midst of the story?
Why not buy a book or two today and share it with others? Order here.
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 24
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Ephesians 1:3
I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 6:19
Every decision we make is made through our past experiences, our present desires and thoughts or our future wants or needs. God has created us with the capacity to think within all three of these realms or dimensions. The memory capacity of our brains is simply amazing, as it provides for us the knowledge needed from past experience for decision making today.
Just imagine if we lacked memory. We would not know how to drive home from work today. We would not know or be able to identify our spouse in the morning when we wake up. We would have to start each new day reading a memory log from the day before: who we are, where we live, where we work or go to school. Life would function so differently. We can conclude memory is not only necessary for life, it provides so much wonderful meaning to life.
The Bible says what we sow, we reap (See Galatians 6:7, 8.). What I sow today, determines the return I will have on that seed tomorrow. If I desire a certain crop in the future, then I have to sow that seed today. Not one farmer expects to reap where they have not sown, but every farmer fully expects to reap where they have sown. You may expect to be a millionaire one day in the future, but if you do nothing and place no effort toward that goal today, you will never see it. It is easy to then become deceived into thinking you’ll win the lottery or inherit that million, but without earning it. The scriptures describe this type of gain as ill-gotten treasure. (Proverbs 10: 2)
Do you want to live in health in your latter years? Take measures today to exercise and eat healthy because when reaching tomorrow, today will be the past. Do you desire to be free of pain from your past? Then do something about it today and forgive those who have hurt you and bless those who have cursed you.
Unfortunately, I experienced a lot of cavities as a child. My family did not use toothpaste with fluoride in it. Fluoride wasn’t even marketed in those days. My trips to the dentist were fear-filled and excruciating. Today, I pay the price of dealing with crowns to save my teeth. My past dental care affects my present oral condition and will continue to affect my future.
You just cannot separate these three: the past, the present and the future. But you can start making decisions in alignment with God’s word and His direction for your life. A better decision today means a better outcome tomorrow. A destructive decision today means certain pain in our future.
For example, are you a worrier? I mean, does your mind immediately go to the exercise of worry when an unknown is surfacing? Or, is your response to a present worrisome issue one of going to your heavenly Father in prayer and trust? One response is trusting and relying upon yourself and your capacity to worry (needing to solve the issue yourself) and the other is trusting God and His capacity to intervene both in the here-and-now and the future. Philippians 4: 6,7 reminds us to not be anxious and if we’ll petition God along with giving thanks, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. Peace does not follow worry; it follows prayer and trusting God, literally giving our worry to God. (See Psalm 37: 1-8.)
Question for reflection:
If you find yourself to be a worrier, how does your worry affect your present-day life?
To order the book at a significant discount for yourself, your family or a group studyclick here.
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day23
I am chosen by Him. I Thessalonians 1:4
I am rescued from the power of darkness. Colossians 1:13
I am now God’s child. I John 3:2
When we’re struggling to know who we are and why we exist, a sin-filled lifestyle will not take us in the right direction. Yet, self-destructive ways seem to come to us so easily, so naturally. How do we ever think that partying, stunting our personal emotional growth through alcohol or drug use, hurting loving relationships around us help in any form or fashion? What makes us think there is anything “normal” about this style of living on the edge or living so dangerously? In fact, what it does do is reinforce how worthless we are, how valueless we are and how unhealthy we are. It accentuates the negative self-hatred that we’re continually dealing with and it can become permanently destructive.
Insecurity and the lack of any identity plagued me. I never knew who I was, how I fit, why I existed or if I even wanted to or should exist. For the two summers before graduation from high school, I was hanging out at the beach. It was there that I heard the gospel for the very first time. A young, blond haired girl that I was particularly attracted to went on a date with me and began to talk to me about Jesus. Granted, once in a while I attended my local mainline denominational church in my home community, but I never heard the things that this young girl was about to tell me.
She told me I needed a personal relationship with Jesus. She told me He was coming back again. She told me He literally died on a cross for my salvation. She told me He would change my life if I accepted Him. All of which I did not argue against because I wanted a relationship with her. I would tell her, rather manipulatively, that I agreed on all points and that I was cool with God, honestly hoping, all the while, that He was cool with me.
But it was the words of this girl, her passion, her excitement about a living relationship that attracted me to Him within her. I don’t really know why, but from somewhere deep in my soul or my spirit, I was hungry for this truth. I was hungry for the real and I desperately wanted God to be real.
It was December of 1971 and I was receiving one last letter from the blond girl which included a gospel tract about “being saved.” Oh, how I wanted to be saved, whatever that really meant. How I wanted to escape the reality of my home and family. How I longed to fill the huge void in my life. I didn’t know how it would be possible. I simply was not raised with faith outside of my grandmother’s words and prayers.
I would read the tract, then throw it down and say to myself, “Oh, I wish” or “Yeah, right…too good to be true.” Nights later I would pick it up and read it again. Finally, one night, around midnight, I, with little to no faith, but with huge desire, got down on my knees beside my bed and I prayed, Jesus, I am not sure if any of this is true. I am not sure of your love, but please forgive me of my sin, my hatred for my father, my bitterness, my anger at You and whatever else I need to let go of to receive You into my heart. Please change me!
To hate is easy. To disregard and abandon is natural, but to love, to forgive, to have hope for a lost soul is supernatural. As a youth, tormented by my father’s out-of-control rage, I wanted him to die or leave our family never to be seen again. Post conversion, I would only long for his redemption. My heart was being healed and that resulted in an in-depth healing of who I was and who I was to become. Unforgiveness is certainly a road we can take, but it comes with a heavy emotional, physical and spiritual price.
Question for reflection:
What is your salvation story?
Click here for your own personal copy or share one with a friend.
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day22
I am a saint and loved by God. Romans 1:7
I am accepted by Christ. Romans 15:7
I have died to sin…and alive to God. Romans 6:2, 11
What would it look like for someone who is experiencing sexual brokenness or gender dysphoria to become a follower of Jesus? Author Andrew Walker says, “It would be very, very hard. And yet, at the same time, it would be experientially and eternally worthwhile.” He says that each of us have a cross to bear. That may include cancer, undesired singleness or any number of issues.
In Matthew 16:24, 25, Jesus told us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Andrew writes, “To carry a cross means to deny ourselves – to lose whatever defined and directed our lives before we met our Maker, came to him as our Savior and began to follow him as our Lord.”
Paul the Apostle, in pleading with God to take away an issue in his life, wrote about it this way in II Corinthians 12: 9, 10, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me…when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Not one of us asks for this cross. We do not seek a cross to carry. We like a carefree and comfortable life to live and we abhor the uncomfortable. As I travel the world, I have seen the slum where three quarters of a million people live in Kenya. I have seen the poverty and the lack of any governmental control in Haiti. I have been in places where overcontrolling governments say that Christianity cannot be openly practiced. These believers live daily with these crosses and they take them on willingly, as normality, without complaint.
Henri Nouwen wrote, “The great spiritual call of the Beloved Children of God is to pull their brokenness away from the shadow of the curse and put it under the light of the blessing. This is not as easy as it sounds. The power of darkness around us is strong, and our world finds it easier to manipulate self-rejecting people than self-accepting people. But when we keep listening attentively to the Voice calling us the Beloved, it becomes possible to live our brokenness, not as a confirmation of our fear that we are worthless, but as an opportunity to purify and deepen the blessing that rests upon us. Physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the blessing is experienced in ways radically different from physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the curse.”
What are you waiting for? We each have a choice to make. We choose to submit our sexuality to God and His plan or we do not. We take a hard stand and choose His way or we cast off restraint and go full-on our way. Either God’s grace is sufficient for each of us no matter what we deal with or we determine it is not. Either way, we are left with the consequences of our decisions. Deciding God’s way may mean having a certain cross to bear, but it will not last forever and it will lead us into an eternity of God’s pleasure. He is preparing a place for us and He longs for each one of us to choose His way in order to enter into that place. (See John 14:1-3.)
Question for reflection:
Can you identify any cross that you are presently bearing?
A Thirty DayDevotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day21
I am loved by Christ and freed from my sins. Revelation 1:5
I am free from all condemnation. Romans 8:1
I am kept from falling and presented without fault. Jude 24
You and I were created by God to live in a Genesis one and two world. What does that mean? Genesis chapters one and two are the only chapters, the only words written of what life was like before “the curse.” This curse became the course of each and every life born thereafter.
Did you know that in these first two chapters of Genesis the Bible describes God’s relationship with man as literally meeting with him, walking with him and conversing with him on a daily basis? Every day God’s presence would meet with Adam and God would instruct him about the garden. In those conversations God would personally feel Adam’s loneliness on the earth. God would soon “fashion” a woman, flesh of Adam’s flesh and bone of his bone. It was here, in this garden, in this moment that God created something we call marriage; “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) Marriage was and is a creation act of God, not an act of man.
At the same time, the seas were teaming with fish and the air with birds. God said that the land was to produce all kinds of livestock and wild animals. There was an endless variety of plant life and God placed Adam in a garden to care for it and to watch it multiply. There were no weeds, no bugs, no diseases and no harmful or dangerous conditions. The world and everything in it were perfect.
Then comes Genesis three, the chapter which describes “the fall of man.” It is here that deception, fear, disease, insecurity, disobedience and the loss of our God-given identity entered into the world. Life on this earth would be forever changed by hearts that wanted something more than they already had in the garden. Adam and Eve longed for a knowledge that was not theirs to have. God was trying to protect us from ourselves, but also in His wisdom, He gave us free choice and we chose wrongly.
God created us, gave us birth and blessed us to live in a Genesis one and two world, but we chose a fallen world, a world of disobedience, death and missing the mark of God’s ideal for His creation. Ever since this time there has been a rebellion in our hearts and we are left to pursue what we think is right in our own eyes. (See Proverbs 12:15; 21:2)
Being involved in years of counseling has afforded me the opportunity to hear plenty of Genesis three horror stories from real live persons. These are persons who have suffered deeply from the actions of others or from their own choices. I can still recall Lisa’s story that led to severe anorexia. While her story and pain were true, she was now acting out some very self-destructive behavior, starving herself to death. If I would have sat there in the counseling room and affirmed every feeling that Lisa had, it would have been cruel. Further, if I would have commented that her self-perception of being obese was right in an effort to validated her feelings, then I would have been extremely unprofessional, dishonest and mean.
We all struggle with sin. (See Romans 3:23.) God’s answer is the same to each of us. He longs to bring His identity to us, but that will not happen as long as we insist on living by and through our feelings. God’s message to us has always been very clear. As we seek Him and give Him our lives He will create us anew, transforming us into a new creation where the old passes away and the new comes. (See II Corinthians 5:17.)
Stay tuned, there is more to come on this topic.
Question for reflection:
Do any remnants of a Genesis three world cling to you? How can you move out of bondage into freedom as a new creation?
Steve Prokopchak 