Our Identity Crisis

In this message we consider the whole area of coming to know how we are and who we are. This is the question of our identity. This is very important for us to consider because very often we do not realize the person we are until somebody begins to speak something to us. At first we might deny it, because there is blindness to many of those things. So we need the help of the Holy Spirit and the help of a brother or a sister in Christ who loves us to show us who we really are.

The problem of identity

You can describe yourself in many different ways. For example, you can tell people your name, your race, your country of origin and your career. But that is not really the answer to the question - Who am I? Who is the real person inside? What does the person like? What doesn't he like? How does he live? Does he lives one life or does he live two or more lives?

The fact is many people are in identity crisis. Even the entire world is in identity crisis in many ways because the question is not answered fully in a way that is satisfying in a deep sense. Complications come because some people live out the life of their father and never really get in touch of their own lives. Some even live out the life of a person they admired, real or imaginary.

We are all different because God has made us all different. It is only when we begin the know our differences and accept our differences and live out the differences that we realy become free. But many people are trying to live out the expectation of others. They are trying to live out what others think they should be instead of who they really are.

The Identity of God

God has no difficulty in identifying Himself. Moses said to God as he was sent by Him to Pharaoh to set the children of Israel free:

"Indeed, when I came to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them" (Exodus 3:13, NKJV)?

God said to Moses, "I Am who I Am." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I Am has sent me to you'" (Verse 14, NKJV).

When God said "I Am" He meant there was no one before Him; He is the absolute, ever-present and therefore the only unchanging and eternal Being. Therefore if we are going to know who we are we will have to go back to Him who created us. We can only find our real identity in Him because before time began He has called us (2 Tim. 1:9). It is totally illogical for God who created us and called us but at the same time does not let us know who we really are!

So the people who ignore God or leave Him out of their lives or even deny His exitence will continue to struggle with their identity; they will continue to be in identity crisis. The fact is we cannot know who we are apart from God our Creator. That is the major reason why so many lives are in identity crisis, having emotional breakdown or do not know how to have relationships with others in a loving way. They are frustrated and their lives are never fulfilled because they have never found the revelation of their identity through going back to the Great "I Am".

Notice that Jesus also identified Himself fully by saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).

Questions in relation to identity

When we look at the question of identity we need to look at three other questions in relation to it. The questions are: Where are we coming from? Where are we going? What is our value?

1. Where are we coming from?

Apart from God and apart from believing in God it is impossible to answer this question. Some Christians even tell us when you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ all of your past is finished, it is all over and it is all taken care of by God. There is some truth there with regards to sin. It is true that we are forgiven the sins of our past.

Almost without exception there are areas in our lives in the past that still affect us in the present. The root of these areas lingers on from the past and needs to be dealt with. For example you may find a Christian full of resentment and bitterness. Where did that come from? They come out of their past. He could have been mistreated by one or both of his parents. He needs to go back to the past - back to the root of resentment and hatred so that God can minister to these areas so as to arrest the growth of the seeds of resentment, bitterness and anger. He needs to forgive his parents and to live on in the spirit of forgiveness. It is extremely important that we look at the history of our lives so that God can minister into those areas that handicapping us, hindering us and binding us. Only God can set us free.

The writer of Hebrews said, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us ..." (Heb. 12:1, NKJV, emphasis added).

There are many weights that come out of our past and ensnares us. We must let the Holy Spirit to minister into those areas and make us free.

2. Where are we going?

This question concerns our goals and objectives in our lives. Some Christians are aiming at nothing. Some are trying to aim at something but what they are aiming at amounts to nothing. What are we doing with our lives? We need to be able to manage our lives because God holds us accountable to what happens to our lives.

3. What is our value?

What is valuable to us? Life itself is valuable. Another is relationship. To have a loving relationship is one of the greatest challenges in the world today. Very few people know how to have a relationship. Even millionaires and successful men do not know how to have a relatioship because they live out of their head or intelligence. Relationship develops in the heart (the spirit) of men. And unless you have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God dwells in you, you cannot have true relationship with others. Life without meaningful relationship is very shallow and very empty. Because of this people have search for substitutes; they thave to fill their emptiness with money, things that money can buy and all sorts of activities. Not all Church activities will cultivate meaningful relationship with God and with men. People in the Church talk about relationship but very often they fail to follow God's way.

The most basic thing in life is to know how to love and be loved. Even philosophers, psychologists, thinkers, Christians and non-Christians all agreed. But the Bible says God is love and unless you know God you do not know how to love. The reverse is also true:

John said, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7, 8, NKJV).

God created us to love and be loved and never to hate and be hated. We are not designed to be haters. Whoever hates is dying and not living. Medical doctors testify that through hating, a person can develop breakdowns and will soon be overcome by chronic illnesses.

Amos' vision of the Plumb Line

Amos, a farmer, was called by God to be a prophet during a time when there was a lot of greed, a lot of injustice, a lot of false sense of security among God's people. Amos began to prophesy doom and the judgment of God toward Israel. And God gave him several visions concerning His judgment. One of the visions was the vision of the Plumb Line.

"Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me, 'Amos, what do you see?' And I said, 'A plumb line.' Then the Lord said: 'Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore'" (Amos 7:7, 8).

In other words, God has had enough of Israel's sin. The door of mercy was shut and He would judge them by His established Law of righteousness which became the reference point to His judgment.

This vision of Amos relates very much to the question of "Who we are?" because one of the most difficult things to do in answering the question is to find some reference point that will help us to know who we are. God's reference point is what we called a plumb line.

What is God's plumb line?

A plumb line is a measuring instrument. It measures walls; it measures a structure; it measures the force of gravity. A plumb line always hangs down.

What Amos said was, the Lord's people are like a wall that is out of line. And an out-of-line wall cannot stand but will soon come tumbling down. God is bringing a plumb line alongside His people to show them what they are really like. Right now He is putting a plumb line alongside Christians, measuring us to see what kind of wall our lives are like. And certainly He can find many of our lives very much out of line as well.

A plumb line is an interesting instrument because it measures something we call absolute. The law of gravity is an absolute law and so is God's Law. God's Word is His Law and is just like the law of gravity in the sense that we can never break the Word of God as we can never overcome or change the law of gravity. God's Law and God's Word will break us! If we are out of line with the Law of God we will break our heart (the inner man) and break our lives because the Law of God does not change - whether we believe it or not; whether we feel it is true or do not feel it is true. If you break it by disobeying His Word you will begin to destroy some area of your life because His Word is absolute truth.

The following passages of Scripture will help to clarify what I mean:

God said, "My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:20 - 23, NKJV, emphasis added).

Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63, emphasis added).

Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples in deed. And you shll know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32, emphasis added).

Here are some statements of truth:

1. There is a close relationship between God's Word and your heart. Your heart is your "inner man" where your spirit dwells. You must keep God's word in you heart (spirit). God's Word is Spirit and Life. Therefore God's Life is imparted to you when the Spirit of God touches your spirit through His Word. On the other hand if you forsake God's Word and disobey His Word and Law you will get sick and eventually destroy your life.

2. God's Word also gives health to you flesh which means health to your total physical body. This also menas you have no room anywhere for sickness. So you should enjoy good health if you keep on obeying His Word. And if you are sick in the body God's Word can heal you completely.

3. If you abide in (live by) His Word you shall know the truth about God and His truth shall make you free from all sorts of bondages in your life - past or pesent.

Finally, if your life is out of line of God's Plumb Line you must repent. Repentance means forsaking our old ways and turning back to Him and to His Word. It simply means coming back to be in line with His Pumb Line again - no matter how it costs you!