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Godly Identity--Living Who You Are June 29, 2009 By Matt LegereBeyond just
knowing who we are and who we are not, we need to be able to take
this God-given identity and walk in it. Galatians 5:25 says,
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
The Greek word for “walk” is “stoicheo,” and it means “to proceed
in a row as the march of a soldier.” The direction of our
lives should be directed by the Spirit of God. Stop Retreating If walking in
the Spirit is similar to marching as a solider, then one of the
first things to realize is that living out our purpose does not
include taking a defensive posture. Somehow, it seems that
a retreat mentality has crept into the minds of believers.
Somewhere we got this thinking that we are supposed to hold off
Satan as long as possible while singing “Hold the fort - Jesus is
coming-- and then, just when it seems that we can't last any longer,
Jesus will come back on a rescue mission and get us out of here.
While I can't
find that concept in the Bible, it is His desire that we would be
conquerors. We are not supposed to just be here to survive;
there is a mandate living inside each of us to have dominion.
We need to live with the authority that God intended and take a
warrior posture--one that allows us to overthrow the enemy. Manifest
the Kingdom of God In the Lord's
Prayer, Jesus gave us such a tremendous key in relation to revealing
His Kingdom on the earth, and that was to pray “Your Kingdom come.
Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” In
Matthew 10: 7-8, Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom by telling His disciples
to preach that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand and to “heal
the sick, cast out demons, cleanse lepers, and raise the dead.”
We have been
commissioned by God as ambassadors (see II Corinthians 5:20) to
represent Him to the world by bringing the reality of Heaven (the
will of God) to the earth. As you discover God's will for
you (and the planet), you will find that there are things in your
life and in the lives of those around us that have no legal right
to be there (i.e. fear, doubt, depression, sickness, disease, etc.).
In a recent
study on intercession, I found that in Roman history intercession
was a word used when a tribunal would veto motions or orders issued
in the Council that would have adversely affected the rights of
the people that they represented. As followers of Christ,
we represent the rights of the inhabitants of cities and nations
that, spiritually speaking, can't defend themselves and don't know
the rights that they have. If the enemy issues a motion or
order that our city will be held by depression, you and I as intercessors
have the authority and the responsibility
to veto that order and release God's intentions in
that city. When we intercede, we are acting as God's
legal representatives on earth to uphold and defend
the rights of people and cities in need of God. At
the church I attend, Haven of Hope, we are contending for a depression-free
zone. It's our prayer that people will drive into our city
and, perhaps for the first time in their lives, feel depression
lift from their shoulders. Depression is one of the many spiritual
giants that is falling in Framingham, MA, and I promise you that
there will be more! Bill Johnson
had this to say about the Kingdom of God1: “This should
be the primary focus of all prayer: if it exists in heaven, it is
to be loosed here on the earth. When we pray according to
the revealed will of God (to have what is in heaven brought to the
earth), our faith is very specific and focused. That faith
causes an invasion of the supernatural! It's in our DNA to
be like God. It was been written into our spiritual DNA to
hunger for the impossibilities around us to bow at the name of Jesus
Christ.” The Cost
of Inaction On May 8, 2009,
two Green Line trolleys rear-ended and collided underground in Boston,
MA. Instead of watching for the traffic signals, the driver
of one of the trolleys was busy texting his girlfriend and ran through
a red light. The crash injured 46 people and the estimated
damage was $9.6 million. Our inaction
always has a price. Contrary to popular belief, hesitancy
is not a fruit of the Spirit. If we are being hesitant
in pursuing God or in aligning our lives with His plan for us, then
hesitancy will both impact us in a negative way and will eventually
trickle down and impact the people we are supposed to reach with
the Gospel. There are people
who God knows might be sitting at your kitchen table in three months.
Will He be able to trust you with bearing His image to that individual?
To take dominion over the things tormenting them and preventing
them from being who they were always destined to be? Your Mission
(Should You Choose to Accept It) As we pursue
God, we find out who we are. Once we find out who we are and
the authority that God has for us, we can be Jesus to the world
and live out who He destined us to be. For instance:
Are you the
one or does the world have to look for another? © 2009, Matt
Legere --------- Matt Legere
resides in Framingham, MA with his wife Heidi and 2 kids (Connor
& Hunter) and is involved with a growing church called Haven
of Hope that is seeking to bring Heaven
to earth. He is thankful for the wisdom, instruction, and
patience that he has received from His family, mentors, and spiritual
leaders. He pretends to blog,
but he admits that the spammers are more consistent at it than he
is. End Notes 1. Bill Johnson: Face to Face with God Charisma House, 2007 |
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