Odd one out or visionary? (Godly identity)

So last weekend I had my issue focussed prayer ministry session from my local Restoring the Foundations team. The plan was to work through some of the issues that had come up during my time of darkness that I went through at the end of last year.

The core issues they identified were abandonment, victimisation, rejection and anger. One of the recurring lies that came up was:

I don't belong, I will always be on the outside

Now part of the ministry is to reject this lie and ask the Holy Spirit to replace it with Truth. But I really didn't see this as a "lie", just a sad fact of life.

Sure I have been told I was "leadership material" by a particular church but never given a role and in the end had to leave them to pursue what God had called me to.

Sure I have been told to stop ministering to people (despite the freedom that was being experienced by those I was praying for) because of .

Sure I have given prophetic words to two churches that were ignored but turned out to be true and had they heeded them it would have prevented their implosions.

It's been a repeated sad fact of my life. I just don't fit in the comfortable church mould - that's why my wife and I ran an organic church for 3 years. We catered to those who didn't fit in the box.

It is what it is. I wouldn't have said it was a lie.

But I trusted these two people ministering so duly repented and asked God to show me the truth as I really didn't get it. Here is the picture story I experienced in my mind:

I saw a vague path in a woods. As I asked about it I saw Jesus' hand extended towards me in invitation - so I took his hand to follow him and left everyone else around me. As I did so I found that I was actually stepping off of a treadmill to go with Him.

I followed the path until it came to some overgrown bushes - I pushed through and found myself in a clearing with an overgrown fountain. I cleaned off the moss and it started pouring out water. I drunk some and it was refreshing.

I asked "Is this it? Is this just a special place for me?"

I saw myself filling an ice-cream tub with the water and taking it back to those I'd left who were still back where I left them. As I poured out this water for them to drink they were all clamouring to taste. They asked me where I got it from and I told them.

So then we all set off together and hacked a wide path to the clearing.

There were now picnic tables there in the clearing and we all sat down to eat and drink.

To me this picture story opened my eyes to the truth of my identity. I wasn't an outsider - I am someone who goes places while they are comfortable staying in the same place. I am a pioneer, a visionary, a prophet, whatever you want to call it.

But stopping with me having a nice time on my own drinking the sweet water is not God's purpose for me. Visionaries aren't just meant to go off and do their own thing or "what God told them to do" - starting up a ministry on their own independent/outside of the Body of Christ.

We're not meant to think that we'll always be on the outside. That's a lie that Satan tells us to prevent the blessing spreading to others.

We are meant to bring back what we find to the Body of Christ and let them taste it.

Just telling them won't shift them. It is only when they taste and see that the LORD is good will they develop any desire to go beyond where they are currently happy at.

And then we will all go and occupy the new place that has been found and share God's blessing together.

Don't believe the lie that we don't belong and have to be separate to the Body - it's a lie to prevent blessing from being shared - it's a lie to prevent the Kingdom from expanding.

I do belong to the Body of Christ and I'm the nerve that communicates Jesus' dream of our future journey to the senses of the Body so that the whole body wants to move and go up to Zion together. Amen.

Calling out your child's true identity (godly parenting)

In a previous post on godly parenting we briefly mentioned prophetic calling out of our children.  I want to look at this topic in a little more detail here.

The classic example of this is the story of Gideon.  When the angel of the LORD appears to Gideon he speaks out his identity:

"The Lord is with you, mighty warrior" (Judg 6:12)

But hold on a second!  Where is Gideon when the angel of the LORD speaks to him?  He's hiding from the Midianites by threshing wheat in a winepress!  The angel calls him a mighty warrior when he is anything but.  Then the angel of the LORD (=Jesus) commands him to rescue His people but Gideon makes excuses:

"How can I save Israel?  My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." (Judg 6:15)

We can see that Gideon sees himself as small, weak, insignificant and doesn't see what God sees at all.  So God promises to be with him, but he needs a sign and brings an offering which is burnt up.

So Gideon now knows God, the creator of the universe, is with him and so everything's going to be OK, right? Wrong!  His first task: tear down his father's altar to Baal and Asherah pole

"But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime" (Judg 6:27)

So still scared.  Next task: raise an army.  But this is where he asks for two more signs with the fleece (Judg 6:36-40).  OK, so personal visitation by Jesus and three signs.  Surely he's not scared now!  Wrong!  And God knows this which is why he says:

"If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with you servant Purah and listen to what they are saying.  Afterwards you will be encouraged to attack the camp" (Judg 7:10-11a)

He does and hears one of the Midianites speaking of a nightmare and the other explaining that it was about the sword of Gideon...God has given the Midiantes and the whole camp into his hands" (Judg 7:13-14).  Only then does Gideon step into his destiny that God knew all along: the mighty warrior.  He routs the Midianites and slaughters them in an act that is recorded forever.

God saw who Gideon truly was and spoke it over him - he affirmed and called out who he was going to be rather than who he currently was.  This is the Spirit of prophecy - calling forth things which are not yet to become true.

Prophetic calling out is not merely encouragement nor the power of positive thinking but speaking the truth of their identity. 

I've had well meaning Christians who confuse prophecy with encouragement and thinking by saying something encouraging and adding "God says" on the beginning will make it more than that.  For example, my wife has a degenerative condition that means she is becoming more and more disabled both physically and mentally.  A Christian brother gave me a word that "God says you're going to have the best Christmas ever."  It wasn't - it was one of the hardest ones as my wife's pain level was so high that she couldn't celebrate much and my stress level was high trying to care for her and organise Christmas.  This word left a bitter taste.  Why would God say something like that which wasn't true?  

Prophetic calling out is speaking the truth of our child's identity.  Since Jesus is the truth (Jn 14:6) and the Spirit of prophecy bears testimony to Jesus (Rev 19:10) - ie it speaks truth.  So prophecy will speak of the truth of our children's identity - it will require us as parents to get on our knees and ask for God to open our eyes to the truth about our children.

Just like when the army of Aram surrounded the city where Elisha was and his servant panicked.  Elisha prayed that his servant's eyes would be opened to the truth - and then he saw the army of God encamped around and outnumbering the enemy (1 Kings 6:17).  Once they saw this truth then how he approached the situation changed as they knew that victory would be theirs.

Once Jesus reveals our children's true identities we can then affirm and call out who they will become in Christ and keep our eyes on the prize, the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2) who will finish the good work he starts in our children (Phil 1:6).

An example is my eldest son Josiah William.  My wife and I prayed over the nine months about the right name: Josiah means "YHWH is my healer" and William means "protector".  Given that my wife and I were infertile and despite treatments had no children until the church prayed for us, Josiah was the right name for our second child.  But whilst we saw a glimpse of truth, God opened our eyes to even more.  God became our healer through Josiah in two other ways: The hospital was clinically negligent with the delivery of our first child and the trauma of that was still fresh in my wife's mind.  But God brought healing of that trauma through the fact that Josiah slept almost solidly for a week.  There was no crying, just a baby that you could put down in any position and have him sleep.  The second way was that God brought healing to our marriage through Josiah.  As I mentioned in a previous post my wife had clinical postnatal depression and was put in a psychiatric ward and I had a nervous breakdown.  Our marriage never really recovered and we were sleeping in separate beds for some time before my wife packed the car and our little girl and drove to the office to tell me she was leaving me.  I so grateful to God that He helped me make one of the best choices of my marriage - I said I would do what it takes to fix this - I would even go on a marriage course.  And we did and it was the beginning of the turnaround in our lives.  And Josiah's conception was week 5's homework.

God gave us a glimpse of who Josiah's identity was - it was natural that we would sow into this and call out the healer and protector that God had made him to be.  One day I found myself saying "You know Josiah, God has made your someone who will protect other people's lives - and I believe that one day you will save your brother's life".  And it came to pass that he did when he pulled his brother out of the way of a car that was going to hit him.  God through Jesus revealed the truth about Josiah and I have the privilege to speak that truth and see the Spirit make it reality.

This is so much easier said than done as it's all too easy to limit our view to the present actions of our children rather than the future man/woman that they will become.  That's why we need the Spirit to help us see who they truly are going to be in Christ.  God didn't lose patience with Gideon and say "For goodness sake!  How much more confirmation do you need that I am with you?"  Why?  Because He could see who Gideon was going to be and knew it would come about.

May the Father speak to you now as you think about your own children.  May He reveal their true identity to you and may you have the persistence to keep on blessing the Spirit's work in your children by calling out this identity no matter how outlandish it may seem.  In Jesus' precious name.  Amen.