Identity - Part 1 'Personality and Character'

My Testimony

There was a time when i got really stressed about my identity, and the questions i feared the most when i was sat in meetings or lectures were the 'Who are you?' questions. It seemed to be this elusive answer that once achieved would set you up for life. We heard it so much at the beginning of lectures last year on Academy; 'Everything stems from your ability to understand who you are.' Now i know they were only looking out for us and trying to put us on the right path, but those sort of questions used to freak me out! I would be sat there praying they wouldn't pick me out, that they wouldn't ask any scary questions about identity because i was so sure it was obvious to everyone else that i hadn't found my identity yet!! They never did thankfully but it set me on a voyage of discovery about this ridiculous question that had us all quaking in our boots!

Now i may be the only person who used to have this type of extreme reaction to this sort of question, but God was obviously making it very clear to us about the desperate need to understand our identity. Especially when you as an individual and corporately as a church decide to put ourselves on the front line in front of the enemy who would quite happily tear our identities apart given the chance.

So i began asking different sorts of questions, i wanted to dig around this subject of identity and understand why it is the key to our development as 'progressing Children of God'.

• Why is this question about my identity so important?
• Why do i have such a problem answering it?
• Why do i have such an extreme reaction to the question - Is God trying to teach me something?
• What is preventing me from understanding this question?

Through a process of elimination i managed to understand my thought process behind my lack of understanding of the depth of this sort of question - The answer lay in my perception of the question and the reality of the answer.

My extreme reaction to someone asking me if i knew who i was, was blown completely out of proportion - i gave this question way too much thought time (which i tend to do a lot) The answer to THIS simple question is that i am a 'Child of God'. I found who i was in the book of Ephesians chapter 1. The Word of God literally jumped out of the page and told me that i am:

• United with Christ (v3)
• Loved and Chosen (v4)
• Holy and without fault in His eyes (v4)
• Adopted into God's family (v5)
• Free and Forgiven (v7)
• I have an inheritance in Christ (v11)

The main verse that struck me though was Eph 1 v 13. It explains very clearly that "When you believed in Christ, he IDENTIFIED YOU as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit"

WOW! Although this question was simple to answer, the ones to follow were more important to answer, but now i had a constant, i had the identification i needed to push through and develop an even deeper answer.

One of my lecturers Jason Gowland took us for a series of lectures on Faith Dynamics, which is interesting now i look back on it - Why should the development of our identity come under a lecture about faith?? He said something that has revolutionised my thinking on this subject.

"Your identity is so hard to understand because you've been living 2 very separate lives. A life that develops out of your Character and the life that develops out of your Personality."

This is why we sometimes feel like we're one person when we are alone with God but somebody completely different when we're out in the world.

When he said this i remember the atmosphere in the room changing, we all knew what we had just said was probably one of the most profound things we had heard that year. Yet we were all a little confused at what this statement actually meant. He followed it up with a question.

"Which is from God, your personality or your character?"

This stooped us for a while and i remember us debating both sides of both theories for a long time but inevitably looking to him for the answer.

Personality - is the person GOD created you to be

Character - is the person YOU create yourself to be

How then do we find out which attributes are from our personality and which ones are from our character?

In the book of Genesis it's very clear that we are created in God's image. the Spirit of God lives in us, that's why Ephesians 1 v 13 says that we are identified in Christ when he gave us the Holy Spirit. Our personality, or the person we were born to be comes out of the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of God that breathed life into the word of God, and it is there that we find our personality.

God actually gives us our identification in His Word. This doesn't however mean that we are all the same because the Word of God is the same - because it's how we live our unique lives through this word that creates who we are. This is how our Character interacts with our personality. We all have different dreams and plans for our lives, because we have our own understanding of our identification in Christ is designed for us and us alone. Our personality develops as we spend time with God, through His Spirit. We become more like God the more time we spend with Him, so our individuality is formed THROUGH the Spirit.

Our Character however has been learnt through our interaction with our world and the people in it. Our Character isn't bad, it's what makes us who we are and makes us relevant to the world we live in. The problem comes when our character starts defining who we are instead of our personality.

I want to look at the things that i found that shape our character and how they can prevent us from ever meeting the real person underneath.

• People in our world - family, friends, work colleagues etc - How we interact with them, what authority we give them to speak into our lives and how much of our identity do we pick up and conclude is true from them.
• Where we're from - where we live and the culture found there - We were all born within a particular culture, but it is this culture that can restrict our true personalities coming out as we draw our identity from the way we do things (tradition) rather than the way God wants us to do things.
• Our past - is one of the biggest factors to take into consideration when searching for the real you. How life situations in the past have dictated and defined your future - good and bad.
• Our current circumstances - where we live, work, go to church, go to school/college/uni - the life we choose to lead and the people we choose to be connected with will have a bearing on the person we become. That's why God says the more you draw near to me the more i draw near to you. You become like the people you interact with - FACT!
• Media - our perception of the life as we know it - Media holds so much power over the world, we need to be clued in to what we allow into our lives, some of it we can't change but we can choose to be wise to the type of media we let into our lives.

All these things are catalysts - they force us to adapt to the world we live in. What we don't always realise is that we have the biggest catalyst living inside of us - The Holy Spirit!

So... We need to learn to live within the world, allowing our character to change and develop without letting this over-ride our personality. How do we do this? By bringing everything back to the word of God - which holds the highest authority over all the earth. We almost need to list all the confirmed attributes of our personality with Christ against the attributes that come with our character, checking which ones enhance it and which ones hinder it.

We are responsible for defining our character, these are the things that are under examination in the Bible. Take a look at Galatians 5 - The sinful nature v the spiritual nature. We do have the ability to create and develop a true character as we live this life, it's one of the most important things to develop as this is what leads us to accomplish the work God has planned for us.

Our Character makes us unique when it enhances our Personality, but it is also the thing that will pull you away from your true God given personality if you let it.

So take a look at your identity and ask God to reveal the real you to you!!

Sammi

Take your EVERYDAY ordinary life and place it before God as an OFFERING

Yes that's right guys, we will be updating this Blog regularly throughout this term so keep checking back to receive awesome new teaching, daily focusses and handy hints from your youth team!

I want to open up this week with a focus point for you -

How much of your everyday, ordinary life do you place before God?

Romans 12 v 1 says "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him."

I've been really challenged by this over the past few weeks. If you didn't know already i had an interview for a new job last week, i was given the opportunity through a friend the week before, and the moment i said yes to her organising the interview i panicked! The interview was for a receptionist position at a solicitors firm here in Newport, and if you know anything about me you will know that this type of job is SO different from the job i had before. I used to work with horses and have done for the last 12 years, so the thought of working within a professional office environment freaked me out!

Why? Because it's so far out of my comfort zone and it will involve me learning a whole new set of skills.

This reminded me of the similarities with my first day at school, and i was prompted to share this experience with those of you who have gone into a new year of school, university or workplace recently (which most of us have!).

Did you know that God chooses to use our everyday ordinary lives for greatness??

We don't just need to work to pay the bills, or go to school or uni to get an education, we do these things so we can be apart of the world - to be living representatives of Jesus within these places. But every now and again we go through an experience that rocks our world, and we struggle to see Gods part in it because of how scary it may look or how uncomfortable it might be.
God LOVES these moments in our lives!! These are the times where he can truly teach you something about yourself! The times where you look to Him for your everyday needs because you literally couldn't even contemplate going through that day without him. That's what He's there for, He's there as a source of strength and comfort, He exists to give you everything you need to accomplish the greatness He has planned within your day!!

And if i'm honest i would have to confess that i knew all these things in my head, but i hadn't fully developed them into a way of living. God spoke to me the week before my interview when i was having a major freak out, and all He said to me was - 'Is my Word only good enough in spiritual matters??' In other words, why can i trust Him with my spiritual matters, those that run within my ministry and my daily walk with Him. Why can i trust Him with the massive visions and dreams He's placed on my heart without trusting Him with simple daily living like job opportuinities and interviews?

This really challenged me, because God was right (duh!) i'm quite happy to look at the dreams he's given me and trust him even though they're far outside of my capabilities, far outside of my sphere of influence, far bigger than me! But when it comes to the everyday stuff, the situations that don't seem to be completely God focussed i freeze up and get scared and worry about the outcome.

Where does it say in the Bible that God's guidance, help and strength only comes within spiritual matters? It doesn't!! Because God is a relational God, He wants every part of us, because it's within all the other parts of our lives that He can best use us to successfully reach other people.

So i prayed about it and explained how stupid i had been to only let God control my spiritual life, and since then i've noticed how much i need it!

To cut a very long story short i did get the job, and im currently sat at the reception desk learning all the new skills i need to, to become the best receptionist i can be. But it hasn't been easy! Just because i prayed to God to take control of every area, and surrendered all my fears and worries to Him didn't mean that life suddenly got easier. It actually got a lot harder, and im having to constantly rely on God's awesome power, strength and comfort to get me through every hour of every day. But that's why He needed to challenge me on it! To make me realise that i needed Him so much more than simply in my spiritual life. He knew the type of situations i would be dealing with and He knew how far out of my comfort zone i would be living in - so He equips me with everything i need for every moment of every day.

So i want to challenge you with the same question God brought to me -

Have you given God EVERY AREA of your life? Now might be the time to ask him to reveal the areas you havn't released to him, because you never know what next week may bring. And i for one want to follow the only one who does - so i can be thoroughly equipped for every good work! (2 Tim 3v16-17)

Check it out!!
And have AWESOMELY BLESSED weeks!!

Sammi

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