Embracing our true identity guarantees living in a new reality. Paul wrote several times in his epistles to the churches about the life that we, the believers, ought to live before God and before the world – we are ‘in Him’ and ‘Christ is in us’. For God, there is no other way He will ever treat us and relate to us but in and through Christ alone.
Here are some of the reasons: God has accomplished His Eternal Purpose in Christ (Ephesians 3:11), in Him He chose us before the foundation of time (Ephesians 1:4) and our lives are hidden in Him (Colossians 3:3) and that in Christ we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).
Jesus talked of this reality to His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion. He told them to “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4). There is no other way to live our Kingdom life but to always abide in Him. We can never experience the fullness of the Kingdom of God apart from remaining in Christ – in spirit, in consciousness, in desire, in heart and in an organic, living and intimate way. As for the Father, what is true with His Beloved Son is true of us because we are in Christ. It is therefore illegal for us to ever think of any thoughts or imagine ourselves contrary to God’s intent and love towards Jesus Christ.
In John 17, Jesus closed with this statement packed with great revelation, “I have declared to them Your Name and will declare it, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Jesus declared the Name of God to them- ‘Abba’ Father. And He promised to continually declare (reveal) it to them. God is so much a Father to us as He is to Jesus. And because of this, the perfect love of the Father towards His Beloved Son is toward all of us His children – in the same depth, measure and intent. Pause for a while and meditate on that one. Our finite mind could only infer the surface of this revelation of the Father’s great love to us.
And because of this love, Christ resides in our innermost being by the Holy Spirit. No wonder Paul prayed, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19). The Father’s Love is the master key to experiencing the fullness of His Glory.
The eagle is the king of the air. It is known for its ability to soar above the storm. With sharp vision it can spot its prey from miles away. Covered with majestic feathers and armed with powerful talons, they are designed to perform extraordinary feats.
Several times in the scripture the eagle is mentioned as a metaphor to describe God’s nature and intentions. Speaking to the nation of Israel, God said, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Exodus 19:4. Likewise, as believers, we are likened to eagles. We can read in Isaiah 40:31, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
We all go through seasons in life like eagles. Every season has its promises, challenges, and blessings. Molting season for eagles is that time when they shed their feathers, their vision blurs and their beak and talons break off. It is one of the most painful times in an eagle’s life. It is a death process. However, it may seem an end but it is actually a renewal process so they can lead a longer life.
I went through a molting season in my life. It was a difficult time that affected all aspects of my life including my ministry. It was a life-defining transition point for me. It is my desire to share to you some of the nuggets of wisdom that sustained me through my ‘dark night of the soul’.
What do we do when we are in the middle of molting? I find great inspiration from David’s experience. David’s molting season came abruptly. One day he was in the courts of the king the next day he was a fugitive and an outcast because King Saul, driven by jealousy, wants him dead. David escaped to the wilderness of Judah and found refuge in the Cave of Adullam. That was his molting spot. During the hardest of times, when everything is being stripped away, the core of David’s heart was revealed. Like a flint, He postured his inner being towards pursuing God no matter what his external circumstances may have been. And this is what sustained him in his molting- he learned to navigate the hardest season internally. We see a glimpse of this in Psalm 63 that he wrote during the chase with King Saul.
- Divine Desperation
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (v1)
We can just imagine David exhausted from running, thirsty, emotionally drained and alone inside a cold cave. Yet despite the hostile environment, he cried out to God in desperation, not for food, safety or a softer bed, but for the ultimate desire of his heart-His Presence. Desperation is a raw expression of a deep longing for God from a place of humility, hunger and total dependence. With his heart, David used his external circumstance to push him deeper into God’s presence. Divine desperation aligns our internal reality with the eternal reality of heaven. When this happens we are transformed to bring transformation to the world around us.
- Remember your history with God
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and glory. (v2).
David’s desire is to pursue God no matter what. Growing up he’s had moments with God that marked him for the rest of his life. In the most difficult time, David remembered his history with God of how, in the secret place, alone in the wilderness, he played his harp for the One, standing in His sanctuary and beholding His power and glory. When we don’t know what God is doing in the now, our history with God becomes a clear compass to where He is leading us next.
- Lift Him Up
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. (v3-5)
We praise God all the time, especially during hard times. Praise and worship help us focus on who God is and who we are to Him amidst our circumstances and failures. When we declare His character in the midst of our difficulties, we are aligning our whole being to His heart and affection toward us. As we keep our heart in the right position we find ourselves empowered by His grace and encouraged by His goodness. We begin to see from His perspective not ours. This will keep our heart in the right place through the uncertainty and pain of molting.
- Rest in God
When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy. (v6-7)
In rest, silence and solitude we become more aware of His Presence. Rest positions us to hear and receive from Him. This is so important because oftentimes when we go through difficult seasons we react in a number of ways: escape, isolate, fight or blame others. To meditate on Him is to be immersed in Who He is and understand that He is with us and for us. Rest is making room for God to work a work that He only could do in us and through us.
- Hold On
My soul clings to You; Your right hand takes hold of me. (v8)
During the difficult times much of the work of God happen deep in us. During those times, His promises and His Presence will be our sustenance when we don’t have the capacity to see what’s ahead and the confidence to continue. His Word will be the bedrock on which we anchor our hope in the midst of the storm. What a revelation David had about this, that when he clings to God with all that he is, he sees himself embraced with His mighty hands. No wonder he ends his song declaring, “But the king will rejoice in God.” (v11) Who was the king he was referring to? Certainly, it wasn’t Saul. Nothing has changed, he sees himself the anointed king although there was no throne at all inside that dark, cold cave. He was king by heart. God said it and he hold on to Him and His promises. Nothing and nobody could change that.
When I went through my molting season, I was desperate and broken. I was doing ministry for 16 years. I’ve seen many amazing things that God did through me in the past. Yet during that period I felt I was fading, passionless, helpless, exhausted from years of striving. But all that shifted in one moment of encounter with God, in May 26, 2006. I was attending a conference with my wife Ahlmira. It was the first time we heard Leif Hetland who later on became our spiritual father. Through the revelations from his messages on the Baptism of Love, The Three Chairs and the Molting Eagle, our eyes were opened. We experienced a powerful impartation that moved us out of the molting season renewed, revived and transformed. He prayed over us and we received a life-changing baptism of love that continuous to come to us in waves. It’s been 14yrs from that moment and we are still overwhelmed by all that happened in us and through us since that molting season that prepared us for a life-altering powerful encounter with the Father. Indeed, the deep work God is doing in us during the molting process prepares us for the greater work He’s about to do in the next season.
Our identity as sons and daughters of the King through Christ affords us full access to everything that is in the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, ” Do not be afraid My little children for it is the Father’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”(Luke 12:32) Not just a part of it but all of it. All that is in heaven is wrapped up in our inheritance.
Our inheritance is what we administer to this world to transform it. In love, we serve the world and release heaven’s reality to earth. Paul wrote in Galatians and said, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:6-7). From our innermost being comes out the cry of the Spirit of the Son of God. It is the cry for union, for intimacy, for revelation of His glory in and through us!
As we allow the Spirit to lead us deeper into God we experience the eternal union of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in perfect love. Jesus prayed for this reality saying, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:21) Our being one with Him awakens the world into faith – that the Father sent Jesus.
There is another cry resounding throughout the ages. Paul wrote in Romans that “For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God…the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” (Read Romans 8:19-22). As we embrace our true identity as sons and daughters of God and live in and from Christ, the creation finds freedom from the bondage of sin and corruption. The groaning is for our revealing — to finally live in the newness of life, the new reality in Christ. The Father has set us up to transform a world prepared and longing to see the glory of Christ in us!
May our lives reflect and demonstrate the new living reality we have in Christ. Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away behold new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) May everything we do show the world that indeed Christ is in us and that we are in Christ.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:4-10 NASB
Grace is God’s gift to mankind. It is never earned by works but it is received by faith. God’s grace has multiple facets like a beautiful diamond. While we were yet sinners God demonstrated His grace. This is His unmerited favor that Christ died for us. We don’t deserve it but God gave His Son to die for our sins and bring us back into a living relationship with Him by the blood of Jesus. In Christ, He also raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly places. His grace did not just save us. His grace brought us back to glory!
It is by His grace through faith that we receive and inherit glorious state and identity in Christ. Without grace, we are hopeless creatures separated from God and headed for eternal judgment. His grace gave us a new life, a new identity, and a new reality! We now live from the reality of heaven as we face the challenges of life here on earth. We are no longer slaves to the forces of this world. Victory is assured for His grace is enough.
We are His workmanship of grace and we have a glorious destiny that lies ahead of us we are now fashioned unto good works prepared by our Good Father. Oh, the depths of His wisdom and His love towards us!
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Amazing Grace by John Newton
Let the favor of the LORD our God be upon us; and confirm for us (or give permanence to) the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands. – Psalm 90:17
The favor of God upon us turns our ordinary works into extraordinary exploits. Any prosaic task has the potential to become a transformative and divinely inspired endeavor with God’s favor. The mundane can become a platform for the miraculous.
With God’s favor, a typical work becomes a catalyst for His mighty works. We see this in David who signed up to bring lunch to his brothers and ended up killing the giant who has been holding up God’s army. The poor widow who is down to her last cup of flour chose to bake bread for the prophet first, and the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry until it rained. The paltry meal, just five loaves and two fish, from the little boy’s hands fed a multitude and the remaining food filled up 12 baskets. These are stories that inspire us and invite us to live the life that He intended for us.
When we have the favor of God upon us, we are positioned to partner with the Holy Spirit in bringing heaven to earth. We are favored and blessed so that the world around us will be transformed by His influence in and through us.
When the favor of God is upon us, the outcome of our works is tilted towards permanence. The temporal becomes empowered by His eternal grace. What our hands touch, our works under God’s blessings, no matter how small it may seem, has the influence and imprints of heaven.
