If there is anything the devil wants to destroy, it has to be our identity in Christ.
When Jesus was led into the desert and was tempted my Satan, he said: “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down” (Matt 4). If you are bold and want to do something for God you will meet resistance! You will often be confronted with this attitude: “Who do you think you are?” This thought and attitude is very strong in Scandinavia. We have something called: The law of Jante. (Don’t believe that you are anything, mean something or that you can contribute anything, etc.)
Some think that it is very spiritual to claim how weak and poor they are in themselves, like Gideon did. He said: “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." But this is not the way to freedom. Many Christians confess that they are only dust, often quoting Scripture, but they usually take it out of context. One is from Psalm 103:14.”He remembers that we are dust.”
This Psalm is actually about how great God is. It tells how He keeps his promises, how great He is compared to us, and how He created something beautiful out of something as worthless as dust. If this dust thought pattern influences you, you will think that you are not valuable for God, because dust is not worth anything. This Psalm is not about how small we are, but how great God is. He made us out of dust, but when He did He also said:
Gen 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
In the beginning, Moses did not know his identity in God. In Exodus we read what he said when God called him to go to Pharaoh.
Ex 4:10-14
10Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
11The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
13But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
14Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well.
Some believe that they have to confess their weakness just so they can stay humble. But to be focused on your own weakness is just as much sin as having pride. In both cases you have the focus on yourself and not on God. To stay humble you have to remember that without God you would still be dust. Your gifts and talents are all from Him, so what you want to do is to use your gifts in the best way so He can get the glory, then you also, in a way, are giving it back to Him.
What is very tragic is that I have met so many people that have a lot of talents and gifts given by God, but they are too focused on their weaknesses, so they don’t use them as well as they could. Break down the power of inferiority so that God can use you the way He wants. Be aware of the One that lives within you. He has power and dominion over all powers and dominions. Nothing is impossible for Him! When you got saved God moved inside you, you have His power within you. Paul writes to the Ephesians about this.
Eph 3:16-21
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
David was a person that knew his identity in God. When Israel was at war with the Philistines, David came to the frontline to give food to his brethren soldiers.
David was only a shepherd boy, but when he heard that the enemy was mocking God, he became very upset.
1 Sam 17:26
26David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
David had the urge to go and fight this enemy, but King Saul, his brethren, and the others did not have faith in him. Here you see the principle that if you do something for God you will meet this attitude: Who do you think that you are?
1 Sam 17:33-35
33Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
34But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
David did not give in to what others said, because he knew God, His might, and his identity in God. With this faith, he fought the enemy and won!
42He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. 43He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44"Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"
45David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."
Do you want to be a David, focusing on a mighty God and not your weakness, your difficult circumstances, your past, yourself and all your problems? I want to be a David! I don’t always manage to live by it, but I want to, and I will do much to try to live by it. The devil doesn’t want you to look at yourself this way, but remember these truths:
