Realize who you are
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
Faith Fitness
Bro. Sam Kaufman
God’s people are humble, but they should never feel inferior. Especially when God tasks them for a mighty work.
Those who know Christ are equipped with power to do exploits through Him and not their own selves. It is an amazing relationship to be a child of God.
When one comes to know the Lord, they become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
We’ve got to remember that nothing is impossible with God. He can do so much for, in and through His people.
God’s people need to realize who they are in Him. There shouldn’t be an identity crisis in forgetting we belong to God.
Sometimes God requires things that seem insurmountable to us, but when it is from Him, we can rest assured that He will accomplish it.
The children of Israel found themselves in such situations on various occasions.
When they were successful, it was faith in God’s promises that made the difference! We can have faith in God.
When we lack faith because we’re not close enough to Him, it becomes increasingly easy to forget who we are and come up short in what God desires to do with us.
The 12 spies who were tasked to scan the Promised Land’s landscape fell into this category – well, most of them did. Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit about them. Those two knew Israel was well able to take the land.
What about the other 10? This was their report: “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” –Numbers 13:33.
Their problem was their own skewed perception concerning themselves. The fight was over before it started, so to speak. That’s the way the enemy works. He’ll get us fixated on the issue at hand and our inability to deal with it through ourselves, all the while forgetting that God is with us and what God has promised in His Word.
In the heat of the moment, it can be easy to enter that mindset and allow fear and intimidation to creep in.
You are not a grasshopper-sized being when you know God. That mentality will stymy God’s efforts in His people.
It is quite the contrary – we are more than conquerors in Christ. We’ve got to be aware of falling into the enemy’s trap of thinking otherwise.
The pitfall God’s people enter at times could be described by two words – deflated and inflated. Both those words are perceptions of oneself that the enemy attempts to insert into our minds and hearts.
Sometimes we feel too small in ourselves – like a grasshopper. Then, there is the opposite end of the spectrum when we get too big of a head – becoming prideful in ourselves that we are something.
Both those mentalities are tricks of the devil that need to be avoided.
Deflated is defined as having suddenly lost confidence or optimism. The 10 spies got their eyes off of God and onto themselves. When they did that, all optimism and confidence were gone.
Inflated is defined as being excessively or unreasonably high. That can be the opinion of ourselves when we also get our eyes off God and think we are something in the flesh.
King Saul entered that realm when he felt obligated to offer a burnt offering when that role solely applied to Samuel, and Samuel had not arrived yet.
It could be said that Saul became big in his own eyes to take on a responsibility from God that was not his own. He became inflated within himself.
Self must be subdued before God to get anywhere. Self-consciousness is not of God.
David was right on the mark (no pun intended) when he encountered Goliath. The young shepherd realized he was a mere instrument of God, and that God could accomplish a mighty work through him and his submission to God. The sufficiency lied in God and was for God’s purposes. David was simply the vessel to be used.
David completely grasped that concept and triumphed.
All the mighty Israeli soldiers were shaking in their shoes at Goliath’s beckoning. They forgot their identity as God’s people. A little shepherd boy reminded them.
“Then said David to the Phillistine (Goliath), Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied.”
Soon after, Goliath dropped from a mighty shot to the forehead.
