I recenty listened to a lecture by Father Heyward Ewert, Ph.D., concerning our ability to really know ourselves. He had discovered that many, if not most of us, go through our lives never knowing who we are in Christ. In fact, we're usually just acting out what other people have told us about who we are.
I am always reminded that God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the count of every hair on our head. So, obviously we need to turn to Him when we get stuck. If you think about it, no family member or pastor or teacher has ever related to us that the fewest obstacles to our goals in life are attained through asking God in prayer and following His Word. As a consequence, we create a blended and distorted picture of ourselves, and this can open the door for Satan to reinforce who we aren't and elaborate on our mistakes and failures.
Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Continuous prayer in thanksgiving for his love and guidance assures our hearts that God is in control, and that Father knows best his will for our lives.
Jeremiah 29:12. "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me when you seek me with all your heart."
We could readily walk out a new creation by getting our old self out of the way and completely surrendering our will to the Lord's will. Through prayer, meditation on the word and Holy Spirit breathing on scripture, our old patterns of thought can be transformed through His word and transferred from the mind to the heart.
Knowing who we are in Christ is not a psychological understanding based on our past experiences where we have to figure out our destination. That actually holds us in our past. In fact, all the old memories can pass away and all things can become new when we think through God's word and then walk in that truth. With fear and trembling in trusting God, we can walk this out and experience the truth as we are transformed into the mind of Christ.
I believe God does point you in the right direction at an early stage of life when we are listening to his promptings. However, Satan attempts to destroy God's image at an early age for he is always prowling around to destroy our lives and keep us "wounded."
The kingdom of God supernaturally changes you. Our lives manifest in the kingdom first (supernaturally) and then in the physical. In the kingdom, you have to fall to rise; to die to self in order to live; to give in order to gain.
Paul's message in Ephesians 2: 4-10, informs us that we are already citizens of heaven and we operate using kingdom of God principles.
On his trip to Damascus - Jesus throws Paul down off his donkey (his fall); Jesus supernaturally transforms him from Saul to Paul, from death of self to life in Christ and from a murderer and persecutor of Christians to an evangelist, spreading the gospel and saving millions of souls. He grew into his spiritual citizenship through the opening of his supernatural eyes that had been blinded and steeped in the law. Thus, we actually see Christ carrying out in Paul, through the physical realm, what had already taken place in the spiritual realm.
We definitely need to listen to God first and foremost and less to other people's opinions. Praising, worshipping and acknowledging Jesus in every aspect of our life and, at the same time, serving others, directs us into the fullness of Christ -- like Jesus, serving and loving others first.
I think that is why Paul was grateful in his suffering with the Lord and likewise elated and rejoicing with him -- because, we like Paul, in knowing and walking Christ's path, have the opportunity to live out our lives in Him and for Him, Christians who have been called according to his purpose and to the glory of His name on earth.
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