Lord, help us to change our battle plan for the defensive to the offensive.

We are in the midst of a crisis of identity.

I was talking to a family member this week, trying desperately to “understand” and discern truth. What I understood after that conversation, is that we ALL have a lens through which we view the world, our traumas and injustices, and our own personal story. The LENS doesn’t determine truth and yet our “perspectives” (our own ways of understanding the world around us) infiltrate deeply into our identities and how we perceive what is going on around us.

What is truth? Unfortunately, I feel like this definition is highly skewed (incorrectly so) by our own perspectives, our own stories, and our individual world view; it is also heavily influenced through the media, culture, and our own communities. How we EACH look at the issues at hand today, will be filtered through those things. And yet, truth, real truth, is exactly that – TRUE.

As believers, what is our responsibility?

For if you embrace the truth, it will release more freedom into your lives.” (John 8:32 TPT)

…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32 NASB)

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:13 NASB)

TRUTH is our mandate, it is our hope, it is the anchor to which our faith is held! And I do believe that the only lens through which Truth can clearly be discerned is through the lens of our triune God!

As I consider and ponder and have conversations, I believe the lie that is being bought is that any one of us is “less than”. The reality that is being played out on a daily basis may in fact mean “perspective” is different because the actions around one are “affirming” a false narrative (this goes even beyond color; think about any negative words that have been spoken over you that you have taken on as your own). BUT, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I believe the TRUTH we need to buy into/partner with is what the Lord says about us. Our identity needs to be firmly established in HIM! Period.

You see friends, if you move forward carrying the mantle of being “less than” you will operate from that place, from a poverty spirit. You will carry the weight of something that is not yours to carry. The enemy of this world seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). He wants you to feel pinned down, crippled, inferior, overcome, defeated, hindered… He wants you to live a life battling “the lie” (even when it is brought against you in action), for when we battle that way, it is almost like we are fighting with one arm held against our back. We are hindered by not fighting with all the facts on the table.

Priscilla Shirer flips the conversation by talking about our salvation inheritance (rather than a poverty spirit):

“If (we forget the benefits of salvation) we’ll likely live a lifestyle well below our actual means. We’ll live within the meager restraints of our earthly resources instead of cashing in on the wealth of our Father…Understand that living in light of this salvation inheritance enables you to not only stop living below your spiritual station in life, but it also protects your mind-set, lifestyle, and the choices you make. All of that will now be based on your wealthy spiritual income status. All this new way of looking at things will begin changing the outcome of the battles you face against the enemy, deflecting all his attempts at thwarting you from reaching your destiny.” (Priscilla Shirer, “the Armor of God”)

…since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 HCSB)

When we walk with the confidence of who He says we are, we will overturn all the lies and barriers coming against us (with truth) – we will instead be overcomers who change the atmosphere everywhere we go, simply because we carry His presence. The truth is we are HIS, we belong to Him! And how dare anyone come against any of us and tell us we are less!

It doesn’t mean we won’t walk through minefields; it doesn’t mean you won’t battle stereotypes, racism and simple ignorance. When we walk with the confidence of our identity in Him, it will not only affect how we carry ourselves, it will also affect how others see us! We can allow the lie to define us (believe me, I spent years buying into certain lies) or allow HIM to define us!

Yet even in the midst of all these things, we triumph over them all, for God has made us to be more than conquerors, and his demonstrated love is our glorious victory over everything! (John 8:37 TPT)

Our battle cry needs to lift up identity!

The forces of dark and light are fighting. They are battling for the core of who we believe we are. They are battling for unity, for the Church. They are battling for the VOICE of the triumphant to be LIFTED HIGH!

Nate Johnston says it far better than I could:

“This is the secret. We are called to raise our voices right now, more than ever before. We are called to war and to be the restorers of the streets and injustices, but if we go to war without drinking, empty and without oil, we fall into the trap of enlisting for a diversion of the fight we were created for. It’s less popular, but let me ask you this: Who will drink right now? What sources of sustenance will you drink from in this time: Media or Heaven? One has solutions—restoration, justice, peace and power—and the others don’t.” (Nate Johnston, “God is Revealing and Exposing the Works of the Enemy”, the Elijah List)

Will the Church stand up on the wall? Will we be night watchmen as we press in and pray for truth to be lifted high? Will we speak truth even when it’s misunderstood, and our words are maligned? It’s time the Church find her strength, her voice, and her authority like never before. We can no longer afford to stay silent. Lives are at stake. The future of our culture and the Church is at stake.

We need to create the framework for identity that speaks life, promise, hope and truth. We need to feed others the meat of His Word so we know how to STAND UP. We need to press in to the good report of being redefined by HIM!

Think of the twelve spies who went to explore the Promised Land. ALL saw the beauty and promise set before them, but ten of the men were consumed by the “giants” and the “strength” of the city. Two men, Joshua and Caleb, had God-sight. They looked through the lens of the Lord and were able to “see through” their fears (read Numbers 13 and 14).

In the story, the spies brought back their report of “the land flowing with milk and honey”, but the people were so fearful and consumed by the bad report, that they in fact cried to go back to Egypt – where they had been enslaved! The unknown giants before them, the fear of death – all when it hinged on a good promise from the Lord – paralyzed them and kept them shackled rather than delivering them into the Promise! Their terror kept their eyes on their circumstances rather than the God who is “more than able”!

As believers, living this side of heaven, we have to battle any mentality that keeps us ensnared to our old way of living – our pre-Christ life. He has promised us a transformed life, as we seek to live as citizens of heaven rather than of this world. Who are we allowing to define us? The world, the media, our community, our family, our friends…or our God???

It only takes the smallest misinformation to infiltrate the narrative that our sight becomes ever so slightly skewed. The Israelites were stuck – “to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers and so we seemed to them”. Their perspective/their lens kept them from seeing with God-eyes. They saw themselves as “less than” and thus perceived their world through this same filter.

They were “separated” from the good report, because of their own fears, doubts and insecurities.

We’ve been given freedom in Christ – He has broken our chains and set us free from bondage. We are just like the Israelites at times, thinking somehow it’s better to go back to our slavery/the narrative that says we are less than rather than embrace our NEW IDENTITY in Christ Jesus.

Our freedom has been bought and paid for – done! And yet so often there is the fear of “we’ll forget” where we came from, the high cost of our ancestors, our family or cultural identity – if I embrace this “new identity”. We have to trust that HE is for us, calls us to higher ground, and has come to set the captives free. We are called to step in and leave the narrative behind – the narrative that says we are anything less than who HE says we are!

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live… (Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV)

Let’s rewrite the story – “I am who you say I am”! Let’s flip the script and speak the good report! Let’s change our battle stance from the defensive to the offensive! We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus!

Article originally published at IFApray.org as “Keeping Our Eyes On Jesus, a Word for the Church”