All of us base our identity on something. If our identity is not based on who and what God said, and on the cross, we will have an identity crisis. All identity problems are worship problems. They are really the result of worshipping the wrong things. In Ex 34:14 the Lord says, Thou shall worship no other god, for the the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God.
In order to recognize who or what we have based our identity on, we have to recognize who we are worshipping. Who or what have we set up as an idol or as god in our lives?
1-Who is God in our life?
God allowed Job to be stripped of anything and everything he could potentially base his identity. It brought him to confront who was god in his life.
Job 1:21 Job says, naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return… the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. What was left was God had his rightful place. He was God!
2-Who do you fear?
In Job 3:25 Job says for the thing which I greatly fear is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. When God allowed Job to be stripped, it exposed what Job feared. Job recognized that his fears became an idol in his life. He had to decide who was going to be god in his life. Was God almighty or were his fears bigger than what God could handle? It caused him know God as his redeemer and that his Redeemer liveth! Job 19:25
3-Have we just heard or have we seen God?
When God allowed Job to be stripped and naked, it went from just hearing about God (Josh9:9.) We have come because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard of his fame) to encountering him face to face. Job 42:5 Job says I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Unless we are willing to encounter him, we will not know God. It’s just hearsay, someone else testimony.
Will we strip, bare ourself and allow God to dismantle all the the things we have based our identity, our security on in order to give him his rightful place in our lives?
As you choose to sanctify yourselves to meet with God discuss and answer the following questions:
1. What would your response be if one day you find yourself with no job, bankrupt, family all gone in an accident?
2. Is there an area of your life you are resisting the conviction and the disrobing by the Holy Spirit?
3. How can you go from hearing of God to seeing him with your own eyes? What needs to be removed from you, or changed for you to encounter God. What needs to die so you can see the Lord?(Is6:1)
