What Do YOU Have?

It’s amazing how liberated a small child can be to seeing what is in their hand as powerfully effective. Because they haven’t yet learned that who they are is limited, that stick in their hand is capable of defeating a foe, either as a gun or a sword. That toy truck can move a whole mountain of dirt, and they can cook breakfast on their plastic stove. They do quickly learn, though, the difference between their imagination and reality, as they begin to discover that who they are has something to do with their successfully using that thing that they have. To make music with an instrument, they will have to take on the identity of a musician and consistently touch that instrument with intentional purpose. To help bring healing to someone using a scalpel, they will have to become a doctor with a detailed understanding of the human anatomy. To triumph with the ball, racket, bat or club they must see themselves as the athlete who will do so long before winning their first trophy. What will bring worth and usefulness to anything they touch will have much more to do with a developed assurance of who they are than the object itself.

In Christ we are given a rebirth of identity that changes our perspective of everything we have. As who we are is found in the presence and declaration of the Lord, that thing that might have been useless and of little honor takes on triumphant worth. For David, as a circumcised child of the Most High, the otherwise useless sling and stone became a giant-slaying weapon. For Gideon, as the “mighty man of valor” the angel declared him to be, a pitcher, lamp and trumpet became weapons of mass destruction. All things become possible to those who believe so that what was once of little worth becomes effective for victory when activated by faith. A small seed produces a harvest and a simple word moves a mountain. Instead of conformation to the limitations of a worldly identity, we are continually transformed into who we’ve become in Him with everything we need for life and godliness. Ours is David’s same Spirit of faith that believes, speaks and sees the hand of God revealed in everything that is touched. The developed assurance of what we have in Him because of who we are in Him empowers all that is ours in Him for God’s glory.

Notes

From nothing in the natural to the father of nations – with identity

Genesis 17:5 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

From alone to a nation in an identity

Genesis 32:28 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

In declaration of identity – enabled God-empowered tools

Judges 6:11-16 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!” 13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” 15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” 16 The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

Born anew with a new identity

2 Corinthians 5:15-17 15 He died for all so that all who live—having received eternal life from him—might live no longer for themselves, to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them. 16 So stop evaluating Christians by what the world thinks about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, merely as a human being like myself. How differently I feel now! 17 When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!

Galatians 2:20 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

What we have that enabled David’s victories is the exact same Spirit of faith that speaks

2 Corinthians 4:13 13 We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith.

What we have is a mountain moving word when spoken in faith.

Mark 11:23 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

We have the mind of Christ by the Spirit/in the Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:14-16 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM?” But we have the mind of Christ.

What we have in Christ forever eliminates having nothing

2 Peter 1:3-4 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

What we have in a promise – its confession in hope

Hebrews 10:23 23 So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word.

What we have in Christ requires faithful attendance

Matthew 25:28-30 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This is who we are – will enrich all that we have

Colossians 2:9-10 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

A father said to his daughter “You have graduated with honors, here is a Jeep I bought many years ago. It is pretty old now. But before I give it to you, take it to the used car lot downtown and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they offer you for it.” The daughter went to the used car lot, returned to her father and said, “They offered me $1,000 because the said it looks pretty worn out.” The father said, now “Take it to the pawn shop.” The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said, ”The pawn shop offered only $100 because it is an old Jeep.” The father asked his daughter to go to a Jeep club now and show them the Jeep. The daughter then took the Jeep to the club, returned and told her father,” Some people in the club offered $100,000 for it because “it's an iconic Jeep and sought by many collectors.” Now the father said this to his daughter, “The right place values you the right way,” If you are not valued, do not be angry, it means you are in the wrong place. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you…...Never stay in a place where no one sees your value.

Overview:

Identity precedes knowing of and applying what we have.
Response to God’s declaration over us empowers what we have.
In Christ we have an identity that changes everything.
Our new identity is in the unseen realm of the Spirit and cannot be received in the natural.
When spoken from a heart of belief we have a word that will move a mountain.
In the Spirit we have the mind of Christ to see and identify with what is ours.
As a new creation in Christ we already have everything we need in the promises of God.
All that is ours is accessed by faith spoken and acted upon.
Will not retain what we have if it is not made to increase through faithful attendance.
We are a body that is complete in the fulness of God, knowing and living what is ours.

Prayer:

I praise You, Father, for Your incredible love and mercy that has brought me new life as a free gift of grace. As I come to You with confidence now, fill me with the revelation my new identity and all that is mine to be accessed and lived by faith for Your glory.

Declarations:

My spirit has come alive to a completely new identity in my reception of new life in Christ.
I no longer am limited to seeing just the natural, but have revelation of the eternal treasures that are mine.
I now access and live them by faith through words and actions that honor what God has declared over me.
I faithfully care for and increase in the honor of my treasured promises in Christ.
My hope in these promises is embraced with great expectation of increase.