“What happens upon salvation is transformation — a miracle in the spirit. Old becomes new. In the spirit, we are crucified with the Christ, and resurrection happens! You carry the Divine inside of you. You have three parts: Body (the physical earth suit), Soul (mind, will, emotions), Spirit (wall-to-wall Holy Spirit which can not be touched by the enemy).” Isn’t that wild? To experience that moment of enlightenment or illumination that allows us to connect with the Divine in such a new way that it completely transforms us. It’s a shift that causes how we view things to change. It causes us to react in ways that we might have never reacted before. The old is past, and we have entered into a new paradigm. It’s like in the scripture when Jesus is talking on the mountain side, and he starts laying out a completely new way of thinking… and living. Essentially, he is saying, “The old way is over… and I am giving you a completely new and upside down way of thinking and reacting. It’s going to change you to be more like me.” As we begin to walk that road with Jesus, our identity will undergo transformation as well.
“Being transformed is a revelation of who we already are in the spirit.”
Our true identity resides in the spiritual plane — far above the cultural, physical, and tangible realities. As we deeply seek a connection with the Divine, it is then we truly begin to understand the power of who we ALREADY are. It is the ageless struggle with our finite physical bodies — we are governed by day and night realities — and our desire for eternal connection. If you could actually separate your body from your spirit man, it would walk effortlessly with the Divine. But, because we are human beings, we tend to put so much more importance on what is happening in the physical.
“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” [1 Samuel 16:7] Looking at someone in the spirit bypasses the weaknesses and struggles of the flesh. When we talk about prophecy, we refer to words that edify and encourage, that speak to the spiritual identity that might just be hidden under the surface. Thus, mature prophecy is encouraging and calling up what is already in the spirit; who we were created to be. This stirs us up to choose this God who loves us. We all have great capacity for deviousness, negativity, and struggle, but who we are in the spirit is who we are each are becoming as we walk this journey and partner with Divine grace!
Many times when we start feeling feeling the pressure — of life, relationships, a global pandemic, jobs, finances — theres a tendency to try to “fix” whats happening around us. We want to control our environment the best we can. So we manipulate relationships to feel better about ourselves and “bring things back to normal.” The reality is that when we spend all our energy trying to change outside circumstances, we usually miss what is going on in our hearts. Right now, you could say we are in a time of trial. 2020 has been much different than anyone expected. How many times did we hear, 2020 vision… this is going to be an amazing year!
What if 2020 vision is actually about clearly seeing our spiritual identity?
This time is a crucible that is shaping, burning, and refining us so that who we are begins to come forth. Many of us are not functioning in our giftings right now. Think about athletes who haven’t been able to compete, singers who haven’t been able to put on concerts, and on and on the list goes. On a private level, many of us are struggling to figure out who we are — apart from our gifting. So we post pics of our interesting adventures and nicely put-together lives on social media in an attempt to normalize … but the truth is … it’s not real.
We are being called into lives of authenticity. We are begin called upward to be bringers of harmony and hope. That is what is meant by the word reconciliation. Dave Ramer says that we are Ambassadors of Reconciliation. St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, “We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” In essence, we get to the place where we recognize NO ONE according to the flesh — regardless of body shape, clothing, tattoos, gender, sexual identity. This is longer a reality of judging one another, but coming to a place where we are able to discern IN THE SPIRIT who they truly are. When we can look at people through spiritual eyes and know that they are valued, regardless of whether we think their opinions and decisions are potentially disastrous.
In the midst of life as we know it — with the insane politicization of wearing masks, conflicting information about viruses and cures, worship leaders and pastor claiming persecution and defying governmental orders, politics and the media taking every moment on the airwaves and inundating us day and night with misinformation, right and left bias — with all the uncertainty and crazy, most of us just want to chuck it all, move to the mountains and hope it will all just go away. It’s not going to go away. It will never go back to “normal” just like it never did after 9/11. That event shifted us as a culture and everything changed. So it is with this.
Which is why the invitation to the connecting with the Divine — Bob and Dave call it “the secret place” — can’t just be a talking point. For years we have been standing and praying for our region, nation, and the world from a little room in Osceola. We know that the zeal of the Lord for a place of prayer is significant. In the Psalms, David echoed that when he said in 69:9, that zeal for being in that place of prayer had consumed him. Connection to the divine in a private place is our choice. The necessity of “having oil” means that we are putting in the time to seek, study, draw close, so that when the hard times come, we can can confident and prepared; able to rise above the fray. The awesome thing is that the struggle to connect and live the life that Jesus spoke of on the mountainside is what causes us to know that we are on the right track. The struggle is beautiful. And so is the seeking.
Walking in the spirit is having knowledge of who you already are.
Dave Ramer gave the illustration of sheep and pigs. When a pig falls into a mud pit, it’s all about it. It wallows and lays there without a care. When a sheep falls into a mud pit, it struggles to get out as it knows it is not made to live there. The struggle to get out of the mud is ugly and beautiful but it is recognizing that you were not made for that. You were made for something more … and finding that is a journey of Divine discovery!
So may you know that even in the middle of the COVID and the crazy, that you are a hope bringer. You are a harmony maker. Your identity is so much more than what you see in the mirror! May you connect with the Divine in ways that bring you restoration and renewal. In the struggle, may you know that this trial is causing you to be stronger, more refined. And on this adventure, may you discover who you ALREADY ARE!
My thoughts, notes, and paraphrases from David Ramer’s message: Ambassadors of Reconciliation: Our True Identity — 8/9/20
Wow so good. That’s all the truth and where we need to always stand and live from.
If we could all grab ahold of truly living from our spiritual identity then the physical, man the potential and possibilities are endless.