God is — God does. Part 2 of 2
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17 NKJV.
We’re considering the thought that the I am of God comes before the I will. God is who He is, that’s is His Identity. After that, we have the things God does, that’s His activity.
Just before Jesus began His earthly ministry, He travelled to the Jordan to be baptized by His cousin John. As soon as He came up out of the water, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended, and God spoke.
Here we have the Father booming from Heaven some very important things.
It was a public, heavenly, authorised, declaration of the total love and care the Father had for the Son. AND, Jesus hadn’t done anything at all yet! He hadn’t turned any water into wine, He hadn’t cast out any demons, He hadn’t healed any sick, and He hadn’t raised any from the dead. Before He does any of that, God made sure that His identity was clear. He was accepted, approved, and completely loved.
Notice it says in whom, not with whom. In whom confirms identity, with whom confirms activity. Oh the security of Father!
But here’s the thing. Before Jesus began His ministry on earth, God the Father made sure He was secure in His identity. The Father made sure the Son’s identity was clear.
He was going to need that, as we read in the next chapter (Matthew 4), how the Devil tempted Jesus. But at the heart of it was the challenge to Jesus’ identity. He says twice, If you are the Son of God…. If the Devil did that to Jesus, then we can be sure he will do the same to us; he will try to steal our identity and rob us of it.
We too need to be fortified with this understanding. We need to know who we are, and have our identity settled. Because all that we do, in our service for Jesus will be challenged by the devil. Our very existence, our calling, our position with Christ, will be attacked and stolen from us if he can get away with it.
Has God the Father said this to you, This is My beloved son, or, This is My beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased?
This is the greatest revelation we can have. Do you know, that you know, that you know, that you are a son or a daughter of the Living God?
Before we do anything for Jesus we need to know who we are in His sight.
All through Scripture, and I am seeing this almost every time I open it, I see God reiterating His God-ness, who He is, before He does anything for His people. They needed to know in the midst of their issues, that God is God.
Here’s some examples.
I am the Lord your God.
- For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Leviticus 11:44 NKJV.
- “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘For I am the Lord your God.’ Leviticus 18:2 NKJV.
- You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: For I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Leviticus 19:36 NKJV.
- ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: For I am the Lord your God. ’ ” Leviticus 23:22 NKJV.
I am the Lord your God, occurs twenty-one times in the Book of Leviticus.
In all of the commandments for the people of Israel to do things, they were not to forget who God is. Our doing is inextricably linked to God’s being. If God wants to keep reminding us of who He is when He is commanding us to do stuff, then it must be important that we first understand who He is, so that we can understand what we do.
In all the activity of God in our lives, in the times of pressure, unanswered prayer, trial, and even in blessing, one thing He intends through it all, is that we would know that He is the Lord our God.
Have a look over some of the promises God has given you, and you will likely find that somewhere there in it, is the refreshing to us of the Identity of God, then the promise of what He will do for us.
So he said, “Tomorrow.” And he said, “Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. Exodus 8:10 NKJV.
Seven times in the book of Exodus, we have this phrase, that you may know, and then something about God being God.
That’s the way it is. First, there’s an understanding of His Identity, who God is, the I am. Then comes an experience of His Activity, what He does, the I will.
I believe it is the same with us. We first need to understand who we are in Christ, what our true identity is. Then, when we are secure in that, we can go and do the things He’s called us to do flowing from the understanding of our identity.
What a wonderful place to be! Secure in the arms of God our Father.
Settled and safe in the knowledge that we are God’s son or daughter.
