Discovering Your Identity in God: Seeing Yourself Through God’S Eyes

Copyright © 2012 Fikayo Olu-Ayeni.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-3164-4 (sc)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 05/03/2017

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Introduction

Chapter 1 Brand New

Chapter 2 Beloved

Chapter 3 Betrothed

Chapter 4 Forgiven

Chapter 5 Free

Chapter 6 In Him

Chapter 7 God’s Vessel

Chapter 8 His Sheep

Chapter 9 The Salt of the Earth

Chapter 10 The Light of the World

Chapter 11 An Heir

Chapter 12 A Son

Epilogue

Appendix : Saying Yes To A Relationship With God

Notes

To the Lord,

It is in Him that we are who we are

It is for His pleasure

And to the Church,

His darling bride for whom He intercedes

Whom He loves dearly and with whom He suffers long;

Till she is perfected

We Thank You Lord!

Acknowledgements

My heartfelt thanks to…

My Wife,

Kofo

Had I a hundred lifetimes to live

I would pray in every lifetime that God would lead me to you

Your devotion and words are a tremendous encouragement; I love you

Long may we serve the Lord together

My Daughter,

‘Han Olu-Ayeni

For being my companion through many late nights

You helped me complete this book’s manuscript

I love you little darling

My Parents,

Dad, Emmanuel & Mom, Folusho Olu-Ayeni

For depositing substance in me, the extent of which only eternity will truly tell

For offering your profound wisdom and support as I wrote this book

Praying always for me and loving me

My Parents in-law,

Daddy & Mommy Johnson

For raising the greatest woman on earth

For then giving me the privilege of being her husband

For believing in me, and being two of our greatest cheerleaders

Pastors Adesina & Kemi Adebisi

For being mentors to my wife and I

For going over and beyond in blessing us with your time, energy and substance

For teaching us by example what the true pastor’s heart is comprised of

My Brothers and their Wives,

Deji & Bukky, Dammy & Ope, Jimmy and Seun Olu-Ayeni

You folks are the best and you know it too

My Brother and Sister In-law,

Wale & Tinu Johnson

For being supportive and all-round awesome in-laws

Tinu being one of the first reviewers of my manuscript, providing me with helpful feedback

My Friend,

Dr. Elijah George

For being more than a true friend through thick and thin, praying with me and being real

You mean more to me than you know

Taiwo Oyeniyi

For being like a son to my wife and I

For following with us as we discover deeper depths and higher heights together in God

For encouraging me, praying for me and standing by me while I wrote this book

Aunty Eniola

For being a big sis, friend and prayer warrior to me

For encouraging me in finishing this book when my pace slowed

For wrestling with me whenever I got too comfortable with the status quo

The Church family at RCCG NewSong Assembly & RCCG New Wine Assembly

For being enthusiastic with me in our pursuit to know God and make Him known

For your patience with my many flaws and for bearing with me as we grow together

Francis Muriel and Meghan Brent

For your help in reviewing my manuscript

Sarah Girdley, Maggie England, Paul Hatley, Tyler Elliott, Christopher Wolford, Lauren Holmes

Along with all the good folks at Thomas Nelson’s Westbow Press

For your diligence with my manuscript and all the back and forth

God bless you all

Prologue

A n eagle would not be found slithering across the jungle like a snake because it knows what it is not—food. Similarly, a snake is not inclined to soar off the edge of a mountain and float away on air into the sunset because it knows it is not an eagle.

The question, who am I, is one of humanity’s most asked questions, a profound question that we have done so little to address. We struggle to define who we are; we equally struggle to identify who we are not.

I suppose that a good angle from which to introduce this book, would be at first to tell you what it is not. Then we must learn what it is, and then at last we learn its purpose.

This book is not an exhaustive manual of your identity in God, the Bible is. Although, this is the first in a series of detailed and carefully written volumes on this subject, this book serves to help you navigate through the Bible to discover who you are in God. Despite my efforts to be comprehensive—and I vow that I shall indeed try—some information will be excluded. Actually, we only scheme the surface of what one could imagine to be the eternally vast implications of our identity in God. It is my prayer that God’s Holy Spirit will fill in the blanks where this writer falls short and bring you to an ideal understanding of what He would have you know. A note of warning to the reader; be prepared to digest copious amounts of God’s Word in your time with this book and hopefully beyond. A second note of warning; the Word of God could be addictive, so prepare to get hooked.

This book in your hands is not a self-help book. These pieces of our identity are only attainable in God, with His help. They are too excellent to be within the scope and reach of imperfect humanity. Jesus said …without Me, you can do nothing (John 15:5).

I do not consider this book an academic read, but digesting the material may take some time. This is because it is in the primal nature of the Word of God to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. The Amplified Bible’s translation of this verse says that the Word of God is used to …refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God… (2 Corinthians 10:5, AMP). We commit our lives to some lie about who we are sometimes. We may build entire traditions on these false beliefs. Then we experience God’s infallible Word addressing those areas and suddenly, these falsehoods are knocked flat before the truth of God. This takes some getting used to.

You may see a need to adjust your perception of yourself and this requires deliberate action. In brief, prepare to be delightfully traumatized as the Word of God does the work of conviction, pulling down of lies, renewal and rebuilding in you. It is possible that the impact of God’s Word which you are about to receive in your time with this book will resonate with you throughout the rest of your life. As such, please do not feel compelled to rush through it. I’ve prayed, and still do, for everyone who reads this book to encounter God in its pages.

What is the purpose? To help you answer the age-old question, who am I? Maybe you have—like many others—asked this question. The answer in brief is this. You are a creature far more amazing and valuable than you realize. Herein lies the problem, because you may not realize the value of your identity, you are very likely not living up to it. This book is intended to awaken you to the knowledge and value of your identity as God’s child, your sonship. It is prayerfully intended to edify as many as want to take their faith to personally unexplored greater heights.

This book is intended to exhort both novices and veterans in faith, to profit all—theologian and layperson alike. For this reason, we will proceed in an ascending order of weightiness. With each passing chapter, we will explore greater depths.

So, I pray that Almighty God will open your eyes to see wondrous things out of His Word as you read the pages of this book. I pray that the Word of God will be declared to you with simplicity and received in the same. I pray that the healing touch of our dear Lord Jesus will heal you from all wounds inflicted on your heart from years of labor under lies about who you are. I pray even now, for the sweet Holy Spirit of God to embrace your spirit and reveal your God-given identity to you with simplicity far beyond what human words can teach. I ask all this, giving thanks to God for all He will do in us, in the matchless name of Jesus.

Affectionately,

Fikayo Olu-Ayeni

January 2013

Washington, D.C. Metroplex

Introduction

YOU ARE WHOM GOD SAYS YOU ARE

My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God chose you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all of God’s people.

I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for us followers. It is the same wonderful power He used when He raised Christ from death and let Him sit at His right side in heaven.

- Ephesians 1:18–20, CEV

P urpose and identity are inseparably conjoined. You simply couldn’t have one without the other. Because of this inseparable relationship between purpose and identity, an individual’s natural ability is tied to the identity of that individual as a whole.

A mop is used to clean moisture off the floor. That’s its purpose. Other tools may be used to clean moisture off the floor, but none does it quite like the mop because mopping is all that a mop was designed to do. Now imagine that you have walked in on a friend attempting to clean a wet floor with a broom and failing miserably at it. You would ask if there was a mop nearby and your follow-up question might be about whether your friend had recently suffered a head injury.

A lawn mower is not an electric hair shaver. If you were to walk in on the same friend attempting to shave hair with a lawn mower, what might you do? I’ll let you get creative with that one, but one thing is for sure, this time, you are likely to ask fewer questions before hastily dialing the emergency hotline.

You understand that by the sheer nature or identity of each tool, its purpose is determined. To have them do anything contrary to their identity would only serve to either amuse or alarm you. Similarly, you are able to understand your life’s purpose only to the extent that you understand your identity.

THE IDENTITY CRISES

To start with, let us define the word identity in two ways.

First, the identity of an entity is what it is. This is a most simple definition that I love; the simplest one I could muster.

Secondly, identity is the distinction of an entity in being itself and not another. If you prefer, you might say that it is the elemental tendency of a thing to resemble itself.

While these perspectives on identity are mostly accurate, this second definition faces a problem when applied to human beings. In the case of the mop or lawn mower, the maker or manufacturer defines both identity and purpose. It follows logically that with living creatures, the creator determines the identity of the creature. The crux of wounded humanity’s identity crises is a lack of knowledge of God, our Creator. Our creator holds the answer to who we are.

Beyond this, humans are created so specially that we could never really know ourselves outside of our knowledge of God our maker. Charles Spurgeon once said, It has been said by someone that the proper study of mankind is man. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead.¹

I think Spurgeon was quite right, the identity of the believer is to be found in God. However, as I study the scriptures, I am led to believe that as human beings, believer or not, we cannot know the truth about ourselves except we seek to know it in God. Here is why.

People are not like mops. In fact, people are not like other living creatures, we human beings were created altogether differently. Look at what the bible says about this.

It says that

…God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves … according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind … And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind… (Genesis 1: 21 & 24 emphasis added)

The Bible says that God created each animal with self-semblance, to resemble itself. It says that they were created …according to their kind… You see that this agrees with our previous consideration of identity as the tendency of an entity to resemble itself. The result of this is that the identity of each of these creatures is based on its own likeness, so that the snake acts and looks like itself while the eagle acts and looks like itself. Now look at what it says about the creation of humankind.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness …" So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1: 26 & 27 emphasis added)

When God made human beings, God did not do what He did with the other creatures. Human beings were not created with self-semblance (to resemble themselves) but rather to resemble God. The identity of the human was based on God’s own likeness.

So you see that we human beings have no image or likeness of our own of which to resemble. God has made it so that our identity is entirely in Him. How then can we know who we are if we fail to look to the One, in whose image we are made? We cannot define ourselves. We simply do not have that ability. As well said by Theresa of Avila, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God.²

When we try to define ourselves, we concoct a sense of identity based on race, profession, religion, societal status, sexual orientation, achievement, and so on—the list is possibly endless. On some level, we tend to believe that these define us, but this is only misdirection and identity confusion. A search to discover personal identity anywhere other than in God will end in either short-lived satisfaction or frustrating futility.

Given this position, we must find our second definition of identity—as resembling oneself—inadequate. We human beings have no likeness of our own outside of God. We must then consider a third and ultimate definition of identity.

The identity of an entity is whatever God says about it.

A CASE FOR THE BIBLE

The question then arises, How do I know what God has to say about who I am? My best answer to you, …by searching the Bible. Then you ask, How can I be sure about the Bible? There are many religious books just like the Bible, why not any of them? Well, I am glad you asked.

While this book’s purpose is not to prove the authenticity of the Bible as the word of God, I understand that it may be very helpful to take a brief moment to make a case for the Bible.

Although, I am sure that just about anyone could benefit from this section, I trust the Holy Spirit that this will be