Hidden Identities: Fully Formed

What feels like suddenly, we’re at our thirteenth and final week of our series, Hidden Identities. We have acknowledged that living in this world and in our own bodies can confuse us. We can wander the earth, wondering who we are and why we’re here.

All that the world values, all that the flesh desires, and all that our enemy hopes to accomplish work against the truth: We are. God’s. Beloved. However, it’s one thing to know this is true; it’s another to live from this truth, which is why every week of this series we have paused our busy lives to put our focus on our Father in heaven, to see what He has to say about who we are:

• His Daughters – we’re in His family; we bear His name. 
• His Beloved – we’re known by Him and dearly loved. 
• His Children – Everything that is Christ’s is ours, including an intimate relationship with the Father. 
• His family – We belong. We are safe and secure. We are made new.

All of this is truth. And if we’ll keep learning from the Father, strengthening our relationship with Him, and allowing Him to bring definition to our identities, we will be transformed. We’ll be made more like Christ, formed into our True Selves – whole and holy, full of passion and purpose.

Being Formed: It Starts With Knowing

Transformation often begins with knowing significant information. For instance, in order to better know who we are, it’s best to know the One who created us. And we already know so much… 

• His character – holy and righteous, loving and good and full of grace
• His roles – Protector and Provider, Creator and King
• His heart – to be in relationship with us!

As we read His Word, spend time in His presence, and observe Him at work in the world around us, we see Him more fully. The more we know our Maker, the better we’ll know ourselves – for we are made in His image. In other words, we want God to be our main Influencer.

To better know who we are, it’s also important to become aware of all the not-so-holy influences on our lives:

• Voices of people who are and have been in our lives speak volumes into our beliefs about who we are; their words and actions often tell us we are what we eat or wear or accomplish or do… 
• Values of our culture seep into our psyches, as varied as they are: ‘You’re worth it; you’re not enough.’ ‘Success is education; success is children; success is money.’ ‘Truth is what you say it is; truth is what I say it is.’ ‘Faith should be in a person or yourself or a political party or a doctrine…’ 
• Veneers that the world puts up look pretty or shiny or valuable, and they draw us into their charms, causing us to pursue them – the title, the corner office, the perfect family, the biggest house – until we become more about image management than identity formation.¹ 

All of these influences – and more! – have a role in making us who we are, for better or worse. With each voice and value and veneer that has come our way, we have responded. We’ve built corners of our identities around them. It’s what we do. 

Modern psychology would say that with every childhood and life experience, we add another layer to who we think we should be until at some point in our adult lives, all the self-protective masks and walls and learned-responses begin to fail. What worked for us as kids, no longer does. And that’s why it’s so important for us to take the time to uncover all the influences on our identities – to acknowledge every fingerprint on our assumptions, mindsets, and views of the world and self. 

And this looks like peeling back all the layers we’ve built up over the years. We want to understand our motivations, underpinnings, and beliefs. Often this kind of work requires someone trusted to help us walk through the layers – a counselor or therapist, a pastor or spiritual director. 

Often we’ll have some work of ‘unlearning’ to undertake, which can look like identifying a false narrative or assumption while giving God’s truth space to replace or reshape what is false into what is actually true – even about ourselves. 

Friends, we must be aware that we are always being formed – if not by our Father, then by someone else. If we’re not discipled by Jesus, we will be discipled by something else. When we are shaped by:

• the ever-changing views of society, our bodily vessels will reflect its shifts and inconsistencies.
• political rhetoric or prosperity gospels or people who desire to manipulate us, we will become bowls, empty of our own thoughts and God’s actual Word. 
• ads and media that tell us we will never have or be enough, our cup will always seem half-empty as our scarcity mindsets keep us striving for more. And more.

But, when we put ourselves, the clay, on our Potter’s wheel, His hands do a different kind of work. We become re-formed by His truth, re-newed by His grace, re-filled by His love. All the lies get worked out of our hearts; all the false narratives get rewritten in our minds; all the accusations and manipulations get a holy anointing so that our spirits can come out from under bondage and become one with Christ. In other words, armed with all the ‘knowing’, we can enter the work of being shaped into vessels that look like Jesus. We get made into the people God always intended. 

Being Formed: The Work Continues 

To be formed in our Father’s hands – to find our True Selves with His help – is to awaken to the fact we cannot live safe-in-our-skin unless we dwell in Him, adopting His name and absorbing His love into all that we are. Who He is shapes who we are becoming. And that’s the keyword: Becoming. This identity formation doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it’ll be a lifetime of shaping.

All the work we’ve done these past few months has set the stage to continue becoming all that God has desired us to be. We will keep grabbing hold of all the truths we’ve learned and peeling back the layers of our false selves so that we can work toward that center of True Self in Christ. 

Unlike an unyielding ceramic jar that has been fired in a kiln, we can be re-formed. One of the mysteries of placing ourselves in the hands of our Creator is that the longer we’re there, the softer and more pliable we become. We resist less and surrender more – all the while never losing the core of what makes us unique and, well, us. 

One of the lies of the enemy is that if we give ourselves fully to God, we will lose our identity; we’ll become one of the faceless-nameless in a mob that follows Him blindly. However, the truth is God knit us in our mothers’ wombs. HIS thumbprint is on us, and He has created each of us uniquely so that we can go into the world with His Word, His Spirit, and our one-of-a-kind personality to do only what we can do. 

We can trust that when we are “wholly His [we] will be more [ourselves] than ever.”² 

CS Lewis

Armed with Truth in all of its forms, we step into identity formation. In some seasons, the Potter has taken me down to the basic lump of clay – not out of anger or meanness, but so we could start fresh. So I could see myself as He does. In other seasons, I’ve felt His tender touch working out the rough edges, such as a judgmental spirit, and with each smoothing stroke, I have been softened with compassion and kindness. Then there have been times when He has stretched the edges, reshaping me so that I will release my assumptions and receive a deeper dose of His wisdom.

Most recently, God has been adding some new features to my vessel-person – something like a handle and spout. He’s been taking hold of me in new ways that have afforded me new revelations of His Spirit, then He tilts me over and all that love and truth and revelation come pouring out of me. I feel myself being formed into something new while at the same time, I’m feeling more like my True Self than I ever have before.

Identity formation happens in the hidden places of Christ. It’s why we want to make abiding in Him a regular rhythm – to be hidden with Christ in God is to be formed by Him. A little at a time, we become more like Him. 

The Goal: Being Fully Formed in Christlikeness

As we think about being fully formed in Christlikeness, maybe it helps to use our God-given imaginations to picture what it really looks like to be Daughters of God…His heirs. 

An heir is someone who inherits an estate, a sum of money, a title, an object, or a business from someone else, typically a family member. The person who died passes on whatever they valued to one they trust to carry on what they began.

We are heirs. Co-heirs with Christ. Ultimately, our inheritance is eternal – it’s heaven (Hebrews 9:15) and, more specifically, “the eternal blessedness in the consummated kingdom of God which is to be expected after the visible return of Christ” (see 1 Peter 1:4).³ But there are bits of our inheritance that come to us right now – here on earth. Things like the Holy Spirit, “the first installment of what’s coming” (Ephesians 1:13-14 MSG); authority (Revelation 2:26-27); and power (Ephesians 1:19). Jesus currently sits at the right of God the Father, that place of honor where “all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority” (1 Peter 3:22) – and we are right there with Him. Right this minute, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, spiritually carrying with us everything given to us in Christ straight into all the places God has us here on earth (Ephesians 2:6). 

Because we are His heirs.

Friends, it’s when we own this truth about who we are – heirs of the Almighty – that we can live from our True Selves right where we are. Here’s the deal, though. Identity formation, like our discipleship, happens every day. It’s not a one-and-done occurrence; it’s a daily dying to our self-focused tendencies and being raised to new life in Christ.

As we more and more consistently enter into the abiding life – that rhythm-based, God-aligned, Christ-centered life that is intentionally hidden with Christ in God – we will find ourselves being more fully formed into Christ’s likeness. This way of living is not earning, but it is effort. It’s surrendering our will for His and receiving all He has for us. It’s living like Jesus and repenting when we don’t. It’s keeping our eyes on Jesus as we engage in the process – a lifelong movement of becoming more like Him.

This effort-filled, ever-transforming life is worth it because it’s as we’re being formed that we’ll discover more about who we are. As the Potter shapes and stretches us, we become more confident in the person God knows us to be. Confusion will fade because deep in our souls, we’ll feel the power and purpose of living as our True Selves – for God’s glory, others’ gain, and our good.⁴ The layers will fade, the masks will fall, and our identities will no longer be hidden.

Glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may You grant us spiritual wisdom and insight so that we might grow in knowledge of You. We pray that our hearts will be flooded with light so that we can understand the confident hope You have given us – because we are the ones You’ve called. May we begin to grasp the truth that not only do you give us an inheritance, but that as your holy people, we are your rich and glorious inheritance to the world around us. We also pray that we would understand the incredible greatness of the power You’ve given us as your heirs – the very same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at your right hand in the heavenly realms. May we recognize that Jesus is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. And that as heirs, we share in that same authority and power because You have put all things under the authority of Christ, making Him the head over all things for the benefit of the church. And because we are the church, His body, we are made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself. May we, by your Spirit, live from these truths each day so that we will continue to be shaped and formed into the full likeness of Christ – so that we can live fully ourselves with purpose and passion – for your glory, for others’ gain, and for our good. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(inspired by Ephesians 1:17-23 NLT)

Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.

• 1 – JD Walt, 4/27/23, Wake Up Call – on ‘image management’ versus identity formation.
• 2 – An [adapted] quote from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters
• 3 – Quoted from Strong’s Concordance here
• 4 – In his Exodus Wake Up Call series, JD Walt has been using these words as prayer, and they’re really taking root in me. Friends, we are made for God’s glory, for others’ gain, and for our good. Who we are in Christ has purpose – for us and beyond us!
• Extra – Wake Up Call, JD Walt, 6/14/24 – I love JD’s personal testimony about this very process:
  “I began to get real about my real life, the lies I believed, and the strategies I devised to make it all work. The Spirit unveiled for me an insecurity well beneath the surface of my well-constructed image; an insecurity borne of a deep and painful inferiority. From there proceeded the long healing journey and transformational exchange of a false image for a true identity. Image impresses. Identity impacts. And when we show the wound, Jesus heals the world.”
• Another extra — a Got Questions article about Christ and us being seated in the heavenly places
• The second-to-last song on our Hidden Identities playlist is Brandon Lake’s “Adoption Song.” It can be a banner over us as we continue to step into our role as daughters and heirs of God. We can “sing in confidence” our “adoption song!” The lyrics also provide some much needed words we can speak over our those powers and authorities who try to accuse us and keep us bound in the lies and false strategies — when we “plead the blood of Jesus, the Accuser has no ground!”
  
  And, as a BONUS, if you’re ready for some Christmas music, I’m putting final touches on our Advent playlist, “Hiddenness” — and, here it is for you, early!!
  
  
• The first week of December the next issue of The Abiding Life newsletter will hit inboxes!! You can still subscribe here if you’d like to receive it. Thank you for your prayers! I feel like I have had an answer to prayer about moving the newsletter to a different platform, Substack. In fact, I believe God has shown me that also posting these weekly website posts on Substack is another way to reach more people with the features it offers. No worries, I will continue posting the weekly blogs here, as well. It’ll be a both-and. 😉

Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike.

• As we lean into the process of learning more about ourselves — our true identities in Christ — we are going to step into the spiritual practice of REST. I hope that through this series we’ve all been able to recognize just how much energy we put into building our false facades and self-protective walls. When Jesus invites the weary to come to Him for rest, He means all of us. He knows us. He knows we’re weary from living in the hard world. He also knows that we’re exhausted from trying to live in our own strength.
  
  As we wrap up this series and look ahead to Advent and all the busyness and emotion it brings, let’s carry with us all we have learned about resting in Christ. And it begins with laying down all our self-striving. May we find that our energy and joy are multiplied as we live from our True Selves — gathering up all the grace, like manna, we need every morning to live as vessels for Christ. May willingly submit to the Potter’s hands each day so that we can find true rest, knowing that He will always re-shape and re-form us as we need. XOXO

• Speaking of Advent — we begin our four-week Advent series, Hiddenness, next Sunday! I hope you’ll join me as we investigate how “the hand of God is hiddenness”– especially when life is hard, the nights are long, and the darkness just won’t lift. This will be a joyous celebration of what God is doing when we cannot see what it is He is up to. It’ll be a way forward even as we wait…
• And while it’s not a spiritual practice or rhythm, I invite you to share this site. This is such an important topic that I want as many people as possible to join us here. Together we’ll find support and encouragement and the simple truth that we are not alone in our struggles.

Featured Photo by Roman Hinex on Unsplash.
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