WHO AM I?

Shortly after I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit my whole life changed. One of the most significant changes that I have experienced in this time has been the revelation of true my identity, who I really am. This revelation from the Holy Spirit is changing me. Learning how to live this new identity is so exciting, incredibly challenging and amazingly rewarding. It’s simply learning to live “out of God”, I was created for this, it is simply my calling.

More than any other thing I would suggest, the revelation of one’s identity, is one of the primary functions of the person of the Holy Spirit on earth. As I have been walking through this identity issue, there is going on within me an “exchange”. I am receiving revelation from the Holy Spirit as to who I really am and in this process the Holy Spirit is revealing himself to me as a person, put another way as I get to know the Spirit, I get to know me. The more time I spend with the Holy Spirit, the more I get to know Him, the more I know Him the more He shows me who I am, the more I know my own identity the closer I walk with Him, the closer I walk with Him the further sin or the desire to sin departs from me. Simply spoken this is transformation.

As I was thinking over the new way I was now experiencing God, the Holy Spirit asked me a question which threw me back for a few months. I now think more than two years later I am grasping a new element of my identity, of who I am. One day the Holy Spirit all of a sudden asked me “Why do you take the name of the Lord in vain?" 

My first response was when? How? Where? I told Him I didn’t take Jesus name, or swear by His name or anything of the kind. Before I became a Christian I was guilty of this charge hour after hour. (In fact the day I became a Christian, the first miracle that happened to me was instantly my bad language was removed, this testified that something significant had changed when Jesus forgave me and became my Lord and Saviour). 

As I responded to the Holy Spirit, He replied and said the same thing “Why do you take the name of the Lord in vain?" 

From this point on I noticed a reaction in my spirit whenever I prayed and used the name of Jesus. My spirit was sensing a reaction from the Holy Spirit when at the end of my prayer I used the words “in Jesus name” a question started to burn within me as I tried to grapple with what this might be.  This was pressing hard on my spirit, all of a sudden I just stopped saying those words “in Jesus name”. 

As I prayed in meetings I would just end my prayer without saying those words. I knew that this position I was taking was unbiblical, in the book of Acts we see the example of the apostles in this regard. 

Acts 3:8 says “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” just to give you one example, but though I knew this I was unable to say it. I found it funny when others would say these words for me and that might be all they said. What were they doing? Why were they finishing off my prayers? They had no idea what was going on within me.

As time passed I pondered what the Holy Spirit was asking me “Why do you take the name of the Lord in vain?" In the past two years the Holy Spirit has worked with me on this one. I began to realise my words “in Jesus name” were just that, words, just plain vain words, and in using His glorious name in this way I was guilty of sinning against my Jesus though I never knew it.

Once this realisation sank home with me, I knew I needed to be taught how to move on from this point. Though I now had understanding, how would this new understanding change things? I knew it was offending the Holy Spirit and now more than ever I certainly did not utter those words. It’s amazing once I responded in obedience and stopped praying in Jesus name, the Holy Spirit moved and brought me on this amazing journey of revealing a truth that is changing my identity.

Romans 2:24 says "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the people of God”. 

I believe I have been guilty of this charge. Many times I have prayed in the name of Jesus just like I said above and today I know those words of mine were just words, little different when Jesus accused the Pharisees of babbling when they prayed. Today when I use the words “in Jesus name” I know the power and authority I release in those moments. 

Psalm 115:16 says “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He has given to man”. 

We mere humans have been given dominion on earth. Did you ever wonder of all places, why God decided to place man on earth, the same place He had cast down the fallen angel and all his hordes onto? 

Why make it so difficult for us having such a “powerful foe” opposing us. It did not take long until satan stole our authority in the garden when man (we) disobeyed God. 

God foresaw it and purposed a plan in us that pleased Him. Gods plan was to use His created beings (us) who worship Him to be the very agents to dislodge the enemies on this earth. After Jesus defeated him on the cross, God saw it proper that we His followers should make captives of our captors (Isaiah 14:2). 

We are purposed for it. I and you are uniquely made (Psalm 139:13-16), I and you are uniquely for a purpose, God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), I and you are uniquely placed in this generation, in the exact street you live (Acts 17:26) and I and you are uniquely gifted to bless those we live amongst (1 Peter 4:10-11). I can do best and you can do best, that for which the Father has designed you. If I don’t do it then another may do it but not to the mark that God ordained, it will be somehow flawed because if I fail to do so anything else is plan B. Just look at How God trusts and believes in me, no one else has this trust in you or me, no one. I am completely trusted by the Father and you too.

Isaiah 53:5 says Jesus has done it all, He has taken care of the sin issue and the disease issue “He was pierced for our transgressions….the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."

Notice it’s all past tense, His work is finished as Jesus said on the Cross “It is finished”, ours is only starting and the starting point is that place of rest which Jesus restored. Jesus died on the cross for me, He took my place. In fact Jesus died as me, If I believe I have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). When I enter into the covenant of His Blood, I take His identity, I no longer live, but He lives in me. For the joy set before Jesus, He endured the cross. What was this joy? Yes it’s me and you. Imagine He considered it a joy to inherit us and became obedient to death on a tree. He did it because He loved us and if that was all He still would have done it, but no, that’s just a small part, there is much more, He did it also to defeat the work of the enemy on earth and we are part of that plan. 

Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases (It was the same when He sent out the 72), Luke 10:19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. 

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

So as you see all authority has been given us His followers.  Many of us talk about the great commission but few of us focus on the “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. One of the most challenging of those commands is found in Matthew 10:7-8 as you go, preach this message: "The kingdom of heaven is near. 'Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Notice we are not commanded to pray for it). 

When the Holy Spirit connected these two verses for me it was an amazing revelation to me. Having been Baptised with the Holy Spirit three years ago this burning desire to move in healing prophetic evangelism has captured me, but my theology was stifling me. Now all of a sudden the display of the power and glory that accompanied the first Christians in the book of Acts was now within my realm of possibilities. This single revelation from the Holy Spirit removed from me ignorance in connection with healing and the gift of healing, removed the question in my head as to whether healing was for today and now for the first time my head and heart had come into agreement with scripture that physical healing was indeed for today. More than that, I now know I have authority to heal the sick. More than this I now am seeing breakthrough and release testimony. The people of God lost their way as it says in the Old Testament when they forgot about testimony and remembered it no more.

At a conference recently the Holy Spirit said to me “You have permission”. These words have been finding a home within me this last two months, at the time of hearing this it was hard to digest. As time passed it became more difficult. Tell me where does the authority in these words end? Think about it, to me there seems there is no end. Authority is nothing without power and power becomes nothing without authority. 

Acts 1:8 provides the answer to the power issue, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”. This is not a salvation issue, over and over again in the New Testament we see that the believers were Baptised with the Holy Spirit. If they were already believers they already had been sealed with the Spirit, just read the Book of Acts and see it. How did I miss this truth for years? Who said the Christian life is boring, my journey these last three years has just been amazing, just utterly incredible and day by day, revelation after revelation I am finding out for the first time who I am. Just when you think you have a handle on it all another door opens. Right now the Holy Spirit is highlighting a word for me which is responsibility, and I know I will now learn from Him what this is all about. I sense a jigsaw coming together.

So what do I say? just to recap, He has given me authority to trample, Faith to believe, Words which become Spirit, and told me to go and move in his authority, told me I am as He is (1 John 4:17 “because as He is, so are we in this word”). He has put His words in my mouth, He has given me permission. He has told me He Knows me and not just my name, He has anointed me, He has released me in His authority, I could keep going. 

Just who am I? My mindset as a Christian for the first 20 years of my Christian walk has been a concentration on sin, my last three years an encounter with the Spirit where Truth is being revealed. A word I received from Spirit three years ago was 1 John 2:27 “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things"…. It has been so rewarding being taught by the Spirit, just sheer transformation. 

Many days I sat in tears just coming to terms with what He was teaching me. One of the favourites The Spirit has taught me is found in Numbers 6:24-27  “The Lord bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace. So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” 

I as a man can put the Lords name on a person, and because I do this simple act the Lord will bless them. Who am I, what is this call that I a child of the King possess.

Some might accuse me of being out of control, but you cannot be a Christian unless you are out of control, unless you wish to be one of the nominal kind. The measure you use defines the measure God uses so if you limit God you have limited yourself. To be a Christian and ALIVE you must surrender full control to the Holy Spirit and that place is achieved only when you are full with the Spirit, when you are filled with the Spirit, you are out of your own control and in His control. The ones who retain control are really the ones out of control because the scripture says God controls all things unless you hold out. I am the kingdom come, the kingdom of God is within me, I need to learn how to release that which is within. Unless you know who you are you are not in a position to release anything. Peter at the Gate of Beautiful could only give away what he had, and to give it away He had to know He had it. 

We are called to live from Heaven on earth, I am a citizen of heaven living on earth. My home is with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I am a Spiritual nomad, or if you like a “Spiritual Traveller”. Elijah was one, Elisha was one, Jesus, Philip, Paul and lastly John as can be seen from the Revelation4:1-2 “there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit" When John entered in at once he was in the Spirit, and we know from Romans the Kingdom is in the Spirit. All these years I have been an unbelieving believer, believing the bible but not really believing and accepting it for what is says. I challenge you, Dare to believe what it says.

Now just when I think I have this prayer thing figured out, the “in the name of Jesus” thing, the Spirit is telling me to stop praying. Scary for some but humbling for me. We pray for things that are already within our grasp. Many pray that God would come down and change our circumstances or touch our sick neighbour etc, but the truth is God came as a baby, grew in favour with the Father, died for the world and opened a way through His blood for the forgiveness of sin and thereby reconcile all who would call on His name. God has come and you are the answer to the prayer you make, many times God is not in your prayer, He is awaiting your faith to step into that which Jesus has already given you, He is waiting for you to take that authority that He has given you. The Holy Spirit is telling me to declare it, decree it and proclaim it and walk in it. The other night at 3am two men were damaging the bus shelter by our house, I could see them through the bedroom window but I did not engage with them. I had just asked the Holy Spirit that day to teach me how to walk in the heavenly realm. I commanded the two men to stop in the name of Jesus and do you know what happened..Nothing (I was speaking to them as flesh men). Just then I said “I bind you in the name of Jesus” (I spoke into the heavenly realm), instantly the two men stopped and walked away. Those men were drunk and in that state had opened themselves to the influence of a spirit of destruction. When I spoke into the spirit realm the authority of Christ was released and the inferior authority of the demonic spirit was instantly bound. When I release His words, all changes.

Christ came into my life when I became a believer, The Spirit of Christ came upon me when I was Baptised with the Holy Spirit. God’s agenda is “release”, I am enabled by the Spirit to release his Kingdom, I am the will of God prophesied. In the last days I will pour out my Spirit was the prophetic word of God, I am that Kingdom come, the Kingdom of the Spirit. I am transformed, that is who I am. The title of this paper posed a question “WHO AM I?”. The answer is in the question. I am who I am because the ancient “I AM” lives in me. He has given me identity, and that identity is His very presence within me enabled by His anointing upon me the Baptism with the Spirit. He makes me who I am, He makes me His Kingdom come. I live because He lives, I breathe because He gives me breath, I awaken because He opens my eyes. I am nothing without the Father, He sustains my every moment. I am revival and do you know what, you can be all this too. Dare to believe it and find yourself living it and not just talking it, though talking it prophesies it over your life. The cries of my earlier blogs have become my testimonies of today, God’s transformation power is extravagant. I praise Him because today He is enabling me live extravagantly and you know what I’m only starting to live this amazing marriage with my redeemer, and I live it through the enabling of the Spirit. Thankfully to this point He did not divorce me. Dare to believe it.

God does not do ordinary. If you just pray ordinary God does not need to be God and move – we can do this and answer those prayers ourselves. If fact many say we are the answer to the prayer ourselves and that is true because our prayer and expectation so ordinary. We are not the ones who can answer the extraordinarily un-unimaginable prayers, we are not the one who delivers the signs and miracles – but we are asked to step out and believe and as we step HE WILL MOVE. Become a people who move God.

You must make a space for God to move – God does the supernatural “stuff” but only for an expectant heart. Dare to believe it and be transformed.

Declan D.