On April 16th, 1991, I was given the name Brandon Michael Williams by my parents Glenn and Dawnette Williams. When I was a kid playing baseball, my dad used to call me “Boomer” for the way the booming sounds the ball would make off of my bats as I swung. When I went on the World Race, I started to be called a World Racer. In life we are given many names and identities. For a vast majority of us, we have the name that our parents gave us at birth, the titles that describe what we do, and heck, even nicknames that our friends gave us as kids. All of these are identities that stick with us that we identify ourselves with. Identities are huge and integral to defining who we are… even if they are identities based in lies.
When I WAS a pornography addict, I used to define myself as “disgusting”, “pervert”, and “evil”. I remember many times where I would sit at a mirror, after watching pornography for hours, looking at myself and just brutally belittling myself out loud. In short, I hated myself and it was evident through the verbal abuse that I levied onto myself unmercifully. Even worse, I believed all that I told myself as I declared the evil titles over me and that I would come to accept as my identity. I believed the false identities that I was being fed from by the enemy and from there saying them to myself. In response, my identity was as a disgusting evil pervert. Through a Christ based recovery program called Celebrate Recovery, I would eventually get clean in 2012, but it wasn’t until this month in Guatemala (May 2015) where I would finally understand what it meant to be a Son of God.
If you haven’t read your Bible at all, let me refresh you on only a few of the names that YOU were given when you decided to believe that Christ was the Saviour of our sins.
2 Corinthians 5:20
Therefore WE ARE ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”
Romans 8:15-17
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but YOU RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN. And if children, then HEIRS (namely, HEIRS OF GOD and also FELLOW HEIRS WITH CHRIST) – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.
2 Corinthians 6:18
. . . and I WILL BE a father to YOU, and YOU WILL BE MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS ,” says the All-Powerful Lord.
1 Peter 2:9
But YOU ARE A chosen race , a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD , a holy nation , a people of his own , so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
In these four passages I did a couple things. First, I made the titles in big ole letters so that yall could see what titles and identities YOU WERE GIVEN. The other thing I did was underline and capitalize the things that you can’t really control or change that God did for you. Words and phrases like “WILL BE”, “ARE”, “RECEIVED” are just as important as the titles and identities that define you in Christ. I cannot change at all the fact that I am Glenn Aaron Williams son. Even if I don’t believe it, change my name, or anything, I cant change the situation. I am a son of Glenn Aaron Williams. The situation is no different with God! I, AND YOU, am an Ambassador for Christ, who pleads with others on Christ’s behalf, because I received the Spirit of adoption that makes me a son (daughter if you’re a woman reading this) and heir of God, which means God is my Father, and me a member of a royal priesthood . . . you still with me? I want to thump you in the head with this because I don’t want you to spend one more second debating on this anymore, and questioning what your identity is. Christ didn’t just die for us to be saved from our sins, he died so that we could be in relationship with the Father.
As I sit here in Guatemala, I just bask in the thought that I am a Son of God. Think about that for a second. A SON of the CREATOR of the UNIVERSE. That just baffles my mind and I know it baffles yours, and that’s okay! But the problem is that we too often choose to either reject our identities and accept the notion that we are STILL a sinner saved by grace, rather than the fact that we WERE a sinner saved by grace. Yes, we were saved by grace when we became Christians, but we were also washed clean by the blood of the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away – look, what is new has come!
We are a new creation. A new body. A new mind. A new identity.
Since I got here to Xenacoj, Guatemala with my team, we have gone out to minister to widows, orphans, and people around town everyday. Once in a while, there will be days where I feel so unworthy of this and that I do not belong here. To minister to widows and orphans is to fulfill James 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world”. I am literally doing what Christ did when He was doing his ministry, and a lot of times I feel so unqualified to be doing this. I look back at my past and see all that I had done and remember who I was only three short years ago. But these are lies! Lies that I have to knock out of the air with the truth of who I am or else I am going to be in for a hard day. Through truth, prayer, and dependence on Gods strength, I am able to resist the enemy.
The enemy doesn’t want me, my team, or our contact in Xenacoj anymore, and so if they know that they cant beat us from doing our ministry, they only naturally are going to try to distract us while we do it. The devil and his horde are going to try to lie to us and tell us that our past is what defines us, not our present, or future, and certainly not who we are from Christ dying on the cross for us. But they are lying. When we became Christians we don’t have to bother with our past for one more second. Those sins are gone! Psalms 103:12 says, “As far as east is from west— that’s how far God has removed our sin from us”
So take heart. Be strong. Be bold. And know that God is God.
When Moses went up and talked to God through the burning bush, God defined himself in one of the coolest ways in Exodus 3:14, “God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. So say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.'” Think about that for a second. “I Am Who I Am.” God knew his identity, and was so confident in it that all He said was “I Am Who I Am” and God knows quite confidently who you are as well.
So I challenge you today with this.
WHO ARE YOU?
If you are a Christian, it’s time for you to accept who you are. You are an Ambassador for Christ, who pleads with others on Christ’s behalf, because you received the Spirit of adoption that makes you a son/daughter, and heir of God, which means God is your Father, and you are a member of a royal priesthood.
If you are reading this and want to be in relationship with God, your Papa, you are more than able to be. God died on the cross FOR YOU. He didn’t die on the cross just so that you could just get into Heaven and live happily, but because He wants to be with you forever. Through Christ dying and coming back to life, He laid Death in his grave, so that we could have freedom forever. He loves you more than you could possibly ever imagine. You honestly have no idea, and neither do I because His love for us is so wild and intense that our human brains cannot possibly fathom how much our God loves us. So if you want to be a Son or Daughter of God, you can be.
2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away – look, what is new has come!
