Your testimony is not your identity. I refuse to believe that the things your are delivered from are to become something veiled over our eyes and image.
I believe your testimony is the opposite of your identity in Christ. It is not who you are, in fact, the farther you are from it, the more glorified Christ is in you.
A believer doesn’t set his eyes back to where he was, he looks ahead because of his fixation on the day he can be with the Lord, and out of JOY not duty, to serve the Lord. All the while, fully embracing in every aspect of his life, the identity he now has in the Lord.
Our identity in Christ is the rock.
The Rock.
Not Dwayne the rock Johnson, we’re talking about the rock that overflows. That was struck by the authority of God. That pours out the spiritual drink in which becomes a well in others.
Exodus 17:1
Before Christ came and died for our trespasses, he was already creating parallels for us to understand and enjoy.
In Exodus, the Israelites are wandering, they are hot, thirsty, and lost in the forest. The Lord tells Moses to strike a large rock with staff, and it will pour out water for all of the Israelites to drink. Moses follows, and the water streams out for all of God’s people to drink. He provides for them, even though they quarrel with him and have no faith in his provision.
The Lord has provided a rock for all of the people of the earth.
In Jeremiah 3:15 it says “and I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge, and understanding.”
In Jeremiah, he is talking to Israel. He says “Return faithless Israel”, and “ only acknowledge your guilt”. They were rebelling against God.
In our current day, this is pointless, because God’s grace takes the wind out of the sail of rebellion. Christ has died in order for us to be redeemed of every sin. Rebellion included. Don’t waste your time.
All we have to do is acknowledge our guilt, and return to him. Then he will give us Shepard’s after his own heart, to feed us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
in which the Lord also says-
“The words of a mans mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook”. Proverbs 18:4
Where does this bubbling brook come from? The Rock! Just like the one Moses struck, and just like the one the Lord called Peter.
He tells Peter in Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Peter is the Rock. We are the Rock.
In 1 Corinthians 10:4 “and all drank from the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them. And the Rock was Christ.”
We have drank the water of Christ, he live in us.
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? -unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
That means Christ lives in you, dependent on your faith. You need to know he’s there, not think he is there.
“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind” James 1:6
Rocks are not tossed by the wind. They are the foundation of Christ with him as the cornerstone. (Psalm 118:22) They pour out the overflow of Christ’s everlasting water.
“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him I’ll never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
We drink that water, and we will never be thirsty again, we will actually overflow because there is so much.
“Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38
That is who we are! We are the rocks of Christ, we drink of the water that HE gives us. That doesn’t mean we drink a little Netflix, a little whiskey, and little adultery, and then pour out. (If I have not love I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” 1 Corinthians 13:1)
With out love, you’re just a polluted well of the world, with a touch of involuntary iodine, so you can try and make the water look good, when it’s actually toxic. (“Keep ones self unstained from the world” -James 1:27)
It means you throw the other cups off of the table and you drink the gift of knowledge, love, and everlasting life. Only then can you pour out to those around you in overflow.
To get drunk you have to keep drinking, and to overflow with the spirit, you have to keep reading, praying, and meditating on his word.
Drink the gift he has GIVEN you.
Your identity is in him. You are a rock, a Shepard after his own heart, and a firm foundation. Being a firm foundation means that you are rooted in his word. You wield the sword of the spirit (Ephesians 6). Which is the word of God. How can you keep yourself unstained from the world if you don’t wear the armor of God? How can you use the sword of the spirit, if you lack the very thing that it is made up of? It is made up of the word of God, and Truth.
We are the rocks of the church that pour out his everlasting water, in an overflow of joy and delight, so that others can drink of that water, of which will become a well in their hearts as well. That’s who you are. A new creation. You’re not defined by a compilation of your testimony, but by the deliverance of God in your circumstances.
The water becomes a well In others, once it over flows in you.
That water is the word of God.
