Glen Hartline

Around a year ago I was in a meeting listening to my good friend Patrick Blount speak about our identity in Christ. He was using examples from different Disney movies, especially “The Lion King”. This intrigued me and encouraged me to watch the movie the next time I saw it on.

During the movie we see the lion cub Simba grow up into a large strong lion but having grown up without the guidance of his father he doesn’t see himself in that light. He is timid and a little fearful until one evening Rafiki, a wise baboon that is a family friend, convinces Simba that his father is not dead and gone, but is actually alive. Simba then timidly follows Rifiki through a dark forest and to a calm body of water. It is there that Rifiki gets Simba to look at his image in the water, and it is there, in that place, that Simba’s eyes are opened to the reality that his father is alive and with him IN HIM! He then realizes his destiny has always been to rule and reign, even though he had never believed it to be so, and circumstances seemed to enforce his belief.

Scripture tells us we are a lot like Simba.

 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)

James is telling us that when we observe our natural face we are observing our true identity. The word natural in Greek is the word Genesis. What James is saying is that when we look into our origin, our true beginning, then we see who we really are, and if we truly believe it then we will be transformed into that which we see. So what is it or who is it we see?

Well, in Romans chapter 5:2 Paul tells us that by faith we have been given access into the Grace of God, and it’s in that grace that we now stand. Now Paul uses the word access which is the Greek word prosagōgḗ – to be placed towards or brought close in intimate face-to-face interacton. James is clearly telling us that Jesus has placed us face-to-face with God, and that in the gazing at Him we see our true identity and find our true destiny and abilities.

Paul also declares this in 2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 Jesus came so that the veil of self-inadequacy and separation from God would be lifted and that you could see yourself in Him; that your identity, your genesis would be found in God and not in your earthly birth or your circumstances. Jesus lifted the veil so that you can see that in Christ, everything you can desire and everything you may need is found in you! It is the Christ in you that is your assurance that He has never left you and it is the Christ that dwells in you that’s your assurance that all authority and all power to overcome any obstacle that may be put across your path is in you to be the overcomer you were created to be.

Look into your genesis! Look at Jesus and find whom you were predestined to be like. Find your destiny because all creation is waiting!