The Hidden Life

Our destiny, purpose, and identity are only found in Jesus. Until we advance from being just a believer in Jesus to a possessor of our identity in Jesus, we will not fully operate and experience all that God has for us.

One of the traps set by our enemy is to get our spiritual eyes focused on other people by comparing our performance with theirs. We can hold other people up as examples of how to do Christianity to the point that we start to imitate their gifting and personality. When we do this we short-circuit our own path to our identity and destiny. No one else has your gifting, flaws and personality. There is no one on this earth to imitate. Jesus is calling you into intimacy with him to the point that He draws you into your destiny, not to an imitation of someone else’s. If you don’t pursue intimacy with Him you won’t find out who you really are and all that He has for you.

The passage below came to mind this morning as I was thinking about this concept and it was revealed to me in a way that I had never seen it before. 
Colossians 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Your life, destiny, and purpose are all hidden in Christ. That means you can’t see it in someone else. It’s hidden from plain, earthly view. You have to find it in Christ, which means you have to pursue Him to find it. The more intimate you become with Him the clearer you will become about who you really are and what your purpose is.

Other people, as wonderful as some can appear to be, are no substitute for who God is calling you to be. You can waste years of your life following and imitating others. I am not saying we should not learn from those wonderful people that God brings into our lives to teach us through word and deed along the way. I am just saying we need to recognize that they are teachers and influencers and learn everything you can from them just don’t confuse their role in your life. They are not an exact clone of who God wants you to be when you grow up spiritually. God has placed your identity, destiny, and purpose in the back pocket of Jesus so you will have to reach for Him to find yourself.

A favorite passage of mine is the premise behind Mining the Truth. 
Isaiah 45:3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and the wealth of secret places.

We don’t typically associate Jesus with darkness but we do associate Him with treasures and wealth of the soul. A lot of times in my life, it has been in the dark moments or places that I found Jesus waiting on me. I look at the darkness, in this passage, as meaning the places in which I can’t see clearly. It doesn’t mean Jesus is a dark place it means I am grasping, in faith, beyond where I can clearly see. I grab for Jesus in the midst of the darkness of my circumstances and find Him as a treasure waiting on me. He is the wealth in the secret place. The place that many will never risk going because going where we can’t see scares us into spiritual paralysis. We then build theology out of fear and have a comfortable rationalization for never following Jesus to the hidden place.

He wants to draw us into the hidden, secret place, the place found only in Him where destiny and purpose are found. He wants us completely dissatisfied with the comfortable or the status quo. He wants to draw us into the secret place in order to pour out the treasure He has stored for us there. The treasure of who we are, hidden in Him. 
Hebrews 11:6 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

If we overcome by following Him we will discover who we are and who He has called us to be. He even has a pet name that He will call you that is only known between you and Him. It is a pet name given to you by the lover of your soul. 
Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.

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Ray Sturdivant