IDENTITY THIEF

Identity Theft can happen to anyone. Even GOD. HE speaks a world into being and declares His new creation is beautiful and good. Ezekiel 28:12-14 gives us a glimpse of Lucifer, one of those ‘beautiful and good’ creatures: “You were a paradigm of perfection. You had everything: immense wisdom and perfect beauty. You lived in Eden, God’s garden. You were clothed in magnificent splendor, covered in jewels: I anointed you the guardian of the garden and stationed you at your post to protect it. You were on the divine mountain, the holy mount of God.” 

Somewhere in the beginning of time, Lucifer became discontented with executing his created purpose. Then he has this thought:“I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14)  The impersonation of GOD began.

This incipient impostor has made the transformation from: “You were entirely pure from the day you were created, until wickedness crept in and was found in you!” to  the identity thief who “approaches with malicious intent, looking to steal, slaughter, and destroy.” (John 10:10)

His second victim is Eve. Befitting his name, the defamer steals Eve’s identity when he maligns what GOD had envisioned when HE fashioned Eve from Adam’s DNA. (DNA was unheard of by the writer of Genesis. How would he describe the ‘ladder‘ of DNA except by calling it a ‘rib’?)  Eve attempts to achieve godlike status on her own, forgetting she was already GOD's daughter. (God had made man in His image. HIS eternal breath breathed into Adam. Eve was dwelling inside man. When she was drawn from man, she was made co-ruler with him.)

Distorting the truth worked on Eve. This rogue attempted to pull a sequel in his temptation of Jesus. Satan conveniently leaves out certain words in his scriptural renditions. Jesus precedes each of his brilliant ripostes with “What scripture really says". (“It is Written".) 

Using GOD’s words with his perverted twist isn’t enough. The mischief-maker steps up his game. He now attempts to mimic the sound of the KING. He knows “The king’s anger is like a lion’s roar.” (Proverbs 19:12; 20:2) He decides to use the lion’s roar to make people believe GOD is mad at them. He “is prowling around outside like a roaring lion, just waiting and hoping for the chance to devour someone.” (1 Peter 5:8) 

Is it working? How do you construe the King’s voice when you read; Jesus began to preach,”Repent of your sins and turn to God.” Matthew 4:17? Do you hear condemnation? Or is it the sound of the transforming power of love calling you to receive and live as a new person?

What are the judgments that people put on you, that make you doubt that God loves you? (Their mouths are opened wide toward me, like roaring and attacking lions. Psalm 22:13 ISV)

Has your identity been stolen by expectations of others based on your past? If you will let Him, The Eternal your God, is standing right here among you, and He is the champion who will rescue you. He will joyfully celebrate over you; He will rest in His love for you; He will joyfully sing because of you like a new husband. (Zephaniah 3:17 Voice)

Jesus elicits our need for repentance, and doesn’t give an “Ollie, Ollie, Oxen in Free” call for those hiding in sin. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back. (Hebrews 12:1 NCV) To the woman caught in adultery Jesus tenderly bids,“Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11) 

What about the woman at the well? What do we know of her? What has happened to her identity that she doesn’t bother ‘putting on airs’ to draw water during the cool of the morning along with the other women from town? Is she so hard on herself that she doesn’t even try to fit in? Has she forgotten who she is? 

She’s a Samaritan. She’s possibly a half-breed. The circumstances of her birth are beyond her control, yet her heritage and the culture in which she lives, has determined her life’s trajectory. Have mother and sister types, by purloining her father’s name, stolen her identity as the true and legitimate heiress of her Father's Kingdom? A home life that distorts a child's perception of who they are, thereby debasing her to the position of a servant? (A Biblical Cinderella, if you will.)  

How did she become a bride to five different men?

Some preachers have labeled her a whore. Have they rightly judged her?  Have these ‘men of God’, become character assassins? [This would make slander equivalent of murder.] Recruited by the accuser of our brothers and sisters to slander the reputation of a woman whose only crime may have been that she was rejected/abandoned by others? 

If she was guilty of the charge of being a 'loose woman', then why did Jesus not give her His repentance sermon or tell her to sin no more? Jesus does neither. 

Going on the assumption that her hometown was like any small town in our present day, where everybody knows everybody’s background and business, (Mark 6:3) did she go to draw water at noon because of how others saw her? (I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey-whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords. Psalms 57:4 NLT) Or how she saw herself? Was her self-perception as distorted as the ten spies of Israel? They saw the giants and felt next to them like grasshoppers, and wrongly concluded that the Nephilim thought they looked like grasshoppers too! (Numbers 13:33) In actuality, Rahab paints a different picture in Joshua 2:11: “When we heard this, we were very frightened. Now our men are afraid to fight you because the Lord your God rules the heavens above and the earth below!”  

In the Mediterranean culture in which she lived, women were viewed as property. Only men could give a certificate of divorce, so the fault does not lie with her if divorce is the reason for her five husbands. Could it be that her first husband had died, and husbands #2 through #5 were his brothers who subsequently also died? Remember the story of Tamar in Genesis 38? How her husbands kept dying until she ‘prostituted’ herself with her father-in-law when he didn’t give her another son for a husband? Deuteronomy 25:5 explains the practice of brothers taking their dead brother’s wife: “When brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother must marry her and sleep with her. He must do his duty as her brother-in-law.” 

This may explain her first husbands, but how do we account for the man she is presently living with? Jesus does not condemn her for sexual sin. Could Isaiah 4:1 be a clue to the answer? Seven women will grab hold of one man at that time. They will say, "We will provide our own food, we will provide our own clothes; but let us belong to you--take away our shame!" Were her needs for food and lodging met by this arrangement, things she provided? Did this arrangement not afford her the love and comfort of a marriage bed?

Was she living with a family member? All I know, Jesus does not condemn any sin while talking to her. What does He see? “You are a locked garden, my sister, my bride, open only to me; a spring closed up tight, a sealed fountain.” Song of Solomon 4:12 VOICE

The real motives come from deep within a person-as from deep waters-but a discerning person is able to draw them up and expose them. Proverbs 20:5 VOICE

Jesus points out that He knows about the husbands. He is seeing her. She is no longer invisible. When she wants to know the correct way to worship, she isn’t changing the subject as some men like to suggest. She realizes she has an authority on the subject and can have her question answered. I can relate. Years ago after I prayed to know some Jewish things to better understand the scriptures, I went to Walmart. The elderly greeter was wearing a Star of David necklace. In my excitement I thought she was the answer to my prayer. I started asking rapid fire questions. When I finally had some sense return I realized she was slowly backing away. My approach should’ve been softened by introducing myself and asking her if I might draw on her knowledge of her faith. Nope, I have to jump to the question. This is the reason I don’t believe the Samaritan woman was skirting any sin issues in her life by immediately asking Jesus her heart question.

Her Prince of Peace has come. He pulls down the facade. With His invitation to see (believe) Him, he is offering her the chance not to be defined by her circumstances. Jesus heals the brokenness caused by others. He offers her dignity. Her stolen honor is restored. Her story isn’t about morality but IDENTITY!  Not just her’s but HIS!

If her past had been a sinful one, then how could she be excited to tell the town: "I met a stranger who knew everything about me. Come and see for yourselves; can He be the Anointed One?" John 4:29 VOICE

Satan really hates it when people see Jesus’ true identity, because seeing theirs is forthcoming. So he decides to use Jesus’ words, “It is written.” to his advantage. He knows most of us won’t bother to learn the original language that God’s Word was spoken. (Literally it’s Greek to me!)

Most Christians base their faith on the English version of what Hebrew and Greek translators have written. This is where satan can have a heyday in stealing our identity. 

Why else would they translate ‘Elohim’ (GOD) in Psalm 8:5 as ‘angels’? Lucifer had so wanted to be like GOD. What torture it must be for him to know that after he was cast down out of his lofty position, that GOD made man a little lower than HIMSELF! Furthermore, no one in heaven stepped up to forsake their heavenly position to offer themselves as a sacrifice for Lucifer and the angels that left with him. To add to satan's torment, this creature called man, will be his judge.

Are you getting a better understanding why the devil hates us so much? "But we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!" 2 Corinthians 2:11 The Message

To keep our identity safe, God has provided LIFE Lock through Jesus. When we have HIS NAME on our hearts, He laminates us with His Holy Spirit.  (...sealed with the promised Holy Spirit..." Ephesians 1:13) 

All who follow the leading of God’s Spirit are God’s own sons. Nor are you meant to relapse into the old slavish attitude of fear—you have been adopted into the very family circle of God and you can say with a full heart, “Father, my Father”. The Spirit himself endorses our inward conviction that we really are the children of God. Think what that means. If we are his children we share his treasures, and all that Christ claims as his will belong to all of us as well! Yes, if we share in his suffering we shall certainly share in his glory.” (Romans 8:14-17 Philips)

It is only when we obey God’s laws that we can be quite sure that we really know him. The man who claims to know God but does not obey his laws is not only a liar but lives in self-delusion. In practice, the more a man learns to obey God’s laws the more truly and fully does he express his love for him. Obedience is the test of whether we really live “in God” or not. The life of a man who professes to be living in God must bear the stamp of Christ. (1 John 2:4-6 Philips)

Keep watching! At the right time, I will deal with those who assaulted you. I will steady those who are lame and about to fall; I will gather those who are outcasts and oppressed. Instead of being filled with shame as they always have been,I will fill them with praise and make them famous over all the world. (Zephaniah 3:19)

The thief approaches with malicious intent, looking to steal, slaughter, and destroy; I came to give them a rich and unfailing exuberant life! A life with unrestrained and enthusiastic joy! (John 10:10)

Meanwhile, the Eternal One yearns to give you grace and boundless compassion;
that’s why He waits. For the Eternal is a God of justice. Those inclined toward Him, waiting for His help, will find happiness. (Isaiah 30:18 Voice)

God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. Psalm 68:6

"You’ll get a brand-new name straight from the mouth of God. You’ll be a stunning crown in the palm of God’s hand, a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God. No more will anyone call you Rejected," (Isaiah 62:2-4 MSG)

I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. (John 15:15 NET)

You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. (Psalm 139:3)

The Lord their God is with them, and there is rejoicing over the King among them. (Numbers 23:21)

They brought a blind man to Jesus, and begged Him to touch the man and heal him. Jesus spat on the man’s eyes and touched them. “What do you see?” The blind man replied, “I see people, but they look like trees--walking trees.” Jesus touch his eyes again; and when the man looked up, he saw them as Jesus saw them. (Mark 8:22-25)

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”  And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require [of necessity and on the authority of Your Word]. (Psalm 27:8 AMP)

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. (Hebrews 4:16 AM)

Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place, and invites everyone within sound of her voice: "Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on? Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me! I've prepared a wonderful spread—fresh-baked bread, roast lamb, carefully selected wines. Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning." (Proverbs 9)

The word of God, you see, is alive and moving; sharper than a double-edged sword; piercing the divide between soul and spirit, joints and marrow; able to judge the thoughts and will of the heart. No creature can hide from God: God sees all. Everyone and everything is exposed, opened for His inspection; and He’s the One we will have to explain ourselves to. (Hebrews 4:12-13 Voice)

This is the One who—imprinted with God’s image, shimmering with His glory—sustains all that exists through the power of His word. He was seated at the right hand of God once He Himself had made the offering that purified us from all our sins. This Son of God is elevated as far above the heavenly messengers as His holy name is elevated above theirs. For no heavenly messengers have ever heard God address them with these words of the psalms:

You are My Son. Today I have become Your Father. Or heard Him promise, I will be to You a Father, and You will be My Son. Now, when the Son, the firstborn of God, was brought into the world, God said, Let all My heavenly messengers worship Him.

God ever say to any of the heavenly messengers, Sit here, at My right hand, in the seat of honor; and I’ll put all Your enemies under Your feet? No, of course not. The heavenly messengers are only spirits and servants, sent out to minister to those who will certainly inherit salvation. That is why we ought to pay even closer attention to the voice that has been speaking so that we will never drift away from it. (Hebrews 1 VOICE)

“Further, don’t you know that we are destined to judge the heavenly messengers? So if we are to exercise authority in the heavenly realms, ...” (1 Corinthians 6:3 Voice)

"These people are the first to be raised to life, and they are especially blessed and holy. The second death has no power over them. They will be priests for God and Christ and will rule with them for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:6 CEV)

Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Don’t you understand that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. (2 Corinthians 13:5 CEB)

This means that our knowledge of men can no longer be based on their outward lives. For if a man is in Christ he becomes a new person altogether—the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new. All this is God’s doing, for he has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ; and he has made us agents of the reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)