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Identity and the Worship of Self

Identity and the Worship of Self

I recently listened to a podcast in which Canadian clinical psychologist, Jordan Peterson, reads a brilliant essay he wrote and made into a video entitled, Identity Fixation; if you haven’t watched it, I recommend that you do. But this video really got me thinking …

Do we trust God? Do we surrender ourselves in mind, body, and spirit to Him and trust Him with our life, our future, and our wellbeing? Do we actively seek to fulfill the purpose God has for us? Do we accept and seek to live by divine truth, reality as God designed and intends it? Do we actively surrender our will, like Jesus did, to the will of His Father? (Matthew 26:42).

Or do we reject divine truth, reality as God designed, created, and intends it, substituting it with either our own imaginings, wishes, fantasies, feelings, and desires or some perverted view advanced by the enemy of God?

Do we make the Creator the center of our heart’s desire, surrendering self to His supreme wisdom, trusting that what He wants for us is always best and that following where He leads will ultimately be in our eternal best interest—or do we allow our feelings, desires, and selfishness to replace God at the center of our hearts so that we not only embrace the false, but we also demand that others submit their understanding to our own?

As Christians, our identity is to be found in Christ. As the apostle Paul said,

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20 NIV84).

We are to die to the old selfish ways and to live a new life in Christ. We are to be Christlike, which means we have God’s law written upon our hearts (Hebrews 8:10); we are to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5); we are to see things with a new perspective so that the ways, methods, values, practices, and standards of the world are recognized as foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:20–31). Are we doing this?

Or are we being deceived into keeping self at the center, allowing self to define reality, allowing feelings, desires, emotions, and selfishness to overrule the wisdom of God and the truth of His Word?

Is Jesus Christ supreme in our hearts, or do we require God and others to submit to us? Do we conform ourselves to God’s standard for life, or do we require others to submit to our standard? Do we seek to know the truth as it is in Jesus, or do we declare “this is my truth” and demand everyone else submit to our declared “truth”?

Have we fallen into the trap of substituting our identity in Christ for the world’s identity standards, which is the exaltation of narcissism—the worship of the self?

Do we see the world saying, “If you feel a certain way about yourself, then that is the way you are; objective reality does not matter, evidence does not matter, God’s Word does not matter; what matters is your internal feeling, belief, attitude, mindset; if you believe that you are a certain way, then the entire world—family, friends, co-workers, employers, everyone—must submit themselves to your feelings and acknowledge your declared subjective, emotional internal experience as their own standard of reality; and if people don’t submit to your feelings, then such people are intolerant, bigoted, and violent—and justice requires that they be punished”?

Or do we recognize divine truth, that we are in a war for hearts and minds and that our natural subjective feelings, desires, and emotions are impure, infected with unholy longing, are self-centered and narcissistic, and lead only to further self-injury and, ultimately, death? Do we believe that:

Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created (James 1:14–18 NIV84).

Do we submit to the revealed truth of God’s Word, or do we reject the Word of God and, instead, cling to our own emotions? Do we recognize the strong emotions and internal desires are tempting us and that it is only through the truth as it is in Jesus that we are reborn to a new and godly life—thereby finding our true identity in Jesus? Are we willing to submit to Christ to die to self, or do we demand the world submit to us?

When we have been truly converted, when we have died to fear and selfishness, when we have been reborn into the family of God and found our identity in Jesus, only then we will recognize the truth of what Paul wrote:

“Since … you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” [If we are truly converted, then we fix our hearts upon Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and when we submit our desires to Him, we receive a new identity with new motives, new desires, and new perspectives. We die to fear, to selfishness, to narcissism. We don’t demand the world conform to our feelings or fantasies. And because we have been transformed to be like Jesus in character, when He appears we will join Him in glory!]

But notice what the apostle says is necessary for us to live our new identity in Christ. We must:

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” [We must submit our feelings, desires, fantasies, and attitudes to divine truth. We must not make self supreme and claim our feelings as the standard of reality to which all others must submit—that is idolatry, the worship of self. Instead, the righteous humble themselves and crucify self to the truth as it is in Jesus.] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [For those who reject objective truth, reality as it is in Jesus, they damage their minds, warp their thinking, harden their hearts, sear their consciences, and eventually destroy the faculties that respond to love and truth; at that point, there is nothing more God can do for them. Thus, God lets them go to reap what they have sown into their own hearts and minds. This is known as God’s wrath (Romans 1:18–31)]. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [Old habits, old mistakes, old beliefs, and old practices can be replaced with the new—but only if we choose to surrender self in trust to Jesus.] But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. [Our old self is replaced with a new identity in Jesus. We look past the world’s identity politics of race, nationality, sex, economic status, and gender and, instead, look to character; are people living like Jesus, living out truth, love, and freedom in how they treat others? Or are people demanding others reject truth and submit to their fantasy views of self and then use whatever coercive methods they can employ to punish people who won’t submit to them?] Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:1–14 NIV84). [Yes, the people of God, those whose identity is found in Jesus, will not collude with falsehood, will not allow the standards of this selfish world to be their own. Instead, they will live the truth, but compassionately, always in love, with genuine concern for those who love self more than God, because the righteous know that those who embrace the identity standards of this world are only destroying their own eternal souls.]

In the world today, self is supreme; one’s feelings determine the so-called “reality” that all others much recognize and praise. But the people of God recognize a higher standard, the source of infinite truth, the Creator of reality, the One who built life to operate upon the principles of love, and they will not submit their minds and hearts to the foolishness of this world but remember the wisdom of God:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2, 3 NIV84).

Don’t lose heart! Fix your eyes on Jesus and, no matter what scorn the world heaps upon you, you will not grow weary, you will not lose heart, but you will overcome in Jesus!

 

 

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Testimony 26

Your teachings about our heavenly Father have changed my life. Thank you sooooooo very very much! I know He’s doing some serious healing in my heart and life and I look forward to each new day to learn something new about Him and to just hear you speak about Him. Thank you, forever.

Nancy S.

 

Testimony 59

I’m a native Ghanan, but am currently in France for my master’s degree. Prior to this, during my final years at undergraduate studies in Ghana, I was introduced to your ministry and I’ve been immensely blessed by what you share, especially about the Design and Imposed Laws. God richly bless you for that.

One of the first things I did when I arrived in France was to buy all four of your books. They not only helped me, but those I shared them with. I shared the message with an atheist student and I marveled at how God worked mightily in his life. Today this person shares the Love of God with others and debunks theories of who God is not. I want to share what you present in your “Heavenly Sanctuary and Investigative Judgment” pamphlet, because the message brought rest to my soul and I live today as a healthy person.

God bless you so much and your ministry.

Michael A., Ghana

 

Testimony 20

I just wanted to personally thank you for your teachings and insight into scripture. I came across your website via my cousin who suggested I look into “Healing the Mind” information. My youngest daughter has been struggling over the last couple of years and it all came to a head this spring. When I started listening to the “Healing the Mind” lectures my own life began to be transformed. I began sharing with all my daughters the concepts you laid out so clearly. I ordered your book and soaked it up. I just want to say “Thank You!” My walk with the Lord has been refreshed and renewed. Your obedience to the Lord is a blessing to so many.

R. K., Anderson, SC, USA

 

Testimony 16

Your seminars are still inspiring and changing our lives and we continue to share the principles we have learned from you. Your ministry has changed our lives!

E.W.

 

Testimony 30

God lead me to your book “The God-Shaped Brain” while I was searching for another book about the brain and then to your interview about your book on HeartWise Ministries [where] I found out about [Come And Reason Ministries]. I’m now devouring the webcasts of your Bible studies. I have been so greatly blessed and I thank God so much for your courage to speak the Truth in love no matter what. Listening to you contrast the two opposing systems (laws) and digging deep to unearth the hidden treasures in the Bible makes me so incredibly happy and I feel very blessed to be part of your Bible Study Group although I live far away. I am just so excited that there is a group of people that is spreading the Truth about the character of God and it saddens me how few realize what our Father in Heaven is really like.

Kessy B., Australia

 

Testimony 25

I just want to say thank you so much for your conversations via YouTube. I regularly tune in to your lectures, “Let’s Talk” sessions, and many others. Through these I’ve found greater depth and meaning to God’s word. Thanks for all that you do and please continue. I’m currently working in the middle of Silicon Valley at Stanford University. I feel like God really has me in the right place right now and I’m sensing that your teachings might be part of it.

B. F., Silicon Valley, CA, USA

 

Testimony 31

It was very touching to hear the testimony of your class share how viewing God’s true character has changed their lives. My feelings are the same – there is so much freedom in knowing that God LOVES me – regardless of my… just, REGARDLESS! I’m still blown away by the true gospel, the fact that God is not ready to strike us when we fail. He is not arbitrary. He simply loves us and warns of the natural consequences because He can’t stand to see us suffer. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GOD!!!

Ceil V.,  UT, USA

 

Testimony 29

Thank you for all of your work to correct misconceptions about God’s character. So many people that my husband and I have talked to seem to be against the natural law construct and view it as “errant” and “dangerous.” Having learned more about it through your blogs and lessons, I don’t really understand why they view it that way, except that it means they have to relearn theology they have known for their entire lives. But I’m so excited to relearn this. For the past few years I have been questioning how I could trust a God who punishes arbitrarily and is full of wrath for those who don’t obey His commands. That view made me afraid to “mess up” or “not be good enough,” even within my relationship with God. I really appreciated the point you bring out about God not wanting us to serve Him because we are afraid, but because we love Him.

Melissa H., IN, USA

 

Testimony 24

I wanted to thank you very much for presenting your understanding of God. I’ve always been troubled by this question: Why did Jesus have to die? Since my conversion I understood that The Father & Jesus are one, I did not have issues with that. But was there not any other way to save us than for Jesus to die? I guess I actually had a question about God – if He is so wise, how come He did not find another way? I did not see the real ‘beauty’  in the cross. Only when you explained the picture in the medical context, Jesus providing medicine for my selfishness, have I started to finally ‘see the light’. Thank you so much. Your seminar, “Healing the Mind,” are absolutely marvelous & have shared them with my family and many other people, including colleagues at work. Thanks, thanks, thanks. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry.

M. W., Australia

 

Testimony 28

I have been following your Bible study class for about a year now. I must say I am impressed with how your ministry has grown. I took it upon myself to listen to all your lesson podcasts from the past and they have both enriched me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I have learnt a lot from this class. I have also noticed how the class has grown in spiritual strength. One of the things that benefited me is that now I am not afraid of God. I use to be, but now it has melted away. The second thing is that you helped me to have a real life relationship with God. Now He is my friend that was always there and I love having him with me all the time. Thirdly, because of this class, it inspired me to take over and lead a class. I have called it “Let Us Reason Together,” adapting your inquisitive style and creating a class of free thinkers.

T. Banda, Malawi, Africa

 

Testimony 37

Hearing Dr. Jennings’ presentations in person came at a pivotal moment in my spiritual journey that began about nine months ago, when the fault lines inherent in my belief system began to crack under questions that most reasonable people end up asking about God and His nature. These were questions I couldn’t find answers to, and they shook my faith. I was unable let it go any longer and be satisfied. My Christian experience became distant. I was afraid; the fear in me rose like thorns, pushing me away from Jesus. And then someone heard my questions and introduced me to this ministry, and my life has totally changed.

I can tell you that this new, “present truth” message is far grander and life-changing than when I shifted from being an agnostic and then a nominal Christian. It has radically altered my worldview, because it reveals a God that makes sense. It is a revolution. I believe that Dr. Jennings’ message is the final message that must go to the world. If any message could be called “righteousness by faith,” as abused as that term is by the right and the left, this is that message, because Jennings’ biblical message identifies a God who is different, whose character isn’t an impossible contradiction.

I walk this path now without fear. I see people differently, and the Holy Spirit burns in my heart. Many call Dr. Jennings’ message false and compromising, but it isn’t false, because I’ve seen the fruits within my mind and body. It is not compromising, because in this message is the only road to holiness that makes any sense. No longer do I behold a pagan god who is always angry and suspicious. Instead, I behold a God who is freeing and loving, always working for our good, and giving me every reason to love my enemy even to my own death, just as Jesus pleads with us. God is good.

Anthony L., CA, USA

 

Testimony 65

I have been tuning into your weekly study classes for a while now and wanted express my appreciation for the teachings that ha been a huge blessing in opening up the true message of the word. Viewing scripture under an imposed law theory always, without fail, raised more questions, concerns, and conflicting scripture interpretations that were discouraging at the very least. Looking at scripture through the design law lens has brought more truth to light for me personally and an understanding of our Heavenly Father that places Him “above all others,” where I am now more than thrilled to witness and serve Him.  I “stumbled” across this ministry a year or so ago and would only watch a few minutes at a time. But the more I listened and the longer I paid attention, the more my spiritual eyes were opened to the ever present truths of scripture. The comprehension of the great controversy and it’s origin by the lies perpetrated and perpetuated throughout the Bible on the attack of God’s character and government is truly priceless. Keep up the Good Work! Your servanthood is desperately needed in such a time as this!

Jeff D., Reading, MA, USA

 

Testimony 19

I truly believe that to know who God really is the first step to understand ourselves in a balanced and kind way, so the healing can take place. Your approach really makes sense – Thank you for your ministry!

A.M., Pittsburg, PA, USA

Testimony 23

I would just like to add my voice to the many people who, I believe, must have contacted you to express their appreciation for the “Healing the Mind” DVDs. I’ve been listening to your Bible study class discussions for many years and I’ve been personally blessed by your research and teaching about the character of God.

L. G., Oakland, MI, USA

 

Testimony 32

The message [of Come And Reason Ministries is] for all Christians (and those who may become Christians) and not just Adventists or any other group. It is difficult to imagine why any [anyone] with intellectual and spiritual honesty could find fault with the way you explained the healing substitution concepts and the truth about God’s character, though I know some will reject and criticize. On behalf of those in our group near Tacoma, WA, thank you and your staff for all of the hard work and for sharing the Gospel in this manner. God’s message of healing love will be carried to the whole world and then Jesus will come – He promised it.

Terry U., Tacoma, WA, USA