But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. (Isaiah 43:1)
This writing is an expression of what I believe. And what do I believe in this context? Simply put, it is this one thing: that God calls each one of us according to how He sees us. Not according to how we see ourselves or how people see us, or how they call us. Or even how we call ourselves.
I don’t know about you, but it is not every day that I wake up feeling like a chosen generation or a royal priesthood, or a holy nation. (1 Peter 2:9). But that is what God says I am in Christ Jesus. I observed this in scripture during my time of meditation and I’ve decided to put it down.
So here are some examples I want to cite as evidence of this belief system. After all, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word will be established (2 Cor. 13:1).Â
- Gideon (Judges 6:11-16): This man was found hiding cowardly in the winepress of his father, threshing wheat. Though he was hiding, considering himself the weakest and afraid, yet the Lord called him, “mighty man of valour“. In time Gideon would become this but at that time he hadn’t done anything to prove that name. But God wasn’t calling him that because of where he was or what he had done but according to what He made and would do through him. That was a declaration of God’s faith in Gideon’s destiny.
- Abraham (Gen. 17:4-16): When God looked at Abram, he was still like every other person. The son of promise had not been born. His wife was still barren. He was still an old man without an heir to his name. He was still a stranger in a foreign land. He had still not conquered anything to his name territorially. However, God would look at this man and declare a new naming ceremony over him. God would call him a name that had nothing to do with where he was at that moment. God was calling him the name of the place he was taking him to. I’m other words. He was being called the name of his testimony. This was the faith of God as well.
- Jacob (Gen. 32:28): He was standing between who he used to be and the man he was praying for God to make him. And then God looks at him after a night of encounter and gives him a new name. He hadn’t proved a thing but the faith of God by covenant gave him this name.Â
Scripture is filled with this kind of testimony. Why because God, being ever present, loves and delights in dealing with His children by what He sees and wants in their lives. I believe God sees me victorious in defeat, healed while I’m sick, rich while I’m poor. Which is why He said for the righteous to say, IT IS WELL – Isa. 3:10; Job 22:29.
Faith, therefore, is my ability to call myself by what God calls me regardless of what I’m seeing, where I am, what people are saying or how they’re seeing me. It is me choosing to side with and answer to what God says above all.
Read: We Are All Not Called To Do But to Be
Is there anything God calls you dear friend (you can find them in His word, the Bible, in His promises)? The helped, the healed, the delivered, the washed, whatever it is, side with it and accept it today. You may not look like it and life may not seem like it. However, simply believing and accepting to answer by it would do your life and destiny more good than you can imagine.
I talked a little about this in my recently released book YOUR JOURNEY WITH GOD.Â
May God bless you through these words today.
James Osayande George lives by the mandate to reveal the liberating truth of God’s word in simplicity and accuracy through a cutting edge teaching ministry.
Having been saved at the young age of thirteen (13) years old through a Divine encounter, he has since dedicated himself to know and serve the Lord with his life.
Best known for his calm voice, James George has ministered in full-time ministry since 2014 within which period he served as one-time resident pastor of Glad Tidings Life Triumphant Church, Kaduna State, Nigeria under his spiritual father and mentor, Pastor Moses Enabulele.
A student of the prestigious Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema Bible Training Center, Nigeria, James George is the author and co-author of numerous published and unpublished manuscripts and poems for blogs and magazines, as well as books including Walking through the Word Devotional (a classic all year round devotional book). Your Journey and God is his first published book. He runs a blog at www.thischariot.wordpress.com
He is the pioneer of G. M. M. Network, a body of believers dedicated to church growth, spiritual development, youth, and women empowerment, as well as outreach to the less privileged. He currently resides in and does his ministry from Lagos State, Nigeria
