Who God Says You Are

Okay, time for a true confession—full disclosure. I spent a good part of yesterday writing what I thought would be this article for INCENDIUM. Being a Type A, task-oriented individual who loves to check off every item on my agenda before tucking myself into bed at night, I had a check on my spirit instead. Thinking perhaps I should add an extra paragraph to what I’d written, I turned out the light and fell asleep.

Awakening early this morning, I sensed the Holy Spirit saying, You wrote what you thought they should hear. Now write what I want them to hear. Thumbing through one of my older Bibles, a well-worn and torn volume given to me by my parents 36 years ago, I began reading notes in the margins of how particular verses had spoken to me at pivotal, even critical, times in my life. With detailed names, dates, and places, it was a chronicle of my personal growth in Christ, reminding me of the pencil marks my dad would make on a doorframe to chart my physical growth as a child.

Filled with nostalgia, my eyes welling up with tears, I retraced my spiritual steps as I saw logos become rhema. The Word had become life to me as I consumed it daily. In one margin, I even wrote, “This is manna to me!” I recalled moments when I could virtually feel a passage leap from the page into my heart, taking up permanent residence in my innermost being, those God-breathed, life-giving words bringing consolation and correction, hope and help for all of life’s circumstances.

Today, I believe God wants to remind you of who He is as your first love and of your true identity as a child and heir of His promise. You are loved with an everlasting love, and around you are His everlasting arms. You are His workmanship, a masterpiece perfectly and wonderfully made in His image. You are hidden with Christ in God, and in Him you live and move and have your being. He knows your thoughts and does not condemn you, but forgives your sin as far as the east is from the west. He is your safe shelter, your mighty fortress, your hiding place.

He calls you the light of the world and the salt of the earth. He has put his sweet fragrance on you to permeate the world; your life is His letter. He has given you the mind of Christ and makes Himself known to you. Every moment He is thinking of you! Not a tear you shed is overlooked or wasted, for they are precious in His sight. He has loved you from the very foundations of the earth; He has ordained every one of your days before you ever came to be. He will never leave or forsake you. He will lead you in righteous paths all the days of your life.

He will supply all you need; you will never beg for bread. He heals all your diseases and redeems your life from the pit. He has deposited His Spirit in you as a guarantee of what is to come. Absolutely nothing can separate you from His love. His hope will not disappoint you, for He has poured out His love into your heart by the Holy Spirit. His divine power has given you everything you need for life and godliness through your knowledge of Him. Out of you will flow rivers of living water. He desires to be as one with you. He has given you the same glory He gave our Lord Jesus Christ!

I’m sure you know these words as well as I do, but the Lord clearly wanted to remind you of who you are in Him today. Having prayed for ministry leaders around the world for many years, my husband, Philippe, and I have observed how the Accuser seems to specialize in sending darts to deflate not only the work but even the identity of sons and daughters of the Most High, trying to deter them from their calling. Confronted with a never-ending barrage of challenges in an upside-down world where right is called wrong and sin is being deleted from the dictionary, pastors and leaders on the front lines of ministry sometimes struggle to remember who they really are and why they signed up for such a daunting task.

When Philippe and I were invited to become part of the MICN Leadership Team as intercessors, I asked the Holy Spirit what He thought we should be called. Prayer Ambassadors was the response I heard. “Are you sure that doesn’t sound too hoity-toity, Lord?” I asked. But when He reassured me that it came straight from His Word in 2 Corinthians 5:20, I presented the idea to David Fresch, who immediately approved the designation. From this, the Ambassadorial Prayer Team, APT, was launched.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. The role of an ambassador is to be a personal representative of someone else, entrusted with the responsibility of faithfully discharging their duties to reflect whom they are serving. For the APT, this means we have the privilege of representing the love of Jesus to the body of Christ under the MICN umbrella by coming alongside pastors and leaders through prayer and words of encouragement and exhortation. We are called to intercede for your struggles and rejoice in your victories. We offer a safe haven for you to bring your needs before God in prayer, with the assurance they will be held in strict confidence. We are your cheerleaders as you venture out to do great exploits for God!

Prayer works, for the Lord always listens and is relentlessly faithful to answer.

If you would like to avail yourself of prayer through the APT, please contact me at jan@micn.org. It will be our joy to serve you.

Heavenly Father, how amazing it is to know that you have made us partakers of your divine nature, giving us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of you! Thank you for designating us as your heirs, imparting every right and privilege as sons and daughters of the King. We rejoice that you see us as your light, your letter, your fragrance, your workmanship, your representatives in this dark world, and have commissioned us to do the same things that Jesus has done. Lord, we receive everything you died to give us and pray for more of your Holy Spirit to fill us to overflowing as we abide in you. Help us grow in our love for you and for one another as members of your family. Touch every heart with the knowledge of your deep love and bless each one to know you more. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Jan de Chambrier

MICN Prayer Ambassador