I Am - Who?

Placed centrally within The Gospels! We read in Matthew 16 as Jesus starts on the edge by asking His disciples, “who do others say that I am?” Setting up the scenario - “what do others believe about me? Who do they really say that I am?”

Most of us have lived some portion of our lives based on THIS - what our parents believe and think and say, our friends, our pastors or leadership, our circles, the doctrine we’ve been raised in and on, what religion has taught us…

Some of us never actually wrestle and deal with the very next question. Because then He looks His disciples straight into the eyes and asks, “who do you say that I am?” I believe He is still asking His Church this same question right now, today. Yearning to look each of His beloveds directly in the eyes. Can you see His eyes of blazing flames precious one? Can you hear Him asking YOU beloved, right now, in your inner man and heart of hearts - “who do you believe that I am? Who do you say that I am?”

Oh, it’s weighty. It’s massive.

The greatest need of the hour is the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. (Ephesians 1:17)

This could be the question of our lives.

The Church has gone astray from this center and we have lived too long from this reality. Oh, to take the time seeking and searching. To allow His calling us back to a blazing hot first love.

This isn’t a matter of what we say about Him at church or to other people. It’s personal and relationally about being alone and what we say about Him when no one else can hear or see. It’s about the truth of who we really believe Him to be, and what we say from our hearts. What do you say?

Does He delight in you? Is He Joyful? Does He rejoice as God? Is His power unlimited? His wisdom unlimited? His ways higher and unlimited? Is His faithfulness unlimited?

Is everything about Him right? Holy. Righteous. Glorious. Beautiful. Unlimited. Unmatched.

Who do you say that He is?

Next, Jesus turns to Peter and says, “on this rock, I will build My Church!” He was telling Peter as He is still saying to us today, Who I AM is where we will build everything! And while Peters name does mean rock and where they were standing is jaw-dropping (He misses no details ever) it is THIS - as the foundation of what you truly believe about me that I am building everything on!”

“Who do you say that I am?”

A.W. Tozer says, “what we believe about God is the same importance to our lives as Christians as the foundation is to a builder.” He also said that "the thought that comes into our minds when we think of God is the most important thing about us.”

It is what we pour from, our outward pour - our foundational belief. For too long the church has zeroed in on fruit.

It is the who that is the root of the tree, whether good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. The way that we live our day-to-day lives - it is the fruit directly growing from that root of what we believe about Who He is. If there are wrong views, there will be a wrong pattern of living as the fruit reveals the tree and its roots.

It is the foundation even going back to Matthew 7. One house was built upon sand and it says that when the rains came and winds blew - that house fell. But the other house was built upon rock and those rains and winds came upon this house too, but this house stood.

What a love, like no other, to invite us to give ourselves to the seeking and filling of Who He is! Oh He yearns for His creation to KNOW that He is Who He says He is! Will we give ourselves to seeking and pursuing what He says about Himself - who He is, what He says about how He feels, and how He views us? Because if not, our houses will be swiftly carried away.

Wind. Rains. Waves. They’ve come. They’ll keep coming. They expose us. They expose what we truly believe. What’s truly inside. All our humanity. Lack of knowledge. All the dross and chaff. All the sin - complacency, indifference, apathy, other lovers, pride…

The Word says in 2 Corinthians that the minds of unbelievers are blinded, that they can not comprehend and believe in The Gospel. Are there aspects of Gods faithfulness and character and nature that I do not believe? Because if I do not believe, then I can not step out into the realm of the unseen. If we say we believe in a faithful God but don’t let Him have our pocketbook in fullness, or in ways we are uncomfortable stretching in, it’s because we aren’t actually convinced in the faithfulness of God. There’s unbelief.

What if His Church arose in a battle cry and highest yearning for the revelation and knowledge of God? What if we cried out and sought Him wholeheartedly for the promise to find Him? Seasoned ones, how in love are you and how hot are the flames burning to light the younger generation?

The weapons of our warfare are mighty IN GOD, not carnal, for the pulling down of strongholds and casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… that’s our boy Pauly y’all.

Beloved, wage war and awaken love in your secret place. We worship in Spirit and Truth.

No matter the season or the age of your walk - God is restoring to His Church to the preeminence of Jesus, the centrality of Jesus, and the supremacy of Jesus above everything else.

May the flames in His eyes captivate you afresh. May they engulf your heart and set your thoughts and emotions ablaze as The Holy Spirit catches you up and into alignment with Heaven - to and from and through and for Him, because of Who He is. HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS.