Pastor Dan’s Blog

The Reborne Identity

Have you ever seen those identity theft commercials from Citibank where there someone is speaking but the voice doesn’t match their body? Identity theft was a 54 billion dollar problem last year and is only growing. However, identity theft did not begin in the digital age; it started way back in the beginning.

Satan’s initial attack was on the woman’s identity, self-worth & self-esteem. His proposal was that eating of the tree would make her like God. His implication was that there was something lacking in her; that she didn’t measure up. His attack on her identity was tragic in the fact that she was already like God! She was created in the same image of God that Adam had been.

Our identity equals our destiny. If we lose our identity we lose our destiny.

In the Hebrew culture your name was more than a moniker, it was your identity, a description of your character and a prophetic declaration of your capacity and potential. Each father carefully chose the name for his children based on this knowledge. When Jacob’s youngest son was born, his mother named him Ben-Oni (Son of my sorrow) as she died in the laboring process.

Imagine going through life with the label and constant reminder that you killed your mother? Jacob, whose name was changed from Jacob (trickster or deceiver) to Israel (Prince of God) after wrestling with God, knew the power of a label. He would not allow his son to be labeled as a source of sorrow and changed his name to Benjamin (Son of my right hand). Jacob changed his son’s destiny. Like Jacob we have the power to change the destiny in people’s lives by the names we call release over them.

Adam was given dominion and authority to name all the animals in the garden. Whatever he named them, that is what they were recognized as. He had the God given authority to ascribe identity and value to each living creature. However, he never gave the woman a proper name until after the fall. The woman was looking for identity . . . a name . . . more importantly . . . a destiny.

Eve lacked identity because Adam failed to release her potential with a name. All he calls her is woman in Genesis 2:23, but no personal identity, no prophetic destiny. It is not until after the fall is her personal identity given and potential released.

²⁰ Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. ~ Genesis 3:20

Before this time Eve had no children . . . after Adam’s declaration she begins to produce and have children. They could not fulfill God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” until Adam released the potential inside of the woman and called her “Eve”. When we receive and accept our God given identity we too have the power to fulfill God’s commands.

It doesn’t matter what label the world, your parents, your ex or your enemies have placed on you. God’s intention for us is greatness, influence & impact. God wants to give you a Reborne Identity!

Tags: capacity, Destiny, identity, identity theft, name