We as human beings, we take on what other people call us. We even look in the mirror and call ourselves stuff. But if it's out of alignment with the one who gave you life, with what they've named you, with what he has named you, what God has said about your identity, then it's not true.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Only one has the right to give you the privilege to give you your identity.
SPEAKER_06All right.
SPEAKER_00Hello, JC Shire.
SPEAKER_06Hi, Mom.
SPEAKER_00How are you today?
SPEAKER_06I'm chilling. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm doing okay. I feel like uh you haven't had coffee this morning.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I did just tell you that. So, yeah. So if I start saying random stuff that doesn't make sense at all, I'm sorry. It's because I tried to pull an espresso shop this morning. It was just not good. It was too bitter. And so I didn't drink any coffee because I got mad and threw it away. So that was that.
SPEAKER_00But I guess y'all should know that he's a coffee like oh aficionado. Like he cares very deeply about the taste of different beans, and that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_06I'm like, I'm I'm all into it. I have a cousin named Kazai who has been teaching me all the stuff. And I I'm locked in. Like I'm talking about to the type of bean, to the origin of the bean, to how long it, how far, how how long ago it's been roasted, to the extraction time, to the like like I'm I got the scale. I I I got it all to frothing the I'm I'm learning the art of frothing the milk now so it can be the proper texture, so I can do the latte art. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't care about any of that. I just want a cup of dark, roasted, right? Delicious coffee. Like I'm not thinking about the details of the bean.
SPEAKER_06Just imagine being able to wake up and then like make a cup of coffee for you, like a good cup of coffee. You don't have to go to Starbucks, like you and like your spouse or like whatever. Isn't that so? I feel like that's so cool. Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_00And I would appreciate you knowing all of that because then you can make that for me. Right.
SPEAKER_06So this is seems a little transactional.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the homie podcast. We are only at home in our onesies, um, the homie podcast subtitle full fledged. Why do we have two titles for the names of this book?
SPEAKER_06Full fledged is the podcast, but it's the homie podcast.
SPEAKER_00We just decided it's because we're at home and we're homies.
SPEAKER_06It just kind of happened, honestly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh well, welcome. We have an opening song for you. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You don't ever do that part. Like, what are we talking about?
SPEAKER_06We're talking about one of these books right here, or the title of or something like one of these books. What's it? Where is it? Can I can you hear me the book, please?
SPEAKER_00Okay. So what happened was we came into this is his grandparents' home, and we came here. And sitting in the middle of this coffee table are these two books uh that I wrote about six years ago. One is a Bible study, and one is a regular trade book. JC said, Where'd those come from? I've never seen those before. So he has not really laid eyes on these two books that I spent a lot of time writing.
SPEAKER_05Is this a new cover?
SPEAKER_00Um, no, it's the exact same cover that it's always had. Both of those are the original cover.
SPEAKER_06Because I saw I saw this one for the first time when we were on tour, and I was like, huh. And so I just told everybody this is your newest book.
SPEAKER_00That is hilarious.
SPEAKER_06I've never seen this one before.
SPEAKER_00So well, part of the reason why I'm gonna let him off the hook a little bit. Part of the reason why he hasn't seen those is because they are written for teenage girls and young women. That's what that's what literally the um the book. We're showing the book. This one is defined. So this is about identity, about how who God says you are, and it's it is a Bible study for teen girls and young women. Same thing with the other one, the other one over there.
SPEAKER_01I bet. Here we go.
SPEAKER_00So Radiant. This is like for somebody that doesn't want to do a Bible study with their group or their discipleship group or or by themselves. This is for somebody who just wants to read a regular book cover to cover, and it is for teen girls and young women, I would say into their young 20s. So that's part of the reason why you probably haven't noticed it as well, because it's not written written for boys.
SPEAKER_06Well, none of your books are written for boys.
SPEAKER_00Not specifically, no, except the Prince Warrior series. I was kind of thinking about young men when I wrote the Prince Warrior series. Right. Um, but anyway, this was sitting here and we were thinking of talking about identity anyway. And so we're gonna talk about that today. We're gonna talk about who God says you are, why it matters to know what your identity is for any age, but particularly when you're a young person, like every decision, action, behavior that you and I make, it is it stems from what we believe to be true about who we are that shapes choices, and choices shape the course of your life. So identity really does matter. Okay, I'll start with a little story. Okay, all right. Excuse me. Some people have probably heard me tell this story before, but I'm gonna share it again. So when I was in high school, I gave myself a new name. Yeah. You've heard this, right? So strange. It is a little strange, but I was just being experimental and I decided that I was gonna give myself a brand new name. I was transferring to a different school district. I had been in a small private school, kindergarten through eighth grade. And then ninth grade, I was going to Duncanville High School, which is where I graduated from. Duncanville is one of the largest school districts still to this day in Texas. So I was going into a class, my freshman class was gonna have 753 kids in it. Just the freshman class, not the high school. So it's huge. And I thought most of these people don't know me, I don't know them. It'd kind of be cool to give myself a new name and introduce myself around as that name. Right. See if it'll catch on.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00So my nickname was DK. I picked two initials, put them together, decided my nickname was DK, and I was gonna introduce myself that way.
SPEAKER_06Every time I hear this story, I'm just like, what were you thinking?
SPEAKER_00Well, there was a girl in another uh school district that I had met. I she wasn't a friend of mine, I just met her, and her nickname was DK.
SPEAKER_06So you just stole her name.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I stole her name. But I thought I'm sorry, DK. The real DK, I apologize. Um, so I stole her name. I started introducing myself that way, and um, and my friend Nicole, Miss Nicole, who you know, still my friend to this day, she was in on it. She introduced me to people as DK. And to make a long story short, for the next four years of my life, every single person I knew called me DK. The teachers at the at school called me DK, the principal called me DK, the counselors call me DK, my coaches called me DK. DK is monogrammed on my athletic uniforms, uh, my varsity jacket has DK on it. Um, everything was DK. And um my parents so stupid. I mean, it was it was kind of fun. I mean, to this day, every now and then I will run into someone who says, Hey DK, like across the mall or something, or in the grocery store. Yeah. Or a comment online, they'll be like, Hey, DK. And if someone says DK to me, I know they I went to high school with them.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, for sure. That's right.
SPEAKER_00Or I knew them during that season of my life. Yeah. Yeah. I already know where they're from because they knew me as DK. Most people did not even know my name was Priscilla. They thought that was my actual name. So Nani and Poppy, your grandparents, my parents, they didn't say much about it because they were just like, if that's all this girl is doing, Luigi, let her make it. Because I was a little mischievous.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, but then at one point I remember Nani saying to me, now listen, in a little bit, in a few months, you're gonna be graduating. And when I go to this graduation ceremony, if they give you a diploma and that diploma has a D or a K on it.
SPEAKER_06Because you ain't got DK and none of the parts of your name. No, just none.
SPEAKER_00No, she was like, Don't play with me. When they give you this piece of paper, it better say Priscilla. So she's like, I I don't I don't care about what you've been doing these four years, but this document needs to say Priscilla, Carleen Evans. So, you know, her point was it does not matter what everybody else is calling you. It doesn't even matter what you've chosen to call yourself. There's only one, or in this case two, she and my dad, who have the right to actually give you your name and your identity. Because we gave you life. And I've thought about that so much through the years that we as human beings, we take on what other people call us. We even look in the mirror and call ourselves stuff. But if it's out of alignment with the one who gave you life, with what they've named you, with what he has named you, what God has said about your identity, then it's not true. Yeah, only one has the right to give you the privilege to give you your identity. So that's why identity is so important because we hear so many other names come at us, you know?
SPEAKER_06And you I feel like it usually comes so like so subtly, like at least for me. Like it's I wouldn't say a lot of times people just go to the mirror and say, I'm not like a son of God, or I'm not a daughter of God. They don't really just do that. At least for me, it wasn't like that. It was just subconsciously what I formed in my mind that I may have not even realized I was attaching to my worth or who I was. And so for me, a lot of y'all know my story at this point, me was basketball. Like it just put so many hours and hours and hours into it. You start being like recognized for it, you start being like, you know, like noticed as it, you're criticized by in it, you're like praised in it. Like it literally just with no guardrails, it just naturally becomes so uh attached to your significance. Attached to your significance. And so I remember um when you usually know that you're identifying with it whenever it's taken away, you don't know who you are anymore. And so I was like, oh, and basketball is kind of taken away from me in a certain form. I was like, oh, I don't really know who I who I am anymore. So I was like, I didn't know how to like function without that thing. And whenever you are operating, whenever like as your real identity, which is a son of God and or a daughter of God or whatever, you start to operate differently because you're not attached to anything else besides that. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yes, and it's very when you think about it, it is very scary to attach our identity significance value to things that are temporary, that things that can't last, which is everything on earth. Correct, doesn't last. So your relationship status will shift, your health could change, your body's gonna change. Um, what you're actively involved in or praised for, like you, like you said, in your high school years, it was basketball college years. But for a lot of people, they go into adulthood and their success on their job, that is their identity, where they're receiving the applause and approval. So then when they can't work anymore, yeah, or they're fired from that job or whatever, life happens and that's taken away. If your identity is attached to all that temporary stuff, like you said, it demolishes you, it makes you feel small.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so the task for us is to root our identity in what doesn't change. And that's in who God says we are, which that doesn't shift because my body shifts. That doesn't shift because my circumstances shift, whether I have money, don't have money. That doesn't change. What God says is true. Um, and I feel like one of the main things out of what you just said that I think would be helpful for everybody listening to this podcast is to ask yourself what, if anything, in my life, if it were taken away, I would not know what to do with myself. I I would actually feel small if this thing was taken away.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think if people like took the time to think about that question, um, then that will indicate to you what your identity is erroneously in.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And it's honestly see, here's the here's the the thing about it also, it's it's kind of a form of submission in a way. Because like when when whenever you have identified with anything materialistic or anything on earth, anything but God, you have submitted the right for it to tell you who you are. And so it's like, oh, so well, if if so if I'm choosing to submit to anything, it needs to be God, obviously. But when you're submitted to something, it it now doesn't only have the right to tell you who you are, it has the right to tell you how you can feel now and how you should act. So it's an idol. Exactly. I'm glad you got to that because I didn't even think about that's it, that's kind of what it is. And that's it.
SPEAKER_00I mean, as you're talking, I was sitting here going, oh, that would be an idol if it's the boss of you that much.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, because I mean, I mean, I mean, yeah, like if it tells you, I mean, I remember literally how I operated was based on who I thought I was. If I classified myself as something, I would then operate out of the thing that I classified myself by. And so it you okay, this is kind of a sub point, this a little bit of a sub point. But um if I found the best way to change my actions and my behaviors in my life for a consistently long period of time, not just motivation, willpower, and then give up, is to change my identity. Change what I'm identified by because what you're identified by is what you act upon. You know what I mean? So that was just a sub point of that. Yeah, but anyways.
SPEAKER_00So we have to renew our minds. Like that's what you're saying, is like reroute your thinking in regards to identity.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the outworking of that is then you behave in a way that aligns with who you really are.
SPEAKER_06Correct.
SPEAKER_00Um, and let me just take a little caveat to tell y'all um, one of the most important places in scripture where identity is concentrated in one spot for the believer is the book of Ephesians. So take time seriously to read the book of Ephesians, the first two chapters, and as you're reading it, literally underline every place that it says something about who you are. Because it's gonna say you're accepted, you're forgiven, you're free. Like it says all these things in in chapter one and chapter two. And then say it out loud, like write those things down, put them on your bathroom mirror, you know, in a in a dry erase marker or something, and let it reshape and reframe for a lot of people, it's gonna be completely counter to what they were told their whole lives by parents or teachers or coaches who were not maybe responsible in the words that they used or the treatment that they gave young people. And so it's gonna have to rewire your thinking. But if you know you're accepted, for example, if you start living from a place of an accepted person, I think that would shift so many decisions you make because now you're not trying to get approval. You're not trying to get their acceptance. So, would it be that you actually don't comment that because you're not, you don't feel the need to have to be included in the conversation. You don't insert yourself in certain things, you don't feel the need to say yes to everything, to every invitation to do everything, even though it's running you ragged, because acceptance by that group is not my goal. Applause by the from that particular whatever is is not my goal anymore. Yeah. So this is now actively shifting the way I operate and decisions I make.
SPEAKER_06That's something, and I'm gonna steal it from you. So, in your um, I'll never forget this because this is one of the toughest things I've ever heard in my life. Uh, you said it.
SPEAKER_05What is going on, y'all? Okay, look, the last four years of my life have been completely transformational. Like, I mean, I'm talking about I'm talking about 180, right? And a big part of that was because of Liberty University. Liberty University is a phenomenal place. The coaches, the staff, the teachers, everybody that I encountered seemed like to have a true, genuine love for Jesus and a want for their students to grow and actually become champions for Christ. Like it's real. They have convocation every month, every Wednesday or Friday. They have campus community every Wednesday. As a residential student, I was so impacted by everything that they had, especially the basketball team that was a part of for four years. It just was a great experience. And if you want to become part of the Liberty family, whether as an online student, they have the biggest one in the world, or as a residential student, I have the way for you. Go to liberty.edu slash full fledged, and you can get your application fee waived, and you can come join the family just like I am now.
SPEAKER_06In Revelation chapter four, John and the cloud, the sky and breaks open in the heaven and stuff like that. I remember the first two, but one of the last things that you said talked about got um it said the king was sitting on the throne. And um, back in the old times, I want to say this, but I know you'll say it better, but I want to get the credit for it. Um what a if a king in ancient Israel, is it ancient Israel, if a king sat on the throne, that means that the war was over, it was done, like it was finished. Yeah, and John saw in the sky the king sitting on the throne. And I think that's prevalent to what we're talking about because if you understand that the the the victory's already been won, the battle's finished, everything is good. I don't have to work for anything anymore. Like, uh not I don't have to work for who I am anymore. Yeah, like like it's been done. He he he he already I'm accepted, I'm loved, I'm forgiven, the battle's finished. I don't have to fight the all the other stuff anymore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so then your posture becomes one of receiving instead of fighting for, manipulating, control, and striving, your posture becomes, Lord, what do you have for me today? Some of which will look like interruptions, some of which will look like delay. But if my posture is, oh no, I am victorious, yeah, Lord, I want to be responsible with what my part is today. I want to be a good steward of what you've asked me to do today, this season of my life, whatever, I want to be a responsible steward. But instead of panic trying to control all the outcomes, instead, because you are on the throne, my posture is victory, and my posture is one of receiving. So, Lord, my heart and hands are open for what you have for me. There's a settledness in that. Yeah. There's a Psalm 46, 10 in that. Be still and know that I am not.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, there's um, there is, I'm trying to think. Oh, another, I guess this spins off a little bit, but another easy way, uh, secret way, subtle way, that um the enemy tries to get you to identify with something other than what who God says you are, is by give by by by amplifying a feeling that you have. And it's so easy to be identified with how we feel.
SPEAKER_00And feelings are important, but they're not supposed to be your they're not drivers.
SPEAKER_06We have we have we have a uh we have a a saying in our locker room that we said all the time, which was uh feelings are great passengers, horrible drivers. Great passengers, horrible drivers. Like if they drive your life, they don't have intellect. So if feelings drive your life with no intellect, then it's just leading you to a place that they don't even like it doesn't have it doesn't have any they're great indicators, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like I need to be aware that if I feel a certain way, because God gave us feelings, they're part of the makeup of who we are. So if I feel a certain way, I need to be aware of that. I need to interrogate that, I need to find out why I feel that way. Um, but you're right. If if I'm just gonna determine what I'm doing based on how I feel, that's gonna change so much. I was about to say from day to day, but in the course of one day, it's gonna change so severely that you'll just be, you won't have any stability.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, because I have uh I have friends and I have people, and probably myself, oftentimes if I don't if I don't know it, like we will put our feet how we feel, we identify with what we feel, and then we will also have also take on the identity of who God says you are, and then all of a sudden now we have two things competing for identity and we don't even know. Like we have people who are identifying as one thing, and then be like, but I am a son of God, even though I identify with this. And I'm like, Yeah, no, we can't do that. Like, there's no competing in that, like it's just like there was um in the Bible it says uh it God says that there should be no other gods before me. And so we think about before as in like position, which it is. God's like, there should be no other gods above me, absolutely, but before in that term, also it's talking about presence, like there should be no other gods before me in my presence at all. So anything competing with it is is still in the same category as he's like, I don't want nothing in the vicinity of anything. So he's like, so so when we try to identify with what we feel that is contrary to what the Bible is saying, the Bible says who we are, and then try to also stick God's label of identity of what we have on us at the same time. Now we're like trying to have uh God or our feelings in the same space as God, the actual God. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the most important ways for I know for me, you know, one of the most helpful things that I did throughout my life to to try to reshape in regards to what you know, identity, how it's supposed to impact us practically was to you know, ask myself, okay, for example, accepted. Ephesians says I'm accepted. All right. What would an accept a person that knows they're all right now. Accepted. What would that person do in this situation? Now I need to do that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00Regardless of if I feel right now, I actually feel excluded. I actually feel like I'm not a part, whatever. But what would a person who feels accepted? What would they do? So it's like this is an illustration kind of off the rails. But it's like, you know, when someone maybe struggles with their weight, yeah, and then they look at someone who doesn't, and they look at their eating habits and they're watching that. What does a person that doesn't deal with food noise, what does a person who doesn't who doesn't struggle with their weight, who body um is not their issue? If I watch the way they eat, what do they put on their plate? Is it what's the carb to protein ratio? If I watch that, so then I'm gonna say to myself, okay, what would a person who doesn't have this struggle do? I'm gonna do that. Does that make sense? Like when someone really, but I'm saying when someone watches, like I've I've heard people say, I'm gonna watch someone who is free in a particular area.
SPEAKER_03Okay, right.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna watch their patterns, I'm gonna watch their habits. Man, I like the way they um in in this illustration, I like the way their body looks. I like the way they don't seem to struggle with food. They enjoy food without the panic that I feel about it. So I'm gonna watch what their plate looks like. I'm gonna watch how they enjoy the conversation around the meal, and they're not just consumed with eating everything. They're enjoying the atmosphere of the party, not just at the buffet table the entire time. I'm watching that. Yeah. So, what does it look like for a person who is not struggling with food? What do their habits look like?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm gonna mirror that, even though I still am struggling, I'm feeling this, but I'm gonna mirror that because that's a person who's got what I want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So then we ask ourselves that question about identity. It's like, okay, if a person is condemned, guilty, shameful, how do they act? But if a person is forgiven and free, how do they act?
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What would that look like? Let me do that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. You know, I I for the first, this kind of brings back to something that I did at the beginning of this year, which I I need to do more often. But I I heard a uh it was it was a sermon, it was multiple sermons that that that made me feel like I need to behold the name Jesus again. Basically, that was the whole point, which was like, because um they they they asked a question, they were like, um, so when so how come like you hear we hear the name Jesus so much and nothing moves in us, like our spirit does it. And I'm like, oh my goodness. Like we got in so casual about it. Casual and so comfortable with the name Jesus, like he didn't actually. So I was like, I need to just take a month and I'm not gonna do anything, I'm not gonna do anything besides read the gospels because I want to like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the accounts of Jesus life, because I want to behold the name Jesus again. I want to be like, oh yeah, Jesus, I forgot, I forgot who you were, like for a second. Let me remind myself, right? So I say that because in that time, not only was I just like, oh Jesus, what you did for me on the cross was just great and amazing, but I also got to look at the the the years, the accounts that he was actually walking in, how he interacted with temptation, how he interacted with people, how he interacted in different scenarios. And it made me be like, oh, if he acting like that and he's God, I need to do the same way. And it always flowed from a sense of I know the job that I'm here to do, and I know who I am. I don't care about none of the other stuff that's got you. Jesus' actions stemmed from that. And it was just so thinking about it now is so interesting to me. I want to read it back from this perspective now because it's gonna make me be like, well, if I was in that situation with the Pharisees, I for sure would have did a different, I would I would have for sure acted differently.
SPEAKER_00And you're saying it would have been because I don't know who I am.
SPEAKER_06And to prove to them that I'm the son of Jesus didn't have to prove nothing to nobody. He was like, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna let you know out of my grace and love, but I'm not I'm not trying to impress you, I'm not trying to prove anything to you. I have no I don't. I'm solid in who I am, and I'm here to do a job, I'm here to do a thing.
SPEAKER_00That's that's so great. I didn't think of it like that. Like it shifts how you talk to people, what you say, have to win every battle. Like, think about it. Sometimes we're in conversation with people and we keep yeah, you you I like arguing. You do like winning arguments more than I like arguing. You like winning. And I one of the things that we we talked about, I remember in this conversation was like, because you like theology, so you'll like to go back and forth about theology. Yeah, and remember one time we were talking about the fact that if you lead with the fight instead of leading with love, you've missed the whole point.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I missed the point sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like you have to remind yourself, no, the point is to express the love of Jesus to this person. Um, but if I have just argued them down because I'm trying to prove that I know the right thing, you've missed the goal, which is to lead them into a love relationship with Christ. So when you know who you are and you know what you've been called to do, then winning is less critical.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That the fight.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, winning fight. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I need to do better at that.
SPEAKER_00Well, we all we all do, JC, because you're you just gave us a word right there about because Jesus knew who he was and what he was called to do, and he kept recalibrating to that. Meaning, you would see Mark chapter two early in the morning, he would go by himself to a quiet place to spend time with the father. And then, oh, this I got something too. Mark chapter two is like all the city is at his door. That's what it says. Everybody's at the door wanting him to show off. Yeah, even the disciples are like, you know, you can go out here and make your name great, right? Like, right, let's do it. Yeah, the whole city's at your door. Come on, right, and he goes to a quiet place by himself, recalibrates, and then he comes back and he says, All right, we're leaving, we're going to Capernaum because I need to preach over there. And they're like, But the people are right over here. Like, we get to make you a superstar today.
SPEAKER_03Right, right.
SPEAKER_00And he's like, But that's not what I'm not pulled and lured by the need to impress all these people. Y'all want to do that. But I know who I am, I know what I'm called to do. So it makes me want to honor God and his purposes. I I love that you brought that up because that's a that's a big one.
SPEAKER_06There's I think there's two things in my head, and I hope I don't forget it. But um Jesus, and this might not be have anything to do with identity, I just think it's a good point. Um, Jesus isolating himself to to sit and talk to the Father is like something that if we probably did more, we would find ourselves in more similar situational more, we would act more similarly to how Jesus acted in scenarios. Oftentimes we don't really know our identity strong enough to know how to operate in the scenarios because we have not talked to God enough to know who he says we are, or gotten our word enough to say who we were like like we just and so we expect to react and respond a certain way like Christ would, but we don't know how Christ would because we haven't read the Bible. We haven't read the Bible, so it did that or prayed in all the things, so guilty. So that was one thing. Um the other thing was shoot, I knew I was gonna forget it. I just knew it. I just never.
SPEAKER_00I knew what happens when you're getting old, son.
SPEAKER_06I am I getting old? Am I getting old?
SPEAKER_00You just be randomly forgetting something.
SPEAKER_06I really do. Yeah. I mean, uh and I said this this is the same thing that happened yesterday because I'm about to say it's on the tip of my tongue, and then it's gonna just slide back.
SPEAKER_00It'll come back.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it'll come back.
SPEAKER_00It'll come back.
SPEAKER_06Um yeah, identity. Um because I was gonna go away from like actual identity piece in more about I think just yeah, I lost it.
SPEAKER_00You lost it. It's okay. It'll come back in a little while.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna say that this issue of identity is so critical because you will behave in whatever way that aligns with who you think you are. Right. And you will live up to or down to whatever you believe to be true about yourself. And the reason why I know that this is so important, okay. Remember.
SPEAKER_06Okay, let me just let me just say it out loud so I know calling. That's gonna help me remember. Okay.
SPEAKER_00The reason why this is so important, or we know it's so critical and important, is because it's one of the number one things that the enemy is trying to sabotage. Think of the attack on identity. Think about how severe the attack on identity is. I mean, everything is being redefined that has already been identified and defined by the one who created it. Correct. So everything from gender to uh relationships to, I mean, you could just go down the list and and all of it is being so contorted and skewed. Why would it be so important to be contorted and skewed? If I were the enemy, the reason would be because I know that if folks start lining themselves up with who God says they are based in their physic, in their physicality, their personality, their spirituality, if they start lining and live out of that identity, he don't want a whole bunch of actually free victorious, forgiven people walking around. He wants us confused about our identity.
SPEAKER_06And it is amazing because we are so good at taking different different verses out of context, we're taking the meaning of words and making it not the actual meaning of stuff and spinning it all to fulfill what we want to do, make us comfortable, yeah. Right, we want to be comfortable, however, life life would be so much better if we all just took a second and looked back to the original design of how God made it.
SPEAKER_00Whatever the thing is, whatever the original design.
SPEAKER_06Just the original design. Like, let's just go back to how he when he when he said he made it and he said it was good. Like, let's look at let's look at let's look at that before Adam, and you clearly see different things being labeled and identified how they were. And then we look at today, and all of a sudden things is just not like that, yeah. And so it it's and so I think sometimes it's like, oh, let's take this verse and be like, oh, this word actually doesn't mean this, and let's spin it to make something else, or at in this context, in the little no, no, no. Let's let's just take a second. Let's go back to the beginning and let's look at the identity in which God it's at.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and it's important to recognize that because the enemy is working so hard to distort identity, that means we we're gonna have to, as individuals, families, whatever, we're gonna have to work as hard to counter that in our own minds and our thinking with our children and our behaviors. Like we have to vigilantly remind ourselves who does God say I am? Yeah, what does God say this is, this entity is, this institution is, this, you know, what does God say? We're gonna have to be vigilant about it, otherwise we're just it's just gonna be a slow and decline.
SPEAKER_06Right. And if God is the soul of everybody's truly of everybody's heart, if you say you're a believer, then you should live out that way. That's one thing. Second thing, I'm gonna come out of identity a little bit because that's that's that's one thing. We talked about that. Yay, amazing. Um, let's talk. Can we talk about a little bit about because I was talking about with the friend about this on the phone today? Um, I was talking about because I do real I do real estate. I think I mentioned this on the podcast before, and I also like travel, get travel and speak and podcast, obviously, not type of stuff, which is amazing and fun. Um I feel like God has like orchestrated both areas in both ways that's like incredible. Like, I definitely think God is telling me to do real estate. I don't think God is telling me to communicate. Um, but how to do that, those both well is kind of hard. Like, I don't, I don't know really know how to do that. And I say that because I'm trying to try and I need to do a better job at this, but trying to understand, okay, God, like what have you called me to do? And based off of what I feel like you've called me to do, not who I am, but what you have called me to do on earth to shape how I act. So, like you in your life, how have you seen, oh yeah, I identify with Jesus? Like I know who I am, but as far as my work, as far as what he's called me to do on earth for Priscilla, like um how how has that shaped the way you act? How have you tried to, you know, be so in tune with what he's telling you to do so that you know how to move, you know, all that type of stuff?
SPEAKER_00Well, through the years, it began to occur to me that what he has called me to do is to be clear about who Jesus is and to bring people to Jesus in a ministry way, like a direct ministry way, that is what my calling is. Right. What that means is that every opportunity that comes our way, I'm filtering it through that calling. There are many, many, many great opportunities, good opportunities. But if the goal isn't specifically to equip someone to walk in victory, to know the scriptures more fully, if that's not the actual specific goal, then that's not the project for me. It doesn't mean it's not good. It's just I'm filtering it through what my what I'm trying to stay in the lane.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now, I'm not saying there aren't, you know, this is a good uh question you're asking brings to my mind the movies that I've gotten to be a part of. When you think about them, all four of them have just been ministry. Like that it wasn't just an opportunity to act. I have gotten many scripts where I could have just acted. I'm not saying I won't ever do that because I I've enjoyed the process so much. Like I can't, yeah, I can't believe I've gotten to do it. And then it's fun because it's like a creative outlet that is not normal for me. It's not something I exercise all the time. So, man, at some point, yeah, you know, now that you guys are getting older, for example, I have a little bit more margin and time. Um, so that means I have more flexibility to be able to do things that are just kind of for fun. Movies are so much work, they take months of work. So for now, my answer has been no, I'm I'm only doing the ones that stick with this intention right here. If they're just a good inspirational film, there are many actors and actresses that can do that. But since I've been trying to make sure I'm just using the time that I had while I was primarily raising you guys to just do the main thing, that's what calling has done for me. It helps me to filter out all the good things by asking, but is this what God is? Does it fall into the vein of what God has asked me to do? If not, then let me be secure enough in what God has called me to do that I can say no, not have FOMO, fear of missing out, not be feel guilty and sad that the people asked me to do that and I didn't do it. Um, but also say yes, say no with confidence, knowing that it opens up a yes for this, for the actual thing God has called me to do. And also what the no does is it leaves space for somebody else who was supposed to do that other project anyway. If I'm so insecure that I say yes to everything, not only am I gonna be exhausted and tired and not running the race God has set for me, but also I'm gonna be standing in spaces and in places that really it was someone else's turn. But I was too insecure to leave the gap that would give them an opportunity to step forward. I don't know if that answered your question.
SPEAKER_06No, yeah, it does. And because I've I have a bunch of thoughts on this, but the first thing is that because I think it's so easy to incorporate in our identity what God has called us to do instead of who God says that we are. Yeah, I think those are two distinct things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And so um, even though it may be God who told you to do what you're doing, like God told you to do ministry, you're not who you are is not ministry. Like you're not Miss Priscilla is not defined by ministry, like she's defined by God says you are a daughter. Yeah. So I think that that's an important distinction because even though God said it, that doesn't mean God's saying that's who you are. God saying that's what you you're right, commissioned on you.
SPEAKER_00You mean like someone's profession.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_00So, for example, if you're a real estate agent or you're an entrepreneur or you're an accountant or whatever, that is what you do, and God may have gifted you to do it. You're you've got a talent for it, a knack in it, you've made a name for yourself in it, you've had achievement and success in it. And God wants you to use that for his glory. Yes, that's what you do. It's not who you are. Which means when that is taken away, because that that's the truth. Like, if what if ministry in this phase of my life completely shifts? Right. What if it doesn't look like it has in the past 20 years and this next 20 years? And it's it's so different and mind-boggling that if my identity is attached to how I've done it for the past 20 years, and now it's not gonna be like that anymore. I don't know if it will or not. I'm just saying, if it shifts, um I gotta still be okay knowing no, this is who I am. And I can still be a minister to people, which is what we're all supposed to be, no matter what the dynamic looks like in which we're doing it.
SPEAKER_06Have you ever felt yourself being defined by ministry at one point because ministry is such a big part of your life?
SPEAKER_00Defined by it. Um gosh, it's hard for me to answer that question. I I think I would say I don't think I've found my significance in it. That's good. Yeah, I don't think I've found my significance in it. Um it's it's so hard for me to answer that because it is what I've always done. And then before I was doing it, we were in a ministry family. So it's it's so incorporated into just the you know, but I I do know that if I stopped doing ministry in a public way, um, right now at this phase of my life, if I never wrote another book, I wouldn't feel I would feel different. It would feel weird because that you know, be like anybody that did any job for 25 years and all of a sudden you're not doing it anymore. You know, you've been a doctor 25 years and you retire and you're not a doctor anymore. It would feel weird. Like I'd feel like, okay, what am I gonna do? But I wouldn't feel less. I wouldn't feel that if I'm not on a platform teaching or preaching to people with a microphone on, that that means I'm not in ministry anymore. It would just mean to me, okay, Lord, what's the way you want me to do it now?
SPEAKER_06So Yeah, yeah, that that that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00But it would require an adjustment because I'm so used to doing ministry this way, the way, you know.
SPEAKER_06And I guess that's a good, a good distinction too, for for for anybody out there wondering, like, oh, is um is what I do where I draw my significance. Yeah, where I draw my significance. And it's okay to like, it's not like we're not saying, oh, you shouldn't feel anything if it leaves. That's not what we're saying. Yeah, it's not anything, it's just about who you are. Um, if it leaves, you might feel uncomfortable. Like mom said, you might feel uncomfortable. You might be like, oh, this is weird. I I'd never done this before, but you don't look at yourself as lesser of a person.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Because that's not what you do. Or and a lot of the and a lot of times that comes from how people look at you. Because you're you're like, oh, if I don't a lot of times it may not even be like, I'm just gonna use ministry as a public ministry on like stage, writing books as an example. A lot of the times it may not even be, oh, um, I'm I'm mad that I can't speak in front of people anymore. I'm not mad I can't write a book. You're just mad that no one will know your name anymore. You know what I'm saying? And so it may not even be just the actual vocation, it just may be how people view you because of the vocation that you do.
SPEAKER_00That's right. That's right. And and that applause or that notoriety is can be um very alluring and addicting. So then we're we're not careful. You're right. What we're missing actually is the notoriety that came with the thing we did. It's not even the thing we did, it's the notoriety that came with the thing we did because it's so addicting, you know, if we're not careful and safeguarding about that. So, anyway, yeah, this this issue of identity is so important. I'm glad we've talked about it. And I hope it at least starts helping some folks maybe to ask the questions.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What is my significance? Like if this thing were stripped away, would I feel you know, what would I feel? What would it do to me? Yeah. Um, so I think that's important. So, anyway, if you have some young women in your life, I'm not the kind of person that really ever talks about books that I've written, and which is why my own son doesn't even know I've written them.
SPEAKER_02Nope.
SPEAKER_00But I I since these are sitting here today, I am gonna tell you about these because if you have a young woman in your life, I wrote these specifically for young women up to 25 years old, let's say, it somewhere in there about identity. Or if you've got a young group of women and they want to do a Bible study together to really just explore who does God say I am, how do I live in a way that honors who He has called me to be? These resources, radiant and defined, I hope that they'll be helpful to me.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and I'll say one more thing and to close. Um, because this has been uh a big part of my life in the recent like two years, which has been so I love the word submitting when it comes to identity. Um, like submitting my identity to who what Jesus says or who Jesus says that I am, letting him define it, not anybody else, not anything else. Like like there's nothing else out there in here, especially in here, that can tell me who I am based off of what I feel, what my circumstances are, or anything like that. Like that doesn't that doesn't matter. It it kind of reminds me, um actually let me let me think about this before I just say this. Um because I feel like like it it oh yes, uh the people when Job and the P the friends came and the friends were like, you must have done something because you're experiencing that. It kind of makes me think because I feel like sometimes we can look at ourselves and be like, oh, because I'm experiencing this, this must be who I am. Like because there's something, like because I have a or because I put identity on myself based off of the things that are coming at me or or the problems that have come, like I like because it's me, you know what I mean? And so I just think that it doesn't matter circumstance, whatever, like separate like who you are from what you feel versus what Jesus says, and then separate your work from who you are also because your work is not who you are, that's what you've been commissioned to do. But Jesus is the you being a son or a daughter is the only thing that can that that that you are, and that's your identity, period. But anyways, just had to say that because that's my thoughts.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate that. Thank you for this conversation. Yep. I think it's gonna be helpful. Hopefully, have a good day.