Identity Theft



Soul Graffiti with "Uncle Auto" in India.
Andrew, Cole, Uncle Auto, Chelsea, Nicole, Cathy, Jamie, Jess



You Are What You Think.

"Let your only evaluation of worth derive from the awareness of God's love for you.

All other measures leave one in a state of
delusion." -Anonymous

On the race one of the hardest obstacles I had to overcome was the way that I thought about myself. I went to training camp in October of 2010 heard the lessons about who I am in Christ, about abandonment, walking in true authority, and stepping out in bold faith and I was a teary eyed, snotty mess the whole way through. I cried, I repented, I stood on a chair like the rest of the World Race crazies and I screamed declarations at top of my lungs. When I left the wilderness of Georgia my spirit felt lighter than it had in years. But admittedly I didn't fully understand the significance of the  things that I learned at training camp until I was up to my elbows in community living and the raw realities of the third world.

I landed in Thailand with a mental list of all of my skills and abilities tallied up in the back of my mind. As I was faced with challenges and trials I would refer back to this list obsessively to excuse away my failures and shortcomings. Instead of looking my fears in the eye and calling them out for what they were - bold faced lies - I submitted to them and carefully skirted around their limitations. I now realize that I have lived out most of my life in submission to fear and as a result I believed an astonishing number of lies about who I am and what I am capable of doing.

Chelsea demonstrating the use of brass knuckles on Tye.
Photo by Natasha (Tye) Ritsema.

As the months went by, the challenges got tougher and community living began to wear on me. My teammates started to feedback me about my fears. Bit by bit those layers of fear got pulled off and I began to do things that I had never dreamed of doing before. I started to relax in situations that were a major source of anxiety and stress at the start of the race, even to the point of enjoying myself. And I started to open up my mouth and speak boldly with the kind of confidence I used to only wish I had. As I let go of the fears that I had guarded and clung to for protection I was able to better understand who God is and who he says that I am. I found myself liberated for the very first time and I found within myself a strong will and a determination to fight for change in the lives of the people I encountered.

My words changed. I stopped calling myself a loser, I stopped making excuses to manipulate myself into believing that my fears were justified and I started to repeat the things that I heard God saying about me. Then I began to listen to what God was saying about the people around me and I learned to speak over other people the things that God speaks over them.

Simply put I have value because God loves me. I am well and completely loved. All of the thoughts that God has about me come out of that abundance of love. They are all good and they are more numerous than all of the grains of sand on every seashore. I am loved perfectly and obsessively by God, he adores me. He thinks good things about me and he's not up in heaven saying things like:

     "Geez... I can't believe she didn't add up that total right. That girl is so dumb. It was simple math!"

God doesn't do that. He wouldn't dream of doing that. So why is that the way that I think and talk about myself? Why do I say things like 'I can't...' or 'I'm not good enough to...' when God says that he is all that I need? God promises to be my strength when I am weak and he keeps his promises.

I Am...

The things that we think about affect the way that we act. God says to meditate on his words day and night and the reason he tells us to do it is because if our heads are full of his words we are going to live in his abundance and life. If our heads are full of crappy thinking we're going to spend a lot of days fighting off a bad attitude and find ourselves caught in one stinking mess after another.

Cole and Andrew in Indian Men's Attire.
Photo by Jamie Campbell

Our thoughts influence our attitudes. Our attitude is reflected in the words that we speak and, in turn, those words affect everyone within hearing range. We can speak life or we can bring down death and destruction, it's all in the way we choose to view and react to the world around us. If we live from a basis of anxiety, fear and insecurity or even a place of pride, entitlement or selfishness then we allow the enemy to steal our identity as sons and daughters.

Think about it, if our words have the power to impact the world around us so powerfully what happens when God speaks? An abundance of life is created just like it was way back in Genesis. We are created and sustained by the words of God. The sound of his voice speaking life over us is like the best and healthiest food we could ever eat. It heals our hearts and builds up our bodies. The voice of the enemy is like a poison that slows eats away at our bodies until we have no appitite for the words of God. Honestly it makes the enemy more than happy when we live out of an impoverished mind set and don't dine at God's table. When we catch a hold of who God is and what he says about us the enemy doesn't stand a chance. When the children of God think, act and live like children of God then the armies of Hell have no choice but to look for cover.

When God first introduces himself to his kids in the Bible he gives them a name that is kind of weird:

I Am.

Huh..? It's like he forgot to finish the introduction. Honestly, I had wondered about it but had never questioned it until Andrew spoke about God's name as part of a message he spoke on the race. In a nutshell this is what he said...

God was making a statement to his children. Think of it like a kind of 'fill in the blank'. I Am all you need. I Am your security. I Am your victory. I Am your daily bread. I Am your comfort. I Am the lover of your soul. I Am your redemption. If you need something, anything, I Am the source and the answer to the need, there is no lack in me. It won't always look the way you expect, my ways are not your ways, but my love for you is steadfast and I Am good. I Am blessing you and I Am bringing you into a place of greater freedom and greater joy.  

He really is all we need. He really does love us. He really is enthroned above the enemy and he really is victorious. When we look from heaven's perspective we see victory, we see provision and we see freedom from bondage - the answer to all our troubles!  

HD Living



Okay... I'm going to be cheesy for a minute because sometimes it's the cheesy things that we remember. Everywhere you look people are getting into the idea of High Definition entertainment. Clearer, sharper images that make entertainment leap off the screen and into your living room. This is my challenge for you as well as for myself - go after high definition living.



Warriors Saving the Day. Houston, Andrew and Cole.
Photo by Jamie Campbell (South Africa).

The one who is enthroned on high looks at you and defines you as worthy, loved, beautiful, capable, whole, powerful and influential. God believes in you and he is calling you to live free from all bondage. If you're not sure who God says that you are start to find out. Ask him. Read your Bible. Write it out, remind yourself about it daily and begin to really believe what he says about you because it's all true.

These past couple of days I have realized that without even realizing it I had stopped listening to God's voice and had begun to entertain the voice of the enemy. I found myself afraid, insecure and timid when I know full well that God has not given me a spirit of fear or timidity. Ironically God didn't point it out right away, instead he asked me to write notes of encouragement for other people. As I prayed and wrote to them, building them up and letting them know who God says they are I caught my own hypocrisy. Then God asked, 'Who are YOU Nicole?' This blog is just as much for me as it is for you.

So, seek out the sharper, clearer understanding of who God is and your own identity in him and then start to learn how to live out of the truth of God's higher definition for your life. Pursue HD living.

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What does God think about you? Who does He say that you are?