The other day, I wrote a blog post entitled Language identity: You are what you speak. I talked a little bit about how my identity is different between languages. I appreciated the comment that one reader left:
I have not had two different language identities… but I have most definitely had two spiritual identities… I know the difference between living out of one identity opposed to another, and I am so grateful for my identity in Christ that is uplifting, pure, and true.
This comment definitely got me thinking.
I may be leaving my Colombian Spanish identity behind, but I have a Heavenly identity that only gets left behind when I stop speaking the language.
We all have a natural identity: our personalities, our strengths, our weaknesses, and our tendencies flow together to create how we see ourselves. It’s what tends to be the most blatant and what we tend to complain about the most. It’s just the way I am, I guess…
But we also have a heavenly identity. We are new creations (2 Cor 5:17). Our spirits have been transformed – we are seated with Christ! We have been introduced to this new world and new language! But sometimes it takes our mind, will, and emotions awhile to figure out how to live in that new identity – we need our minds to be transformed (Rom 12:2).
The tongue has the power of life and death (Prov 18:21). Just like my Spanish identity comes out only when I’m speaking Spanish, my Heavenly identity – all that I am in Christ – is strengthened when I speak His language: The Word.
Are you living in the reality of your identity according to the Word? If not, maybe it’s time to start speaking the language…