More Than Your Plumber

Who are you? 

How can three words so quickly expose our cores? Three words slide right passed our lifetime resumes, areas of expertise, passion projects, bank accounts, and every other distraction in which we engage.  

The amount of power bound up in this question is staggering to me.  

The answer can be a wellspring of vitality and liveliness and confidence and rest and power and so much more. But the answer can also be a source of depression and instability and insecurity and fear and terror and so much more. 

Life and death; light and darkness; joy and despair…all from the same source.  

With so much at stake we would be exceedingly wise to be careful who we let define us. Google has given consumers the power of researching the quality of restaurants, doctors, plumbers, lawyers, and anyone else we may need to help us. And we are wise to research, for example, local plumbers to find one who has a great reputation. Having a bad plumber is…bad!  

If we understand the value of being careful in who we let clean our drains, how much more should we research and evaluate who are going to let actively define who are! By “actively define” I mean from whom or from where do we draw daily to determine our identity. Do we actively define ourselves? Is our identity determined by whoever is in the next room in which we enter? Is our identity determined by mom and dad? In every day, even as you read this, from what fountain do you drink?  

In our first OVERFLOW of 2024 we met Jotham, a Judean king in the lineage of David. 2 Chronicles 27:6 says, “So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.” From 2 Chronicles 27:1-9 we distilled three keys from Jotham’s life that we can embrace that will generate a powerful year: BE, BUILD, and FIGHT. 

In this OVERFLOW we explore what it means to BE. We step into strongly, joyfully, happily answering the question, “Who am I?” 

Jotham chose to actively draw his definition of who he was from the LORD his God. At some point in his life, Jotham’s eyes were opened to the supernatural truth that God is real, alive, and active. The Creator of the Universe was no myth or legend or regional deity. The Creator was the One who birthed Israel as His chosen people through the Patriarch Abraham. And the Creator was the One who providentially determined that Jotham was to be king of Judah.  

In most Bible translations the word LORD in the Old Testament is often in all caps. All caps, “LORD,” signifies that the original Hebrew word being translated is, “Yahweh.” Regular, “Lord,” signifies that the original Hebrew word being translated is, “Adonai.” 2 Chronicles 27:6 says that Jotham ordered his ways according to, “the LORD his God.”  

Two important truths about Yahweh (LORD). First, the name suggests promised victory or deliverance. Yahweh originates from Exodus 3. God calls Moses to stand before Pharoah, the leader of Egypt, the dominant world power of the day. Moses is to demand the freedom of the enslaved Israelites. While in slavery, Israel formed the blue-collar work force of the Egyptian economy. This was an enormous demand with cataclysmic economic and political implications.  

Moses was afraid.  

He needed assurance. He asked God to give him an answer for when he is asked who sent him to make such a ridiculous demand. God replied in Exodus 3:14, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM,’ and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” In Hebrew, “I AM” is the word, “Yahweh.”  

The name is rich in meaning and deep in substance. No tag line can capture the fullness of Yahweh. One aspect of the title conveys the promise keeping nature of God. Yahweh fulfills what He promises. He wins. He delivers. Yahweh, even when confronted with liberating a million slaves from the dominant global empire, does not lose. 

So, when Jotham is deciding to whom he will look to understand who he is, OF COURSE he is going to look to Yahweh! Why would Jotham ever settle by letting anyone else define his life? Can you imagine the internal stability available to Jotham that would result by choosing to rest one’s definition in the words of Yahweh?  

Whoa.  

The second bit of truth regarding Yahweh, and this pertains far more to us than Jotham, is that in the New Testament we learn that Yahweh is God our Father. Yahweh, the One who wins, who always delivers on what He says, is our Father. When you read LORD in the Old Testament that is our Father at work in His people Israel.  

Jesus is questioned by some Pharisees about the identity of the Christ in Matthew 22:41-46. He replies by quoting Psalm 110:1, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” This verse is much clearer when you understand in Hebrew the text says, “Yahweh says to my Adonai: ‘Sit at My right hand…’” Adonai is Christ, Jesus who stands before these Pharisees. So, who is Yahweh? The Father! That Jesus sits at His Father’s right hand is widely spoken of in Scripture. 

Who Jotham knew as Yahweh in the Old Testament, you and I know as Father. The Creator of the Universe, the deliverer of Israel, is our Dad. As He bestowed on Jotham the title, “King of Judah,” so too He bestows upon every one of us who believe in Jesus the title, “Son,” or, “Daughter.”  

Imagine again the internal confidence Jotham would enjoy by choosing to rest who he is in the words of Yahweh, God, the Deliverer of Israel.  

Imagine the internal confidence and security and power and joy that is available to you if you choose to rest who you are in the words of God your Father, Yahweh, the One who offers liberation from Satanic tyranny, not by Moses, but by His Son Jesus.  

But you must believe that He is AND that He wins. No one wants to attach themselves to a loser. AND no one wants to be defined by someone who is passive. For God our Father’s definition of who we are to have meaning, He must be winning on the battlefield. For we live on the battlefield. We take daily hits from bombs and bullets on the battlefield. We need a name that has tremendous power, power that cannot be overcome. We need to be able to rest our souls in a fortress of truth.  

Praise the LORD, He provides it. Just as no nation could stand against Jotham’s Israel when they were faithful to Yahweh, no attacker, no lie, no weapon can stand against the one whose life draws solely from the truth of our Father.  

“Who am I?” is a penetrating question that quickly exposes our core like no other question. The answer has tremendous power. Power that can stabilize a soul and power that can make one feel like they live on shifting sand. There is no turmoil like the turmoil of a person whose identity is uncertain.  

Draw power today from the truth that you are a son or daughter of YAHWEH. Breathe deeply. Let all other definitions, and those who have defined you, be erased from you. As you walk into a room of others in whose presence you feel attacked, DECLARE that your life does not come from any of them…not a single one. See yourself in the fortress of your Father’s truth. Do not shrink back. Do not engage in their games. Rest in the OVERFLOW of LIFE that is yours in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.