“The Who”….sounds like something straight out of Dr. Seuss right?  But no, that is not where we are going.  In fact, what we will be discussing is you the Who.  Jeremiah 1:5 says; “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.   Who?  Me?  No Way.  It’s true.  Before you were born you were formed, known, consecrated and appointed.  Before you were born, God invested Himself in you.

                                                                                                                               You are the Who

Read it for yourself in Genesis 1:26-27.

But………

     Are you living the “Created Image Life” that you were born for?  Sometimes we have to step out of where we are, much like stepping through the wardrobe in The Chronicles of Narnia, adventuring into the unknown, to discover, unearth, and reveal the Who God created us to be.  Long before you were born, God planted a Who in you.  Where we choose to settle can suppress, push down, and stifle the Who.  The image of the Who can never be changed, but can certainly be hidden.  Are you hiding the Who?

     We can choose the “settler’s life” and hide the image we are made in.  The settler’s life is determined by the choices we make.  There was a time when I would say the Who was dependent on the day of the week.  Much like the images of my favorite cartoon character Snoopy, where Mondays were dreadful, Tuesdays were getting by, Wednesdays held some hope for a better tomorrow, Thursdays were for picking myself up off the floor to get ready for 

“I t ’ s – f i n a l l y – h e r e – F r i d a y s” 

and celebrating Saturdays and Sundays which flew by all to fast to start all over again with dreadful Monday.  Yes that is a very long run on sentence.  My life was much like a run on sentence completely masking the Who.  I spent my days belittling the Who, getting by, settling.  Can you relate?  

     The Bible gives us a picture of a settler in the story about the rich young ruler who felt the tension between the Who life he was living and the Who life he was created for.  That tension led him to a face to face conversation with Jesus.  The rich young ruler was doing what he knew to do which led him to be obedient to the law, fulfill his role as a leader, gain wealth and achieve success by the worlds standards.  Perhaps he followed in his family’s traditions.  But deep down there was something inside the created Who that knew there was more.  So he asked Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?”  He needed to find out what it would take to close the gap.  Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor.  We read that he went away sorrowful, grieving.  In response to Jesus offer he said thank you very much  but I will keep what I have never knowing that what was given to Jesus multiplied.  He didn’t realize that all he was holding onto was nothing more than dead works.  It is Jesus that gives life to all things.  He turned down the more of Jesus life for his less life and never experienced the Who life.  

“What captures our affection will determine our direction. “             

It will either compel us to live out our Who or leave us a settler, living a common dead life.  So the question is: Are your choices leaving the Who a common settler?

     I totally get it.  I have lived my own share of suppressing the Who.   You don’t even realize what you are doing until you begin to get a glimpse of the Who in you.  We become a settler when we get comfortable, an enemy of the Who.  I find myself frequenting the same restaurants, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes over and over, investing in the same routine day after day after day.  It becomes normal.  It’s what we know.  It’s easy.  We can get accustomed to watching the Who’s take their place believing the lie that we could never be the Who we long to be.  But then comes that tension again between where we are and where we long to be.  That invitation to come into the Who we are created to be, well….. it’s anything but comfortable.  Let’s go on out there and call it what it is, 

“It will scare the Who right out of you if you don’t entrust it to the proper guide.”

“A Rut is never the proper guide for a Who”

“A rut can lead us down a cow trail that can be hard to get out of. “

    Have you ever walked out in a pasture with cows?  If you have, you probably noticed, or even walked in yourself, the ruts that the cows make in the pasture.  They make these ruts by walking over the same ground every day.  Cows will follow a familiar path where they know their basic need for food and water will be met.  You can try to redirect them, but even if it is a better easier way, they prefer the familiar.  Something you will notice about these ruts is that nothing grows there.  Ruts are barren.  The ground gets very hard.  When it rains instead of the water running off, it stands in the rut turning it into a muddy mess.  Following along in a rut gets us to the same place in the same way day after day but it is also a place where we can get stuck.  Is the path you are traveling day after day leaving the Who stuck, barren and hard?

     The Bible gives an account of an invitation Jesus extended to fisherman.  They were called fisherman, well, because that is what they did.  It is how they made their living.  It  was how they supported their family.  You may call yourself an accountant, a manager, a team lead, a specialist, an assistant and it may be how you support your family.  Jesus invitation wasn’t just for those fisherman, it extends to you.  The invitation is to come with Him and he will make us fishers of men.  The invitation is really to

bring the Who to where He is

so the Who can learn the right choices to make and the right paths to take so the Who is revealed.  They were not acquainted with the Who that Jesus knew nor were they familiar with what fishers of men could and would do.  All they knew, in their suppressing of Who, was simply what a life unfamiliar with Who could do, catch fish.

     They each learned from Jesus and the Who began to come forth and they began to make different choices and take different paths and the Who began to experience life as fishers of men until that day when everything changed.  Jesus was crucified.  He died.  Now what?  How would they ever learn to be the Who now?  So Peter and some of the others went back.  Went back to “doing what they could do without Jesus,” which was simply, fish.  They fell back into the ordinary far from extraordinary suppressing the Who.  No crowds now, since the Who was clearly suppressed from their view.  No miracles, No signs, No wonders, No food for the crowds, The Who returned to the life that they knew.  

     Let me tell you, Jesus wouldn’t stand for that!  He showed up on the bank with some fishing tips, breakfast, and a great set of questions intended to draw the Who out. He looked square at Peter and asked, “Peter do you love me more than these?”  What were the these that Jesus was referring too?  Was Peter counting the fish?  Was Jesus asking him if he loved the fish more, being a fisherman more, doing what he had always done more?  After all, the rich young ruler made that choice.  Or was the “these” the others sitting around them.  Was Jesus referring to Peter’s daring declaration that if all the other disciples abandoned Him he never would only to find himself denying three times as the cock crowed.  Was the intent of the three questions meant to release Peter to confess and reveal the real Who and to once and for all silence the crowing and hiding of the battered, ashamed, Who?

     Whether catching fish, Tending lambs, Shepherding sheep, Tending sheep it takes the Who.  If the task didn’t require it, then there would be no need to be made into the image of God.  So how do we bear an image that is so inconceivable to us?  Zechariah 4:6 holds the answer, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of host.  Or Acts 1, ‘but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.  We surrender.  We surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit because He knows the Who and how to release the Who to do the things of God in the earth.  

“The Holy Spirit is not intimated or uncomfortable with the Who you, the call, the platform, the venue.”  

The Holy Spirit will guide the Who into all truth including the truth of the Who.  You are the Who, it is your time, it is your destiny, rise up and surrender the Who.  Experience the plan and purpose as you live out the Who.  I will surrender how about you?     

R e S e t