About three years ago I went to a prophetic conference a local church was hosting in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca. I remember studying the speaker bios in the notebook I was given. While doing so it was dropped in my spirit that I should write up my own bio. I didn’t know what for as I hadn’t planned on any speaking engagements any time soon. Still, I was excited with the possibility that the Lord would one day open the door for me to do such a thing. I reflected on the times long past when I thought I would be a motivational speaker. Then I was more involved in worldly ways and things than I was with kingdom things and the ways of God. In essence I had nothing to say. At any rate if I had decided to come up with something to say it wouldn’t have been very godly.
When I was
considering writing my bio I was barely getting acquainted with God and myself,
for that matter– who I was in Him. I sat
in the park across the street from the church and began to write. It all sounded like foolishness, I mean, who
did I think I was and what did that have to do with anyone that might read
about it? I was beginning to understand who I was but it all seemed like
minutia and the sum total of it all amounted to what, nothing? I had a world’s resume of working in the
medical field and a spiritual resume of being a sinner, a really good one at
that, but I wasn’t excited to tell anyone about it. As I wrote I kept asking, “So?” That was a few years ago and if I wrote my
bio today I’d still approach it in the same way.
I still like to read people’s bios and imagine what
God had has brought them through even if the Bio doesn’t specifically state
it. Some of them, to me, declare ‘Look
what I achieved!” and the question, “So?”
comes to mind and I have to fight through it checking my own arrogance. If Jesus had a Bio, what would it read?
Jesus
the Christ: God’s
only begotten Son, Son of man, Second Adam, Lion of Judah, Prince of Peace,
King of the Jews, The Way, The Truth, The Life; I used spit and clay to restore
a blind man’s sight, I first taught in the synagogue at age twelve and totally
blew everyone away, I can pray until I sweat blood, I have confounded many
scribes and Pharisees with my authoritative teaching, I have mastered the parable, I can
walk on water, I can sleep through a storm then wake up, speak to the winds and calm the
seas; I can ask a man to follow me and he will, I can tell a man where the good
fishing is– enough to break his nets, I can feed a multitude with two fish and
five loaves. Oh, yes, I almost forgot! Someone can touch the hem of my garment and
be healed from an issue of blood, and then there’s this cool thing I did when,
in the wilderness, I fasted for forty days and nights and resisted the
temptations of the devil. I know the
thoughts of men, which are pretty much evil continually, but then there is like
Nathanael who had no guile in him and he knew
who I was; but that’s neither here nor there…
He may simply write, the Son can do nothing of
himself, but what he sees the Father do or the same works that I do, bear witness
of me, that the Father has sent me. So
much for advanced degrees and boast worthy achievements, if they do not witness
that the Father sent you then, SO? Flesh and blood, or perhaps a conferred degree
and fancy ink, has not revealed to you (who I am) but my Father which is in
heaven. We should spend less time on
what we write about ourselves and more about what the Father is writing about
us. Who we are is not defined by our works and busy-ness great as they may
be. Are we the epistles God has written
us to be? How necessary is it to use worldly achievement to justify what we are
going to preach or teach within the confines of a church or in the kingdom at
large?
The apostle, Paul, was a learned man yet he said in
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 And, I brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined
not to know any thing among you,
save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. He
goes on to say in verses 3-4 “And I was
with you in weakness, (generally, Bios speak to our strength) and in fear, and
in much trembling (not the polish of an accomplished speaker is it?) and my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
In verse 6 he says, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are
perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world (which a Bio done well represents)
nor of the princes of this world, which came to nought.
But when
things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ. (Philippians 4:7-8) Ah! There’s my ‘So?” It’s all dung. That “So?” was my own righteousness and the
law of the world saying I needed a degree to do this or that. Yes, to work in the medical field as a
Radiologic Technologist I certainly did need to take certain classes and obtain
certification, experience, etc. None of
it has anything to do with preaching, teaching, and spreading the gospel as God
would have me do it. Let’s be real. My worldly credentials are but dung in the kingdom. My credentialing, if you will, is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith… the fellowship of
His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death and the POWER of His resurrection.(Philippians 3:9-10) It is Jesus! My Bio, should I decide to start
writing one again will not ask “So?’ but declare JESUS! Amen.
