ONE COMPLEX QUESTION – WHO ARE YOU?

This is one of many questions that many people have answered wrongly. And usually, some people don’t always have an answer to give, while others give a random answer like their name, profession, country of origin, etc. Honestly, I have been in this situation several times and have been unable to answer a simple yet complex question; “who are you?”

Over time, I have come to realise that this question is often asked to know one’s identity. So, I ask, what is Identity?

The Merriam-Wester dictionary defines identity as the distinguishing character or personality of an individual: individuality. And since the dictionary relates identity to individuality, I then decided to check the meaning of individuality—the same dictionary individuality as the total character peculiar to and distinguishing an individual from others.

The dictionary has established that identity in its first stage starts from an individual in the dictionary. And each individual has a peculiar distinguishing factor from other human beings. This just shows how unique everyone is. And this uniqueness is not just a mistake; it makes us different.

So, why were we made so unique? Why are we individually designed/engineered to be unique? Why don’t we just act as similar as other things and creatures like the stone, grass, animals, etc.?

The answer lies in our purpose on earth – the main reason we were created in the first place. But for the sake of this piece, I won’t go into details about the purpose of every man. My goal is to make you understand how identity is related to your purpose and how discovering your identity will help you fulfil your purpose.

When you see how a plane was designed, you wouldn’t have thought of another method to engineer this masterpiece to fly; same with cars, phones, etc. The reason is because of what they were made to do. The car couldn’t have moved better without its tires, like the plane without its wings.

This gave me an idea of why we are so unique. It’s because you couldn’t have been better without the qualities you possess. The sad truth is that most of us have not discovered these qualities/features built-in us by our maker. These abilities are hidden as potentials. Until we discover and refine them, we can call them abilities to fulfil our purpose.

Proverbs 20:5 says: “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out (ESV)”. That means you need “understanding” to draw out your purpose or to discover your purpose. But wait, understanding of what? I think the understanding of your identity. In the same way, the plane was made to fly. Only a man that understands the plane can fly it/use it for its purpose.

So, we have seen that fulfilling purpose is not possible without discovering our identity.

The next question that now follows is; How do we discover our identity?

Let’s bring back our example of a plane, car, or smartphone. If you buy a new smartphone, but you have never handled a smartphone before, what is the best way to know its capabilities and how to use it? The best way is to meet the manufacturer to explain how to use that phone and tell you what that phone can do. But most manufacturers know that we won’t go and meet them, so what they do is they prepare a user manual together with the phone so you can study it and know the manufacturer’s intentions on that product.

This idea was gotten from our creator. Our creator wants every man (females inclusive) will come to him individually to discover why he made you and the potential he put in you necessary to fulfil that purpose. God even gave us the bible to direct us and find God’s intentions about us.

From biblical stories, we have seen that men didn’t discover their identities in the crowd but in the secret place with their creator. Once this identity has been revealed to you, fulfilling your purpose becomes easy. You even discover hidden potentials in you that you never knew about. Once God has successfully achieved this in you, he works in you before announcing you to the crowd, as seen in biblical stories, which still happens today.

We just saw that the only way to know who you are is by spending quality time with your creator because your identity was his thought before creating you. Attending conferences and seminars is not the best way to discover the real you because the facilitators or speakers at the conference were not there when the creator designed you. Therefore, spending quality time with the maker in the secret place is the only way to discover your identity; if you want to fulfil your purpose.

Also, spending quality time in the Word (the Bible), prayer and meditation is a great way to discover your identity. Many people have received revelations in the course of spending quality time. Discipleship has also helped many people to discover their identities.

In conclusion, your identity is related to everything you are meant to do/achieve on earth. Once you don’t discover your identity, you may do many things on earth unrelated to your purpose. It’s just like doing an assignment you were not asked to do. As good as you did it, there’s no reward for you by your maker. If a car stops moving on the road, as fine as that car may be, it’s not fulfilling its purpose and will lose its value.

I ask again, who are you? Have you discovered your identity? If you haven’t, it’s time to go into the secret place.

God bless you!