Jamie Winship - Living Fearless: Exchanging the Lies of the World for the Liberating Truth of God

This is total nonsense!

Thats how a doctoral-level midwife responded when I asked her to close her eyes and allow herself to receive an understanding of her true identity instead of the various false identities that were negatively affecting her in the present.

She was one of thirteen midwives taking part in a professional-development day focused on true identity versus false identity and its effect on team dynamics in the workplace.

We were sitting in a circle, working through the exercise, but this doctor was not about to continue. The other midwives, all highly educated and experienced professionals, stared at me for direction. Honestly, I felt like telling them to take a ten-minute break, slinking away to my car, and driving off.

For some reason, this group of midwives was more intimidating to me than the group of Muslim nomads that Art (nmn) Blumfield and join the extremist militant organization trying to recruit them. Our goal was to prevent both of those things.

This isnt good, Art, I whispered. They dont look happy.

Have faith, Art said in his irritatingly calm manner.

These guys are freaking out, I rasped, imagining my wife and kids at my graveside.

Art bristled at my cryptic evaluation. Listen, Rookie. The whole world system is freaking out. Finding faith in a freaked-out world is our only way to be fully alive, fully human, and fully free. Stop talking, focus on the wounded people in front of you, and work the process.

That was the only time I ever heard Art raise his voice. Normally he spoke in the soft, intelligent tones of an untroubled librarian. His point, however, was clear and unforgettable.

I focused on the doctor in front of me and imagined her as one of the courageous biblical midwives who, in defiance of the death threats of the powerful Egyptian Pharaoh, delivered their own deliverer in the infant Moses. Had they not stood firm in their true identity as daughters of the Most High God, they would have perished in the false identities of victimhood and slavery.

Take a deep breath and relax, I told her. You dont have to fight against everything in your life. You think youre not as smart as your coworkers and that you have no real value. Thats not true. Listen to Gods voice, the voice of absolute truth and unconditional love. Receive. What identity does the voice of love call you?

Eyes closed, she began to rock back and forth gently. A single tear ran along the contour of her face and fell into her rising hand.

Oh my, she whispered. Love calls me a healer to the nations. I need to go to the nations.

Within a year, she and her family relocated to another country in order to work with marginalized people. If you ask her today who told her to go, she will tell you it was the Holy Spirit. She realized that she had been hearing that voice her entire life; she just didnt know who it was. Now she does. Now she listens and everything is different.

This book is dedicated to the midwives of the world and Art (nmn) Blumfield and anyone else who, like the apostle Paul, thinks its a good idea to move past all the garbage the world is offering us and into the fully alive, fully human, fully free Holy Spirit life offered to us in our relationship with Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. In him, we really can find transformational faith in a freaked-out world.