Recently, someone carried our baby Daniel. After looking at him for a moment, she said; “Pastor, he looks exactly like you.” My response to her was; “Who do you want him to look like?” I also humorously told her; “By the way, all my children look like me. My gene is strong in them.” That statement struck a chord in me.
Friend, who do you look like? By redemption, you are supposed to look like Christ (2 Peter 1:1-4). Your reality in the spirit is exactly Christ’s reality. As He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). But for some people, there is still a major gap between who they look like in the spirit and what they look like in the physical. How much of Christ you look like in the physical would reflect in your experience before men and in life.
You would always look like who you look at (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is the importance of fellowship and followership. Until you begin to look like who you follow and fellowship with, you have not yet unlocked the blessedness of relationships. Jesus’s life rubbed off on the disciples through fellowship and followership (Acts 4:13).
Christianity is not just an identity. It is an identification. While identity is who you are by nature, identification is who you are by function. You need to identify with Christ in your everyday life and living. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch because they functioned like Christ (Acts 11:26).
Perhaps the missing link in the Christian journey of a lot of people is a lack of discipleship. The goal of discipleship is to make you look like Christ in your life on earth. This is why we are to follow men as they follow Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). A discipler is someone whose life mirrors the Christ and through whom you can follow Christ easily and successfully (2 Corinthians 12:18, 1 Peter 2:21).
Every Christian should be a disciple and also a discipler. There should be someone you are following to learn Christ, and there should be someone following you to learn Christ (Matthew 28:19-20, 2 Timothy 1:5). This is why God puts us here on earth; to know Christ and to make Him known to others (John 17:3, 18). Who do you look like?
‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria