Living the Reclaimed Life

Who Do You Think You Are ~ Sally Knipe Ep. 34

September 27, 2021 Season 1 Episode 34
Living the Reclaimed Life
Who Do You Think You Are ~ Sally Knipe Ep. 34
Show Notes Transcript

Many times who we think we are is in direct conflict with who God says we are through Jesus. Where do those perspectives originate and how do we align our perspective of ourselves through the lens of what Jesus has done for us? In this episode, Sally drops wisdom on the topic of our identity.

You can find Sally’s book, “The Do’s and Don’ts of Grief” HERE

The Do's and Don'ts of Grief: How to Handle Grief after a Loss "Your life has been turned upside down, and nothing is 'normal' as you know it. If you thought you were in control, you certainly are no longer." Tragedy can strike suddenly and change all you know in an instant. Grief follows behind causing everything to spiral out of control. 

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EP 34 Who Do You Think You Are

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

god, sally, reclaimed, christ, life, throne, identity, jesus, women, inheritance, accept, people, prove, pieces, grew, children, unconditional love, receive, paul, murmur

SPEAKERS

Sally Knipe, Denisha Workizer

Denisha Workizer  00:00

Welcome to living the reclaim life podcast. I'm Denisha, we're glad you're here for conversations that revive hope, inspire healing and encourage you to live a vibrant life with Christ. So grab a cup of coffee, as we chat with today's guest. Today, we kickoff Episode 34. And if you've missed any this month, I want to encourage you to go back and listen, as Sally and I have talked about how to drop emotional baggage. We've talked about the reasons that friends and mentors are so important in our lives. And last week, we talked about the fact that God never leaves us. 

Who do you think you are? Sally, you know, this is one of the pillars of this ministry, as we work with women to reclaim their story from past hurts and harm. So much of what we end up working through together, boils down to who they think they are, who people have told them they are. And I can tell you, Sally, it's almost always in direct conflict with what God has to say about them. And you know, we've designed a unique jewelry line, we have over 40 pieces, and each one of them speaks to identity, to remind women who they are in Christ. And we get to ship those pieces all over the world, to give women something tangible, as they put on a bracelet or necklace every day to remind them of who they are. So today, ladies, we're going to go there, we're going to be discussing our identity in Christ. Because we know our true identity, if we know that, we will act differently, we will react differently, we will serve differently, and we will live differently. So Sally, let's kick it off. Let's talk about identity. Why do most of us have a wrong identity of who we are?

Sally Knipe  01:49

Now, there's several reasons. And thank you for having me again. Have you ever had anybody come up and say, Who do you think you are? And it kind of puts you on the defense and it catches you off guard? And you're like, Well, let me start by asking you. Who do you think you are? Who do you really believe you are? Well, I could start by saying I am a knight by marriage. I was born into the Worthington family from Pennsylvania. So I'm a Pennsylvanian. I'm Jim's wife for 53 years. I'm the mother of Eric James Lynn and purses. But where do I get my real identity. We all struggle with this. Because maybe we were raised with conditional love. Maybe we were raised with that grace, maybe we weren't taught this, that when we become a Christ follower, we take on his identity. So I can say very boldly, without cry, that I am the daughter of the most Hi. I am God's daughter, I am created in his image and for his purpose. I am not a mistake. Some of you may feel you've been through the trauma of possibly what tenacious ministry is all about. You were not born by chance. And I was made by a very unique plan. And God put every piece of me together, and I am his masterpiece. Wow, you say you don't know what I've done? Or you don't know what's been done to me? Or you don't know what lies I grew up with? Well, the big word there is lie. What lie? Have you chosen to believe? Do you believe the truth in who Christ says you are? Or have you believed a lie, they can still carry on into your older years that I'm not worth anything I have to work hard to be proved. You know, it's basically we just don't understand grace. And Jesus is all about grace. And sadly to say, I didn't learn about what grace really is. Until my older years. I didn't really raise my children with a lot of grace. It was like you do what I say what we say or consequences. You know, there's a wonderful quote from the book, The search for significance by Robert S. McGee. It's a book that was out years ago, and this quote has been so encouraging to me I give it to a lot of women that have been in my Bible studies and such It says I am deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, and totally accepted by God and complete in Christ. Now let this, let this think sink in. That's about covers it fully forgiven, deeply loved. And when you say, oh, God couldn't do that, yes, that's exactly what he does when we come to him, and pray the prayer. And he, he just welcomes us into his family. There's no ifs, ands, or buts, it's just come on. This past summer, I decided to have my will updated because several years have gone by since we had our well done. And in the meantime, my husband had passed away. Well, I had to prove, as I put my children in the will, I had to prove who they were. And, of course, in our country, we generally prove that by our social security number, but I had to prove that at the time of my death, my inheritance would be divided among these four children. And that had to be proved. When we accept Christ, we get a huge, huge inheritance. 


Denisha Workizer  06:24

What makes others around us know, who we are, and why we are different, or do they? are we different? Is that inheritance? How does that make us different?

Sally Knipe  06:36

Well, simply because we don't have to work for it. We don't have to prove ourselves, it's given to us completely free. All he's asked us for is our heart. And, and our obedience, but he asked for our heart, so that he can now use us, we were, we were, there's two very important days in our life. The first day is the day we are born. The second day is knowing why we were born, why I was created, and he, you know, he creates each of us so individually, with all our gifts and our talents. And our, our best points, I mean, we're a whole package I, I know, it's comforting to know that our gifts and talents to a very strong degree can also be our weaknesses. So you might be a very loyal person, but then sometimes that person might hang on too long, when they're supposed to shift gears or get out of a ministry or turn a corner, maybe get rid of get out of an unhealthy relationship. So, you know, God knew what he was doing when he gave us our good gifts and our talents. And that's what makes us so unique. He just asked us to use him for his kingdom. You know, I think I mentioned a previous week that I've been watching the chosen. And I would recommend that to anyone, it just makes Jesus and his disciples come alive. But he picked some characters. I mean, he just sometimes looked at him and rolled his eyes and said, Really, he picked all kinds of men and women to follow him. He knew each one would have their flaws, but he also picked them for their good points as well. He knew that Simon would deny him he knew that Jesus would betray him. But he still pick them, knowing that they would fulfill the purpose that God had made them for. And so we don't have to prove to them we shouldn't have to prove to the world who we are. It should show.

Denisha Workizer  09:11

Why isn't that counter to what we're taught? You know, I grew up in the culture, kind of what you talked about, of having to earn or having to perform in order to receive that unconditional love. And it was it was conditional. It wasn't unconditional, but it was about how well I was behaving, how much I accomplished. Those were the things that got me when you say deeply loved completely forgiven, I had to earn those things in the natural. So it's such a different mindset to know that that comes just because of Jesus.

Sally Knipe  09:48

Exactly. As we I don't think there's too many human beings that really understand his unconditional love. is a non fault finding God, he doesn't wait for you to be a certain way. And then he accepts you. You go to him, he accepts you. And it's there's no conditions. And that is a relationship that few of us have in the physical realm. I mean, only a God of all gods, the God of the universe can love us with that kind of love. And we're like that, wait a minute, but you don't know what I did, or I'm not good enough, or God could never forgive me for you filling your own blank friends. And that goes, Yes, I can. And I will. And we have to ask him, you know, I'd like the story that when Satan shows us his photo album, it's like, look like you're dead here. Look what you did here, look what you did there. When Jesus shows us his photo album, the pages are pure white, and all of our sin, all of our choices have been wiped away. As soon as we receive Him, He died on that cross, for me to receive Him, unconditionally, no matter what's in my past, whether I have chosen abortion as a 16 year old, or had an affair in my marriage, or, or whatever, you plug in your reason, and there's nothing you can do, that God will not clean our slate and receive us. I mean, that's just what he does. It's all inclusive. And sure our life, our life is our choices. And some choices that were made for us, we were put in some families, or whatever that we did not choose. But he just still can take us and wash us clean and accept us. And if we don't go to him for that unconditional love, we will become tainted, and bitter, and hateful, and we will become unlovable, because people that try to do it themselves, become self reliant, and self sufficient. And what is that all about me? Number one...

Denisha Workizer  12:28

Yeah I have lived there. I lived in that spot, where I thought I could fix it, I was trying to find righteousness through what I could do, and how well I could perform. And it is definitely not about how well I can perform or what I can do. It's all in who, like you said, when we accept Christ, it's all in what he's already done for us. But then we get stuck in that wrong identity, we get stuck in those places of thinking we can do it. But why do you think we get stuck in that place? I mean, I know I've been there. I couldn't tell you why I can just tell you it was miserable. And I still find myself, you know, wavering back into when I forget who I am, and him and I begin to think it's about me. Or that I could do something on my own. But what why do you think we get stuck there, Sally?

Sally Knipe  13:21

Because we don't believe the nature of Christ. We're so human. We, you know, we can turn on people if they hurt us. And we're used to this selfish behavior. Putting self first I mean, I can get really ugly. You know, I remember, especially after Jim died, I missed him and who he brought into our marriage so much that I began to look to my children for these things. And you know, they couldn't give them to me, you know, those sweet compliments and that, I don't know, just the love that he had for me. And it got a little ugly, because they're like, wait a minute, Mom, we can't provide that. But Jesus provides us with this love that we just, most of us, I would say are not used to. And we have to accept it fully, and walk in it. And maybe sometimes we just keep telling ourselves, no, I'm deeply loved, fully forgiven, and we keep telling ourselves till it becomes a truth. But there's a wonderful scripture in Ephesians 432 that says that we do need to get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger and I talked some about that a week ago. We need to get rid of that baggage. And then we can come to him and receive what all he has for us. And know that we were created exactly as he wanted it. If you can look Paul, Paul is the one man that probably got the gospel throughout the world due to Paul. And it's known in the Bible that Paul had a thorn in his flesh. And I, you know, I kind of have my speculations of what that might have been. God used all mightily, and Paul prayed three times for him to take it away, I pray for God to take away my anxiety. And it hasn't fully happened, he didn't heal my depression, Paul was just an imperfect man that God chose to use. And we have the gospel here in the United States, because of Paul, you know, so our journey is just to fulfill His purpose. And he can't do that, as long as we're down in the muck in the mire, and believing like, I'm a bad person, nobody could love me again. And that is just not true. Because there's nothing an impossible God, nothing. Amen.

Denisha Workizer  15:59

I'm hearing a difference in who we are, and who we were created to be, or who we think we are, and who we are created to be. And what you're saying. What's the difference between that do you think like who we are, who are not our knowledge of our identity is rooted in. And then yet, there's the who we were created to be. So things we hold on, on the earthly, on the earthly side, things that we hold on to about ourselves? And then there's the plan and the purposes that God has for us, what are what are the differences between those two?

16:33

It really boils down to a very simple picture of driving a car, I might ask you who is driving your car? Or is he, I think of a throne, a big throne, a wonderful, fancy throne with gold on it, who's on that throne, you are him. And I think sometimes we tell him to move over, and we get back in the control of things. Because we forget that he is in control of everything, even the glitches in our life. But who's on that throne, I think we need to almost be reminded that daily life, you're not running your life, you can read every self help book out there. And I'm not saying they're wrong, or bad. But if you don't know who you really are, and you're not in the passenger side, and you're not at his feet, rather than up on his throne, um, life isn't gonna go as expected. And what you were created for he takes it all, it's all part of our story, the good and the bad, and every, what we would call a bad part of our life. It's in a book, and it's up on our shelf. And it's part of our story. It's part of the whole library of our life. And, you know, he just says, Come to me. years ago, I wrote a children's book, The first book I've had published, I've only had two. And this was based on a true story of when my I was babysitting my grandson, who was then around five or six, he's 18, almost now. And he broke my very favorite Angel. It wasn't, you know, on purpose. He, he just knocked it off and broken a million pieces. And my husband took it out to the garage, and he put it all back together. And the creases, the breaks, where he glued it, I realized, were shiny and glowed. And I'm in bed one night, and Jesus says that's how I see you. When I put you back together. That's what makes you who you are. That's what makes you glow. And we're better than we were before. I know there's people out there that think everything in our life should be perfect. I should never be sick a day. Well, there are scriptures in God's word, and I don't want a minute question that says, By his stripes, we are healed. But there's times that things just happen, and we don't understand it. But still, it's been allowed by God and they're the hard things to accept that this is part of who Sally is, as I received my identity in Christ. You know, we have to ask, we just, we have to ask and one thing I would caution people about is it says in the Old Testament that he's the potter and we are the clay. How many times do we murmur? We don't like how the potter made that clay or that preacher Sally. Yes, murmur, Mama, Mama, Mama and the children of Israel, just murder. Learn, and it's like, Whoa, he is the potter, we are the light. And we need to be moldable. And we need to trust him 100% he knows what he's doing. And I just want to sum up my thoughts. You have any questions to Denisha, feel free to interrupt. But no, number one, you're not a mistake or a surprise if he knew exactly what he was doing. When He created you, he had a purpose. And he thought, Oh, I'm going to create aneesha for this purpose, it might not be filled until she's grown up and a mother of three. But I'm making donation for this purpose. Number two, he loved me enough to die for me and give me eternal life. Just friends, if you haven't done that, just really take some time after the podcast and just say, Lord, I just receive you into my life. Let him do the molding and the making. Let him in your driver's seat. Know that you never ever have to earn God's love. You were always good enough for him. And a dear friend, actually our pastor's wife said to me one time when I was going through something, she said, God says all things work together for good. And you might say yeah, but not this. Well, even the situation. God says all things work together for good. And she said to me, Sally, if it's not good, it's not done yet. Hmm. I love that. So who do you think you are? Well, I'm a daughter, the Most High King, who wouldn't want to be royalty, we are royalty. You want that title. stop believing those lies, except price, gift of salvation. You are blessed. You are the apple of his eye.

Denisha Workizer  22:10

There's so much love in what you're saying, Sally. And I know, you know, for those of us, you know that have a relationship with the Lord and see God as the Father. There's such a love that's there. That's your you can say these things confidently because of that relationship that you have with him. But sometimes it can be really difficult to accept the Father's love. Because oftentimes we put our earthly father, our earthly parents, we put the things we've experienced, right into who God is, we think he's like, you know what we've seen here on Earth. Why is it so difficult to accept the Father's love? That other image is what we grew up with?

Sally Knipe  22:56

 We knew nothing different. Sometimes, children of abuse tomes don't even realize they were abused. You know, it's the norm. We grow up, learning from those around us. That's why I personally wish I had done a better job of parenting. My children, grandchildren, great grandchildren know, they're very loved. Now, growing up, they might question that when they did not perform, we just have to undo those thoughts. And friends, it's not easy. You know, it takes time to walk that out. It takes time to get rid of all this stuff, the lies, and then believe the truth. And that's basically what we're doing. We're exchanging lies for truth. But the Word of God is truth. And his truth says that I am the apple of his eye. His truth says, I am blessed. His truth says that he will even use us in our older years. When you think of the story of the prodigal that all of us know, he didn't go after the protocol. But when the prodigal came home, the father was there with open arms. And to me, that's such a beautiful picture of how much Jesus loves us. There's a blessing that Paul gave us in Acts 2032, he says, Now I commit you to God, and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. And sanctified is a big word, but it only means simply that we know Christ. We are part of his family, through Christ, dying for us, not anything I've done. We are brought into the family and loved unconditionally and that is my inheritance. 

Denisha Workizer  25:00

That's beautiful. And if we know that that is our inheritance, and we know that that's our true identity, right? As Daughters of the king, I love that, then our life and our actions should reflect that how we talk to ourselves should reflect that what we believe about ourselves should reflect what he has to say about us. 

Sally Knipe  25:24

Absolutely. And you know, he, he knows us inside out, he knows what we need, he knows what shape to make us. He knows everything. And and I really do want to make a big coin out of the murmuring I'm murmur. I'm hoping I can be around murmur. But you know, when God is shaping this, so much better than we knew what the final product should be. Some things we've gone through, we question we never liked, who likes pain, who likes divorce, who likes raising a child that, you know, wants to go their own way, or a child that's on the streets with addictions? Who wants this, none of us, but all of it. He knows what he's doing from the master plan. And the master plan is good, it is good. And I serve a loving father. And he only wants my best. It's so much better when we learn that at a younger age.

Denisha Workizer  26:33

We spend a lot, a lot longer of our life reflecting the truth, believing those lies.

Sally Knipe  26:39

Amen. 

Denisha Workizer  26:40

That's a good point. Sally, I love the example of the angel being put back together and glowing in those places. If a woman was listening right now, and she was thinking, yeah, I'm the million pieces on the floor. I'm the million pieces that God's kind of scooping up and going to take to the garage to the repair shop, to fix up. Would you pray for her? Would you met her there in prayer? 

Sally Knipe  27:08

Yes, I would love to Father, you know, each of us so intimately as we do our children. So Father, you know, the women and the men that are out there listening to this broadcast and are hurting so bad, and they don't think they're pieces can be put back together. I think of last weekend being with my great grandchildren, and then struggling at ages one and three, to put a puzzle together. And the joy of getting that last piece in. And Father that's how you feel you take all of our broken pieces, and you glue us and you mold us and you heal us. Because that is who you are. You're the break healer. And Father, you have touched my life. You have taken away my depression, you have killed so many things in our life. You have brought kids to us that had no homes. And we we could supply them with those homes. And Father, you've you do your mighty work even with us glued together, because we are more beautiful than than we were before. And it's those crack lines that he's come and he'll put together. So if you don't know this Christ, just bow your head and say, I've messed up, I can't do it on my own. I am allowing you to sit on that throne. And I will trust you 100% whether I feel it or not, that you know what's best for me and you fill in your name. You know what's best for me? Because you are a good, good Father. Amen.

Denisha Workizer  29:00

Amen. Sally, thank you so much. 

Sally Knipe  29:03

You're welcome. 

Denisha Workizer  29:04

And ladies, if you're listening, and you're thinking, this is hard to walk out on my own, if you don't have a support system that standing alongside you, it's reminding you like Sally did today of the truth of what God has to say about you. I want to encourage you to join us we have a private Facebook group. It's called Living the reclaimed life, just like the podcast. And on that Facebook group, you're going to find a community of women doing real life together. We get messages constantly of women saying you know here's what's actually happening in my life and I don't have a safe place to process this. And our hope is to just bring Jesus bring hope and healing and community together. So check it out. join that group I'm an is for women only. I bet join that group and join a community of women who are all saying together we are going to defy what the world tells us and we are going to believe the truth and who do we think we are Are we are Daughters of the king. Join us there. Thanks for listening. I pray you found hope in today's conversation, and maybe even feel a little less alone in your story. stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at reclaimed story. Want to learn more about living a reclaimed life and how you can be a part of our growing community of reclaimers check out our website at reclaim story.com all of those links and more will be in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this inspirational podcast Be sure to subscribe rate and review. That is a huge help and helping us reach more people to live the reclaimed life. Thank you so much for listening.