Authors; JOHN LYNCH, BRUCE McNICOL, BILL THRALL…
The authors of this book relay the message that God’s dreams for us are ultimately not really about us. His dreams only take form for the benefits of others i.e.them feeling loved, filling their heads with dreams and hopes, guiding them, serving them, influencing them etc. God’s dreams for us reflect His heart. If we are therefore not maturing in sync with His heart, how can we distinguish others- centered dreams form our own self-centered dreams?
God wants to reveal Himself to us in authenticity. His dream for us is that we would influence others far more out of who we are rather than out of what we do. So, above all else, your destiny requires you to be a maturing person. The Father wants us to mature into the likeness of His Son.
True Faced goes ahead to talk about how then we can be true faced before God and others in order to live out the purpose for which God created us.
THE MASK
Pretending to be someone we are not is a mess. A wrong turn! We believe that if others could spend a moment inside us, they would be totally disgusted by what they discover in us. The sin in us is far too shameful. We’re appalled because we have already discovered this. We are therefore deeply afraid that they will discover the truth about us and hence start distancing themselves from us to judging us. For this reason, we pretend to be someone we are not. Surprisingly, this pretend person disgusts us most! WE hence resolve to put on a mask in a bid to “protect ourselves”.
The Disadvantage
Wearing a mask wears us off. This is because nothing in us can absorb sin. Nothing! Even when we are the ones being sinned against, we still can’t handle sin because sin done to us will always ignite the nature of sin already in us. So, we give ourselves permission to act out sinfully.
As a result of the mask we have put on, we have gone back into trying to impress God and others. Trying to appear better than who we are. Our two-faced life has stunted our growth and broken our hearts. We admire people who live a true faced life but our loss of hope has forced us to desperately trying to discover safety behind our masks. We never get to mature! At this juncture, we are faced with a decision to take either of these two paths:
· Pleasing God path
Pleasing God (motive) leads us to striving to be all God wants me to be. We are determined to be godly (value). This therefore makes us to put effort on working on my sin to achieve an intimate relationship with God. I try to sin less by finding out what I must do to keep God pleased with me (action). If our primary motive is pleasing God, we never please Him enough and we never learn to trust. That’s because this road is all about my striving, my effort, and my ability to do what is right. Pleasing God reduces to; More right behavior + Less wrong behavior = godliness.
When we choose the path of pleasing God, the bondage of performance persistently burdens us. This keeps us immature! We keep revolving on one thing.
Striving leaves us dysfunctional and immature because it creates hiddenness. Hiddenness makes us vulnerable to sin and thwarts maturity. It breeds compulsive sinning.
· Trusting God path
Trusting God (motive) leads me to living out who God says I am (value) and therefore, I become humble and stand with God, my sin in front of us. Working on it together (action). I do not see the sin as a barrier that makes God distance Himself from me, I trust that I am His child and that together, He can help me walk out of the sin caging me by His power.When our primary motive is trusting God by believing who He says we are, we find out that He is incredibly pleased with us. Actually, pleasing God is a byproduct of trusting God. Hebrews11 …And without faith, we cannot Please God. Trusting God means being vulnerable!
How does grace work?
Humility requires trust. It believes that I can trust God to teach, direct and protect me. It also believes that God has provided others in my life to do the same. Pride shuts grace down. In contrast, humility allows us to boldly trust how God sees us. Moral striving to become godly only keeps us slaves to sin-Galatians 5:1-6. Grace teaches us that God can handle our sin, and only God.
Grace melts masks and reveals our true face. God’s gift of grace continuously and always surrounds us. When we live in the room of grace, we begin to relate with others differently. This room is characterized by safety, protection and love. We see one another as saints who sin rather than sinners who are saved. God wants us to be totally dependent on Him. Grace permits us to be exactly who we are with all our issues, problems, un-resolved stuff and still fully experience grace, love and acceptance.
The authors of the book focus on urging one to take the path of trusting in God, who He says you are and therefore being true faced before Him and others in the room of grace. This is the only way we can grow and mature to be released in the dream that God has for us. To ultimately live the purpose for which He created us.
Issues addressed not clear:
The book says that being true faced means seeing others as Saints who sin rather than sinners who are saved. I am not able to clearly draw the difference between the two. Rom 5:8 talks of Christ dying for us when we were still sinners. In Rom 4:24, it talks about God crediting us as righteous when we believe In Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. I am therefore more inclined to think that both identities are true for Christians.
Ways I agree with the authors
I strongly agree with the authors when they say that it is only the power of the cross that can break the pattern of sinful behavior. We can do absolutely nothing to make provision for our sin.
I also agree that trusting God means being vulnerable and hence leads us to mature into the likeness of His son and ultimately living out His desire for us on earth.
Key Lessons Learnt from the book.
Being in the room of good intentions hinders Gods great dream for me. When I strive to be someone else to appease God, I hide, position, perfect my self-effort, polish my image and thus I only remain self-centered and immature!
The room of grace is not where I do not sin. Rather, it is where I am protected by those who love me…people I have learned to trust with the deepest part of my pain, ugliness, fear and failure. When I trust that I am actually who God says I am, I begin to realize that I can be honest about all who I am.
Recommendation.
I recommend this book especially to young Christian adults who are desiring to know the purpose for which God put them on earth.Those who are not sure of which path to follow to know Gods will about the dreams they have. Being true Faced is a good starting point! I am also on the journey.
BOOK REVIEW BY : Teresia Esther W. Gitau who i am privileged to walk with.
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