Walking With Christ

(Part 6 of 7)

⚓Floatie:  The Rise From the Rubble

Ezekiel 37:4–6  (4)Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.  (5)Thus says the Lord God to these bones:  Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  (6)And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”(ESV)

Resurrection does not begin with strength.  It begins with breath.  Not a sudden gale, not a violent wind, but the faintest stirring in a collapsed valley.

God never rebuilds a life all at once.  He rebuilds it the way He created the world — slowly, intentionally, day by day.  Light, then boundaries, then form, then fullness.

Identity reconstruction mirrors Genesis.  Not instant.  Not clean.  Not heroic.  But ordered.

When God began restoring me, He did not start with memory.  He started with meaning.

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✒️ Forge:  Rebuilding Identity the Way God Rebuilds Creation

Psalm 147:3  He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.(ESV)

1 Peter 5:10  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.(ESV)

The world treats healing as recovery — returning to what you were.  God treats healing as reconstruction — becoming what you were meant to be.

When identity fractures, God does not rebuild the old self.  He builds the true self that the old self hid.

Reconstruction comes in four layers:

1. Restored meaning:  identity re-rooted in God’s intention.
2. Reordered perception:  truth replacing distortion.
3. Recovered capacity:  the spirit rising before the mind understands.
4. Reestablished identity markers:  not memories, but truths that anchor the self.

This is why the reconstruction takes time.  Identity cannot be microwaved.  Trauma builds quickly.  Identity rebuilds slowly.  Because identity must be sturdy enough to carry calling.

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⚒️ Anvil:  The Work Only God Can Do in the Dark

Psalm 40:1–3  (1)I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  (2)He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  (3)He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.(ESV)

My memories did not return first.  My capacities did.

I remembered how to think long before I remembered what I had thought.

I remembered how to love long before I remembered who I had loved.

I remembered how to protect long before I remembered who needed protecting.

I remembered how to trust God long before I remembered what God had done for me before the crash.

This is identity reconstruction:  God restores function before He restores context.

He rebuilds the person, then the narrative, then the memory.  If He did the reverse, we would retreat into the version of ourselves that broke.

Identity reconstruction is not nostalgia.  It is divine correction.

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🔥 Ember:  When Identity Rises Before Memory Does

Isaiah 61:3  to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.(ESV)

Here is the moment identity began to show through the cracks:

The instinctual parts of me — the parts God breathed, not the parts I learned — began to resurface.

• Loyalty
• Discernment
• Courage
• Curiosity
• Integrity
• Responsibility
• Hunger for truth
• The capacity to love sacrificially
• The drive toward meaning and purpose

I didn’t remember becoming these things.  I simply was these things.  This is proof that identity is not memory-dependent.  Identity is essence-dependent.

The real self is not built by:

• trauma
• parents
• culture
• roles
• habits
• achievements

Those things shape the outer layers.  God’s breath shapes the core.

When that core begins to rise, the person begins to rebuild even if the memories lag behind.

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🌿 Covenant Triumph:  God Restores Identity, Not Biography

Romans 8:28–30  (28)And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  (29)For those who he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brother.  (30)And those who he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.(ESV)

The triumph here is not that God gave me back who I was.  It is that God gave me who I was always meant to be.  Identity restoration is not God returning you to normal.  Normal broke you.

Identity restoration is God:

• reforging what trauma shattered,
• resurrecting what memory forgot,
• strengthening what fear suppressed,
• elevating what sin distorted,
• refining what pride inflated,
• and revealing what He authored before your first breath.

The miracle is not the return of memory.  The miracle is the return of self.

God does not rebuild us to make us functional.  God rebuilds us to make us true.

The Practice of Obedience:  Participating in Reconstruction

Your identity will not rebuild itself.  You must participate.

1. Physical Act:  Build Something Small With Your Hands

A simple project:  a shelf, a journal page, a repair.  As you build, pray:  “Lord, rebuild me from the inside out.”  The body learns what the soul resists.

2. Relational Act:  Tell Someone What God Is Restoring in You

Say aloud:  “There is something rising in me that God is rebuilding.”  Name it — even if it feels small.  This anchors self-recognition.

3. Spiritual Act:  Ask God What He Wants to Strengthen in You Next

Pray:  “Lord, what is the next layer You are reconstructing?”  Write the impression down.  Revisit it daily.  Identity reconstruction is slow, sacred work.  Participate in it.  Do not rush it.  Do not resist it.  Let God build you into someone your brokenness could never have imagined.

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[⚓ Floatie] [✒️ Forge] [⚒️ Anvil] [🔥 Ember] [🌿 Covenant Triumph]
This post follows the Forge Baseline Rule—layered truth for the discerning remnant.