Matthew 16:24-25–Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

Galatians 5:24–Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

One Friday evening we had such a large ministry team that we did not have enough generic ministry badges to pass out.  I was the only person that had his name upon his shirt stating that he was Pastoral Staff.

At one point I was ministering to people at the front of the revival tent. I looked down and my name tag was turned around. You could not see my name. I was about to turn it around when I felt a check on my spirit. I believe God was saying don’t turn it around, so I left it the way it was. For the next hour I ministered with the name tag reversed, but I have to say that I was aware that it was reversed.

In a way, don’t we all want people to know who we are? Personally there are times that I have to fight my insecurity of not being known. This evening was one of them. The temptation to turn that tag around was great. After all no one would fault me for doing it right…no one that is but God, who understands my heart and the desire that I have for attention.

The hour passed and the minister began to preach. During this time I looked down and the tag was still reversed. At this point I had had enough. I decided to turn it around. I took the tag off, turned it and then reattached it to my shirt with the name exposed for all to see.

Not even a minute later the name tag fell to the floor. God’s voice began booming like a drum within my heart. He said, “Does your name really matter?” I felt conviction so strongly and had to confess back to him, “Lord forgive me, my name really does not matter.”

You see God wants to be the face and name of our revivals. He doesn’t want man to take credit for his glorious acts. I felt he said that he was going to use a nameless and faceless generation which was not concerned with its own glory. I believe he is saying that he will become the face of the revival and that his glory will resound to the ends of the earth, but we must hide beneath his shadow and become observers only of his mighty acts. We will see much if we remember that he is the one performing.

To do this we must die to our need to be recognized. We must forget our names and completely identify ourselves with Christ only. The recognition of men doesn’t amount to much anyway. It will never satisfy. We must lift our heads to God and be willing to be famous in his eyes only. This is the only way we will succeed during this time. He will call us to observe great things, but we must humble ourselves and seek his glory only.

Even now I feel the struggle of wanting to be recognized within me and therefore, my prayer becomes “Please God, help my motivations to become more pure.”