Are You Living Like Royalty?

This excerpt explores the life of Elijah and how knowing your God-given identity empowers you to stand boldly in faith. It challenges readers to ask, are you living like royalty—fully aware of the authority, purpose, and calling God has placed on your life through Christ?

Knowing who you are changes everything.

Names matter. In biblical days, names were quite often synonymous with a person’s calling and character. They weren’t simply nomenclature. They signified one’s reputation. The syllables of Hebrew names, like a puzzle meticulously fitted together, built layer upon layer of insight into who this person really was or was meant to be. So, when Elijah first arrived in town, anyone in the vicinity would have known where his allegiance stood, simply by hearing his name.

Elijah
• El, meaning God
• I, meaning my
• Jah, meaning Yahweh

People who knew Elijah knew where he stood, even before they really knew him. Apparently, his whole life had been shaped by the meaning of his name. Elijah’s holy passion hadn’t happened overnight. And based on what we know of the spiritual decline around him, it surely hadn’t happened by osmosis. But Elijah’s allegiance to the Lord had become more secure with each passing day, week, and year. Long before he stood up in front of a king at court, he had spent his quiet, obscure life building the character, establishing the reputation, and securing the allegiance that reflected this reality.

When you know your name, even if you’re from a nowhere place like Gilead – when you’ve committed yourself to the process of learning who you are, based on the truth of the One who has called you to serve and follow Him – you can stand and declare His Word in any place, in front of anybody. You can know, like Elijah did, that your God is Yahweh, that you represent the One whom no man or worldly idol can replace, remove, or redact.

As child of the King, your name has been imbued with all the rights and privileges that give you access through Christ to your Father’s power. Everything God has allowed you to march through in life so far has been intended to mature your faith, fortify your principles, shape your character, and cement your allegiance to Him. It’s been preparing you to take your stand in that confidence.

Life is truly a process of growing into your faith, or as Peter said, growing “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 NKJV). But your identity as a believer is something you wear today. Right now. Here is where you stand.

Turn to 1 Peter 2:9-10 and fill in the blanks with what the Bible asserts to be your identity as a believer in Christ.

• Chosen
You are “a chosen __________________”
• Royal
You are “a royal __________________”
• Holy
You are “a holy __________________”
• Child of God
You are God’s own “ __________________”
• Proclaimer
You are made to proclaim or declare His “ __________________”
• Called
You’ve been called “out of __________________”
• Light
You are called into His marvelous, wonderful “ __________________”

This is who you are. Each one of these features, and more, is part of your given name. It’s been your name from the moment you put faith in Christ as Savior, and it will be your name for as long as you live.

Knowing your name – knowing who you are – gives you the courage to stand on the bedrock of eternal truth, to stand there in the name of the One who “called you for a righteous purpose” (Isaiah 42:6 CSB).

So when Elijah set out from Gilead, tromping out of the hills toward the city, toward the throne room of Ahab, with God’s Word in his mouth and God’s strength pulsating in his heart, he may not have known much. But he did know what his name meant. And there he would take his stand.

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Reprinted and used by permission. Elijah. Lifeway Press® © 2020. Priscilla Shirer. Available from lifeway.com.

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