Wisdom is the principal thing

Tamiko Cuellar  St. Louis Evangelical Examiner 

God has been dealing with me since approximately 2005 about my identity in Him through a series of prophetic words from people I didn't even know and also through a dream; so I knew that this was a really important message that God was trying to convey to me. And since the topic of identity is still weighing heavily on my heart, I wanted to impart some of the wisdom and revelation that He has given me. 

The Lord began to reveal to me that there are so many people walking around in the body of Christ who don't know who they are in Him. Until around September of last year, I was one of those people. Identity is defined as: "1) the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another and 2) the exact likeness in nature or qualities." (Dictionary.com) How can you be yourself if you don't really know WHO you are and in what (or Whose) likeness you have been made? Well, I thought I knew who I was when I discovered almost 20 years ago that I was made in God's image, but I only had an idea. So how could I have been so off about my identity?

Well, God began to show me a series of events that take place in a person's life that cause his/her identity to be shaped differently from His original design. Some of these are: environment, wrong teaching, being mistreated (rejected/abondoned) by people, and the building of idols.

Tamiko Cuellar St. Louis Evangelical Examiner

Music is a powerful medium that touches people at the core of their souls. It can evoke a range of emotions and moods like happiness, sadness, anger, even sensuality, and can aid in creating powerful imaginations and memories in the mind. Certain songs can take you back to a certain time period in your life or even a specific moment. Because of its strong influence, which is sometimes subconscious, it is so important to be careful what music you allow to come into your ear gate. As you have heard on the radio, music can be used for good or for evil, but have you ever stopped to wonder what God’s reasons were for creating music? God’s purposes for music can be found by digging through the Scriptures.

• Celebration. Our God is a God of celebration and He wants His children to be the same way. One example of how music accompanies celebrations at feasts (parties) can be found in Genesis 31:27 NLT. “Why did you slip away secretly? Why did you steal away? And why didn’t you say you wanted to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps.” Judges 5:11 NLT is an illustration of a war victory celebration. “Listen to the village musicians gathered at the watering holes. They recount the righteous victories of the LORD and the victories of his villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD marched down to the city gates.” See these Scriptures for additional examples of how music is used to celebrate: I Samuel 18:6 and Luke 15:25-27.