The Exchange from Human Doing into Human Being
- Debbie Mama Birdsall
- Jun 9, 2018
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 15

As I began my spiritual journey into being conformed and transformed into the image of Christ, I realized the journey wasn’t just a personal one. It’s a community one. God revealed to me through my daily time in His presence that my transformation wasn’t an option, but a necessity. It was necessary because, somehow, I had become a human doing – someone who forgets God as I do His will – rather than a human being – someone who comes into the presence of God first, resides there, and waits in anticipation for His influence to change me.
What’s Your Identity?
You are changing, conformed into something new. There are daily influences on your life that transform you into the person you are today. Your emotions, and how you react to the world around you, your relationships, and how you interact with people, your upbringing, and how it is the foundation of all these things, as well as your relationship with God. It is not a necessity only for those who seem “more religious.” If you do not become focused on God for transformation into the likeness of Christ, you are choosing to focus on the world. You then become transformed in its likeness.
But, it’s a choice - Oh, yes, it is a choice! But which choice do you want to make? Where lies your identity?
Who You Are (Doing) vs. Whose You Are (Being)
Before you can begin allowing God to mold and shape you into Christ’s image, you need to recognize how the world has crept into your life. It has given you a false identity. It has taken your identity in Christ and replaced it with its own desires. You will find yourself on the left before you recognize your true identity on the right. Review the chart below:
Who You Are “Doing”
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Whose You Are “Being” |
· Hard-Worker · Secretary · Employee · Lawyer · Doctor · Parent · Daughter/Son · Friend · Victim · Drinker · Drug Addict · Church Hopper · Co-Dependent · Generous Giver · Missionary · Church Leader · Pastor · Board Member · Prayer Warrior · Bible Study Leader · Spouse · Health Nut · Business Owner · Sports Enthusiast · Fitness Guru | · Child of God · Relationship with God · Friend of God · Heir to the Kingdom · Saint · Righteous · Christlike · Son/Daughter of the King · Holy · Pure · Spotless · Able · Forgiven · Heaven-bound · Wise · Secure · Known · Powerful · Reconciled · Chosen · Blameless · Stable · Loved · Victorious · Transformed
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Study that chart above. It’s not all inclusive. Print it out. Add your own identities. Circle who you are on the right. The left side of the chart is endless, but your identity on the left side runs you into a brick wall. There is no eternal future in the “doings” of life.
You live as though your doing determines your being. However, it is an empty reality. If one thing changes within the context of your doing, your being collapses. Doing does not determine your being. Pick anything from the doing side and think about something that could go wrong within it. Did your stomach just sink?
For example: You’re a health nut. You go for your annual checkup, and the doctor discovers cancer. How can this be? You take all the right vitamins. You exercise daily, you eat all the right foods, and you avoid the bad ones. How could you have cancer? You have staked your life on your health rather than the foundation of Jesus Christ, the one who gives you all the gifts in the right column.
It’s not wrong or bad to be a health nut. But when you are formed and transformed into the image of Christ, if the bottom drops out of your life, you won’t be devastated. You’ll know your identity and will hold onto Christ instead of faltering with the world’s identity.
Emotional Beings
Your emotions are intense. No matter how you try to conceal them, negative emotions can, and do, rule your heart. Unfortunately, that means they keep you out of the secret place where you and God come together quietly, only to face the world outside your door.
When you enter the quiet place with the attitude of practicing spiritual disciplines rather than being humble before God, you will experience negative emotions based on the expectations you bring into His presence. Review the chart below:
Whose You Are “Being” Positive Emotions
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Who You Are “Doing” Negative Emotions |
· do not need to see observable results from our actions because we know God is working in our lives behind the scenes (rest in Christ) · have purpose, value, and a strong self-image · Identity is in Christ · patient with God’s timing · continued obedience even when we don’t “see” God · fully trusting God.
| · presume failure because we see no observable results from our actions · loss of self-image, value, and purpose · loss of identity · frustration and impatience with God’s timing · Inability to remain obedient to God · mad at God for not doing what we expect from Him · fear of failure – won’t move forward
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~ Negative Emotions
The right side of the chart above is revealing. If you are feeling several of these feelings, the truth is you’re coming into the presence of God thinking of yourself. Your focus is entirely on you and your problems, your identity, your failures, your fear, and your anger. You can’t deny it when you see it right there in front of you. Negative emotions stemming from your attempts to spend time with God alone come from within you, all about you.
~ Positive Emotions
When I first experienced positive emotions, I realized my focus was changing. I had been coming into my quiet place with God with the attitude that He would do something for me. He was going to answer all my prayers; He was going to do this, or do that. My expectations were through the roof! But through perseverance, He began to change me. The positive emotions listed in the left column above began to poke up from the hard ground of my heart. Eventually, blossoms emerged and full flowers revealed themselves in my life. I had to exchange my emotions, my heart, and my physical stature.
The Exchange
~ Emotional exchange
I had a lot of anger when I first started spiritual formation. Well, I had it long before that, but it became clear I was using it to control God. I came to Him with my world view to control Him and all other things, rather than being a person shaped by the presence, purpose, and power of God in all things.
Anger is the basis of almost all the negative emotions in the chart above. However, anger is a secondary emotion. There is a primary emotion underneath it, spurring it on. I recognized hurt as my primary emotion from pain caused by the people in my life whom I had trusted. I was still hurt and was afraid God would hurt me, too. To keep Him at a distance, I used anger as my tool to protect my wounded heart.
- Find Primary Emotion
Finding your primary emotion is essential to the beginning of true intimacy with God in the quiet place (and in the world). Once I recognized my primary emotion, I was able to surrender it to God.
- Submit it to God
If you’ve read many of my blogs, you’ll notice this is a theme: Submit to God. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that all your problems stem from your lack of submission to the One who has all the authority. It took me time to submit, but I became willing to submit – that was the first step toward submission.
~ Physical exchange
I often tried to pull God down to my level. I understood that I was trying to reach Him in that way. However, the Bible tells us to come before him humbly on our knees. You find yourself standing in His presence or sitting during prayer. You would never think of posturing yourself on the floor. Your pride couldn’t stand it. I know because I couldn’t stand it either. I have found, though, after 7 years of daily walking with God in my quiet place, that those times I laid myself out before my Creator were the best times of my life.
These days, I am unable to get on my knees for long periods, but my heart comes humbly before God, bowing in His presence. It took time, but the effort was worth the change in my heart.
~ Heart exchange
The last exchange is the heart exchange. I saved this one for last because it takes time to exchange the focus from me onto God. You walk in your own identities – the “who you are” – and deny “whose you are.” You may know your identity in Christ in your heart, but that knowledge hasn’t taken the 8” trip to your heart.
Take up one of the spiritual disciplines of reading Christian books that focus specifically on your identity in Christ. I recommend “God Says You Are,” by Jeremy Bouma. God led me to that book, which helped me take the walk from head to heart.
Conclusion
To exchange your human doing into a human being, you have to take several steps toward God, no matter how you are feeling. Your negative emotional response to God, stemming from your expectations, can quickly hinder your forward progress in fully understanding your identity in God’s son, Jesus Christ.
Ensure that you take the necessary steps to complete the exchange. Once you become firmly rooted in the foundation of your true identity, your real life hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3), nothing will shake the firm foundation upon which you stand.