“All people groups are uniquely gifted and beautiful, and exceedingly wicked apart from Jesus. Every people group has a strength and a weakness. That is why we so desperately need one another, because it is only with each other (In Christ) that we can be unified.” Elijah Maswangani

There are some words in which I have capitalized in the following passage the first letter for emphasis:

John17:13-26 (NIV): “I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My Joy within them. I have given them your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the Truth; Your Word is Truth, As You sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be One, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the Glory that You gave Me, that they may be One as we are One – I in them and You in Me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father I want those You have given Me to be with with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the Glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.”

STEREOTYPING is a wicked tool in the hands of satan because it puts people in a box and tries to keep them there, not only because of how they are viewed by others, but because of how they view themselves. Every people group has characteristics that are unique to them. The problem comes when people try to hold them to these characteristics, stripping them of their humanity and reducing them to caricatures. Have you ever seen drawings that are caricatures of people? Their features are grotesquely twisted and distorted. People laugh, but not people victimized by these drawings. No one people group exhibits all of these characteristics 24/7. The worst thing, to me, is when people within the various people groups buy into these stereotypes, imprisoning themselves and trying to do the same to others within their people groups.

The Lord told me many years ago that my identity was in Him and only when my identity was in Him was I a true representation of the people group that He placed me in. Yes, God has a purpose and plan for where and with whom He places us. It is all apart of His call on our lives.

Do you know that stereotyping is NOT just about race, culture, creed, or region? We do the same thing in the body of believers. and when we stereotype the various denominations, we do so because we think we are superior. Our eyes are on ourselves and not on Christ. It is on building our mini-kingdoms instead of the Kingdom of God. John 17 (read the entire chapter). Galatians 5:13-15 warns us about “biting and devouring each other.

The worse part of stereotyping is that it blinds us to the fact that we are all children of God and that He has placed us in countries, cultures and regions to save the lost, for His Glory. This requires Love. this requires us to spend time in the presence of God until we are so saturated with His love that when we see other people, we will only see them through His eyes. Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:28-31; 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 John 4:13-21.