D06 Your Identity
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D06 Your Identity
I highly recommend you the book Victory Over the Darkness, by Neil T. Anderson, 1990.
The term „identity“ is quite common for a Czech person, but when we are to explain what it means, it turns out to be quite obscured. Yes, identity. But what does it mean in practice? Identity is answer to the question of who I am, and it can take many forms. My name is ___ ___. I am a man. I am husband of wonderful woman. I am father of three wonderful children.
I’m professional public speaking and communication coach. At the same time, I am a child of my Heavenly Father – the Creator of Universe. I am a disciple of Jesus – the living Master and Lord who is always with me. I am part of a special group of people with whom living Jesus actively communicates – that is, the living church. I am an heir of the kingdom of God…
The characteristics of our identity can be stated in other ways, too. The fact that I have received God’s Holy Spirit also defines who I am! My identity is also defined by the plain biblical truth that because of Jesus‘ sacrifice, all the wrong things I have ever done are forgiven, perfectly and unchangeably! I am forgiven even the bad things that I will only do in the future…!
„That’s amazing, Jesus, Your sacrifice is fantastic!“
Knowing who we are has tremendous impact on our thoughts, feelings and actions,
in all areas and situations of our lives.
In the previous lesson, I suggested you to create your own statement of who you are in Christ, that somehow resonates with you internally, that is biblically true and fulfilling, motivating. Were you able to put something together? Please repeat your formulation right now.
Not for me, but for your own sake, so that you might take it a deeper in your heart. If you haven’t expressed your spiritual essence yet, create at least a provisional version. It is very important! When you grasp and feel your real biblical identity internally, it will change your life!
Experience has confirmed many times that the deepest biblical convictions that have truly transformed me internally have come when I invested time and effort in studying these topics directly in the Bible. And I have done this with prayer that living Jesus would guide me and show me the important things that will transform my life from the inside out. Make sure to do a self-study like this! Maybe the Bible references BELOW THE TEXT OF THIS LESSON will help you.
One more time: A deeply experienced awareness of who we are has tremendous impact on our thinking, our feelings, and our outward actions, in all situations of our lives! Not just in spiritual conversations.
Knowing who we are gives us inner strength and security. By security I mean rest, peace. Certainty is not arrogance. Knowing who we are gives us inner motivation and freedom to act.
Yet, our identity is not directly dependent on what we do. A royal son is a royal son, even if he does nothing at all. It’s the other way around: our „doing“ should be expression or use of our identity! This means that a royal son can do things that no one but royal sons can do. At the same time, when we start doing things corresponding with who we really are, after a short time it has effect on our inner experience of that identity.
It is probably important to note that our identity alone is not a guarantee of our „success“ or an insurance policy for fulfillment of our dreams. Nor does identity itself give us any particular skill as such. A skill we must diligently learn – even as sons of the king! Identity gives us permission – empowerment to do something, or conversely, to not have to do something.
Our permissions and responsibilities flow from who we really are. In the spiritual realm, these will be responsibilities to the Lord Jesus and ultimately towards unbelieving people. And the permissions? – Perhaps even to spiritual powers… A clear and deep awareness of our own identity is then the anchor of our soul; to persevere when things go wrong, and to remain humble and active even when things go extremely well.
Lord Jesus, life with You is beautiful, joyful and supernatural, even in the midst of this broken world…
(I highly recommend a book by Neil T. – Victory over Darkness)
Biblical references about our identity in Jesus
(This is just a limited SELECTION!)
I am accepted with love
Ephesians 2:1,4-5 And you were dead in your offenses and sins… But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
Colossians 1:14 … in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 2:10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over every ruler and authority…
John 15:15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Corinthians 6:17,19-20 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.
Ephesians 1:5-6 He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved.
Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will rejoice over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
I am safe
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Romans 8:1-5 Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:31-39 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Colossians 3:1-4 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
2 Timothy 1:7-9 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
Hebrews 4:14-16 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.
1 John 4:15-17 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world.
1 John 5:18 We know that no one who has been born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
I have a purpose
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Psalm 8:2 LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth. 5 What is man that You think of him, and a son of man that You are concerned about him? 6 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! 7 You have him rule over the works of Your hands; You have put everything under his feet, 8 All sheep and oxen, And also the animals of the field, 9 The birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 10 LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Matthew 5:11-16 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people.You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
John 15:15-16 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
John 17:20-23 “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Ephesians 3:12 … in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.