“God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are.”
Romans 8:15-17 MSG
Welcome to Week Five of our 40 Day Soul Fast series!
If you’re joining us for the first time, you can review Weeks One, Two, Three, or Four—or anything you may have missed by clicking here!
Today we’ll be exploring the importance of your identity and the role it plays in the life and health of your soul. Do you know who you really are?
Ignorance, more than anything else, is your greatest enemy.
Yet, you must never forget that whatever has kept you bound and in the dark is not greater than God’s power to liberate and enlighten you! After all, “Christ is the light of the world“ (John 8:12)—He is “the light of all mankind“ (John 1:4).
Knowing who you are in Christ, and who He is in you, is the first step in overcoming the enemy of your soul, who seeks to keep you blind, deaf, and dumb to your divine power and true nature.
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
Ephesians 5:14
Ignorance is what the enemy uses to keep you defeated, overwhelmed, afraid, and afflicted in your soul.
Not only ignorance of what is dis-easing your soul and keeping you from a more abundant life, but also ignorance of who you are as a child of God.
The key to deliverance is embracing who you are in Christ—and who He is within you.
Understanding the identity you have inherited from not only your ancestors, but also your Heavenly Father, will help you to maximize your potential and fulfill your purpose with greater precision.
Knowledge about why you do what you do—as well as what you are capable of—will give you the ability to minimize your weaknesses while capitalizing on your strengths.
This is vital to the health of your soul and essential to your empowerment!
In Ephesians you are told to “throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (4:22-24 NLT).
According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT).
In Christ you have been given a new nature—an entirely new genetic code.
Regardless of who you thought you were, or the family you were born into, or the part of the country you’re from, you are your Heavenly Father’s child!
You can learn more about who you were created to be by learning about who He is. You have been made a partaker of His divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4). You are to “be imitators of God as dear children” (Ephesians 5:1).
I like how THE MESSAGE says it:
“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” (Ephesians 5:1 MSG).
In God, you have been given all things pertaining to life and godliness “through the knowledge of Him” (2 Peter 1:3).
The more time you spend learning about the nature of God, learning the ways of Christ, and keeping company with His Spirit, the more you are transformed into His likeness—“becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Corinthians 3:18 MSG).
There is nothing the Bible talks about more than the power and importance of identity.
You must know with certainty whom and whose you are and all you are capable of becoming.
Early in the Old Testament, God told the Israelites, “You are the sons of the Lord your God . . . you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations on the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:1-2 AMP).
At the very end of the New Testament, we read that God has “made us kings and priests . . . and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelations 5:10).
If you are to fulfill your destiny of reigning on this earth as a king and priest, you must be “constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23 AMP).
Constantly.
Only by constant and continual renewal of your spirit, soul, and mind will you be able to change your beliefs about the capacity you carry for greatness.
Click to Tweet: The paradigm that dictates your outlook determines your outcomes.
The paradigm that governs your expectations will either gridlock or give way to what you are able to envision.
You have often heard me say that if your context is wrong your conclusions will be wrong.
Conclusion is a result of context.
Click to Tweet: Change your perspective and you will change your potential.
Your potential is only limited by your own perception of it!
This is why we are told over and over again about who we are in Christ.
God is trying to change your mindset. He is giving you a new perspective and paradigm for framing your identity. You are to “put on Christ, like putting on new clothes” (Galatians 3:27 NLT).
You are to “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10).
“You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you” (Colossians 3:10 NCV).
“What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.”
Galatians 6:15 NLT
What counts is whether or not your identity—your perception of yourself—is defined by God.
Allow yourself to be defined by your Creator, to live into that image—to be informed and transformed by the knowledge of who God created you to be.
Be defined by “Christ Himself, who is in you . . . [y]our only hope for glory” (Colossians 1:27 NCV)—your only hope of “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)—your only hope of breaking every yoke, setting aside every weight, breaking free from every encumbrance, being made new and completely transformed into the image and likeness of Christ Himself: “Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
Be encouraged. Faith in God’s transforming, identity-altering grace will free you from whatever cords of sin, addiction, or unhealthy relationships have bound you by feelings of inferiority.
“Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”
Romans 5:20
Never forget that “with God’s power working in [you], God can do much, much more than anything [you] can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20 NCV)!
Remembering it is “God who works in you . . . to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13) will empower you to fix your mind on His truth about your divine potential.
Bind yourself to God’s grace—fix your mind’s eye on the capacity building power of Christ at work in you!
“He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.”
Philippians 1:6
This week, we will be focusing on the characteristics of faith, gratitude, destiny, identity, and purpose.
As you explore each characteristic throughout the week, think about the following questions:
- How can you more fully embrace your identity in Christ? What does that look like? How can you live that out?
- How does this knowledge enable you to live more authentically?
I pray you discover your true identity by acknowledging the Christ at work within you.
“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance!”
Romans 8:15-17 MSG