Who Are You?

Identity is very important in a person's life, whether they believe it or not. Identity (def)-the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. I hear different Christian sayings about who we are in Christ, such as: I'm a child of the King, or I am a blood-bought believer, or many other ways of identifying ourselves. My identity is truly found IN Christ, to the point that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:^17. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! This verse is a good standard to go by when identifying who you are, but the verse before it is the qualifying verse for the overall point. Verse 16: So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!

We see ourselves from a human point of view before Christ, and from God's perspective after we are born again in the Spirit. This way of viewing ourselves and doing it from a human perspective is actually hiding our true identity, because the human perspective compromises how God sees us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, and in doing so, that changed our perspective into one that is seen through God's awesome love. You may say, "Oh, that is just messing with terms", but it is much more than messing with terms. At our core, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit, or God, as defined in the Trinity.

When Jesus went to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to inhabit all who are born again in the Spirit. The Spirit is now in control, and that changes everything for us, including our identity. This changes the way we look at life, at people, at situations, and at everything we experience. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. When everything is falling apart around you, there is a Spirit-induced peace that cannot be shaken in you, and it is very real. Fear takes on a new shape that is real faith, and it cannot be shaken because the Spirit is the controlling force behind that confidence. We will no longer trust ourselves, but the Spirit, when making decisions about life and direction, and handling life itself becomes more enjoyable because of this holy confidence that is provided by God.

This is the true explanation and identity of the Spirit-filled life, and it is a life that is lived in victory and confidence. This life is more than quoting a verse in the Bible; it is who we are, and it is good. REAL GOOD. This life is a life where we no longer just trust ourselves to fix things, but we trust God to do the fixing, and that is our identity. My identity is found in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in control, so all is good. It changes how we perceive our prayer life, our time in God's Word, and everything we experience. We begin to experience life from a new identity that is connected to "the vine." All God, all the time, all of me, because He is my all in all. This identity is the one that is dangerous to Satan because it is found totally in God's power and not in mine. TRUE POWER BECAUSE OF A PURE IDENTITY.

Don't muddy the clear water of your identity. Just trust God that it is Him working through you and Him sustaining you, and walk in victory. His victory!!

Today's Message,

David Warren