{"id":408,"date":"2014-05-29T18:26:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T18:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cfcmankato.org\/?p=408"},"modified":"2018-12-29T11:19:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T17:19:21","slug":"identity-in-christ-by-phil-hernandez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/2014\/05\/identity-in-christ-by-phil-hernandez\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding My Identity in Christ by Phil Hernandez"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember as a young boy in the sixties hearing a phrase that went something like this: \u201cI need to go find myself.\u201d\u00a0 I wanted to say, \u201cJust look in the mirror; there you are.\u201d \u00a0What people were really meaning was that they didn\u2019t know who they were, or rather, their identity.\"Looking<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Without identity, a person wanders this earth void of purpose or meaning.\u00a0 It is the very thing Satan tries to take from us. Worse, he tries to keep us from understanding our true identity in Jesus Christ as Christians.\u00a0 You see, you can be a child of God and yet be without purpose and impact. It is\u00a0knowing<\/strong> who you are and whose you are that causes you to act.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the beginning, God made man in His image.\u00a0 This has always been the plan of God.\u00a0 We were made in the image of God.\u00a0 This was our intended identity before sin.\u00a0 We were then given the responsibility of tending the Garden of Eden.\u00a0 We were given dominion over the earth.\u00a0 Function and purpose follow identity, and not the other way around; this is true order. So let us see what God says about our identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0<\/i>Identity gives you a foundation of worth and belonging:<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am God’s child (John 1:12<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am a member of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am chosen and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am blameless (1 Corinthians 1:8<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am set free (Romans 8:2<\/b>;\u00a0John 8:32<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am safe (1 John 5:18<\/b>) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am healed (1 Peter 2:24<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Identity in the Kingdom of God is full of authority because of Whom you belong to and who He has made you to be:<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18<\/b>) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. (Ephesians 1:3)\"Victory<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am protected (John 10:28<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am victorious<\/strong> (1 John 5:4<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am more than<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0a conqueror\u00a0<\/span>(Romans 8:37<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Identity gives you purpose:<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am God’s co-worker (2 Corinthians 6:1<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-20<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am a dwelling for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0I am salt and light of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14<\/b>)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A trick of Satan is to have us focus on our giftedness or purpose apart from our true identity.\u00a0 In this way, we will find ourselves working for acceptance and worth instead of being a son or daughter in the house of God.\u00a0 Your identity as a child of God does not change just because your gift to the body is not functioning, or you seem to be missing the purposes of God. God loves us apart from the gifts he gives us and the purposes for which He has called us to. I will never forget when God spoke to me on this very subject.\u00a0 He said, \u201cDo not find your worth in anything, but in my Son. Not even in the things I have you do.\u00a0 For my Son is proven.\u201d\"Family\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

These are exciting days for Christians.\u00a0 As we find our true identity in Christ, we will come into the true reason for which we were born.\u00a0 We will walk in spiritual authority and purpose. This is the very reason Satan absolutely doesn\u2019t want us to know who we are.\u00a0The next time you look into the mirror ask yourself, \u201cWhose am I anyway?\u00a0 Am I truly living that identity out in the world?\u201d This world says everything you need to know, you learn in kindergarten. I say everything you need, you learn from following Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit, and He will help us to walk in our identity as a son or daughter if we allow Him to lead us.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember as a young boy in the sixties hearing a phrase that went something like this: \u201cI need to go find myself.\u201d\u00a0 I wanted to say, \u201cJust look in the mirror; there you are.\u201d \u00a0What people were really meaning was that they didn\u2019t know who they were, or rather, their identity. Without identity, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[62,63,61],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-finding-identity","tag-knowing-who-you-are","tag-my-identity-in-christ"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}