Who Am I? Learning to respond to life from your position not your condition. (Part 5)

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Have you ever seen one of those celebrity makeover shows?  You know, the one where they randomly pick people off the street and then make them over to look just like a celebrity.  Here at Joy Church we did a little parody of said program and randomly asked various people in the congregation what celebrity they think they most resemble.   With some of the answers, one could readily see…others were outrageous as they looked nothing like that celebrity they thought they resembled!  It was really quite humorous!  You see, so much of life revolves around the identity issue!

Over the last number of weeks, we have shared with you why your identity is so important:

  1. You behave according to your self-image (Mark 12:31)
  2. You marry according to your self-image
  3. You succeed or fail according to your self-image (Prov. 23:7)

Then we began to share with you “Three Wonders of Who I Am”:

1.      Who am I…you are a spirit (Jn 3:3-5)

2.      Who am I not…I am not a soul or a body (Phil. 3:19)

In conjunction with this section we discovered 10 Facets of Fickled Feelings:

1.      Feelings are the first things to go in negative circumstances (Eph. 6:13)

2.      Never depend on your feelings to tell you the truth

3.      Never try to serve God based on your emotions (Rom. 1:9)

4.      Feelings don’t represent the anointing (I John 2:20,27)

5.      Facts affect feelings (II Cor. 5:7)

6.      It’s impossible to enjoy peace, joy or victory if you always live by your feelings

7.      When you keep talking about your feelings, your feelings will only grow stronger

8.      Your feelings will eventually change…why not speak and act as if they already had!

9.      It’s always a choice to rejoice (Ps. 118:24)

10.  Your motions will affect your emotions!

 

This week, let’s continue our series:

3.      Who I am…in Christ (Philemon v.6)

When you understand who you are in Christ (who you are and all you have because of what Jesus has done for you), it changes everything!  Your confidence, your security and eventually your circumstances will begin to turn around.  You’ll no longer live life by your condition but by your position!

Let’s take a look at just a few scriptures that tell you who you are in Christ:

1)      You are a new creature (II Cor. 5:17)!

Many good-hearted Christians humbly utter, “I’m just an old sinner, saved by grace.”  While that may sound spiritual, it is not scriptural.  You are either an old sinner or saved by grace…but you can’t be both!  If you are a born again child of God, in your spirit you no longer have the nature to sin but you are a new creation.  Even though we are a new creation when we identify with our old nature, we are conditioning ourselves to sin.  Never identify with your infirmity!  Don’t downgrade yourself with your mouth!  When you believe and speak what the Bible says about you, more and more you’ll act like the new creature you really are!

2)      You are His workmanship (Eph. 2:15).

The Greek word translated “workmanship” is the word poema.  We get our English word “poem” from it.  In other words, you are God’s special creation created for a special destiny!

3)      You are blessed, holy and accepted (Eph. 1:3-6).

“Yes pastor, once I pray, fast, study, tithe, and work in the nursery I’ll be blessed, holy and accepted!”  No, in Christ you are blessed, holy and accepted whether you ever pray, fast, study or tithe!  All of those things don’t change God’s heart condition towards you.  All of those things change your heart condition towards God!  Praying, fasting, studying and tithing are not for God’s benefit.  Praying, fasting, studying and tithing are for your benefit!  They will help you live outwardly who you already are inwardly!

4)      You are the righteousness of God in Christ (II Cor. 5:21).

“Righteous” is also translated “justified” in the New Testament.  It means:

  • Just as if I’d never sinned
  • Just as if I’d never made a mistake
  • Just as if I’d done everything right

“Righteousness” is the Greek word diakskuma which literally means “equity of character”.  In Christ, your spirit has the same character as Jesus Christ Himself (see I John 4:17), not because of what you have or have not done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for you!  You can now approach God without feelings of guilt, condemnation, unworthiness or inferiority (see Heb. 10:19, Heb. 4:16)!

5)      There is no condemnation…in Christ (Rom. 8:1).

Here the Bible tells us, “Now therefore there is no condemnation in Christ for those that walk after the spirit and don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.”  I get a kick out of the devil.  He is the one always tempting us to do something that will harm us.  He’ll whisper in our ear, “C’mon, do it!  Everyone else is doing it.”  In which we respond, “No.”  He tries again “C’mon, do it!  It’ll be fun!”  To which we respond, “No.”  Being the persistent being he is, he tries a third time, “C’mon do it!”  After relentless temptations we finally succumb and do it.  To which the devil responds, “You shouldn’t have done that!”  That’s when condemnation begins to set in.  We must however keep the devil in the “now” of “Now there is therefore no condemnation…”.

“Now” always updates itself.  Every time you look at “now”, it will always be “now”.  If you look at “now” later, it will always be “now”.  The devil will try and remind you what you did “then”, but you remind him “Yes I did that ‘then’, but I have confessed and forsaken that and that was then, but this is ‘now’!”  Now there is therefore no condemnation…in Christ!

Never rehearse what God has forgotten (see Hebrews 8:12)!  New beginnings only spring from old endings!  The more I replay my yesterdays, the further I get from today’s opportunities!  Don’t rehearse it!  Don’t nurse it!  Disperse it! 

Never let what you did define you!  Never let what was done to you define you!  Don’t turn a sin into a lifetime.  Don’t let your tragedy become your identity!  Learn from it, laugh at it…and let it go!