My Identity in Christ Part 1: Who Am I?

“Most of our struggles don’t start with bad choices—they start with false beliefs.”

You can love Jesus, attend church, read your Bible—and still live under shame, fear, and defeat if you don’t fully understand who you are in Christ.

I have read a lot of books in my life by Godly authors that have been helpful in my study of God’s Word and shaping my Christian worldview.

One of those books that made a real impact when i was going through a particularly hard time in my life was Victory over the Darkness by Neil T. Anderson. If I would rate this. I would say its in my top 5 important books. and so I found this book in my library and decided to adapt it into a six week  teaching series. based on the material in the book.

for those of you struggling with identity, with how you see yourself, if your struggling with guilt or shame from the past or your just wanting to have a breakthrough in your spiritual walk your going to benefit from this teaching.

I. The Core Problem: Many Christians Don’t Know Who They Are

(Identity Confusion Leads to Spiritual Defeat)
If I asks you the question Who are you? what would you say. I would so I’m a pastor but that’s what i do, i could say American, but that’s where i live, i could say I’m white but that’s the color of my skin, I might say Pentecostal but that’s my denomination.

We tend to identify ourselves by our roles and responsibilities or our ethnicity or our worldviews but here is the critical question.

“Is who you are determined by what you do or is what you do determined by who you are?”

that is an important question especially as it relates to Christian maturity. I believe that your hope for growth and breakthrough in your Christian faith is tied to understanding Your New identity in Christ. when you truly understand who you are in relationship to God it will transform your thinking and behavior in a profound way.

II. False equations in the search for identity

when I was growing up my parents were supportive of me, i grew up in a loving Christian home which I am very thankful for but i often endured bullying and rejection and being made fun throughout my time in school.  and that experience will shape how you see yourself. I had very low self esteem well but i started playing guitar and when I graduated me and my friend formed a band and of course as we played the clubs and got known I liked the attention, it was my identity.  but it didn’t change how i felt inside. How people saw me and what they said about me. didn’t match up to how i saw my self. how looked, what I did didn’t change the insecurities and the fears and loneliness I was feeling.

III. External appearance/abilities/ social Status /color/gender/ethnicity / or my lived experience does not equal my Identity 

I bought into a false equation. that how I looked on the outside, what i did for work, what talents or abilities equaled who I was. And I see a lot of people today that are struggling with with the same things. and its only amplified through Social Media.

IV. Everyone in this world has a need to Feel Significant, Feel Secure and have a Sense of Belonging. 

• why? because these are the very things that God fulfilled in us before the Fall of the human race. When we sinned our connection with God was severed and we died spiritually and as a result we lost what we had.
• Adam and Eve didn’t have to search for significance he knew that he was created in the image of God.
• Adam and Eve were secure because God provided all the needed.
• Adam and Eve weren’t alone. they had an close relationship with their creator.
• But they gave into the temptation to think they didn’t need God and could be like him and made a move that can only be considered treachery and rebellion. they accepted the words of the Devil over God. They accepted his leadership, his advice rather than Gods and so in turning their backs on God they lost all that they had in him and so we are always trying to search to fulfill that which was lost.

Salvation in Jesus Christ restores all that was lost. we no longer have to strive for significance, or security or belonging. because we are already significant to God, we are secure in him and we belong to Jesus. 

V. Christianity Is Not About Trying Harder. It’s About Living From What’s Already True. Spiritual victory does not begin with effort—it begins with identity.

• Common Misunderstanding
• “If I just pray more, do more, try harder, God will finally accept me.”
• Biblical Reality
• You are not working toward acceptance
• You are living from acceptance

the only real identity equation that works in God’s kingdom is You plus Christ equals wholeness. In Christ you are already complete and whole. that is a spiritual reality.

For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 
Romans 8:16 – NLT

So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 
Colossians 2:10 – NLT

You cannot consistently live differently than how you see yourself.

we fail so we see ourselves as failures, we sin so we see ourselves as sinners, We must renew our minds with the reality of the truth of what God says about us.

VI. What Changed the Moment You Came to Christ

1. You Were Not Repaired — You Were Recreated

Let’s read what Scripture actually says.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

• Notice what this does not say.
• It doesn’t say:
  • You got a spiritual upgrade
  • You got cleaned up
  • You became a slightly better version of yourself
• It says you became a new person.
• Christianity is not self-improvement.
  It is resurrection.
• God didn’t fix your old life—He gave you a new one.

VII. The Real Battle Is What You Believe

When we see ourselves through our identity in Christ. we will begin to operate from a place of spiritual truth. and that changes how we see ourselves, our behavior, how we pray and gives us hope for the future.