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Identity
Introduction
Knowing your identity in Christ and standing on it is important in warfare because in the battle against evil, our identity is somehow under threat. We are in hostile environments where people’s tongues serve as the devil’s sword, ruthless instruments of the devil to confuse Christians concerning their identity, authority and privilege as a child of God. Worse attacks come from the mouths of people we love, trust, and serve.
A warrior who loses his identity at the warfront becomes threat to his own comrades; worse even, an enemy in Christ’s Body. One who loses his identity loses his loyalty and commitment, becomes confused with his purpose and mission. This scenario may lead to his destruction which can infect others to become enemies of God’s people.
Therefore, it is important to have a concrete foundation of our identity in Christ so that no storm nor earthquake will be able to topple us from standing on our true identity.
Definition
Identity is the sameness to an entity or being. It is the sameness to that which exists. To be is to exist, to be identifiable, to be proven the same to that which is, or exists.
Our identity in Christ is being one with and being like him. In thought, words or deeds, we are like him because he is in us and we are in him. His Father is also our Father. Since he is the only begotten Son, we come to the Father through him. In him and with him, we go to the Father. Thus, we are identified with Christ. Since Christ is one with the Father, we who are one with Christ also become one with the Father. The Father, Christ and we are one. The Father looks at us through his Son Jesus. We also look to the Father through his Son Jesus. How is this?
In the beginning there was only GOD. Then he created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was formless and empty, Then God decided “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness”...So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
Our identity starts with God’s decision to create a male or a female. He who is all knowing, knowing the end from the beginning of things, knew it all along whether to make a male or female you or me. We are a precious thought from the mind of God. Our maleness or femaleness is not an afterthought. He had it all thought up and worked out all along and there are no mistakes about it. He is perfect. He had planned for us to be either perfectly male, or perfectly female, no grays nor in-betweens, no homosexuals.
Why did God have to underline the statement that man is to be made in his image? Could it be because he had a tremendous plan for him, in connection with all of creation including Satan and his demons? Such plan that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him? 1 Cor. 2:9
When God made man with all the precision about him and loving preparation in Eden for him, Satan was already around to witness this new special creation. Imagine him livid with anger and envy and hatred for both God and man. Whether he knew it or not if this special new being was purposed by God to do him away in the end, his hurt pride was enough to make him uncomfortable with man around. After all, was not he a special one once upon a time? Ezekiel 28:12-29. Since that time of his oust from heaven, he has been scheming to destroy man. At the very root of all his strategies is the desire to destroy man’s self-worth, his identity. Because man in his perfection is a tremendous entity to reckon with.
In the garden of Eden he began to sow doubt. Doubt on the integrity of God, which seed Eve received, then Adam too. Sin came in, and they fell from that prestigious position that the devil coveted all along. Man’s perception of self-worth was destroyed. They realized they were naked and hid themselves. Gen. 3:7. Contrast this scene with Gen. 2:25. Before the fall, the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.
When man’s self-worth is destroyed, he fails to identify God and with God. Like Adam and Eve, he gathers fig leaves to sew together . ...
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