Your Identity

Do you know who you are? Do others know who you are? How is our identity formed anyway? Let’s explore, I think God has an idea of who you are, since he created you for a purpose; he put certain characteristics into you to help you carry out that plan.  It’s comforting to know that God knows us and loves us so much that he wants you to know your identity even more than you want to know.

When we are born into a family they give us an identity.  Fill in your name ______________ you meet your parents and maybe some siblings and as you grow up you adopt the identity of who you are in relation to your family and what they say and think of you.  If you are raised in a family that is well adjusted and encouraging you may start to believe the things they tell you.  You might feel pretty good about your self; but what if you grow up in a family that’s maladjusted and shaming?  What do you suppose you will believe about yourself?  Which ever kind of family you grew up in, and whatever you ended up believing about yourself will be your identity, but what matters is who God says you are. Let’s dive in to the word of God to see what the Bible says about who you are!

1.)  You show up in this world separated from God because you inherited sin from the first people God created. Every generation since the beginning are born separated from God.  Thankfully he had a plan to bridge the separation gap, that’s called Salvation.  But until Salvation you are brought up in the nurture or environment of your biological family like I mentioned before.

I’d like to share a diagram which shows the way we were made from the beginning.

You were made with a spirit, soul, and a body.  God gave you a spirit so you could relate to him.  Your spiritual part consists of three components: Intuition, Conscience, Communion.

•  Intuition is the ability to discern spiritual things from God.
• Conscience is the ability to discern right from wrong.
• Communion is the ability to commune with God in relationship.

God gave you a soul which is the psychological part of you so you could relate to other people and have relationships.  Your soul consists of three components:

• Mind is the part that can think and reason and solve problems and create.
• Will is the part of your soul where you can freely chose or decide what you do.
• Emotions is the part of you that feels things, good or bad.  Better known as your feeler.

God also gave us a third element known as our body which is the physiological part of us, which allows us to relate to the environment on the planet.  We can experience nature, the four seasons and whether we are hot or cold or whether we are injured.

Our bodies can:

• See
• Hear
• Taste
• Smell
• Feel through touch

God is three person’s in one, he has three distinct elements, and we are made in his image so he gave us three distinct elements as well.  This is what we were given when we show up on planet earth.  Everything we need to function here, except we are separated from God because of our inheritance of sin from our forefathers.

My family of origin was maladjusted and I didn’t learn about these elements of life until later in life, so I struggled in the household where I was raised.  I personally was not given the freedom to develop an identity of my own, I was controlled in every way and not allowed to make decisions for myself.  Of course this stunted my ability to mature in many ways.  I left home with the identity that was formed in me by my family.  Maladjusted and in no way aware of who God was, how he fashioned me and no idea what he had in mind for my life path. So without the influence of God in my life I was left wide open to what and who the world said I was.

It wasn’t until around 21 that I came to see my need for something or someone greater than myself.  I was seeking or searching for something to fill the emptiness inside.  Filling my life with the things the world had to offer, only left me empty and a life without purpose.

The Holy Spirit was wooing me into the knowledge and a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  At the point of belief and acceptance of what Jesus had to offer me in exchange for the life I had, things began to fall away from my life because I no longer had the same desires.  My purpose was to know God through Jesus Christ.  He came into my Spirit and changed me from the inside out.  Because I was a walking wounded person, living separated from God for so many years I now had to learn what God had planned for my life and learn who God says I am.   Of course who he says I am was totally different from what I had personally believed. He gave me a new Identity.  You may have heard the term, Born Again, it means you were born all over again into a New Family and you get the Identity of your new family.  He also gave you Birthday Gifts!

• Salvation
• Assurance
• Security
• Acceptance

These gifts are pretty awesome for someone who felt empty and insecure, inferior, inadequate, and rejected by family.

His word says:

• I am his Child
• A saint
• Bond servant
• A witness for him
• Victorious
• Citizen of Heaven
• An Ambassador
• More valuable than gold
• The righteousness of God
• More than a conqueror
• Loved without measure
• Accepted in the beloved
• Secure in him

I also have the Fruit of the Spirit, which is the character of Jesus Christ because he lives within me and when he lives inside you, you have everything he has.

Now I could offer up all the scriptural references in the Bible about each one of these characteristics, but I feel led to make you look them up in your own bible so you can read them for yourself.

So now that you know what God gave you when you became a  member of His family you now know he gave you a new identity.  So now, you have a choice to make.  What will you choose to do with what you have been given?

I offer mentoring for women who want to grow & learn what God had planned for them!

To sign up for mentoring, e-mail me from the contact page.