SPIRITUAL FALSE IDENTITY
SPIRITUAL FALSE IDENTITY
I have often said and will say it again if you change ONE WORD of the Written Word of God you remove the power of the Word because the Spirit it is spoken in is not of God! God is the same yesterday, today and forever. HE changes NOT.
This being said the Lord is leading me to bring clarity and correction to the following statement often said by people serving the Lord or by the church in general and I pray they will repent once they understand the spiritual consequences of speaking this phrase as it perverts the truth of God’s Word.
“Knowing your identity in Christ Jesus”
I see this statement over and over online as well as being preached and spoken by people who are church goers. Just because it is a modern day quote does NOT make it scriptural or truth!
I ask you to look at this statement a few moments and carefully read and understand it like you are “dissecting” a sentence in English class from school.
Okay, now that you have done that who is the first person mentioned? Who is the second person mentioned? So who’s identity is being magnified. Satan’s trinity is “me, myself and I” so this phrase while sounding good is of the flesh/devil and I can prove this through scripture.
Let me start out by using this scripture to illustrate how the twisting of words or scripture changes the whole meaning. As knowing “your identity” is glorifying you/flesh and not Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:27-28 NKJV
27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Here we clearly read that it is CHRIST IN YOU and not you in Christ! It has nothing to do with your identity it is all in Christ’s identity! When you change this you inadvertently make your self god. Jesus didn’t come so you could be found in Him, He came so He could be found in you! He created man in His likeness and image! The problem with this statement about identity is that it gets you focused on “self” and not Jesus.
Ephesians 5:27 NKJV
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Acts 19:15-20 NKJV
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.
19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
Jesus did NOT send the Holy Spirit/Comforter to conform to our identity, but conform His identity in us! When we read above Acts 19:15-20 who’s identity was the evil spirit comparing Paul with? Paul had been conformed to the identity of Christ not of the “old man”. You see it has nothing to do with us personally but it is ALL about Christ in us, not us in Christ!
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NKJV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
Romans 6:4-14 NKJV
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
So if the “old man” died and a new creation was resurrected in you that means your identity is not of yourself but of Christ. It’s not my identity in Christ it is Christ identity in me/us. This means by yielding your will/soul to the Holy Spirit the process of sanctification begins purging you from all things contrary to the Spirit of the Living God Christ Jesus. This is why Paul mentions that he died daily and later on Paul gives us that wonderful scripture of Galatians 2:20 and Galatians 6:14-15.
Galatians 2:20 NKJV
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Galatians 6:14-15 NKJV
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
So let me pose these questions. If you no longer live who’s identity is revealed? If you no longer live who’s righteousness do you have? If you no longer live where is your worthiness found? If you no longer live where is the hope of glory found in you? If you no longer live who are you called to reveal to a lost world? If you no longer live who’s testimony and truth do you reveal? (This sentence should also let you know truth from error and lies from truth.) If you no longer live who’s truth do you live by or strive for?
Acts 4:13-22 NKJV
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.
22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
I hope this article has brought some clarity and reveals that all of us should carefully chose our words and not to alter ONE WRITTEN WORD of God’s Word or the works and testimony of Jesus Christ. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father. The evil spirit mentioned above in Acts 19 didn’t acknowledge the person of Paul but rather Christ in Paul.
The people in Acts 4 perceived Peter and John to have been with Jesus and please note the comment that they appeared uneducated and untrained in man’s teachings and beliefs but however they were trained by Jesus and had the indwelling power of the Living God Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! Glory to God!
So in closing I ask that you chose your words wisely so that the enemy of our souls is unable to get a foothold. I ask that you do NOT change one word of the Written Word and that if you do not understand a scripture ask the Lord in your quiet time. If the motive of your heart is pure the Lord will not hold back from revealing truth. It might take some time in prayer but that is NOT because He is not willing to answer He could be using that situation to draw you deeper in Him! Hallelujah!
It is my hope that this has helped you to understand that we are called to reveal Christ Jesus not ourselves, our identity or even our ministry NOTHING but Christ in us the hope of glory! My identity is Christ in ME NOT me in Christ. The more Christ is established in me the more I am one with Christ and the Father! John 15th chapter.
Some may laugh this off and say it is trivial but I tell you just try to confront the forces of evil or cast out a demon saying or believing “greater is me in Christ” verses the truth of “greater is He in me” and see how that works out for you.
1 John 4:4-5 NKJV
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
In closing I hope this offers some insight as all of us should be seeking complete sanctification in and by Christ Jesus. It is my personal prayer from the very beginning of my born again experience that I could stand before the forces of darkness and quote just as Jesus did to Satan in the wilderness, “YOU HAVE NOTHING IN ME”. This should be the cry of all who profess Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! God bless you.