Living By Faith

YOUR IDENTITY IN THE WORD

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
(Luke 2:52)

The greater your Word intake, the more Christ will be manifested
through you. Mark Hankins

I believe when Jesus was ten, eleven, or twelve years old, He found out who He was by reading it in the scriptures. Jesus identified with the Word as He read Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

Many people, not just teenagers, have an identity crisis. They search for it in some psychology book or by trying to mimic a movie star. They comb their hair like someone they see on TV. They watch some cowboy movie and think they are John Wayne, or they see a motorcycle rider and think they need a motorcycle and a bandanna around their head too!

You will find your identity in the same book as Jesus did — the Bible. You do not have to spend your entire life searching for your identity. You are a new creature in Christ — your identity is now In Christ!

Confession: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me. (Galatians 2:20)

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LET ME TELL YOU WHO I AM

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:16)

You need to find your identity from God; you are an individual created to reflect His glory.
Mark Hankins

In Acts 19, the seven sons of Sceva, without having a relationship with Jesus (which would give them authority to use His name), tried to use the name of Jesus to cast out evil spirits. An evil spirit said to them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?” Because they didn’t know their identity in Christ, the scripture says, “The evil spirit…leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” (Acts 19:16) It is important to understand who you are in Christ because the devil knows if you know your identity.

The devil will do everything he can to steal the Word from you to keep you from understanding your new identity in Christ. He wants you to see yourself in the natural. He will even get you to study your family tree, which never produced anything but a bunch of nuts! You need to find your identity from God. You are an individual created to reflect His glory.

Confession: I am a totally different person In Christ then when I was born. I was created to reflect His glory!

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FROM COWARD TO MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR

He quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. (Romans 4:17)

When Jesus came to preach the Gospel to the poor, He didn’t just pass out a bunch of fish sandwiches!
Mark Hankins

The story of Gideon is another classic, yet radical identity change that took place in the Bible. He was living in a hole in the ground and hiding out from the enemy. Every time Gideon tried to do anything, the Midianites destroyed it. In the midst of his hole-in-the-ground existence, God sent an angel to Gideon with a message, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour!” (Judges 6:12) God has a sense of humor because at this time in Gideon’s life, there was no evidence of valor!

God’s Word will cause nothing to become something. Gideon chewed on God’s Word to him– “You mighty man of valour” — until he finally swallowed it. Then with trumpets, pitchers, lamps, and a cry of the sword of the Lord, Gideon and his three hundred-man army whipped the enemy. (Judges 7:20-22) Any time you get involved with God and His Word, He will totally change the way you see yourself and the way you see life!

Confession: It is God that worketh in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure! (Philippians 2:13)

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CHANGED FROM WITHIN

Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. (Jeremiah 18:2-4)

God is the original “people person”; He specializes in making people over again and giving them brand new identities.
Mark Hankins

God can give you a new identity. He made you, so He ought to be able to remake you. God is not someone who just does repairs. We are talking about the One who creates people. God creates people out of nothing. No scientist has ever figured out how to make people because God is the manufacturer!

God told Jeremiah, “You go down to the potter’s house, and I am going to show you that when people have defects in them, I will make them over again.” God is in the business of changing people’s identities. He remakes you from the inside out. When you are born again, your spirit is recreated. Then He builds from the inside out — changing your mind, renewing it, rebuilding your thinking and attitudes, and then changing your body and your actions.

Confession: God has given me a new identity. He is rebuilding me from the inside out!

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FROM CHILDLESS TO FATHER OF MANY

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

It’s important to understand who you are in Christ because the devil knows if you know your identity.
Mark Hankins

One of the greatest stories ever written on changing one’s identity is the story of God appearing to Abram and Sarai. God changed their names and their identities. I believe every time Sarah and Abraham called each other by their new names, they declared who God said they were. Yet, Abraham, “father of many,” didn’t have any children at this point in his life.

That’s how God does business. If He can get you to agree with Him and to agree with revelation knowledge, His Word will not return unto Him void. In other words, the Word has the power to produce what it says if God can get you to agree with it.

Abraham became the father of many nations as well as the father of your faith. God’s Word accomplished what He sent it out to do.

Confession: The Word of God has the power to produce what it says it will produce. I agree with God’s Word!

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