Understanding Your Jesus Identity – Episode 3

Understanding and living from your True Identity—or Jesus Identity—is the foundational truth for Christian freedom and empowerment. The shift in perspective means moving from trying to earn God’s acceptance to living in agreement with who you already are in Christ. This concept is not merely theoretical but is intended to be a practical application that renews the mind and dictates daily life.

The Foundation of Identity: Fully Loved and Pleasing

The key to unlocking your true identity is the realization that you are already fully loved and pleasing to the Father, regardless of your actions or performance.

Jesus’s Example of Identity

Jesus Christ lived fully aware that He was the beloved Son of God and already pleasing to the Father. This status was declared by God before Jesus performed any miracles or teaching, demonstrating that acceptance is not earned through works.

• The voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased,” at Jesus’s baptism, before He began His ministry.
• Jesus lived from this truth (His settled identity) and not for this truth (striving to achieve it).
• Jesus’s sense of union with the Father was the core of how He thought, spoke, and moved; He always did those things that pleased the Father because the Father never left Him alone.

Your Settled Status

Similarly, believers are already decreed by God to be His sons. God decided before the foundations of the world that you are His image, His likeness, and that you are accepted into His beloved.

• You are complete in Him: God has already settled that you are in Him and are His mirror reflection, whether you know it or not.
• No Earning Required: God’s love, favor, and blessing were never meant to be earned; they are gifts already given due to grace. Trying to earn God’s acceptance is what religion has often taught, but the Law proved that fallen humanity could not keep it perfectly.
• The Same Love: Through oneness with Christ, the world may know that God loves believers as He has loved Jesus.

The Conflict: Behavior vs. Identity

The greatest tactic of the enemy is to use your behavior to determine your identity. The enemy wants you to focus on what you did last week to convince you that you are no longer loved or pleasing to God.

• God’s Way: God’s way is the opposite: receive your true identity, and it will straighten out your behavior.
• The Contradiction: If you maintain your true identity (righteousness), your misbehaving will become contradictory to who you are, leading to behavioral change.

Practical Steps to Live Your Jesus Identity

Living from your Jesus Identity requires a continuous process of alignment and mind renewal.

1. Renew Your Mind and Train Your Thinking

The most important place to renew your mind is in your identity of who you are, because everything flows out of you knowing who you are. This requires moving from mere articulation of truth to practical application.

• Get Acquainted with the New You: You must get acquainted with the new you that God has made.
• Set Your Will: You choose to walk in love, forgiveness, and generosity because that’s who you are now.
• Daily Declaration: When facing temptations or negative emotions (like the impulse to be angry or lustful), you must pause and declare: “That’s not me anymore”. This declaration immediately triggers your new identity and allows you to walk away from conflicting behavior.

2. Operate from Rest and Confidence

When you are in sync with your Jesus identity, power flows from your rest and confidence, not from your sweat (effort).

• No Striving: There is no need for striving to make things happen. The message of grace allows you to stop striving and start living.
• Authentic Authority: Authority comes from knowing who you are in Christ. When demons asked the sons of Sceva, “Who are you?” they couldn’t answer. When the devil questions you, you must be able to declare, “I am the reflection of Jesus Christ, I am the righteousness of God, I am the beloved of the Almighty God”.
• Power and Liberty: Recognizing your identity gives you boldness, liberty, confidence, and assurance. As Jesus is, so are you in this world. Trying to perform or use emotional tactics (like making “Google sounds”) to appear powerful is unnecessary when you possess authentic power rooted in your identity.