our identity in Christ part 2

what are the blueprints of our design what is our purpose. my question to you is have you asked Jesus about your identity ,and I don't mean who you use to be but who are you now in Christ

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome to back to another episode. We're going to be going over part two of my identity in Christ. But before we start, let's just go over in prayer. Father, please guide us through the Holy Spirit. You say we're two or more gathered in your name. There you will be with us. I just ask that you guide us to help teach on having an identity in you. Teach them how they may grow in likeness to you and get back on their ancient path with you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Speaker 0:45

Amen. Thank you for that wonderful prayer, brother. Today we're gonna kind of uh start off this episode here, where we're really gonna dive into probably one of the most frequently asked questions, not only in this present, but also in this past of basically human history, right? And the premise of this question is what is the meaning of life? We've all thought it, we've all heard it, we know it's been talked about for centuries upon centuries. Let's dive into truly what that means. Now we hear it all the time, right? Why are we here? What's our purpose? What's the meaning to all this, right? And everyone from everywhere always seems to know or have a different answer or have no clue. And honestly, I'm sure you felt the same way, our brother. There's only one clear answer to this, and I want to just express it right now to you. It is that getting to know the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the one true meaning to why we are here. Yeah, absolutely. He will guide us in this life, he is the truth, he'll tell us about our purpose to do it with him, and it's only found in him. And one of the big uh books and chapters I really like to kind of go over is Ecclesiastes, basically chapter six. I'm not gonna go any other verses on this chapter, but to kind of summarize it, it really just kind of talks about like wisdom from the writer who's writing it, where he's literally talking about there's really nothing meaningful in life without God. Like life without God is meaningless. You're you're just gonna be left wandering, truly only searching after earthly desires and never really feeling like you have a true purpose and you'll just feel empty. And building off of that, I've heard so often, so often in the past couple years or even like the past decade, right? Even after I kind of like was in the middle of high school and graduate high school, is like, oh, like, what do I want to do in this life? Or what career do I want to pick? What, what, you know, major do I want to select? You know, like it's a constant, like, what do I want to do? What do I want to do? What do I want to do? Right. And I'm telling you right now, when you really spend time in the word and with the Lord, he will guide you and even change your heart's desires to do exactly what you were designed to do here. And how to kind of build off into doing that, right? Is this world is so often busy and it's loud and it's constantly trying to rush us and get us to do the next thing and then the next thing. And oh, once you have that checked off the box, worry about the next thing. Instead of living right here in the present, clearing the mind to really have that opened time frame to hear from the one true living God. And when we do turn away from those things that flood our mind and make us busy and turn our attention away, he will show up and he will guide us to do exactly what we are here to do. And he'll often lead you to do something that you never really thought you'd be doing. But honestly, that's kind of the point because we'll never be able to guess it in the first place, right? He will literally have you do the thing that you least likely thought you'd be doing. But guess what? When you do it with him, you're gonna enjoy doing it. And I know my brother across the table here, he has a really great point kind of building off of this segment here. So take it away. I mean, yeah.

Speaker 1 4:24

off that last point, you know, we never we never could comprehend what he had in time for us because we only saw where we were at right now. You know, we only had the lies of the enemy telling us what we were never able to do. But like personally, when we and you started this, like career change that we never thought was gonna happen, problems we never thought would over be overcomed. Starting writing books, starting open on evangelizing, I never thought I would do that. And here we are. that's what he does. Yeah, I want to look over Jeremiah 1.5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. I mean, this is at the beginning of the book of uh Jeremiah. I mean, he hasn't even started his walk yet. And you continue on in the rest of the of the scripture, and he talks about the appointed life, how he's warning the Jewish people that like God wants to like go back to your ancient path, and they don't want to do it. Yet they want to argue about what's right and wrong, and they want to argue about the scripture, and they want to follow false idols and all these things, and then they cry out to God because God's going to give them to someone else or come to destroy them. I mean, it it's just the same story over and over, but how are we gonna think like being that clay we could do it without the potter? Like it's gonna amount to nothing. Clay can't form itself, so how could we be formed without the creator? Yeah, yeah, it's just crazy. I mean, I wouldn't take a blueprint and start construction, or sorry, deny the blueprint and go ahead with the construction and try to build my own house without planning it out. I mean right now we're actually kind of doing that. Good friends of ours, Daryl and Angie. But they're architects. I mean doing it with architects. So yeah, I don't know. I just don't it makes sense to me now where I'm at, but before I like I just couldn't comprehend that that there was even a thing I would want to do outside of the plan he had for me. I mean it's all all just second guessing and fear of the future because you never know what's gonna happen. But he he died so we could obtain this relationship with him and have his guidance. He sent his Holy Spirit So we may be guided back to him. But at the end of the day, like I mean, we could deny him. We could choose to do it ourselves. But if you don't do it with him, then you're against him.

Speaker 8:00

Yeah, absolutely, very well said, and it's very interesting, I think, that you bring up a verse in Jeremiah because I also have a lot of verses from Jeremiah as well for this uh topic of discussion today. Something that even kind of just hit me in the moment now, just you bring up Jeremiah 1, 1 through 5 there, is to kind of put it in a little bit of context for some of the viewers listening here. There is 52 books that Jeremiah written with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament here. And that was the first thing he wrote. The first thing. So the Lord knew Jeremiah in this in this moment, thousands of years ago, that all this was going to play out with him, and he would be a prophet amongst the nations, that we would be reading the word that came from the Holy Spirit through Jeremiah in this moment right now. And I think that like is a lot to wrap my head around, but also just the beauty and the love, as my brother here was saying, of how divine God works for all of his children, right? And a lot of what Jeremiah writes about is just coming back home to the Lord. Like it doesn't matter how far you've gone or what you've done, just come back home and he will welcome you and give you better than anything you've ever expected and pull you out of anything you've gotten yourself into. That next play in right to that point, too, is Jeremiah 18. I'm not gonna go off over any verses, but I'm gonna summarize uh that passage here real quick. It's a potter and the clay story. And basically, what the Lord has Jeremiah do is he he brings him down to a craftsman potter, and he explains to Jeremiah is like, I am like that potter, and us as children are like the clay. And we have to allow ourselves to get molded into the father's perfect will and perfect way for us, right? Now, how often do we resist and not even allow us the clay to hop on that table for the father to mold us? I mean, let's let's be 100% honest. I was there, I'm still there sometimes. Like it gets uncomfortable. You don't want to do it. You it sometimes you don't want to admit it or anything like that, right? But like it's always gonna be for the better. And letting the father kind of mold those old habits, those old desires, those old wants, those old addictions, those old thinking, thought process, whatever it might be, let him get to work in there in the heart and the mind, and you'll come out a perfectly crafted, made in the image of God on the other side. You'll be unrecognizable. Yeah, you'll be absolutely unrecognizable.

Speaker 1 10:46

Could I add one thing to that?

Speaker 10:47

Yeah, yeah, go for it.

Speaker 1 10:48

We gotta stop looking at the word as like I don't know, a chore. And start seeing it as a blueprint for us. I mean, it does so many things, but first it helps us understand who he is. The background behind it. And when we follow it, in a way it's it's like our blueprint. Like what what's the what's the factory settings supposed to be? I mean you could try to figure it out on your own. I mean it's never going to be as perfect as what it intended to be. I mean, we just rated it. You know, and I mean God wants us to have freedom to provide for us all the things we need, to give us that family and not have the burden of especially like burden in this life, financially a slave. But what if all we ended up picking was the day-to-day end-of-the-line kind of job?

Speaker 11:59

Absolutely, absolutely. And I I honestly think the next verse that I'm really gonna kind of break down here that really kind of popped for me when I was kind of going through like, what's my purpose? Why am I here? What are your intentions with me, Lord? Why did I fall to certain things before I came to you? Like all those things are running through my head. I don't know if this is kind of relatable to some of the viewers here, but like I definitely was going through some of those questions. And again, Jeremiah 29, 11 through 15. I'm just gonna kind of break down some of these verses here. So it starts off by saying, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you fortune and hope. Then you will call upon me and come pray to me, and I will hear you, you will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Now I know that was a lot, but I'm gonna kind of break it down a little bit verse by verse, right? So that first twenty-nine, eleven, right, where it kind of talks about for I know the plans have you, declares the Lord. This is kind of where it's like God knows the perfect path he has laid out for us, right? This is exactly what my brother has kind of brought up with the for I know you in the womb, right? He already knows our end result, our perfect path, the the best way us as a human is gonna operate in Christ Jesus, right? And he wants to tell us. Like, I am so serious, everyone who's listening. He wants to tell us, he wants the best for us, he wants to show us the good way so we can walk in it with him, and we'll never be able to guess it. Exactly what my brother here was saying, we'll never be able to guess it, you know? And then that middle part, right, where it's like in that second part here, so that Jeremiah 29, 12 through 13, right? Where it's kind of talking about how then you will call upon me cut and pray to me, right? So once you realize, and I definitely went through this, if you hear my pet testimony part one and part two, right? I went through this where it's like I have been trying to check everything off the box. I like love my life, but something's missing. Like, I cannot figure it out. This is where I knew God had the perfect path for me. He had it all laid out for me, he wanted to tell me. So what I knew inherently I just needed to do was well, if God knows better than what I know, I gotta seek him, right? So we we honestly just need to seek God first in everything. Not just when we want to, not just when we think we have time, not when it's convenient, not, you know, oh, I don't want to do it because it's uncomfortable right now. No, everything we do, we need to seek God first, spend time with him daily, put away our old earthly desires, put away those distractions, put away those like footholds, and he will reveal it to us. Ask him. Ask him to reveal to us. When's the last time we even thought to ask him? Like, Lord, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Can you show me? Can you tell me? And watch him show up. That's just what he's been waiting for. That question, right? And then that last section here, that 29-15, right, where it all kind of comes together. When we walk the path he has laid out for us, he will restore us of our own destruction. He will have us show up with other firm believers so we don't do the watch. He will gather us from nations, right? He will literally place us on paths next to other fellow believers so we don't have to do this alone. And he will fix our mistakes so that we cause for trying, and then he will put us out there to spread the news of someone spread it to us first, right? So then we spread to the next person. That's how the gospel multiplies. It just constantly works on the planning, the watering, the uprooting, and the harvest, right? And that was just a really big like Jeremiah 29, those four verse breakdowns. Hopefully, it helps anybody who's listening, that's kind of been going through that same mindset, that same like I'm missing something, that same like heaviness on the heart, where it's like, I feel like I'm meant for more, or like you just want to be part of something bigger, or just really just seeking the truth. Hopefully, that breakdown really kind of helped whoever's uh listening today. And then analogy.

Speaker 1 16:41

Do we want to seek our identity? I mean, that's the first question we gotta deal with. I guess like who are we? And scripture tells us this. But if we want to know who we are, we first have to know who He is. And who then we are in God through Jesus Christ. And I'm just gonna give some examples of some things uh our brother in Christ Jim gave us. But I am accepted in Christ, I am a child of God, John 1.12. I am adopted as son slash daughter, Romans 8.15 and Ephesians 1.5. I am an hair of God, a joint hero with Christ, sharing his inheritance with him. Galatians 4, 6 through 7. I have been washed, sanctified, justified in the name of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6.11. There's one on security in Christ. I have victory through Christ. 1 Corinthians 15 57. I am more than a conqueror. Overwhelming victory is mine in Jesus. Romans 8 37. And I'm significant in Christ. I'm a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. 1 Peter 2, 9 through 10. I mean, and I could leave these in the comments too, if anybody wants to back this up, but I mean that's the truth. But what's our specific truth? God will give us the Rhema, the spoken word. So we may walk in that path, that ancient path. I mean, the path isn't gonna always be so straight. There's gonna be problems along the way, we're gonna stumble. But we know the tr way, the truth, and the life. I mean, he's gonna guide us on all these things. But me personally, I mean, I can't talk for everybody, but I've never had a you know obtained a job or been hired when somebody comes to my door and says, Hey, you got the job. You start, you know, X day at X time. Like I had to interview, apply, etc.

Speaker 19:20

But yeah, I mean what else do you have on purpose? Yeah, yeah. It's it's definitely like that next step, right? Where you're kind of figuring out, okay, so I don't know, you know, God, you know, right? And we kind of are establishing the meaning of life, right? So, okay, so the meaning of life is to get to know our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. We kind of went over a lot of bullet points for that, right? Now we're going to expand into like that purpose. What's the purpose of why we're here? And the the scriptures that kind of come to mind that actually directly cross-connect to the Old Testament is actually when Paul writes to Ephesia in Ephesians 2.10. And again, he's writing to already fellow believers meeting regularly as a church, for we are his worksmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I mean, doesn't that not perfectly emulate exactly what has been talked about with Jeremiah 18 and Jeremiah 1, 1 through 5, knowing you before you were even born and molding you like a potter to the clay? I mean, that is exactly almost word for word, worded a little bit differently, actually, though I should say how we know how we are to operate in this world. And again, it's always for good. It's always for good. It's always going to bring light to someone who's in darkness, it's always going to be a voice where someone just needs it to be heard. And what I also like to kind of dive into is like, well, how do we get there, right? Like, how do we get to that point where it's like, how do I know what worksmanship he's trying to create in me? How do I know like what God has prepared for me beforehand? How do I know how to walk in them? And my next verse I like to break down here is Jeremiah, again, love this, love this book for this topic here. Jeremiah 33, 3. Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Now, I do think that's pretty black and white. That's pretty specific here. Now I'm gonna kind of run some questions past you guys who are listening that really helped me kind of with this verse. So, some questions that I never asked before that really helped me understand what my purpose was is God, why am I here? God, is what's on my heart's desires truly what you want me to do? And if not, change me. Change my heart's desires. God, help me hate my sinful ways like you hate sin. I don't want them if you don't want them for me. God, help me to love others the way you love me. God, reveal to me what my purpose and identity is in this life in you, Christ Jesus. I mean, just some great questions to really kind of start cracking the surface of how to kind of call on the Lord, right? He says, call on me and I will answer you. Those are some great questions to start with. And just as you ask those questions in your prayer time, in your alone time, in your secret place, which we kind of talked about a little bit earlier in these episodes, start paying attention to like divine timing, heavenly things. Is he talking to you in your thoughts? Is he giving you something in a dream? Is he speaking to you through other people? Are you hearing the same thing three times within two weeks from people who would not know that you've been asking these things? I mean, that's all different ways, and there's many more that the Lord can talk to you. And honestly, just to really full circle this. I mean, when we spend time with God, He will absolutely reveal our purpose and we ask Him, He will show up. And it's always a way to spread light to this world when, how, what to do for the Holy Spirit is life. Now, I will say this. On the other hand, this may be why we've been feeling this way leading up to this point. Proverbs 1921 states that many are the plans in the minds of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. And again, we're talking about purpose right now, right? The purpose of the Lord will stand, it will leave you fulfilled, it will leave you satisfied, it will leave you filled with a meaning. If you try to do it on your own, they're just not gonna last. It's not gonna last. Do you have anything to build off of that, brother?

Speaker 1 23:52

Not too much. All great points. It's just kind of where you're at, like how seriously you're gonna take this. I mean there's so many times where you know in the old testament, especially people just turn their back on God over and over and over again, and He's always willing to take them back, but eventually, like just time runs out, you know, and just kind of where you are with that. But again in Jeremiah 32, it says, And they have turned unto me the back and not the face. Because we speak to God, but when it's time to move, we just want to walk away from him.

Speaker 24:32

That's a great point. I love I love that scripture you just brought up. I love it. Where again, we turn our face, but our back is the other way. I know I love that. This is this is a great lay-in to, I guess, I have a kind of an analogy, right? Like a kind of like paint a picture kind of thing in your mind of what we kind of just talked about. Exactly. My brother just said, our face is toward him, but our feet and our stuff are going the other way. This is like, I guess, a way it's just like a believe to receive, right? It's like a believe transition to the receive, right? So like when you've when you believed or submitted your life to Jesus, right? You received salvation in the Holy Spirit. Like that was the moment you were, excuse me, you were a new creation. And on top of that, there are other like gifts you could say spiritually that like are completely free. So let's kind of dive into that a little bit. Let's imagine you're at a wedding, like your wedding, or even like let's say your birthday. But I like to picture like a wedding, right? Because it's kind of like what really applies to scripture. Let's say you're at a wedding where it's for you. You accepted it, right? You said, I do. And people show up. They're there for you. They have gifts for you, right? They're bought and paid for. But would you accept them? Because you're you're here for your wedding. People brought gifts. So would you would you accept them, or would you just kind of let them sit there? Would you take them and then maybe like not open them? Or would you open them? And upon opening them, it could be that night, it could be a month later, it could be a year later. Sometimes you even forget, right? How often is it exactly what you need in that moment? Or something you never even thought of, but it's better. It's even better and it applies perfectly to the marriage you're in to help it. Why are we not doing that with our Father in heaven then? When amongst believing in Jesus Christ, not only do we have the Holy Spirit and his salvation, but here's the thing: He knows us better than we know us, right? And we're again sanctifying with Christ, like we're like married with Christ in this walk. And when we do end this earthly life, we will be at a wedding feast, right? So some direct applications there. And the Father has gifts for us for free, bought and paid for. But guess what? You're the heavenly present. You, yes, you listening, you are so loved by the Father that he bought and paid for in full for the wages of sin for you to be his. And he has placed for free gifts inside you already for the kingdom of heaven is inside you. And it's time to open them up. The way to open up these gifts, and these gifts, let me kind of explain what some of these gifts are. They're they're love, it's peace, it's joy, it's wisdom, kindness, self-control, understanding, right? How many times do we go through life and we feel stressed out, we feel anxious, we feel like we're just quick to anger all the time? Or, you know, we we just don't give someone the benefit of the doubt, want to be prejudiced, want to be judgy, all that stuff, right? Or like we feel empty, we feel alone. He doesn't want us to feel that way. And upon believing in him and submitting your life to him, he wants you to open up some of these gifts that are already inside of you. How do we do that? To open up those gifts, we got to rip open the flesh. We have to actively understand if we want to feel peace, we got to turn from what's making you constantly think about tomorrow, right? What's making you constantly think about having to control a situation. If you want that self-control from like an addiction or anger or whatever, spend time with the Lord. I know you don't want to do it. You feel like you do so many other things with that time. I'm telling you, block out 15 minutes, rip that flesh apart, like die to the flesh. Spend time in the Holy Spirit with the Lord. And you will feel that sanctification. You will feel that gift bubbling up and start to become part of you. And you'll feel that love from the Heavenly Father where you may feel alone. You may feel alone to this world, right? And trying to constantly change who you are to fit in. The Lord will have you be so rooted in who you are in Christ that you're never meant to fit in. That's the best part. And I just that was just a really great analogy. It's like to me in my head, where it kind of just hit me, where it's like, wow. Like taking that next step of like, yes, I believe in Jesus, and like I spent my life to him, and that you received the Holy Spirit, your new creation, but like taking that next step of like he wants the best for us, right? So when I'm going through those things, I'm not feeling what's best for me heavenly. It's time to turn from something earthly.

Speaker 1 29:52

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy when you step into that new life, step into that new identity. I I'll bring this up probably a hundred times, but Jesus says, you know, those who believe in me will do the things that I do, and even greater than these things will He do. And when me and you believe that, I know we believe that, then it comes to we're doing some of these things, we're doing healings, we're doing you know, what whatever the case may be, prophesying, all that stuff. And even when we're doing it, like the first couple times, what actually is I'm not gonna lie, every time, it's like wow, like we get to be a part of this every time, all glory to God. I mean, I mean, it just never, I'm never at a like, oh, that's it.

Speaker 30:41

You know, like this ties into Ephesians, right? He will only have good works for you. Yeah, he will only have good works for you, right? So, like things that I never thought were possible, right? And it's only because again, as exactly I said, trusting God, believing in him, not anything I can do, but what he can do who is in me.

Speaker 1 31:01

Yeah, and and it's not only your life that he's doing this with, but he uses you to to help other people, he uses you to change lives around you. And I think that's crazy. Now I kind of want to use that your analogy, your wedding analogy, and kind of flip it just kind of as a maybe a beacon in case you are in this path. But I feel like a lot of times, especially nowadays, pride is also a huge sin. That like everybody's prideful, everybody cares about themselves, and this is what it says a warning of the people in the last days you know, people will be lovers of themselves. I mean, same thing with the gifts at the wedding. So if you're in that relationship with Jesus, if that's who you you're married to, I like if you're married to him, that's it. But then you see all these gifts, all these gifts of the Holy Spirit, all these gifts of the things that come with that relationship with Jesus Christ, and you're like, ah, well, I'm really only here for the gifts, and I really don't care about Jesus Christ. You know, I'm here for the healing and the blah blah blah, and I'm here for the ministry, and I'm here for the you know prophetic stuff, but I really don't care about him. You know, I really don't check up on him. I just want the following that comes with it. I just want people to look up to me, even though the truth is you were never the shepherd, you were shepherded, and you lied to all those people because the people that will show you the way are the ones that show you to go to Christ themselves. Because that's the truth, because none of us could do it without him, and that's how you I believe how you see who's really with Christ, the ones that tried to bring you closer to him themselves.

Speaker 32:45

Amen. Very good point, very good point. Yeah, you you will be known by your fruits, fruits of the Holy Spirit, absolutely. This is why it's so keen to check that discernment, right? Is this truly genuine fruits of the Holy Spirit or is this wolf in sheep's clothing? I mean, they're out there. False prophets. I mean, it's scripture really talks about it. False prophets are there, right? And and I we'll even say this. We will say this openly and honestly as much as we can. Read, read the word. Don't just rely on us. I don't even want to rely on us. We want I want to read the word. Just read, yeah, just read the word. Just, I mean, read behind us. Always cross-referencing the word of the Bible, because again, the Lord will never go against what is written in the word. And it's just very important to always first have that connection with the Father through Jesus Christ over anything else. It's always great to have, again, fellow believers, that body of Christ, the church, all very, very important and everything. But just as my brother said here, don't let that anything really override your true personal connection, right? Always want to check back, check in, make sure, you know, your path is straight with your personal relationship with the Lord. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 34:05

Yeah, I just kind of want to leave you guys with some truths about your identity if you've given your life to Christ truly. First of all, you are saved, you are covered in the blood of the Lamb. And not only that, you inherit his work. You inherit his divine nature and another identity. No matter where you make it on your path, or if you even start, how he thinks about you, it will never change. He will always love you to the fullness of if you made it all the way to your path. But where we decide to go depends on us. I hope that gives you peace. And until next time, take care.

Speaker 34:54

That's all I got for today.