Identity Before Authority | Knowing Who You Are in Christ

Before we can walk in the authority Jesus has given us, we must first understand who we are in Him.

In this episode of the Kingdom Authority Podcast, Pastor Aaron and Pastor Victoria dive deep into the biblical truth of our identity in Christ. Many believers struggle to walk in victory, confidence, and spiritual authority because they are still living from a false identity shaped by fear, shame, performance, or the opinions of others.

Scripture teaches that our authority doesn't come from our own strength—it flows from our relationship with Jesus and our position as sons and daughters of God. When we truly understand our identity in Christ, we begin to live with boldness, overcome the lies of the enemy, and walk in the power and purpose God has designed for us.

Join Pastor Aaron and Pastor Victoria as they unpack what it means to be made new in Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a life of Kingdom authority.

If this episode encourages you, be sure to subscribe, share it with someone who needs this message, and help us spread the Gospel.

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hey guys, welcome to Kingdom Authority Podcast. I don't know if you can see, but it's a family affair today. Our Ladybug is with us. If you don't know, this is my wife Victoria.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

And um we're uh you can tell it's a family affair today. Um Kingdom Authority Podcast is about living under the authority that Christ gave us. Uh so many people are walking around uh Christ's followers, love Jesus, but lacking the authority, not moving in the authority that Christ gave them. And so um, you know, the whole purpose for this entire podcast was just that, so that people can begin to understand that Christ gave you authority to unto operate in this world. And so uh I'm honored to have my bride with me today. Uh I told her to pick the topic. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Identity. You can't walk in your authority unless you know your identity.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

My goodness, my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

And it takes a lot of people a long time to truly understand their identity. I know for me, 30s, still figuring it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

But I'm gonna get a thread off of her because if see, this is what a good husband does. If you're a man and you're watching, you let your wife walk around with a thread on her, you'll hear about it later.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

If you don't know your identity or have any clue of where it's going, you're gonna struggle in every relationship, every area of your life. I know my identity, but there's also multiples of my identity. I'm not just one thing, I'm multiples. I do not have paid. Um, you know, a lot of people, if they ask me who I am, my first response is I'm a princess. Because my daddy's been a king and lord of lords, then I am a wife, then I am a mother, and then I'm a friend and pastor. And you have to be able to walk in all those identities and understand who you are in every one of those identities, and they should somewhat mesh together but be separate.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah, yeah. You know, um, it took me years to figure out the identity that Christ had called me to be. I loved Jesus. I was, I, and I truly believe this with all of my heart. If I would have died, I would have gone to heaven. But I would have missed heaven on earth because I did not know what my identity was. Um for a long time. I loved Jesus, but I was aimlessly wandering around. Um, it was, you know, we just had uh an experience at our old church, but I it it's always good to go back to those moments. You know, you you were there um the day that Pastor Chris pointed me out. Um, and just for a little context in this, um we were in church, we were serving in church. Um, I loved Jesus. I was trying my best to be a good husband, um, probably failing, just to be honest, um, because I didn't know who I was in Christ. I knew that I loved him and I knew that I was saved. And at that time, really, hey, that was a win. Praise God. You know, like Kenley and I, our daughter will, me and her look at each other, yay! You know, that was a yay moment. Um, but in this, in that time, um Pastor Chris had called all he he had said, if you are a pastor or a preacher in this church, I want you down at the altar. And I'm sitting there uh and I'm watching all these mighty men and women of God go up. It was amazing to me. And I'm just like, wow, look at them all. And he turns and he looks and he says, You. And you were there. I turned around to look behind me because I'm like, he ain't talking to me. Uh, I've been called a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Me and the girls are looking at him like, why are you not going down there?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Um, they and that's that's something I think a lot. Uh I want to dive there. That's that's why I feel the Holy Ghost on that. Often, everybody else sees your identity in Christ but you.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And in that was that moment I think um that God tangibly spoke into my life because I remember when he pointed, I looked behind me.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

He really did.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

He I did because I was like, no, he's not talking to me. I've been called a lot of things, never a preacher. Um, and everything most of them had called me was true at some point in my life. But um it everybody else in my in my circle saw that, except for me. Yep. Um, because what what I was doing is I was not listening to the right voices at the time. You know, um, I know Tony and I had a podcast recently talking about the voices that we hear, that we listen to. And you know, I think it was probably, I think it was probably Pastor Sue that used to say this who told you that. You know, but I was listening to all the wrong voices.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Um, and you know, and just because you're saved doesn't mean you don't hear the enemy's voice.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Say that again.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Just because you're safe doesn't mean you don't hear the enemy's voice. Um, sometimes you're gonna hear it way more than God's.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

But if it's not lining up with the word, it's not God. And you know, even even Peter, Jesus is talking to Peter one time and he's like, you know, I've got to do this. I'm going to the cross, I'm gonna die. And Peter says, Never ever. And what's Jesus say behind me? Satan. Yep, you know, there was a voice that Peter was listening to, and it sounded right, but it wasn't. Um, you know, my identity, yes, my title is pastor. Your title is pastor, it's not my identity. No, my identity is I am a son of the most high, I am a co-heir to Christ. My inheritance is him. My I have every spiritual blessing in him, and that is my identity. What I do is preach the gospel, yes, because I want everybody else, and this is the same. I know, you know, we're one, and I I get your I know your heart. I have inside baseball with you, but I our mission in life is to help others find their identity in Christ. Um, because there's so many people. My goodness, people are searching. There, this world is full of people that are searching, yes, they have no clue.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

You know, I said on one of my recent podcasts um that we put expectations on other people to heal us, and the reason we do that is because we don't know our identity. My goodness, we don't know who we are, and so we start putting expectations on others to heal those spots, but that ain't even their identity. That's not who they are, they're not to heal us, you know. When we figure out who God is and that we're his, he will heal us, and then we can walk in that identity. You know, for a long time, I struggled being God's daughter. Come on, because that never worked out for me being someone at it. Um you know, I was my parents, I don't believe, ever intentionally at times wanted to make me feel this way, but I would feel like I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough to be a daughter, and so I struggled with seeing God as a father and being his daughter, but that's where I needed to understand my identity the most. That he's my daddy.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

There it is. The Holy Ghost is all over this because I've got to say this.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

I struggled mightily with the father concept.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Now you do. Yeah, I listen, if you are a listener and this is something you've struggled with, please comment. Please, we we want to engage with you. Um unlike your parents, mine was intentional.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I the people that were supposed to love me the most, your parents, they didn't, they didn't. I my parents abandoned me, they left me in drug houses, they left me with people that were abusing me, they all of these things, and so that concept of father was so foreign to me. You know, my grandparents come and rescued me. I'm gonna talk while I flip because I've got to get somewhere. Um, they come and got me and rescued me, but there was so much damage done by that point. Um, I have in my Bible, and I if you have your Bible, I want you to turn here. Um, it's Psalm 27, and it's verse 13 and 14. And this was hold on. I am incorrect. It is verse 10. I'm sorry. Right chapter. I was in the neighborhood, I was I was in the right city, wrong street. Um Psalm 2710. It says, For my mother, my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. This was a verse I have written.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Can I read that in Amplified?

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Oh, please.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

So in the Amplified, whoof, that was a hard word for me. What kind of word was that? Oh no, it says that though my father and mother have abandoned me, yet the Lord will take me up to adopt me as his child.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

My goodness, you know, we talk a lot about that orphan spirit, uh, and I was that person, I was walking around this planet, I was an orphan. Um, I not only in physical, in the natural being an orphan as a child, but in the spiritual, and and I I had no identity in Christ. I my initials, I have them written. If you you can, I don't know if you can see them, but I can see them, you can see them. Yes, I have my initials written beside that because this was a turning point in this in this in my life was in this scripture that that this whole chapter, uh, you can see there's notes and scribbles, and um, because it was such a a profound moment in my life that you know this is this is a psalm of David. David is saying, even though my mom and dad forsake me, the Lord takes me in, he adopts me, he brings me out of that orphan spirit into my identity.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

And so many have an orphan spirit that even had good parents.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Oh my goodness. My goodness.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Because you never felt like you could live up, especially if you had siblings. You know, we've said it, and we probably should correct ourselves when we say it. At times we say we have favorites or we like that we're on. It may be true, but when you say that, yeah, it makes the other one feel, makes the other ones feel less than.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Well, I'm not living up to the standards of that one. I'm not living up to what they think I should be, and then you start pulling back, and then you put distance between you and your parents, and now you have this orphan spirit, and they could have been great parents, and never meant anything by it. They jokingly, because that's how we've said it, jokingly, but you said it, and now it's out there, and in identity, you got to realize how important your words are. That was probably one of the first things I had to learn when I started becoming a Christ follower. When I became God's daughter, I had to learn how to talk, retalk, because everything came out of my mouth was negative. Come on, everything, even if I wasn't trying to be negative, it was negative, and so I had to learn how to start talking positive, but positive by the word, not positive by what the world standards are.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

You know, in our words, so in creation, in Genesis, God gives Adam and Eve a task. Yep, he says, I want you to have dominion over the earth, right? The first task he gives Adam is name the animals. So when Adam spoke, it mattered. Yes, it's the same today. When we speak, our words have so much power. Um, you know, there's so many things I for a long time I could speak positively, uh positive towards you, but in my own life, I would say things negative against myself. We do it so often, yes, and don't even realize it. We'll make statements. Well, I'm broke, or uh, man, I'm getting fat, or man, my knee's killing me. You know, that it something we've done in our marriage, we called each other out. You wanted me to stand in agreement with that, you know. Uh, and it it has changed the way we talk in our marriage, it's it's changed the way we talk in our household. Um, because you know, it seems so harmless, but you're really speaking a curse over yourself, yeah, not blessings of God. You know, I am the head, not the tail. I am above, not beneath. Yes, I I will have the goodness. This I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait on the Lord. I believe that I will see the goodness. I've already seen it. And it's this having words, and that's you know, so often, uh, one of the things that I want to discuss today is about that authority. You you you uh often we don't even know how to pray. Well, let me tell you, you can never go wrong praying scripture over your life. Um, you know, I I'm just I'm just glancing here, but listen to this. Over in in 30. I will exalt the Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. I cried for help and you have healed me. When you begin to speak healing over your life, you've healed me.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

It's not, he's not saying you will, you have always walk in it like you're already healed. My goodness. You can't say, Well, I felt good when I left church, but then I woke up. Now my head hurts or my body aches. No, when you get up, I feel great, I'm healed. I'm walking and healing, I'm walking it out and healing right now, and you begin to praise God for the healing, even though you might not feel it in the moment, and we have had to do this throughout the majority of our marriage. Yes. Um, and the more you do it, the more you start walking in healing. You have to understand your authority. Once you pray this and you say, I am healed, you're healed.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Because when you start doubting it, you have then doubted your authority.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yep. And you've doubted the authority of God.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

What you're doing is saying, You'll do it for everybody else, you won't do it for me.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Um, I mean, God is a healer, and he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. I was reading this last night in one of our services uh in Malachi chapter three. He says, I am the Lord and I do not change. He is a healer, he has healed, he is healing, he will futuristically heal. But what will happen, and we see this a lot as pastors, uh, people will come down, want prayer for healing or whatever, and they'll say, I drop my pen. They'll say, I hope it works, and I I will correct them. You've heard me say, it won't. Yep, it's done. You might as well not even come down here. But if when people get in alignment, man, I'm telling you, I have seen it, you have seen it. They'll come down here and they'll want healing, and we'll pray over them, and they're like, it's done. I'm like, that's a good attitude. Watch what's fixing to happen and manifest in your life, it will happen because you are speaking it, you're speaking word over your life. It's walking in that authority.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Well, you know, about a month ago, Pastor Marty was here, and not many knew, but I had stuff going on, and we had gone to the doctor that morning. The doctor gave me a name. Um, Pastor Marty ends up calling it out in service, and at the end of service, he prayed for me. Now I had an option to make.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

When he prayed for me. I could either stand in agreement with him and Paula Joe that I am healed and that God's taking it away from me, or I could have gone off feelings. Because if I would have gone off feelings after he prayed for me, my bones were still hurting. But guess what? I woke up the next morning because I stood in agreement with them, and my bones have not hurt since then, and we're looking at over a month now. Yep, I've had no pain, but it was because I stood in agreement, the same way with my healing a few years ago. I got in the water, I did we didn't see healing in the moment. The next day we seen a miracle, and throughout the next four or five months, and even now, healing is still happening. My memory came back. I could drive. I started being able to get up out of the bed and not be depressed. Everything started improving, but I had to get to the point that I knew I was getting in the water and standing in agreement with others around me, but not only them, but with God. Man, because his word says you are healed.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

And you you be thankful. You know, we were talking about this last night. You know, if you if you are, I don't know if everybody else does this, but I am guilty of it. Uh, and and not in a bad way. If you order something off of Amazon, if it's in your cart, it's not yours. You it it's it's in your cart, it's the same thing. If you go to Walmart, if you go to Walmart and put it in your cart, but don't pay for it and leave it at the checkout, you never owned it. Right, it was never your possession. You just stuck it in a cart. But the moment that you pay for it, it's yours. It's yours. Christ paid for that. It is yours. You accept it. And I'm, you know, when when I when I order things off of anywhere, I'm watching the tracking, I'm watching, it is getting my my my shipment prepared, and then it's out for delivery. And I'm out, I'm watching, I'm waiting. I and I'll click on it and I'll see. Oh, it's getting close, it's getting close. Then all of a sudden you hear the the thud on the front porch because they dropped it off. It's mine, you know. But it was mine from the time I purchased it. It's the same thing with with healing, and it's yours. It is yours, but you've got to be expecting it to happen. Not sitting there, oh well, I hope the driver doesn't get lost. No, it is mine, it is coming. I was just looking at this. It says, you know, this is where he says, I you have healed me. Sing praises to the Lord and give thanks to his holy name. Healed. Thank you, Jesus. I'm so grateful. It doesn't matter what I feel like. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that you are healing me, that you're in my finances. Father, I thank you. I it doesn't matter what my bank account says, you said. You said that the devourer will be rebuked. There's nothing coming against my finances. There, I will have what you said I will have. That is learning to walk in the authority that Christ has given you.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

So and I want to encourage you if you're parents or yes, if you're parents or grandparents raising kids, teach them their authority at a young age. So they're not 30, 40, 50 years old trying to figure out their identity and authority.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

You need to start reading the Bible from the time they're newborns. Go to the word. What does the word say? And read it over them. And as they get older, teach them to read it over themselves.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:30

So they're not struggling in their teen years when everybody's out there trying to say their cats, dogs, this and that. No, they know their identity because their parents read the word over them. Because their parents, they can go right here to the Bible, to the book that has never lied and say, Well, this is what my God says about me. This is what my daddy says about me. And I'm perfectly and wonderfully made. He never made a mistake. You have to be intentional about teaching your kids their identity so they can walk in their authority and allow them to walk in authority as children. We don't want to do that sometimes as parents. Because sometimes they can point out what we're doing wrong.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Oh my.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

But we need to start letting them walk in their authority as children so we can shape them if they do make a bad decision. Hey, listen, we gave you free reign to run there. It didn't work out. This is why. And I think sometimes as parents, and I am number one guilty of it, I want to control everything. I want to I want to make sure that they do everything right because I don't want them to fall down the same path I fell down. But I have learned after however many kids we got, this last one, uh, Kenley, she gets a little bit more, I don't want to say freedom, but freedom to make some decisions so we can correct her now and not at 18 when she's out on her own.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

You know, we you and I discuss this a lot. You will see, and I'm not I'm not critiquing people's parenting, but I'm gonna critique people's parenting. Um but you will see that you know they're they're so controlling and they're they're smothering this child, and it's not preparing them for life. What you're doing is choking the life out of them, and you know, giving giving kids, and I'm not saying you you're gonna give them full reign, but giving your child some space to make a mistake while they're young so that you can help guide them and correct them is critical. You cannot, you know, if if if you have put restrictions on their phone, they can't be texting uh the opposite sexes or they're lying about it. Well, you know, they're lying because of fear that they're going to be in trouble. Instead, you know, pull them, okay. If you're gonna if you're gonna text a little girl or a little boy, you're gonna do it here on the couch where we have full access to it. Yes, because what will end up happening is they'll run wild. We've seen it our whole life. People that are just told in total restraint, when they get freedom, they don't know what to do with freedom, and then they just go bonkers, you know. So um, you know, it's just lessons that we've learned throughout life, you know.

SPEAKER_03 26:59

Um I was one of those parents with my older ones, with our older daughters, and some of their decision making now, they they struggle because I made every decision for them. Sorry, it is not coming out. I made every like I didn't get let them choose, and because I did that, they now struggle to make decisions. But God is coming.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

God gave us a blueprint, he gives us the ability to make decisions. Yep, he guides us, he loves us, he puts his arms around us, but he will correct us when we're wrong. It's the same principle. Yes, he does not force himself to say, Oh, you're never. That's not the loving father of the Bible. He guides you, he teaches you, and he shows you. Now the decision is yours. Yes, and and that's what you know we have learned.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Sometimes you gotta let them make the badge. Oh my goodness. You know, I'm not telling them, you know, if your kid wants to be friends with somebody you know that's terrible and doing drugs, whatever, yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

But explain to them why.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

But if there's a friend that may be somewhat questionable, but you don't have okay, I'm gonna trust you to make the right decision and come talk to me if something bad happens, but give them a little leeway to prove to you who they are because you may be surprised at what's inside your child, yes, on a good note, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Um, it might not always be bad. We see that we've seen that with Kenley several times. There's you know, little kids at school or whatever, and Kenley is that that positive person in that life, and she'll say, I'm not hanging out with them, they're doing this, you know. That's that's when you're raising a child in the word by the word and doing what the word says, listen, it's going to show itself to be true in their life. So, well, listen, we love you guys. I hope you guys got something out of this today. Um, please engage with us. We I love it when people comment, engage, ask questions, tell me I'm wrong, whatever. I'm good with it. You are not going to offend me. Um, please engage, share this podcast with someone that's struggling. That's what the purpose of this is for. Yes, so that it gets out to the right people. So even a decade from now, they have an outlet to hear the word of God. We love you guys. We want to pray with you. If there's a prayer request, just tag it, put it in the comments, let us know how we can help you. So, Father, we thank you. We thank you for being a good daddy. One that teaches us, shows us, and guides us about who our identity is in you. Your DNA is in us. We want to know how to operate in it well. We thank you, we love you, we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Love you guys.