Identity Crisis PT 2

Developing Your Identity

Eagles and Turkeys

Once upon a time, a little eaglet fell to the ground from its nest high on a cliff. While blindly thrashing around, the baby eaglet was found by a flock of turkeys. Being kind, generous creatures, the turkeys proceeded to take the helpless eaglet under their wings and teach him everything he needed to know for survival. The tenderhearted turkeys taught the eaglet to forage for acorns when his tummy felt empty. Yet after eating until he was full, there was still a strange, unsatisfied hunger within his heart. Upon losing his down and growing pinions, he began flapping and flailing around. Of course he looked silly, and the turkeys could hardly keep from laughing. As his wings grew ridiculously big and bulky, he could never keep them neatly tucked like the other good turkeys. As a matter of fact, the more he grew, the less he looked like them. Meanwhile, the turkey hens clucked in motherly concern at his strangeness, making him all the more embarrassed and confused. On several occasions, the growing eaglet looked up and saw many mature eagles soaring far above the earth. His little heart pounded with desire to follow, but an old gobbler squawked, “No, no! You don’t want to be like them! Those up there are vultures!” Crushed and defeated, the eaglet grew to maturity without ever leaving the ground. He tried very hard to be a good turkey, but was still unhappy and didn’t know why. One day when the eagle was foraging on the forest floor, dragging his bulky, useless wings, a wise owl looked down from his perch and said to the eagle, “Whoo are you? And what are you doing?” The eagle replied, “I am a bad turkey. I try so hard, but I just can’t do anything right.” The old owl replied, “Your problem is that you don’t know who you are. You’ve been turkeyized. You’re an eagle, and eagles are meant for the sky. You’ll never be happy living down on the ground.” The eagle’s eyes were opened. He saw who he really was. He saw where he was meant to be. The eagle found the courage to try something he had never done before. He stretched out his wings and flapped to the top of a tree to see his way to the sky. The good turkeys raised their voices in astonishment. Many feared he would fall. But the eagle lifted his wings and rose with the currents of the wind. Never did he need to look back. The eagle could now do what he was meant to do … because he knew who he really was.

The Root Cause of Identity Struggles

Nonbelievers experience lack of fulfillment because of their choice to remain in Adam’s family … seeking to meet their own needs and living out of their own resources. Believers may be unfulfilled because they lack understanding that their identity is now in the person of Christ. They still seek to serve God and meet their own needs out of their own resources.

Wrong Belief: “My identity is found in the significant roles and relationships in my life. I will be fulfilled when I am seen as having an image of success.”

Right Belief: I am fulfilled as my life reflects the image of God by allowing Christ to live in me and through me. My identity is found not in earthly roles or relationships, but is found in Christ.

Colossians 2:9-10 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

STEPS TO SOLUTION

Key Verse to Memorize

Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Key Passage To Read and Reread

Ephesians 5:8-17 “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Your New Family Inheritance (Ephesians 5:8–17)

• You have moved from darkness to light. v. 8

• You reflect God’s goodness, righteousness and truth. v. 9

• You desire to please God. v. 10

• You expose evil and ungodliness. v. 11

• You are blessed with wisdom. v. 15

• You make the most of opportunities. v. 16

• You seek to know God’s will. v. 17

Replace False Belief Systems from Your Past

Ephesians 1:18 “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”

An adopted child

Wrong Belief:

“I wasn’t worth keeping.”

Right Belief:

God not only cares about me, He adopted me, and He’ll never leave me.

Ephesians 1:5 “he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

A child of divorce

Wrong Belief: “I must be the reason my parents are divorced.”

Right Belief: I am not responsible for the actions of others. Each person is accountable to God.

Romans 14:12 “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

A multiple birth child (twin, triplet)

Wrong Belief: “I felt lost in the shuffle.”

Right Belief: I am a unique creation of God. He knew me before I was born.

Psalm 139:13-14 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

A fatherless child (death)

Wrong Belief: “I never had a real father who loved me and cared for me.”

Right Belief: God will be my helper, defender and encourager. He is the Father of the fatherless.

Psalm 10:14, 17-18 “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”

A child born in poverty

Wrong Belief: “I didn’t get a fair start in life.”

Right Belief: God has not forgotten me, for He defends the cause of the needy.

Psalm 140:12 “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.”

Claiming Your Identity in Christ

In order for Christians to walk in victory, we need to identify the lies we believe about ourselves and exchange them for the truth about who we really are in Christ. Consider the following seven lies we tell ourselves followed by seven truths from God’s Word.For lasting change to occur, we must cast aside the lies and constantly rely on the truth of Scripture.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Look at one of the lies each day. Ask yourself, Am I believing this lie? Then look up Scriptures for that day and write them down. Read them aloud, and thank God that His Word confirms the truth about you—whether you feel like it or not. If you repeat this practice for three weeks, you will have begun to see yourself through God’s eyes.

In the Image of God

If the real you has “Christ in you,” then the visible you will reflect the character of Christ through you.

Colossians 1:10-16 “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

Claiming Your Identity

Look at one of the lies each day. Ask yourself, Am I believing this lie? Then look up Scriptures for that day and write them down. Read them aloud, and thank God that His Word confirms the truth about you—whether you feel like it or not. If you repeat this practice for three weeks, you will have begun to see yourself through God’s eyes.

Day One … My New Family

Lie: “I can’t feel valuable unless I’m loved and accepted by my family and the significant people in my life.”

Truth: I have God-given value because I have been placed into a new family where I am unconditionally loved and accepted by God.

• I am chosen by God. “He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Ephesians 1:4)

• I am adopted by God. “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” (Ephesians 1:4–5)

• I am a child of God. “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

• I am born again. “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23)

• I’ve been adopted into the family of God. “You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15–16)

Day Two … My New Characteristics

Lie: “I’ll never feel valuable because this is just the way I am. I cannot change.”

Truth: I have God-given value because God has changed me on the inside and has given me new characteristics.

• I am a new creation. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

• I have a new nature. “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ.” (Colossians 2:11)

• I have a new heart. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

• I have a new spirit. “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:27)

• I have a new mind. “ ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)

Day Three … My New Clothing

Lie: “I can’t feel I have value unless I live in the right neighborhood, drive the right car and wear the right clothes.”

Truth: I have God-given value because I have a new residence in God’s kingdom and the new clothing of Christ.

• I am clothed with Christ. “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)

• I am baptized into Christ. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

• I am hidden in Christ. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)

• I am sealed with the Spirit of Christ. “You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13–14)

• I am given the full armor of God. “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:13–17)

Day Four … My New Life

Lie: “My life has no value since I’ve done so many things wrong—my life is ruined.”

Truth: I have God-given value, for I’ve been given a new clothing in Jesus Christ.

• I am redeemed. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)

• I am washed. “That is what some of you were [wicked]. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)

• I am purified. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

• I am justified. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

• I am sanctified. “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Day Five … My New Image

Lie: “My life has value as long as I can look good to others.”

Truth: I have God-given value even though I have fallen in the past and may stumble in the future. He has given me a new clothing.

• I am totally accepted by Christ. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (Romans 15:7)

• I am totally blameless before Christ. “He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” (Colossians 1:22)

• I am totally righteous in Christ. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

• I am totally complete in Christ. “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness [made complete] in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9–10)

• I am totally perfect because of Christ. “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:14)

Day Six … My New Freedom

Lie: “My life has no value because I have failed and deserve to be punished.”

Truth: I have God-given value based not on my past performance but on Christ, who lives in me and who gives me freedom from condemnation.

• I am free from accusation. “He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” (Colossians 1:22)

• I am free from condemnation. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

• I am free from the law. “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” (Romans 7:4)

• I am free from sin. “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11)

• I am free from God’s wrath. “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Romans 5:9)

Day Seven … My New Inheritance

Lie: “My life has no value if I do not succeed financially and leave a comfortable inheritance.”

Truth: I have God-given value because I’ve been given a new inheritance that provides the only true and lasting significance and security possible.

• I have been made an heir of God. “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:7)

• I have inherited everything needed to be godly. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3)

• I have inherited a divine nature. “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:4)

• I have inherited every spiritual blessing. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

• I have inherited eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)