Your True Identity By: Dr. Pete Norris

It's a fixed state that he's put you in and you're absolutely perfect without blemish, without smart, without record, not because of your performance, but based upon the fiendish work of Jesus Christ, you and I are absolutely perfect. We're the righteous of God, highly favored, deeply loved, nothing can separate us because we're in Christ. We know what that means, that is a state of being that you and I have been placed into. It's not a lifestyle, guys, it's a relationship. Welcome to Power in the Word. Today much is said about one's identity, but how about our identity in Christ Jesus? Today, that's an art shows us in the Word of God that our identity in Christ establishes the origin of which all good things flow, such as peace, joy, and prosperity. It's a great message and you will be encouraged, so you stay with us. I just want to talk to you today about knowing truly who you are. You know, you say, well, Pastor, you talk about that all the time, I do, but you know, you've got to understand who you really are because if you don't understand that, you're not going to be able to live in the place God intends for you to live. I'm going to make a comment and I want you to listen to me truthfully and really good. A lot of people battle stuff that's here, listen to me, the enemy's been defeated and you're victorious and we've got to understand that from a perspective of the Word of God and not based on our feelings or what's going on in our mind. And if we don't understand that, we've got to understand that we're living from a state of being and not the dimension of reality every day. So you got to understand who you are spiritually and not who you are physically because you're going to respond to the way that you think. You're going to think and live the way that you think. You cannot pass it. So the way that you think, the Bible says in Proverbs 23-7, well, several men think of them in his heart. That's what that man truly is. So today I want you to go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 and you've all heard this

scripture many times, but I want to talk to you about your true identity. You know, Jesus was always asking people, who do they say that I am? And he asks over and over and over, because listen to me, until you can find out who he is, you're never going to discover you. And I think you've got to understand who you are if you're ever going to have peace with you. You know, most people are not happy in their own skin, truthfully. You know, most people struggle their entire life. They're battling the devil every time he turned a corner. And the reality is that either way he's defeated or Jesus lied. And so we've got to take this scripture and we've got to apply this scripture to our life. So let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 15. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a what?" Now that word creation there is the Greek word for species. So there's never been anybody in the world like me and you. Now think about that a minute. Until Jesus came along and resurrected, died for our sins and resurrected him and came alive from the dead, the firstborn from the dead, there was never been a generation or creation like us. You've got to understand that because he just said it. "When the dead is in Christ is a new creation, old things have passed away." Now what's he talking about there? Now he's not talking about, I was 5'4" before I got saved, now I've gotten older, I've got shorter. So he didn't talk, he's not talking about that's old and that's changed. I'm still 5'4", 3", whatever. That's not changed. What's changed about you is who you really are in your recreated spirit. And that's the part of you that you got to understand. That's the part that's become new and the old it passed away.

So you can't live your life the way that you used to live it. See it's not about going out and sinning. Here's the reality. If we discover who we are, we will live based on that new creation that we find that we are. We won't live on that creation that we thought we were. See, and that's what I have a problem with. We go to church and we hear how bad we are, how terrible we are, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't do that. We never tell people who they are, how we're going to live with who we are if we don't know who we are. But that's why Jesus went around and said, "Who did they say that I am? Who did they say that I am?" Memory turned to Peter and he said, "Peter, who do you say that I am?" Peter said, "You're the Christ." He said, "Fleshing blood hadn't revealed that to you, but the gates of heaven shall not prevail, shall not prevail against people that realize this. This is what I'm going to build my church on." So you got to understand who you are. Now I want to go to that in the Passion Bible because I want you to see it a little bit different. Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely, now think about that a minute. You've become a new person. See, here's what happens in the body of Christ. People just get enough to go to heaven. Amen. They just want to stay out of hell and get enough to go to heaven. And if you believe all that, then praise the Lord to you, but the bottom line is what I'm trying to get you to understand is there's more that God wants to do in you, there's

more that God wants to come through you. He wants you to be victorious every day of your life. He wants to know you to walk in peace in your life. He wants you to walk in favor. He did a complete work that you and I would be an entirely new person. So look at somebody and say, you look new to me. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and everything is new. So according to the Word of God, now listen to me very carefully. According to the Word of God, we become a new creation. The old guy died. Sin died to me and you. Law died to me and you. Death no longer prevails over us. Now, you say, pastor, what's the last enemy we'll have to deal with? Death. That's the only way you're gonna get out of here, okay? Okay, we need to settle that. You ain't gonna get out of here any other way. You're not gonna fly up and fly out and fly over and fly over. You're not gonna do any of that, okay? You're gonna get out of here one way, but the great thing about it is you're gonna live forever because you and I don't die, we go to sleep in Christ. Now, the body is going back to the dust of the earth and the Bible said, according to Ecclesiastes 12 and seven,

the spirit's gonna back to be back from where it came from. Right? So I wanna go to Romans chapter eight verse nine and you gotta understand who you are or you're never gonna walk into victory place that you're intended to walk. Now, this is Paul talking about Romans eight. And here's what Paul said, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. So he's talking about a new creation person is no longer you're not a flesh being. This is your flesh, this right here is not who you are. You're a spirit that's been recreated and you're a new creature, old things have passed away and behold, everything's become new. So Paul's saying, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Now, but doesn't wait with everything that's prior to that. Right? So me and you're not a fleshly being, we're a spirit being. We gotta live in that state of mind in that dimension. You gotta understand me now. We don't walk by what? Faith and not by what? Side. So I'm not, I can't go, but what I see. I got the go, but what I know on the inside. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, does he? Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his, but look at verse 10. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead to what? Because of sin.

So now this word is not a verb, guys. It's not a word it takes action. You gotta understand that it is talking about a sin nature and your body is dead to that sin nature because you don't have that sin nature. Now you have his divine nature living in you because you're a new creation. You're not that old center. You're a new Christian, Washington, the blood of Jesus. By the blood, now you're a new creation and you gotta live based on that dimension. It's not about right and performing and doing right and wrong. It's about understanding who you are. We've been sent to earth to tell people who they are. Now watch this, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Second Corinthians 5, 21. Him who you know sin became sin that you and I might become the righteousness of God. How many of you know you're just as righteous as God is? But see we live in this bubble in this mentality that we're falling off the boat every 13 seconds. You and I are not falling off the boat. You and I are on the boat forever. That's a state of being. He made us righteous. The only way we can become unrighteous is for him to make us unrighteous and he can't do that because he's continuously sitting before the Father making intercessions for me and you.

In other words, Colossians three and three said, if you be dead, then your spirit, your life is hidden with Christ in God. So because of the death that you and I died to the old self, we become new creations now. That is who we really are. Live based on who you are in the spirit and not who you are in the flesh. And you will see yourself begin to transform. You'll see yourself begin to have some peace. You'll see yourself begin to have some victories in life and you won't be, listen, I get so tired of people writing me letters and say, it's a tough world out here. Most people made their own tough world. I'm not trying to be mean, but they made the world based on what they do. See, you act based on what you think you are. Listen, a bird don't have a trouble being a bird. He's a bird, okay? He don't try to be a eagle 'cause he's a bird. The only people that try to be something they're not as human. Think about it a minute. Let's go to verse 11. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, does he? He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, to his spirit who dwells in you. Now think about that just a minute. The spirit is gonna give me and you the life in our body.

That's the life in our body. That's who we really are, is a spirit being a new creation. And you're always gonna behave based on how you think about yourself. How do you think about yourself? Bible said Paul said don't think more highly than yourself than you ought to, but think soberly. That don't mean don't get drunk. See, the enemy all he wants to do is take you off your focus. If he can take you off your focus you can't accomplish anything. I love a word called commitment. I think that's one of the most powerful things in the world is commitment. And if we can understand what that word really means, that means you keep your focus on where you're going after. You've ever seen people with this one day and the next day they're here and the next day they're here and they never accomplish anything because they procrastinate everything. Jesus came to earth for one purpose, to die for our sins, to resurrect and to live inside of us and put His Spirit inside of us. That was His purpose. Now I want you to see this same scripture in the NLT, 8 and 9. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You're controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all. Now watch verse 10. And Christ lives within you so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives life because you have been made right with who made you right. It has nothing to do with your performance. It has nothing to ever hurt these people. Well I try to live right. You can't do it. How's that working for you? Your whole mind said is messed up when you're trying to live right because you don't understand who you are. He made you right. He put you in right standards with God. You didn't do anything. Remember the scripture that Bible says that God was in Christ reconciling the world Himself. He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He brought you to Himself. He made you who you are. But you haven't discovered who you are. You're reached to have a baseball coach and he said this all the time. You've got to visualize, visualize, visualize, visualize, visualize, visualize hitting a double slide in a second. Visualize how powerful is your thinking process?

Think about it in a minute. How powerful is your mind? And the most creative thing in the world is right here. Be not conforming this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Change the way you're thinking. Your first Corinthians 2 and 16 says that you and I have the mind of Christ. The way that we think is going to determine where we're going to go in life. If you don't think right, you're never going to go right. Listen, you can't behave right? Because your head's going to dominate your behavior every time. Think about how powerful your brain is. Your mind is. It's the most powerful thing in the world. Look at verse 11. The spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he will give life to the mortal bodies by this same spirit living within you. Now, I want you to see something. How many believe that you're just like Jesus on the earth? Well, let's go to 1 John chapter 4, verse 17. "Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." Now, I want to clear that up too. The word "judgment" here is that this is past tense. Me and you're not going to stand before God and he's going to judge us. We're going to stand before the Lord and He's going to give us crowns based on our obedience on the earth. Not our obedience to the doing right or wrong, the obedience of who we are and Him. And if we can understand that, we can understand the righteous. That's why Paul said, "I fought the good fight, I finished the course, and now a crown of righteousness is laid up for me." So we understand that we're the righteousness of God on this earth. We're the most righteous creatures ever been created. God loved us more than anything else in the world. He created the entire world for me and you. That's how special you are. That's why you've been handpicked. That's why you've been chosen. He's not mad at you. He's not uptight with you. All he's trying to do is get you to understand who made you to be. You need to get a hold of this, to who he's made you to be.

You don't need to be thinking about sin and sin consciousness. You need to be so God-conscious that sin-conscious don't even move you anymore. And look what he said. Because as he is, not as he was, how is he? He's seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, right? Seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So are we in this cosmos? So are we in this world as he is? How is he? Seated in heavenly places. How are we? Seated in heavenly places. How are we victorious? More than conquerors, overcomers. Greater is he that is us and he is in the world. No weapon formed against us can prosper. Everything that rises up against us has got to come down. John 1 3 8. The son of God come to destroy the works of the enemy. You and I are victorious. We don't have to be concerned about him. There's not a devil behind every bush. Let's read this in the passion Bible. By living in God, love has been brought to us full expression in us. So that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment. Because all that Jesus now is, so are we in this world. Now how are you and me? How are we really? You know, we hear so much stuff on TV, that's just not the truth. It's a bunch of religion trying to tell us how to act.

Jesus fixed us, and if we believe what he says, we're act based on what he said about us. You're exactly what he said you are. So your state of being has nothing to do with your performance. Your state of being is done, it's fixed because of what Jesus done on the cross, the death of the bear on the resurrection. And then the Bible said he ascended into heavenly places, and that mean you're sitting in heavenly places also. You gotta understand that when you're in Christ, you don't get in and out, okay? We gotta settle some stuff with this artist's religious stuff. Where you gonna backslide to? Where you gonna fall into? It's a fixed state that he's put you in, and you're absolute perfect without blemish, without smart, without wrinkles, not because of your performance, but based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, you and I are absolutely perfected. We're the righteous of God, highly favored, deeply loved, nothing can separate us because we're in Christ. Do we know what that means? That word in is means a state of being that you and I've been placed into. It's not a lifestyle, guys. It's a relationship. You notice the big thing in the world now cause identity theft.

It hasn't just showed up, the church has been dealing with it for thousands of years. 'Cause our identity's been stolen by religion. We got people scaring the hell out of people that were with this rapture thing. And he's gonna come back snatching out of here when you ain't looking, right? He's gonna come like a thief in the night and snatch you out of here when you ain't looking. And that scared the breath out of people. And it's not biblical. Rapture's not even in the Bible. And here's what I'm trying to get you to understand. Jesus come to deliver you. Now he's gonna come and destroy you and sneak up here and grab you when you ain't looking and take you out and destroy you. He's never took the good out. He's always taken the bad out and left the good. Who do you take out with the flood? He left the eight, he took the bad. And he fixed it where the good couldn't see the bad being destroyed. 'Cause he only put a window at the top of the boat so that it can only see the heavenly and not see the destruction. He's never warned you to look at the world. He's always warned as you look at the heavenly 'cause you're a heavenly being. If you'll focus on the heavenly,

stop focusing on the problems in your life. You'll see the heavenly and live there. So you can live in this world above this world because of what's in you. What's in you can never be destroyed but what's around you and listen you allow it to. But what's around you is trying to destroy what's in you because in you is bigger than what's around you. But you don't understand that. So you live based on what you feel all the time in your emotions and what you're going through in poor old Peter for me. I'm not, our problems are big problems, I understand that. But here's the reality. If we will ever understand who we are in him, what we're going through won't matter as much in as long as we live we're in here. See, I don't know how tomorrow's gonna bring you but I know who's got you tomorrow. And he said there's a new grace for tomorrow for you to go through, right? Why don't you go to Second Timothy? For God has not given us a spirit of what? But of what? And of love and of a sound mind. So we understand that if you got fear in your life it didn't come from him. Okay, now listen to me very good. There's a good fear and a bad fear. You need to have a fear of the road,

transfer trucks coming by. You need to have a fear of a gun. Those things you need to have fears of. But we don't need to live a fearful life of whether we're scared of what tomorrow's gonna bring. We need to know the one that holds tomorrow. There's so many people fear death. Death is a transition out of this world into the next, right? What's the next? Living forever. But see, here's the real thing. This is when we're dealing with a spirit of fear we're not gonna have power in our lives and we're not gonna have love in our lives because perfect love casts out fear. Remember the scripture? And fear is a tormentor. That's the actual same identical word as the Hebrew word Delilah in the Old Testament. What did she do to Samson? He kept seducing him until he told what was wrong with him where his power was at. And they shaved his head and what happened? He had no longer had any power. They plucked his eyes out. You know the story, right? That's what fear does to you. It takes your being, it takes your strength, it takes everything out of you. Think about what fear does to you.

Fear is a tormentor, the Bible says. So what does fear do? It keeps you having a sound mind. You can't make good decisions. You can't make clear decisions. You can't walk in love. Why? Because we don't understand that listen to me. The amount of fear in your life is the last trust in God that you have. You can't trust anybody you don't know. Now, watch this. You don't fight thoughts with thoughts. You fight thoughts with words. See, some of you trying to fight thoughts in your mind with thoughts. You can't fight thoughts with thoughts. You can't fight fearful thoughts with thoughts. You got to speak words to thoughts. You got to remember who you are. Then I'm going to respond based on my identity. I'm not going to respond based on what I'm feeling or the thoughts that's in my mind. How many of you have ever thought about this? You try to think about something. You got a thought on your mind and you're trying to get rid of that thought and you say, "Okay, I'm going to think another thought." You can't whip thoughts with thoughts. You whip thoughts with words. Let's prove this scripture wise. Let's go to Romans 8 and 15. And this is Romans 8 again, this is Paul speaking and Paul said,

"You did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear." So He's taken your fear away because He didn't give you the fear. He took it away, right? But you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father. Now, I want you to get this revelation here because this is a great revelation. If He didn't give you the Spirit of fear in your life, if He didn't give you the Spirit of fear in your life, if He didn't give you the Spirit of fear in your life, He gave you the Spirit of adoption. Now, when we think of that, we think of American couple adopting a child. But it's a totally different prospect here and a totally different word. It means the placing of a son. The word adoption here means the placing of a son. So what He'd done is He made you a son. The word "place" here is the word "topos" which means the position of opportunity. So what He'd done is He put you in a position of absolute sonship with Him. And because you have sonship, now His Spirit is on the inside of you. That Spirit is crying out Abba Father, has nothing to do with your head. So if we understand sonship, that's why the Bible said a slave can come to the house, but He can't spend the night. Only a son can spend the night. That's why He said, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased with." Now think about it in just a minute. If you and I are sons, that's a whole different picture than under the old covenant of slaves. People write me letters saying, "You know, I've been serving the Lord a long time, that's your problem." Now, I don't know about you, but my kids don't serve me. Jesus said, "I didn't come to be served, I come to serve." Now think about it in just a minute. He made all of us sons. He put us in a position to receive. Now watch Ephesians 4 verse 32 and you live in translation. Instead, be kind to each other, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Now how many of you struggle with that?

How many of you struggle with forgiving people? Nobody's going to raise their hand. Now think about it in just a minute. Why do we struggle with forgiving people? Because here's what happens. We base it on total feelings. It's not based on feelings. I can look at this brother and say, "You know what? He's done something to hurt me, and I can do one or two things. I can hold that grudge against Him, or I can go to Him and say, "Look, you know what? I forgive you." That doesn't mean the feelings are going to go away immediately. That doesn't mean that. But what that does mean is that over time, if you'll begin to pray for people that you have a grudge against, you have unforgiveness against. If you'll begin to pray for them, you'll see that thing begin to vanish in your life. Now the feelings may not go away. You still may think the same thing all the time. But what you think has nothing to do with who you are unless when you understand that that's going to dominate your life. Even though by Jesus' blood, He's forgiven us and made us free from unforgiveness because He's forgiven us to be remembered no more. You say, "Well, here's what you hear people say." Well, I forgive them, but I ain't going to forget it. I understand that. I totally understand that. But the reality, if you want to live in victory in your life, you've got to learn to forgive people. Because here's the problem. Nobody's perfect and nobody's going to do the right thing. It's impossible. You're going to hurt somebody along the way. You can't stop it. But what you're feeling is not really who you are unless you give it an identity in you.

See, most people go through a divorce in their life. Now listen to me very carefully. Most people go through a divorce in their life. And when they go through a divorce, they're angry for you. They bring that anger right into the second situation because they're not over the first situation yet. And they bring it into the second situation and the second guy is suffering from what the first guy did that he hadn't even done. Now think about it in a minute because we carry those feelings and those feelings in us. Let me go there. If you've ever been a preacher for more than 30 minutes, you've been hurt, okay, you've been hurt. People's gonna do you wrong. People's gonna say one thing and do something the other way. But I've probably done it too. So let's be real. But I went through a situation in my life that was very difficult, very difficult. And I could have fixed that situation by standing up and exposing some things. But the Lord spoke to me and He said, Pete, don't do that. He said, I'll vindicate you. You know what He told David? David come back and they told us to start all the cattle and stole the wives and take them hostage. And David said, we can go get 'em. And the guys come at David and said,

you're the reason they've come and stole their wives and stole their cattle and stole everything. And David said, Lord, I'll go get 'em. And the Lord spoke to David and said, David, I'll vindicate you. Give it, give it some time. Well, situation arose and this particular person did some things and said some things and wasn't good. But I was feeling in my heart, anger and resentment and bitterness and I said, Lord, you gotta help me. And He spoke specifically to me and He said, I want you to go give 'em $15,000 to start their ministry. I didn't wanna do that. But I knew what the right thing was. Now, my feelings were still going this direction. I was still angry. I was still not in a good place. But see, if I'd have stayed in that place, you'd be seeing the harvest of what I went through and I'd still be angry and I'd still be bitter and you'd be hearing it every Sunday. You gotta get past those things. You can't do that on your own. We're back to what I'm trying to get you to see about who you really are. You who you really are is not what you're feeling or not what you're going through in your life. It's who He said you are. You gotta do that by learning who you are and that God is not mad at you.

He's not angry with you. He's not uptight with you. You're not gonna do the right things in this flesh. But what happens is when you discover who you are internally, you can live out of who you are in there instead of living out of who you are in the physical. And that's God's plan for us. That's the true identity of who we are. - Thank you so much for joining us today at Power in the Word. All of us here at Harvest Fellowship Church want you to know that God is not mad with you, but He loves you so very much and He has a plan for your life. Please feel free to contact us here at Harvest Fellowship Church at our website harvestfellowshipchurch.net. So until next week, please remember there's power in the Word. (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]