I get made fun of sometimes because one of my favorite questions to ask people is, “Do you know who I am?” For years I have asked this question and people laugh at me and respond with different answers. Though it is funny because I ask it at the oddest times, there is a point in my asking. It isn’t a prideful question. It is an honest one that I want people to really think about in regards to me and themselves. When I ask this question some of the responses I get are: “You are Carol’s daughter” or “You are Sam’s wife”. Others say things like: “You are a motivational speaker” or “You are a good friend”. While these answers are true, they are not the responses I am looking for or the thought process I want to invoke.
As new creations in Jesus Christ we are more than just the titles we wear in the natural realm. But unfortunately most people identify themselves more with the natural titles, than with the supernatural ones they were given on the day they said yes to a relationship with Jesus Christ. This one action of thought is where most people lose sight of who they really are as new creations in Jesus Christ. The battlefield for all of us resides in the mind! If we do not win the battle of the mind, we cannot accomplish what we were put on this earth to accomplish; which is to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, lead people to Christ, and to duplicate the actions of Jesus Christ while we are still on the earth.
If we act and react from a natural mindset we will be duplicating the natural cycle of life which is dying daily. There is nothing in the natural realm that can duplicate everlasting life, healing, restoration, hope, or any of the attributes that are found in Jesus Christ! But as believers in Christ we have been given the ability to act and react from a supernatural mindset with all of the characteristics of Christ flowing from us. We may be in this world, but we are not of this world, but choosing to operate in that mindset is completely up to the individual to decide.
It was so important to Jesus that we understand this that in John 17:13-19 He prayed, “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” With this understanding we can begin accept the fact that we are different, and that different is good!
To begin this process of understanding we have to separate ourselves from the natural mindset that defines us as natural man and begin to identify ourselves as being in Christ and Christ being in us. This is where we begin to operate from a spiritual mindset instead of a natural one. Because we have been commissioned to reach the world with the Gospel and to portray the attributes of Christ through our words and actions; we have to understand who we are in Christ. This is the foundation that every thought has to be built upon if we are going to fulfill the Great Commission.
In John 17:20-23 Jesus prayed, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
So how do we begin this process of discovering who we are in Christ? The answer is to meditate on Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. It says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
When we begin to understand that we have been given the ability to think, speak, and act as one who has been given the mind of Christ we will begin to discern the things of the Spirit, which will enable us to act and react from a spiritual mindset, instead of from our natural one. This is where we begin to understand who we are in Christ! This is why I ask people “Do you know who I am?” I know who I am in Christ and it is in this knowing where I am empowered to operate as one who has been given the mind of Christ. So my question for you today is this. Do you know who you are? If you answered yes then I want to encourage you to mentor someone who doesn’t know who they are. If you answered no I want to encourage you to seek wisdom through meditating on who Christ says you are in Him. Tomorrow I will share some of the verses that will help you on this journey of discovery into what it means to be in Christ.
Prayer: Spend time asking the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your understanding so you will be able to receive the full knowledge of who you are in Christ. Tell God that you want to know what it means to have Christ’s joy fulfilled in your life. Meditate on these Scriptures so you are prepared to receive the Word God wants to impart to you during this devotional study of what it means to know who you are in Christ.
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