Before I get to talking about how to develop your identity in Christ, I want to spend a moment encouraging people with the tendency to seek out reasons to fear that God is disappointed or might be soon; we go from glory to glory in Christ. Part of what that means is there’s always more to experience because God has more planned. Also, though, it means that you have all you need at the first glory. While God won’t allow (by pouring love into you continually) anyone to feel less-than, he does inspire holy jealousy, which makes you get in his face and ask for more.

It sounds like, “Hey! What, they got that blessing? I want that blessing! Don’t let them think you love them more that me. You tell them! Tell them, you love me just as much!” Jealousy that sends you shouting at God that you are worth as much as the first, is holy jealousy.

I want to emphasis two things. Firstly, if you don’t know all that God can bless you with, please don’t think that you lack something. Lack separates us from God’s love and good standing. So, just because you’re finding out more that God wants to bestow, please don’t think that means there’s requirements between you and those gifts. In a relationship with God, he doesn’t require anything. You are already perfect. God rescued humanity from the law. And he chose not to remember your sins. If you never knew the apologetics, your soul could, still, choose God by him introducing himself and feeding you good food so that you knew that heaven is real. Then, you just vote for where you want to live. When you choose to live in heaven you get all the benefits. A relationship with God feels like a benefit the nearer you get to his voice. Near and far in the Bible typically means someone who is righteous and unrighteous, but I think that is First Covenant behavior consequences, which was based on each person’s behavior. Conversely, Second Covenant behavior consequences are based on the Savior’s obedience, which results in a constant of success so that anyone Christ Jesus of Nazareth calls a friend, the Father says to him or her “Do you want my kingdom?” Then, with a single, “Yes,” you’re upward and onward in heavenly abundance for eternity. And, you at least have one friend, and he’s the most important person there is, so you’ll never be lonely in heaven. Also, if you like Jesus, you’ll probably like his friends.

I’m going to say it again, differently; ignorance doesn’t equate to lack under the Second Covenant. Instead, it’s just that we’re always learning. My intent is to have everyone listening from a place of inner safety in God’s love, knowing that with God you never revert, you only gain. With God, all gain is good things and there’s growth to everything good. However, you are going to grow at the pace of his affection. What do I mean by that? God defines himself as our Father, and every parent who loves their child cherishes every stage of growth. They aren’t wishing for things to move faster. A human parent might want paudy training to go faster, but our Heavenly Father is more patient that a human by an unfathomable degree. So, don’t judge God by human limits, but consider the traits that reflect goodness as a pale reflection of the brilliant goodness, which exudes from God.

My second emphasis to my preface is that your soul is safe before you feel safe in life. Your soul is sealed in eternity at the first gulp of the Holy Spirit. With the first gulp, you have 100% of God’s Spirit in you. What you’re learning from there is “revealed” truth; it’s exposing what is already there. So, the truth is you have no lack because you have all of God. What needs to be revealed is what benefits, or blessings, you can live in while in the land of the living. This must be said because faith comes by hearing; testimonies reveal the possibilities. Keep in mind, though, if God has promised you in a dream or a vision of something that looks like more blessing than the world has ever seen, remember that God is the God of impossibilities, making fools of the wise, making ways where there are no ways, and declaring new things into existence. These four things I listed are quotes from scriptures. That means they are unchanging truths, as unchanging as God. If your faith is stretched by his promise, let your faith stretch.

Ok, let’s get to the subject: Identity in Christ

• What is it?

• How do we get it?

• How do we live it out?

• What is our measure for success?

Okay, one more preface: these answers are not going to be specific. And the reason for that is, God prescribes solutions to your life, individually, and he prescribes promises to your life, individually. This means there is no “order of operations” to learning, there’s no “spell writing” in your prayers (prayer is talking ≠ passwords to power) and there’s no standardized gifting. You are totally unique with a unique mind that only God fully knows and a unique set of interests, which only God values more than you value. So, how is God going to heal you; I don’t know. How is God going to convince you that you’re loved; I don’t know. What exactly is God going to give you in your life; I don’t know. How is there anything left to say? There is a general foundation that is established in truth, shared with us via scriptures through prophets from old that testify about God and how our relationship to him is meant to be experienced, and it’s important to speak about this because our enemy (the devil) pouts loudly against us being blessed by God. I think our fear of what our sin might mean to God can prevent us from looking at the good things because it can feel like a horrible tease. I want you to know how safe you are. I want to talk about the Savior over and over. But for now, I want to talk about what the Savior restored.

He restored your rights.

You get awarded your rights because of Christ; not your obedience and faith and suffering, but his. We get justified forgiveness.

What is an identity in Christ?

You are the Bride of Christ. In a marriage the wife gets, through legal binding and social attributions, the husband’s possessions, as well as the husband’s reputation. Additionally, union to Christ is a royal union. This means the bride shares a role in judgement in the kingdom, seated beside her king on the throne of the kingdom. Moreso, union to Christ is also a marriage to the High Priest with high priestly responsibilities. This elevates the bride to a minister to Christ; the highest office of priests is to minister to God; it’s an action of words that bless God.

So, the bride of Christ shares in his possessions, his reputation, and bears the burden of his office alongside her husband. This is honor that the flesh cannot bear. But by rebirth into a Spirit which lives from the relationship to the Father so that you know what you have in God, and you know that your provider is Almighty God, with the Wonderful Counselor as a voice inside to guide your judgments, which foster life for all the listeners, you can do this on earth and in heaven.

You might think, “I didn’t learn that at church.”

This leads me to my next point.

How does one come by an identity in Christ?

I think, only the Holy Spirit can reveal this to you. It will come at the right time. He will show what it will mean to you, personally. And he will not raise you up into your established rulership too early, lest you faint before him.

My testimony includes these promises: I didn’t have to feel better before I could choose to agree to the honor of being established as a ruler in his heavenly kingdom, and he wouldn’t come too soon to bring me into my position. He promised also, Christ would have victory over the mental and emotional battle inside me that made me feel horribly starved of God’s love. However, I would have to choose if I was going to pick up the same words sent against Christ in me to destroy love, or if I would speak the words that God speaks, which bring resurrection life, love power, health, wealth, and goodness.

This leads me to my next point.

How does one live out (overflow and abide) an identity in Christ?

The answer, in short, is the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (some translations use the term: sound-mind.) The order these fruits are bestowed will vary. They are all gifts, given via Holy Spirit as something to eat by agreeing that these are good for eating. They will be given to you, not “figured out.”

My testimony as two phases: Peace and Self-control.

Peace came by his Spirit, and I had to learn to accept it. Self-control came after his victory in my mind, which silenced the words against Christ in me, and I had to learn to choose good words, speaking them to Christ in me.

My advice is this; start speaking with Christ’s love and salvation, which build up and do not tear down. You will feel complimented as you remind Christ of his identity.

Say to Christ Jesus who he is, this is ministering to Christ, “You are just. You are life. You are holy. You are giving. You are true help. You are worthy of every good gift that can come from God. You are worthy of love. You are salvation. You are strong. You are able of all things, even impossible things for mankind. You are wisdom. You are the way, the truth and the life. You are my friend. Where ever you go, all things function. You are the light of the world. You break the bonds of the captives. All authority is yours. You are glorified by the Father. You are the hope of mankind. All good things come to you. I love you.”

Agree with love. Agree with strength. Agree with good gifts, freely given. Agree with blessings in your life and in the world aground you. Agree with life. Agree with hope. Agree with peace. Agree with faith. Agree with God. Agree that heaven is the standard of living for all who love God. Agree that you love God. Agree that he saved you, too. Agree that he knows you and loves you so much that, as Jesus said, “Every hair on your head is counted.”  And listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit to advice you. Ask and listen, waiting to hear an idea so amazing that everyone involved is blessed, clarity is peace, and strength resounds. You will be impressed by his ideas.

He will establish you in heavenly places by his love for you.

“Okay, there’s no way I can sustain this, or listen right, or get this, understand this, access this. There’s no way. I’m gunna tell you; I’m not able,” someone might be thinking.

This leads me to my next point.

What is the measure of success so that one knows an identity in Christ has been reached?

Actually, you’re going to throw away your measuring tape.

You are safe before you feel peace. If feeling peace is how you’re planning to measure success, anxiety can rob you of eating the peace when it comes. But if you agree with salvation, you agree with scripture that nothing can separate you from the love of God. Instead, you have victory over sin on the merit of Christ. There are answers for the legal justification of salvation. But right now, going down that legal reasoning would be a distraction. I mention it so that you can set about gaining that knowledge with hope, but the knowledge isn’t the wisdom. Christ is the wisdom, which gives peace beyond understanding.

So, if success is not a feeling and it’s not knowledge, how does someone come by success?

Success already is.

Christ happened.

In my life, the question of measurement was only a bitter symptom of anxiety. The antidote to anxiety being the Peace of Christ pervading over the voice of circumstances, little by little, over and over until peace became my default setting, woven into my foundation-of-self with the trust in God’s ability to bless me in everything, every time, and sealed with his loving promise felt by the Presence of Peace, which scripture says is his SEAL that my soul is freed from his anger, and scripture says that God made a promise within that better Covenant that he would never be angry again.

So, I didn’t fail when I delayed believing the presence of peace meant everything was okay, and everything would always be okay.

I cannot fail because he chose not to see failure anymore, just friends of his Son married to His Identity before The Father. He does not measure to the success to the law. He measures to the success of his Son. Christ is victorious. Now I live, forever.

Christ’s success is powerful enough to get a soul that refuses to believe his peace is good food into heaven. I don’t have to eat his peace to get into heaven, in the afterlife. What I gain once I submit that peace is wise for me to eat and abide in until it is the lens through which I view my circumstances and the world, is peace. So, I start to enter heaven while on this side of the life because peace is an aspect of heaven.

I am safe apart from my knowledge because I can be ignorant of God’s help while he is helping me. I can be safe and not feel safe. But, when I agree with God that I am safe, then I live feeling his peace as evidence of his help. And the scriptures tell me that his presence is testimony to salvation. And with salvation comes my right to his favor, which is equivalent to his power so that all my requests come to the Father through the merit of Christ, being under his promise of “Yes, and amen.”

So, this leads me to a not yet asked question.

Why does God establish us?

God made us because he likes us. He made us to raise us up to equality with his Son. He made us to be enteral. He made us to live in heaven.

God likes us.

He establishes us to honor us. He wants to live with us, moment by moment. He loves our conversation.

So, these are my new words, which agree with my identity in Christ:

I am soo loved. I am sooo wanted. I am soooo safe.