FINDING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY
How You See Yourself Controls Your Life 
By Pastor Casey Treat

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh ... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ ... Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ… For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:16-18, 21 (NKJV)

How do you see yourself? Many of us, though we love the Lord, are still controlled by our identities from the natural world. Our struggles, our failures, and our pasts become who we think we are and how we see ourselves. I want you to understand that what you think about yourself is the most important and powerful influence in your whole life.

In the Scripture passage above, the Apostle Paul is talking about how we see ourselves - how we regard or know ourselves. And he says, “From now on I’m not going to regard you, look at you, or know you, according to the flesh. I’m not going to let your race, your color, your age, your gender - the things of the natural realm, the things of the flesh - identify you. I will only look at you based on your relationship with Christ. In Christ you’re a new person. You’re not a divorcee; you’re a new person. You’re not an alcoholic; you’re a new person. You’re not a drug addict; you’re a new person. You’re not a failure, and you’re not a dropout; you are a new creature in Christ. That’s how I’m going to know you, that’s how I’m going to look at you, and that’s how I’m going to see you.”

Then Paul goes on to say, because of who we are in Christ, all things are of God and we have the opportunity to walk in all of God’s blessings. He says we are ambassadors for Christ. We are no longer losers, or sinners just struggling through life; we are ambassadors. Paul says we’re righteous because Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ.

I want to talk to you about your identity. I want to talk to you about how you see yourself and how you identify yourself. When you close your eyes, what do you see on the inside behind your eyelids; who is that person? How do you identify and define yourself?

What you think about yourself will control what you let God do through your life. The most important, the most controlling, and the most powerful thought is your personal identity, your self-image, or what you believe about you. That is why the enemy works so hard to put us down, to make us feel insecure, to make us feel bad, to make us feel “not good enough,” to make us think we do not have the right looks, body, hair, intelligence, or education. He is constantly trying to push down our self-image because what you think about yourself will control what you do in your life.

In the Message Bible, it is interesting how this paraphrase states these truths found in 2 Corinthians 5. Paul says don’t evaluate people by what they have, or by how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore. Remember, He was “Jesus of Nazareth,” but now He is the Lord, Jesus Christ. At one time they said, “Could any good thing come out of Nazareth?” But now, He sits at the right hand of the Father, God. We once knew Him according to the flesh; now we know Him as who He is in the Spirit.

Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start - is created new. Now this is important! God doesn’t just clean you up; He creates a new you. God doesn’t just give you a shower, a shave, and a haircut; He creates a new you. God doesn’t just give you a new role; He creates a new you! You are not a remodeled you; you are a new you! This is important, because some of you keep dragging around the old you. It is time we buried that old person and let the new you be you! The old life is gone. A new life burgeons! All this comes from God who settled the relationship between Him and us.

When you pull out your ID card, what does it say? It has your name, your address, your height, your eye color, your hair color, and your weight. As a Christian, those things no longer identify you. We no longer identify you according to the flesh - as male, female, black, white, Asian, or Hispanic. We are not identifying you as old or young, by the color of your hair, or by the size of your body. We are tired of that fleshly identification. Stop identifying yourself by natural, worldly traits, and start seeing yourself as a new person in Christ. Start identifying yourself as who you are in Him, not who you are in the world.

Now this may be a subtle difference for some, and you may think, “Oh, what’s the big deal?” But I believe that your economy, your relationships and your career are all controlled by your personal internal ID card.

How you see yourself is deciding how you live every day - not God, not the world, not the government, not the devil - you are deciding where you live, how you live, what you accomplish (or what you do not accomplish), based on that identification. Every morning we subconsciously pull out our ID card to find out how much we should make on our jobs, to see what kind of friends we should have, and to find out where we should go in life.

Identification has become much more important in these last few years. Just a few years ago you could get on an airplane and your ID was never checked. Half the time, you put your wallet in your suitcase and checked it on board. I can remember traveling with tickets made out for someone else. It didn’t matter, because who you were did not make much difference as long as you filled the seat. If someone bought an airline ticket but decided not to travel, and you were going to the same place, you didn’t trade in the ticket you just used their ticket. But now, you can’t do that. Now your identity is very important. The first thing they do when you get to the airport is look at your ticket and ask to see your ID. They check to make sure the same name is on the ticket as on the ID. You can’t go where you want to go if you do not have the right ID.

I remember when some of our school kids were in Mexico on a mission trip and they lost their passports. They all went to the airport and told the officials that they had their tickets, but lost their passports. The man said, “Sorry, you can’t go home.” They were obviously visitors to the country and not Mexican - the officials could see that - but without the right ID, they couldn’t leave. Some of you are trying to leave poverty, but you do not have the right ID. You are trying to leave negative relationships, but you do not have the right ID. You are trying to get on a flight to your new level of life, but you cannot get aboard until you get your new ID!

When we were children, people started saying things about us: that we were smart, or not so smart. Maybe people said you were cute, or average, intelligent, or not that intelligent; maybe they said you were a brat or that you were so forgetful that you would lose your own head if it was not screwed on. Maybe people said, “You never do what you’re told, and you’re driving me crazy.”

People say things, not purposefully; many times they are unaware. Angry fathers say things that become part of our identities. Frustrated mothers say things that become part of our identities. Maybe one day your dad left, and you took his rejection upon yourself. It became a part of your identity. If your parents were divorced, you put that on your ID card. Maybe you had sex before marriage and it was not what you thought it was going to be like, and it marked your identity. Maybe you had a baby, but not a husband, and it marked your identity. Maybe you have struggled, declared bankruptcy, been abused, or raped, and it marked your identity. All of these things go into our ID. Now we believe in God, we are praying for blessing, praying for great families, praying for God’s prosperity, and we are wondering why we can’t get it. We can’t get on a new flight to a new life with that old ID card. Paul said, “From now on I will not know you according to the flesh, I only know you as a new creature in Christ.”

Say this confession aloud:
I am a new person in Christ. My old life is dead and gone. I’m raised up with Christ to live a new life. I have what God says I have. I can do what God says I can do. I’m blessed in my spirit, soul and body. I’m blessed in my family and finances. I overcome every problem. I win in every circumstance. I am living my dream and fulfilling my destiny. My life is a success, and I will do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.

Casey Treat is pastor and founder of Christian Faith Center in Seattle and Everett, Wash.