IDENTITY: Who We Are and Why We Are Here-
A Journey of Discovery

 

SUMMARY

 We’ve covered a lot of ground in this Bible study and now that you’ve reached the end you may want to review what you have studied, and keep reviewing until you reach your own journey’s end and have found your TRUE identity in God.

 

  1. Man was the crowning glory of God’s creation. He was made in the very image and likeness of God and given the task of managing everything else that God had made.
  2. Man was given free will to obey God and walk with Him to fulfill His purpose – or not.
  3. Satan (a fallen angel within a snake’s body) had become a master at deception. He deceived Eve into thinking that God’s one command to not eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was keeping her from being like God herself.
  4. Eve fell for the deception and disobeyed God’s one command. She enticed Adam to follow suit. They both died spiritually that day and were driven from the Garden of Eden and from God. Instead of living eternally with God on earth, they would now die physically after a limited number of years. The eternity God planned for man would now become their choice between Heaven or Hell.
  5. The fall of Adam and Eve caused a universal problem. Everyone is born with an inherited sin nature (Adam’s). They are physically alive but spiritually dead and have a spirit filled with the influence of the “god of this world”. We lost our identity with God and we stumble around until we find God again.
  6. Until we find our identity in God, we take on other false identities often based on what we do for a living, our wealth, sexual preferences, who we follow, or the country that we live in.
  7. Jesus came to show us what God was like and He became our prime example of living from His true identity in God. Everything He said and did flowed from His true identity.
  8. None of us are born knowing our identity and therefore everyone is on a journey of discovery.
  9. The purpose of discovering our identity is to know God and to be known by Him. For our true identity is who God says we are.
  10. The main reason we are so confused about our identity is because we don’t know the God who created us and the purpose He had in mind for our lives. Only God knows why He made us and that’s what we need to discover.
  11. God designed us as individuals and unique. There will never be another one of you or of me. We are one-of-a-kind originals.
  12. We are all extremely valuable because we are made in God’s image and likeness with ruling capacity.
  13. But, because of sin in the world, we are broken and imperfect. Through sin and ungodly living, we are lost to God.
  14. God wants us to discover the truth about Him so that we can discover the truth about ourselves.
  15. We are God’s adopted and beloved children when we embrace Jesus. God chose us in Jesus to be set aside for His own purposes.
  16. In Jesus, we are blessed as God’s sons and daughters.
  17. In Jesus, we are saved as God’s new creation.
  18. In Jesus, we are forgiven.
  19. We are the home of God here on earth. Jesus through His Spirit makes his home in our human spirit and it’s then that our dead spirits become alive.
  20. We are gifted and specialized workers. God does His work through us with our cooperation.
  21. We start to embrace our true identity by renewing our thinking according to God’s word. This leads to….
  22. ……speech that reflects this new thinking, and…..
  23. ……hearts that are cleansed to be the home of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
  24. We then live by God’s word and walk by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. This produces a life of love – the kind of life that Jesus lived.
  25. As “king’s kids” we have access to God the Father through Jesus and we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to live to the fullest here on earth. We have hope on earth and an eternal home in Heaven when this present life is over.
  26. Embracing our true identity (i.e., who God says we are) enables us to:A. Keep strong when under attack
    B. Be victorious over temptation
    C. Stay steady when criticized
    D. Stay faithful after failure
    E. Be glorifying to God at all times
    F. Be true to God to the end
    G. Finish strong the race we run on earth.

For further reading on discovering your identity may I suggest the following:

  1. Defined: by brothers Steven & Alex Kendrick
  2. The Purpose Driven Life: by Rick Warren

 

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