LESSON TWO: Our Heavenly Identity

OUR IDENTITY

In order to live in the full potential as a child of the living God, you must understand exactly who you are in Christ, what your position is. You must know who you are, that you are seated in heavenly places, and that you have been given an inheritance which is the power of God with the authority to use it. You must become Heavenly Minded.

The identity of a person is who that person is. Our Heavenly identity is based on who scripture says we are. On the other hand, our earthly identity is based on many factors, some of which are listed below.

What is your identity? Write it in your notebook.

1. Gender

a. Male
b. Female

2. Ethnicity

a. Race
b. Culture
c. Religion

3. Position

a. Employment/Career
b. Community
c. Family
d. Other Relationships

4. Financial Status

5. Location

a. Where you grew up
b. Where you live now

WE MUST BE HEAVENLY MINDED — WE ARE SEATED IN HEAVENLY REALMS

One of the major hindrances in coming into a full realization of our true Identity in Christ is our past, the place we came from, things we have done, or the things we have left undone. As we are reminded of our past we can get bogged down, becoming sin conscience. Our sin conscience wants to keep us from knowing our true heavenly identity.

Eph 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

In the above passage, notice the verbs are past tense. We are no longer that old person. We now must become heavenly minded and heavenly conscience. Let us look at what scripture says about the sin of those who have truly repented.

Psalm 103:9-12 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Eph 2:4 But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

Where have we been seated? What does this mean to you? Write your answer in your notebook.

Consider the following:

1. We are new creations in Christ

2. Our spirits are connected into the spiritual realm. (Romans 8:16)

3. Our spirits are seated in heavenly places with Christ. (Eph 2:6)

4. Our bodies and souls are in the temporal/earthly realm and don’t usually see or experience what our spirits are able to see and experience.

Have you ever heard someone say something like, “It took me an hour to enter into worship, the presence of God, or some other spiritual experience?” What they are actually saying is it took an hour before their senses could feel anything.

We are seated in Heavenly realms. The second you start to pray or worship you are already entered in. Your spirit is already there. Whatever your senses feel does not change this fact. The Word of God says it and He cannot lie.

2 Cor 5:7 For we walk by faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk] not by sight or appearance.

NEW CREATIONS

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

That old person with that old sin nature literally does not exist anymore. When we start losing our heavenly mindedness and start looking back at that old sin nature it is like digging up an old corpse that stinks and is full of decay, and trying to put it on. We are a new creation; we do not have to be subject to those old nasty ways.

How can you be a new creation? What does that mean to you? Write the answer in your notebook.

RIGHTEOUS, HOLY AND PERFECT

Eph 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

We were created to be – perfect and holy!!! We were also created to be righteous.

Matt 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Lev 19:2 Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’

Some will object because they have a lowly worm complex or a slave mentality. They will say, “We can’t be perfect because only God can be perfect. We can’t be holy because only God is holy.” Yet over and over again throughout scripture God is commanding His people to be holy, righteous, and perfect. If that is an impossible task why would God command it? He wouldn’t.

Through whom are we able to be perfect, righteous, and holy? How does this work? Write the answer in your notebook.

SONS AND HEIRS

Gal 4:7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Our Heavenly Identity says that we belong to the family of God. In fact, we are God’s children and therefore heirs. As heirs we are legally entitled to an inheritance.

God’s Word says we are Heirs. Heirs to what? What is our inheritance? Write the answer in your notebook.

Eph 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,
19 and His incomparably great power for us who believe.
Part of our inheritance is His mighty power which is reserved for those who believe. This inheritance can never perish, fade, nor spoil.

1Pet 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you,

Rom 8:14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

CHOSEN, HOLY, BLAMELESS

Sometimes we get to feeling bad. It is vital to remember that God chose us before the creation of the world. Those who believe are a chosen people.

1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,

John 15.16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last.

Eph 1:4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

What does being chosen mean to you? Write the answer in your notebook.

2 Th 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Phil 2:13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

God has chosen to work in us and through us for His purposes.

REPEAT OUT LOUD: “I AM CHOSEN. GOD SELECTED ME. HE PICKED ME OUT.”

My identity is not about what I have done. It’s about who God is and what He has done for me through Messiah Jesus.

John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Who are you? What is your identity? What is the difference between your heavenly identity and earthly identity? Write the answer in your notebook.

My Heavenly Identity

Read the following aloud daily so that it becomes part of you. What does each verse mean to you?