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First, the devil has come to steal, kill, and destroy our identity.  Have you lost you ID?  Has your ID been stole?  Are you carrying a false ID?

Second, there is someone in authority who wants to give you the proper, true ID. His name is Jesus.

1. Diseased ID = We pick these up associated with various mental and physical diseases.  For example someone may say, "I am bipolar."  Someone one else may say, "I am and alcoholic, a cancer patient, or drug addict."  People use expressions like, "I have ...." or "I am ...." or "My disease is ...."   We often see ourselves as victims of our circumstances.

2. Tagged ID = These would include word curses that others have spoken over us, especially when it is someone who is in authority over us or someone who we consider to be in authority.  These are words like, "You are stupid!" or "You will never amount to anything!" or "You are just like ...... who is a bum."  Sometimes the individual doesn't really mean any harm, but the words take effect anyway.

3. Materialist ID = This is when someone gets their identity from the amount of possessions which they own. For example they may get their identity from the size of house they own or the type of car they own or the wealth they have stored up in investments.  This is often referred to classes: The upper class, the middle class or the lower class.

4. Positional ID = This is when someone gains his identity from the position that they hold.  For example, someone may get his identity from being in a certain level of management.

5. Bruised ID = A bruised identity occurs when there is a blow to one's identity.  Someone may be chosen when we feel that we should have been chosen.  It may also occur through some personal failure.  This is associated with the Tagged ID.

6. Sexual ID = This identity is based upon the sex (male or female) of the individual.  This is sometimes distorted when a parent wants the child to be of a different sex than that of the child. Sometimes it comes through association with other siblings. A girl growing up in a family of boys, may become a tomboy.

7. Skilled ID = This is when someone gains their identity from the skills they possess, whether they be physical or intellectual.

8. Hero ID = Most of us have our heroes; however, some people so identify with their hero that they seek to take on the identity of their hero.

9. Racial ID = This is when someone gets his identity from his racial birth and the racial background.  This is particularly noticeable when someone is very proud of his or her race.

10. National ID = As indicated, one gains his identity from his nationality.  For example, "I am proud to be an American".

12. Religious ID = This occurs when one gains his identity from his religion or denomination to which he belongs.  One may say, "I am a Jew" or "I am a Moslem".  Someone else may say, "I am a Methodist" or "I am a Catholic' or "I am a "Baptist".

13. Social ID = This identity comes from the people which whom you associate.  This identity is often associated with the "classes", but sometimes it comes from the gang they one hangs with.  One may gain their identity from the club to which they belong.

14. Occupational ID = Someone may say, "I am a doctor, a plumber, a counselor, a minister, or a house wife."

15. Fractured ID = Often because of severe trauma, people's personality become fractured and they may develop an Multiple Personality Disorder or a Dissociative Identity Disorder.  The person may have any number of personalities which are called alters.

16. Frozen ID = An individual may suffer from an extreme traumatic experience in their childhood and become frozen at that age in their adult life.  They think, talk, and act as a child.

17. Modeled ID = Like the Hero ID, one may model their life after parents, other family members, life experiences, teachers or mentors.

18. Relational ID = This is where one gain their identity from the role or position they have in a family.  They may be a son, a daughter, an aunt, uncle, cousin, parent (mother or father) or grandparent or grandchild.

19. False ID = This type comes directly from lies of the enemy.  It may come from a psychic, a fortuneteller, a witch, and even sometimes from prophets in the church.  Note:  Not all prophets in the church are true or speak the truth.  Some even well meaning charismatic prophets fall themselves into deception.  Some may gain their identity from playing games associated with the occult or the signs of the Zodiac.  Sometimes a demon will give someone a dream or speak directly to the individual giving them a false identity.

20. Evolutional ID = Some people get their identity from the false teachings of evolution.  They simply see themselves as being nothing more than a product of evolution.  They are a physical being that simply lives and dies having no purpose other than to live and achieve while they live.

21. Carnal ID = This identity is acquired from one's physical appearance.  It is how the individual sees himself when he looks in the mirror.  He may see himself as being fat or skinny, tall or short, handsome / beautiful or ugly, young or old.

    One must acknowledge that there is some truth found in many of the above forms of identity, but there is also a lot of confusion. I often ask the person who I am counseling, "Who are you?"  Of course, I get all kinds of answers.  Some people search all their lives seeking to discover their identity.  I have found many people go into the study of psychology to discover the answer. The field of psychology boasts in helping people find self-esteem.  However, Solomon said, "A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself" (Proverbs 18:2).  Secular Psychology does not have the true answer!

    Again, the devil has come to steal, kill, and destroy our identity. What has happened to your identity?  Are you confused about who you are?  I am convinced from my counseling experience that most people, even Believers, are often confused about who they are.  So who are?  How you see yourself is how you live with others and before God.

    Anything that you base your identity upon that can be taken away from brings insecurity and anxiety and often brings anger and depression and an array of mental disorders. If you base your identity upon you physical skills, those skills can be taken away and you loose your identity.  If you gain your identity from your sexuality, you can loose your sexuality and loose your identity.  If you base your identity upon your physical appearance ... everyone that lives very long gets old and wrinkled.  If you base your identity upon your job or position, you can loose both of them and thus loose your identity.

1. If you see yourself as a victim, you will act like a victim.
2. If you see yourself as a "loser", you will respond as a loser.
3. If you see yourself as a "sinner", you will respond as a sinner.
4. If you see yourself as being "unrighteous" you will respond to God in the same fashion.
5. If you see yourself as being "unworthy" you will find it difficult to receive anything from the Lord.
6. If you just see yourself as being "another animal", then you will not live as being spiritually live in Christ.

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom 6:19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1. We should see there is a direct connection between who we are and the way that we should live.
2. We were united both in the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus when we accepted him as our Lord and Saviour.
3. Therefore we need to conclude (see) the old man (our old identity) crucified with him, but also see ourselves resurrected with him as a new person in Christ.

 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Galatians 6:15).

 "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (Philippians 3:8-11).

1. Can not be lost, though one may allow the devil to deceive him into thinking that it is lost or that he never had it.
2. Our identity in Christ, encourages us to live like Jesus.

1. You are a unique new creation of God.

2. You are a spiritual being, who has a soul, and lives in a house of flesh.

3. You are a saint who has been translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son.

4. You are more than a conqueror.

5. You are righteous, being a made righteous by God.

6. You are a child of God, both being born of the Spirit of God and being adopted by God.

7. You are worthy to receive the blessings of God being an heir of God.