Do We Live From Identity or Instinct?

I listened to a sermon recently on how easy it is to live from instinct rather than identity. As believers, all too often I think we live from our past brokenness rather than from who God says we are, and who we should become in him.

One of my favorite scripture passages comes from the apostle Paul writing his second letter to the Corinthian church.  He states very clearly that when we come to a saving knowledge of Christ and his redemption, and embrace that forgiveness, something truly wonderful happens. We become totally different from what we once were.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 

At face value this seems too good to be true unless we realize Paul is speaking about our relationship with God. Once we were enemies against God and his kingdom. Then, by an act of faith in what Christ did on the cross for us, we became children of God.

John 1:12

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . . 

The point Paul is making is that of reconciliation. When a person is born again in Christ they are reconciled to God and now are considered God’s child in the true sense of the word. What this does not mean is that we suddenly become different in our thinking, feeling and acting. That takes growing into our adopted nature, which doesn’t happen overnight.

Paul was a man who had such clear revelation from the Holy Spirit that he wrote in the book of Romans that we have options and choices even after becoming children of God. We have the choice, and multiple choices each day, to listen and follow the direction of the Holy Spirit, or to close our spiritual ears and do whatever feels right in our own eyes to do. Paul clearly states what we set our minds to do, either God’s will or our own, determines the outcome. He called that following our NATURE or following the SPIRIT. To be clear, most translations of Romans and Ephesians use the word nature when the literal Greek word more reflects a pattern of habit.

Romans 8:5

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 

Too many believers claim that God is sovereign and everything that happens in life is his will.  In reality this concept is totally false because of what we see and experience in life. God is sovereign in the context of human history but we are, in a sense, sovereign over our own success or failure living as children of God. We can choose to live as God intends or we can live contrary to his will.

Going back to the original title we can live as children of God by the IDENTITY God gives us, or we can live according to our past life before Christ: from our instinct.

Moses had a real checkered past.  He was raised in Pharoah’s house and had all the privileges of the rich and famous. Then he sensed his calling to be God’s man of the hour for the Israelites and kills an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite.  Moses gets found out and runs for his life, leaving Egypt’s wealth to become a sheep herder. After 40 years God visits him with the mission to deliver Israel from slavery, but Moses keeps coming up with excuses why he is the wrong guy for the job. After numerous miracles to show Moses that God has his back, Moses still is reluctant to walk in God’s calling, so God gives him Aaron, his brother, to be his mouth piece with Pharoah.

Exodus 4:10-13

But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me. I’m clumsy with words.” “Who makes mouths?” the LORD asked him. “Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say.” But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send someone else.”

How easy it is to fall back on our memories of who we were before becoming children of God. Far too easy for many. We have a tendency to evaluate our future based on our past, like Moses did. It seems Moses needed an extra 40 years tending sheep to lose the pride that got him in all the trouble in Egypt, but then he can’t seem to shake his insecurity about God using him to do great things.

We rely on our past INSTINCTS rather than relying on the IDENTITY God says we are in him. Remember Paul stated in Romans 12 that the problems of our lives are linked back to having a worldly mindset rather than a God mindset. We need to have our thinking changed so that we can have a God perspective rather than a world perspective. Our perception of who we are is directly related to what we have faith for. If we feel like a failure we will act like one. But what if we have a God perspective? Jesus said if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains. God is not trying to make things difficult for us, but he does expect a positive reception to his word.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Today you can walk in the past perception of who you were or you can learn what God says about who he has created you to become. The choice is yours . . . make it a good one!

Questions:

1) Have you been operating from a negative mindset of who you used to be? Only asking God to open your eyes and soul to the God possibilities will change you. (Ps 119:18)

2) Are you listening to Satan’s voice about who you are, or to God’s? Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy.  God wants to give you abundant life. ( John 10:10)

Loving the way God thinks about us!

Pastor Dale