Before we get started, I want to share what happened this week as I was preparing for this post. This is probably the most important series I have done. I started to make edits to this post and the Holy Spirit fell all over me. I ended up on my face, crying out to God for you. I so badly want you to understand who you are in Him! I was working on a single post and that one post became an entire series. And here’s why…

It is absolutely imperative that we understand our identity in Christ. Since the Garden of Eden, satan’s goal has been to thwart our identities as sons and daughters, as well as create division between us and God. We are going to spend the next several weeks studying Ephesians 1. It details God’s heart for our identity and gives us principles to build our identity on. By the end of Identity 101 we will have identified 6 principles from verses 3-23. This week we are going to walk through verses 3-6:

“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son,” (Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG).

Let those words sink deep into your heart. Read it again if you need to, over and over. Grab your Bible, highlight it, and mark what stands out to you. The first principle you need to understand is:

1. I am a child of God.

Ephesians 1:3-6 describes God’s adoption of us. Adoption is choosing a specific child, bringing him or her into your home, and caring for them as if they were your own. You change their name and they are part of the family with complete access to mom and dad. With great joy, God chose us, adopted us, and placed us in His family. He planned for us and made us the focus of His love. Doesn’t that just melt your heart?!

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God,” (John 1:12-13 NLT).

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families,” (Psalm 68:5-6a NLT).

I am so thankful that my parents made sure I had a deep sense of purpose. Even before we knew Jesus, they were intentional about telling me that I had value and that I was on the planet to do important stuff. Your family might not have told you that you were a blessing. In fact, they might have told you the exact opposite. That was my mom’s story.

She was told regularly by her parents that her arrival ruined their lives, and they made her pay for it. In fact, they are still trying to make her pay for it. If that is your story, I am so sorry. They were wrong and that is not God’s heart for you.

So many people don’t know why they’re here and feel like a burden for just existing. Please hear me: you are not wasted space. You were not an accident. God knows exactly who you are and why you are here. You are chosen and completely loved. The fact that you are alive is a miracle! Take a look at this article that describes the miracle of our DNA:

“I wonder if we really understand how we each one came to be. Let me share with you a stunning perspective. We all began in the same way, one cell from your mom found one cell from your dad. The cell from your mom carried half of your DNA and the cell from your dad carried the other half. They merged into one single cell. Out of this one cell the DNA began a brand new DNA code.

This cell began to write out what we now know is the 3 billion character description of who you are, written in the language of God. This DNA, 3 billion characters, describes who God ordained you to be. In that one little simple cell. Scientists say that if you took the DNA of out of that one little simple cell, and stretched it out, it would be 6 feet long, 3 billion characters. So amazing that if I would read your DNA, reading one character every second, night and day, it would take 96 years just to read the description of you.

When they were written down, they painted a picture of you, one that has never been painted before, in the history of human kind. Then that one cell set out to build a model, from one cell. I’m telling you that you are a miracle sitting here today. And each of you has come a long, long way. Each one of you is made up of 75 trillion cells. There is so much DNA in all the cells of your body, that if we stretched it out, it would reach to the moon and back, 178,000 times. That is how amazing God has designed you to be.” – Roger Wilson

Isn’t that incredible?! You are a miracle. When you look in the mirror what do you see? I sincerely hope that you see God’s child. Someone who was created to reflect the nature of a loving Father. Someone that He took His time on and knows intimately.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” (Psalm 139:13-14a ESV).

My husband was born to be a dad of girls! Before school every morning he prays over them and has them repeat this phrase, “I am a daughter of God. I am kind, confident, beautiful, and strong. I am changing the world with my actions and words. I was born to do the impossible.” He is intentionally instilling value into them and focusing their hearts on God. We should be able to boldly declare the same words over ourselves.

When we don’t know who we are, we make dangerous choices out of a deep longing for connection, and can overcompensate to cover up our insecurities. We have to remember that we have been paid for by expensive grace. Jesus died so that we could live. If you have a relationship with Jesus, then you are a child of God and He is your Father. He can not let you down, He will not let you down, and He will never abandon you.

The battle is raging. The enemy is obsessed with thwarting our identities. I don’t want to watch godly people lay down their inheritance as sons and daughters. So many have gotten weary and given up. It’s simply not an option. We have to seek Jesus for our identity and fight to keep it. Christ paid an expensive price for you and I to know who we are in Him. He alone gets to identify us.

I want you to imagine that we are building a house while we are going through Identity 101. Each week we will add onto it. Today we laid the foundation. Christ is the only foundation worth building on.

Rita Springer is one of my favorite worship leaders. My favorite song of hers is Defender. The lyrics say…

“When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart.”

Child of God Homework

If you don’t know who you are or if you’ve forgotten – just ask Him. He knows and He never forgets, even if we do. He’ll be more than happy to remind you that you are His child.

Love,

Tif