Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: The Bible has a lot to say about your identity in Christ.
There are so many voices coming at us from all directions trying to tell us who we are, but really the one who made us knows us best and the one who has invited you into his family has a lot to say. So today we are talking about what the Bible says about your identity in Christ. This is gonna be a good one.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: If you're tired of leading others while secretly battling doubt, discouragement and mental warf
[00:00:32] Speaker A: and you want practical tools to renew your mind and walk boldly in your
[00:00:35] Speaker B: calling as a leader, you're in the right place. Welcome to Believe and become.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: We're Josh and Karina, your spirit filled coaches here to help you overcome those limiting beliefs and lead others confidently.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: If you're ready to hear God's voice more clearly, to step into your purpose and find joy and strength in the
[00:00:52] Speaker A: everyday silence those Bible app reminders judging you from your lock screen and let's jump in.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Are you feeling stuck, unsure of where God is leading? You're worried that there's something wrong with you because you just can't seem to hear him clearly?
[00:01:11] Speaker A: We spent years stuck in patterns of frustration and disappointment because we just didn't have the clarity or the courage we needed to step forward. We felt like we needed God to part the skies and tell us what to do. We knew God had more for our lives, but we didn't really know who we were in Christ or believe it enough to step into it.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Friend, you don't have to stay stuck. You were made to hear God's voice. We invite you to come and learn the simple process we use to overcome the limiting beliefs holding you back and hear God clearly for your next steps.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: When we were able to see ourselves as God does and break free from the enemy's lies, our lives changed completely. Where we once walked in fear and discouragement, now we walk in victory. Instead of waking up depleted before the day even starts, we wake up ready to to walk in the fulfillment of our calling.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: So head right now to joshandkarina.com coaching and get started on your path to freedom.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Have you ever read the Bible and felt condemned?
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: I know that we both have experienced that so often where you're maybe not living up to what you're reading in scripture and you open the word to feel encouraged and you walk away feeling like I have to be better, I have to do better. There's so much, so many areas where I'm falling short and I know I used to happen to me all the time where I would be reading my Bible and I would read something that would just pierce my heart. And instead of leaning into conviction, I would walk away with condemnation because I didn't know how to look at myself the way that God sees me.
And so for me, that really took a journey of allowing the Lord to meet me in my place of pain and in the middle of my sin, really, where he came in and he said, hey, I still love you. I forgive you, even though you're doing something that I didn't I don't want you to do. I'm right here with you, and there's grace for you. And he taught me how to grow and to change and to become who he made me to be, even in the midst of pulling myself out. Not really me, but allowing him to pull me out of the pit. And so it was really his meeting me in the middle of my. Of my sin that empowered me to change so that my life can actually reflect who I am in Christ. But it was a journey of accepting his grace and learning who I am in him before I could really step into that.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah, And I had a similar journey as well.
I really came from a background of trying to earn God's love, trying to make up for my past mistakes, trying to. Basically, I was trying to earn my salvation, which is just, we can't do that. You know, we're saved by grace alone.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Not by our works. But I was trying to earn God's love and his favor to make up for those mistakes that I had made. And I came to a point where I realized, you know, that was not healthy.
I realized I couldn't. I had all these things in my life that I needed to change, I knew were not healthy for me. I just needed God's help. I couldn't do it on my own. I had tried for so long. I couldn't transform myself by my own power. I tried all the things, and I got to a point where I was like, God, I need your grace.
And I realized I had to yield to his process and allow him to change me, allow him to do the work.
We don't get changed by our own efforts. It's only by God's grace, which is his supernatural power to change. And once we realize I'm just yielding to grace and I'm going to do what he tells me to do today and walk out step by step, just following Him. That's where I really started to see the change in my life and understand who I was in Christ before that. I don't know I was so, so confused about what I was trying to do, trying to be.
And once I yielded to grace, that's when God started to say, okay, this is who I created you to be. And then it's just a process of following him day by day.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that you, what you said is key, that you were trying to be right. And when we approach the Word with the sense that I have to try to be this, I have to try to be righteous, I have to try to be a good person, I've tried to be holy and perfect, there's no way we can do those things on our own. And so you see the scripture and you know, James says the scripture is a mirror and it reflects and we see ourselves back in them. It's like, oh my gosh, it's bad.
It's bad. Yeah, it's bad. It's like Isaiah, right? Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips. And so when we're looking at the scripture trying to become the thing that the scripture is saying, and we think we have to do it on our own, it's impossible. It's a hopeless situation.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: You can't do it. Yeah, you can't do it.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: It has to be God's grace.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: It has to be him changing us. And the only way that happens is if we take what the scripture says and we allow God to make us into that person and recognize I don't have to do those things. It's the Holy Spirit that does them in me and through me. And so surrendering our need to be the ones who do it is really huge.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Our identity is so key. And specifically our beliefs about our identity are the key because we can't consistently do what we don't believe we are. If you've ever tried to fake it till you make it, you know what that feels like. It's so hard because you really, you end up self sabotaging because you don't believe you can do it. You think, I can't do this. I can't be holy, I can't be righteous.
And you don't believe those things are already true about yourself. Then you really start messing up because you believe I'm a sinful person.
You know, I'm so sinful, I'm so bad, I'm a terrible person. You have these bad beliefs about yourself when God's word actually says the complete opposite. And once you get those identity truths from God's Word solidified in your beliefs, then you see the transformation happen, then you can consistently walk out those things that God says you are. That is the key to transformation. That's the key to living that Holy Spirit led life, that life of freedom that God has promised us. That seems so elusive. We know, we've been there, we've tried to make it happen on our own, and it is impossible.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So what does the Bible say? The first thing is, you are forgiven. 1 John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You are forgiven. You don't have to live in shame. If you have confessed your sin, then he has forgiven you. I know as a child, especially growing up in church, every time there was an altar call, I was the first one up there because I knew that I was not living up to the standard. And so I was always like, I need to get saved.
I need to confess again.
But the reality is, he's forgiven you. And your sins, they're washed away. You've been made white as snow. And you don't have to live in shame. You do not have to live under the condemnation that comes from being a sinner, because you're not. You are forgiven. He has forgiven you and he has cleansed you from all unrighteousness.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Romans 6, 7 says, we are free from sin. That is huge. I had trouble believing that for a really long, long time. I always felt I'm a sinful person. In fact, so many of us are taught we're sinful. We're just sinners saved by grace. And it's true we are saved by grace alone.
But once Jesus died on the cross and he rose again, he paid the price for our sins. That wipes away our sin completely. And that's no longer in us. If we sin, it's by mistake. It's not because it's coming out of who we are. It's not our identity anymore. We're not sinners. We've been purified by Christ. We are made righteous. And we have so many more verses we're going to get to that. Illuminate that even more. I'm so excited. John 8:36 says, who the Son sets free is free indeed. We are free from sin. We're not slaves to it anymore.
Jesus did the work. He set us free once and for all. You are no longer bound to sin. And if it feels like you're stuck in sin, that's not because that's who you are. That part of you is gone.
It's Dead, you are free from sin. And so it's just a matter of getting your identity beliefs correct about yourself believing the right things and trusting in God's grace to get you free in your behaviors. So we got to get our beliefs right first, and then our behaviors will follow. Because like I said, we can't consistently do what we don't believe we are. So we got to get those beliefs right first.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: And for me, that was huge. Was key for me to step into my identity as forgiven. And like the Lord saying, I forgive you. I forgave you three weeks ago. I forgave you a month ago. I forgave you before you even did that. I knew you would mess up. And I always like to think about, once we had kids, I had this experience of I'm carrying this child who I love so much. I've never met them, and I know they're gonna fail. I know they're gonna screw up. I know they're gonna make me mad. I know they're gonna do things that I'm not super happy, proud of or happy about, but I love them anyway. And it gave me this fresh perspective of how God sees me, that he knew before he created me that I would screw up.
He knew that I was. That I'm human and. And he loved me and he chose me anyway. And not only that, but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He forgave us. He died for us while we were still in our sin. So. So recognizing that I am forgiven now and forever because of Jesus, that gives me the freedom to actually stop patterns of sin. And it doesn't feel like it should be that way. It feels like there should be a stop, and then I can live in that identity of being forgiven. But in reality, he's forgiven me before it ever happened. He forgave me before the first time I ever sinned. And so recognizing that you are forgiven is so huge. So grab onto that truth that you are forgiven.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if you, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.
This means that you are a brand new creation. When you accept Jesus, your old sin nature is completely dead. Stop trying to resurrect a dead guy.
He's gone. Leave him in the grave. That sin nature is gone. And that means you don't have to sin anymore. But if you believe you're a sinner, you're going to continue to sin by faith, so you got to believe. No, I'm a New creation. So when you do mess up, you say, that's not me.
That's not my nature. That's some weird anomaly.
I don't know why that happened. That's not who I am. I'm a new creation.
I'm pure and blameless in his sight. That old part of me is dead. And so that allows you to move in freedom, to walk in the freedom that Jesus paid for.
And you know, we've been there.
It feels hard. You feel, like I'm stuck in sin. I'm never going to get out of this. But once we reframe how we look at ourselves and we say, no, actually, that's some previous part of me that's completely dead. That part's dead. I'm a new creation. I live a new life in Christ. Then you start to see that freedom happen. It's so important.
And the other key is that your past does not define you.
God does.
I'll say it again. Your past does not define you. God does.
Because that old sin nature is dead. Jesus paid for it. It's gone. And you don't have to live that life anymore. You can live free in Christ as the new creation that he created you to be.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: We're not saying that. If you just decide or just choose to believe, like, oh, I'm a new creation, I'm forgiven, you're never going to sin again. It's not what we're saying. We're all human and we all make mistakes, but it's not who you and I think. That is the lie that the enemy tells us, that if you do something wrong, that is now who you are, right? If. If I stole a candy from the grocery store when I was seven, then now I'm a thief, right? Or if I looked at something I wasn't supposed to on the Internet, now I'm a pervert, whatever it might be. The enemy tries to label us based on our sin. And God never does that. He labels us. He calls us who we are because of Christ. And so he calls you forgiven, and he calls you a new creation, because that is who you are. It doesn't mean that you're perfect. You're never gonna do anything wrong. But what it does mean is that when something does happen, when you do fall into temptation, when you do something that you're not supposed to do, there's grace, there's forgiveness. And that is no longer coming out of that place of who you are before Christ. We are sinners. We can't help it. We're bound by the law of the flesh and by the nature of sin. But when we come to Christ we are set free from that. And so that's the beautiful thing is that you don't have to choose to live that way anymore. You can choose to step into this new identity. But it does take renewing your mind with the truth and allowing the Lord to do the transformative work in you. Rest assured that it's coming. But putting on that new identity time and time again, day after day, every time you. You hear that, that pull, you feel that pull of sin. Put on that new identity. I am forgiven. I am a new creation. I don't have to live that way anymore. This is not who I am.
I refuse to be that old person that to be I'm a new creation. But not only that. Guess what? You are the righteousness of God. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
God sees you as holy and acceptable. You are made perfect in Christ. That means you are completely whole before God. You are the righteousness of God. And I. This is so beautiful to me because I don't always feel righteous. My thoughts don't always come naturally righteous in my mind. Sometimes they come a little bit grumpy a little bit. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed a little bit this morning. The sandwich would not fit in the sandwich baggie. It took everything within me not to just burst it open. I was literally going Hulk on the sandwich bag. I was so angry. But those are. Those are natural things. But I don't have to live in that. I don't have to spend the rest of the day angry because I've been made righteous. And so I can say wow, that was weird or that was annoying or whatever. Set it aside and move on with my life and step back into who I am called and created to be. Because I am the righteousness of God. I don't have to live in those old patterns anymore.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: That is incredible. We are the righteousness of God. What an amazing verse. What an amazing truth that God has revealed to us. We couldn't be any more righteous.
Right?
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: And that. It almost feels wrong. But that's God's word. Word.
And it. It feels wrong because it doesn't line up with our experience. But.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: We need to align our beliefs with what God says. Not what we've experienced. Because so many times life feels wrong. It doesn't match up. But we gotta say this is what God's word says. Yeah, I am the righteousness of God. Jesus took our sin. He bore it so that we don't have to. You are forgiven and perfected in Christ by the work he did on the cross. You're no longer separated from Him. You can come before him with confidence, as it says in Hebrews 4:16. Come boldly into the throne room.
It's so good what Jesus did. We are barely beginning to fathom what Jesus did. When we become the righteousness of God, that means that we are perfect in his sight.
Otherwise we couldn't come into his presence.
We would be destroyed because he's perfectly righteous. But Jesus allowed for us to come into his presence by the perfect, complete work of the cross. So good. Once you start to get that in your heart, it transforms the way that you see yourself. You carry yourself, your shoulders a little bit back, you stand a little taller. I'm the righteousness of God.
Wow. You are the righteousness of God. Carry that in your everyday life and you will walk differently.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Well, and recognizing that sin separates us from God, when we are sinners, we can't come into his presence. We can't come before Him. And so recognizing that the righteousness of Christ being imparted to us, given to us as if it were ours, allows us to come into his presence. That is so beautiful. And if you need further proof of that, when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two so that we could come into the holy of holies. We could come into that through room of grace, with confidence and boldness. Like. Like justice said, but also like Hebrews says, that it's available to us. There's mercy to be found in his presence. And. Ugh, that just. It's the best. It's the best to know that I can come to him whenever I have something going on, whenever something is painful, difficult, whenever I'm stuck, when. When I feel stuck in a sin issue, I can come before his throne and there is grace for me there, and there's mercy to cover me. It's so beautiful.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Another verse that we Love is Ephesians 2, 6. It says, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
I'd just like to point out that it says seated, past tense.
It already happened. We are seated. This is not for the future.
When we go to heaven, we'll be seated with Jesus, which is true. We will be. We already are seated with him right now. Even as we sit on earth we are also seated in Christ in heavenly places. And that to me, is such a beautiful picture of what God has done. We are above, not beneath our circumstances.
You are already seated in heavenly places. I like to just imagine myself seated with Jesus in the throne room, looking down on all my problems. It's a totally different perspective because you get to see it from Jesus Jesus eyes.
Once you see your life the way Jesus does, things are just different.
These problems that I'm dealing with right now maybe aren't as big of a deal.
Jesus is still on his throne. He's still in control.
He's still almighty, all powerful, and I am safe and secure seated with him. I can look down on my problems, see them from his perspective, and go, go. God's got this.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: And that is huge. That's the truth. I am still getting to this day, but it is worth it. Take a moment, stop, pause, and go.
I am seated with Jesus. This crisis, whatever I'm. Whatever you're dealing with today, you're seated with Jesus.
You have authority.
He has authority. He's working on your behalf in every circumstance. And whatever happens, Jesus is good.
God is good. He is taking care of you.
You can move through life with confidence because you are seated with him in heavenly places.
You have the authority of heaven on your side.
That's incredible.
All of heaven's resources is. All of what God has is yours because you are seated with him, being a place of authority. Jesus isn't up in heaven, pacing, wringing his hands, worried. Oh, no, I don't know what we're going to do about this one.
This is a tough one. He's not worried. He's seated. He's got it all under control for you.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: And when we see ourselves as seated with Christ, then we can fight from Heaven's perspective and we recognize I'm no longer under my circumstance, I'm no longer under attack. I'm no longer subject to whatever the enemy throws at me. No, I am above. I am seated with Christ and I am reigning with him. And Revelation 1, 5 and 6 says to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. You are a kingdom. You are a king and a priest. You reign with him in the heavenly places. And if you need more proof, 1st Peter 2, 9 says, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. You are a king and a priest, or a queen and a priest. If you don't want to be a king, that's okay.
You are a king and a priest before him. You have the authority of heaven on your side, like Josh said. But that means you get to reign and you get to worship and you get to rule and you get to praise from that place of being seated with Christ above the circumstance, above the situation.
And you get to see things from heaven's perspective. So you get to fight from heaven's perspective, and you get to declare and decree from heaven's perspective. You don't have to be subject to what is going on around you or what feels like might be going on inside of you, because you are seated with him and you reign and rule with Christ. Christ from heavenly places to bring heavenly solutions for your situation.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: The more we get this into our identity, it changes us. You are changed by God's Word.
God's Word is the only book where, when you read it, the author shows up every single time. That's so incredible. There's so much power. As we take the truth of what God has already said and we make that a part of ourselves. We get radically transformed.
We don't stay stuck.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: And I wanted to highlight, too, that priests get to come into God's presence. We already talked about how Jesus tore the veil and we have access, but it's not just as like, okay, I'm gonna come in. And, you know, like, I was. I'm thinking about Dorothy and and her entourage trying to come into the presence of royalty. But we're not like that. We come in with authority. We come in as priests before Him. We have access. We have a right to be there because we don't need an intermediary. Jesus is our mediator, but we don't need another person coming and standing before God. For us, you have direct access to the throne of grace. And so we encourage you to step into that. Step into your authority, step into your priesthood. Come into God's presence with confidence, knowing that you are acceptable before Him. You don't have to shrivel up. You don't have to grovel and beg to be let in. He desires you to. To come before Him. He has done everything that he could to make you righteous, to make you holy, to bring you into his presence. He loves you so much, and he longs for you to come in with that confidence that he has already paid the price.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Right now, I just Sense God's grace coming on you to step into your true identity as a king, a queen, and a priest to rule with the authority that he's already given you.
He's giving you his supernatural power to change.
You don't have to figure this out on your own. You don't have to apply it on your own.
God's grace is allowing you to just embody these truths as you read them in the Word, as you meditate on Scripture, as you make them a part of who you are. It will happen because that's what God's word does. It contains everything that you need, need to live it out. Otherwise God would be a cruel father. If he gives us a commandment, good luck following that one. That's not God's nature. He loves you too much to do that. So if he tells you to do something, he's giving you his power to do it. That is such a profound truth that has radically changed my life.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: So how can you make this a reality in your beliefs if you're feeling like, this all sounds great, and I'm glad the Bible says that, but that's not how I feel, or that doesn't feel like the truth to me. So how do I get that to be my truth? How do I get that to be my reality? Here's what we suggest. The first thing you want to do is ask God which of these verses is for you. Ask him to show you. Is there one that stuck out to you? Is there one? When we said it, you were like, whoa, that's huge. Or I never knew that. Start there and begin to memorize that verse. Go back, grab the verse, write it down, put it on your lock screen, on your phone. So every time you pick it up, you read it, post it around your house, begin to memorize the Scripture, because that's going to put the truth where it belongs, which is in your heart. It'll begin to change what you're thinking about in the situation that you're in. And then you want to ask God to identify anything that you're believing that's contrary to the. To this verse. So if. If we said you're the righteousness of Christ, and you went, oh, right, you, like, have that feeling where you're like, I'm not righteous. Okay, so what is that? What am I believing that's contrary to the truth, that makes this truth feel hard to accept. And then ask him to reveal the truth about that lie to you, give him that lie, and then say, lord, what is the truth? And he's Gonna tell you what the scripture says, but ask him for something personal. Ask him, God, show me how I am the righteousness of Christ. Show me how I am a new creation. Show me how you see me. And so you wanna identify those lies and then overcome them with the truth. And then you're gonna write a declaration based on the verse and the truth that you heard from God. So we're gonna take em, we're gonna mush em all together and we're gonna come up with a present tense declaration about yourself based on the truth of scripture and the truth that God spoke to you. Next week we're gonna take a deeper dive and talk a little bit more about declarations and how they're key to changing your beliefs. But right now, if all you do is say, I am the righteousness of Christ, Christ took on my sin, and therefore I am the righteousness of Christ. That's a great start. Start there. Put yourself into the scripture, but begin to memorize it, begin to speak it out over yourself every time you feel condemned, every time you feel, oh, I was forgiven, I confessed my sins and he cleansed me from all unrighteousness, I am forgiven. And so begin to declare that truth as you memorize the Scriptures, speak it out over yourself and you'll begin to see that your feelings about yourself and your situation, they will change.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Knowing your identity in Christ is so key to living in freedom. And so if you're struggling with understanding who he created you to be, understanding all of those truths that we went over, getting those inside of you, if you struggle with that, we would love to work with you. This is the first thing we do with all of our clients, is talk about who you are in Christ, asking God, reveal to me who you created me to be. What is the truth in your scripture that you say about me? And once you get that, that is the first step to huge, huge transformation. That life that you've always dreamed of, that abundant life that God has promised you, you is available to you. So if you need some help, if this feels like a struggle, if this feels hard, if it feels like I've tried this for so many years, I've read the Word and I'm still the same. I don't feel different. If you feel like that, check us out. Joshandkarina.com coaching we would love to come beside you, help you figure out those lies that are holding you back, and then replace that with the truth of God's word, what he's speaking over you, you right now, for today, so that you can be forever changed to be the person you know God created you to be. So check us out. We would love to coach you through that. It gives us so much joy when we see what God is capable of doing in each person's life. He has an amazing plan for you and it's not to be stuck. It's not to be the same forever. You can be different because God's power is moving in you right now.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Thanks for spending this time with us. We hope you were blessed and encouraged and we will catch you next time.
Hey friend. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share this podcast with someone who may need encouragement or practical tools for fighting their battle?
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Then rate and review this podcast. Help us spread the message of transformation far and wide.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: All right, time to walk back into the noise with peace, purpose and maybe a tiny bit of guffing.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: We'll meet you back next Thursday for another episode. Bye.
