How Does God See You vs. How You See Yourself?

SHEELAT. HAHAM. HATZI. TSHUVA.

A Rabbi shared this wise saying with me many years ago. I'm told it's Hebrew for A WISE MAN’S QUESTION IS HALF THE ANSWER.

1. So then, let's start out with these three questions. How does God see you?
2. How do you see yourself?
3. How does Satan deceive us?

One of the most important revelations we can get from the Word of God is to understand who we are in Christ. Identifying with Christ will change the way we live and cause us to rise above adversity. But not understanding our identity in Him will keep us living far below our rights and privileges in Christ.

Have you ever heard this declaration?

This is my Bible.

I am what it says I am.

I can do what it says I can do.

Considering that less than 5% of Christians have made the Bible the center of their lives, and less than 10% read it on a regular basis, I'm guessing this is a truer statement.

This is my Bible.

I don’t know what it says.

I don’t know who I am.

I don’t know what I can do.

If you don’t know (have the Biblical knowledge) of who you are in Christ, your authority in Christ, and the power of Christ that backs your authority, Satan will do to you and your family, what he did to Job’s family. 

Hosea 4:6 (NIV) - MY PEOPLE (GOD’S PEOPLE) are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

John 10:10 (NIV) - The thief comes ONLY to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV) - Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist (How? Use our power & authority) him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Job 1:9-10 (NIV) - “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.

* text in brackets are mine

So how does satan deceive us? He gets us to believe in a false identity based on:

1.  The way you grew up
2. Circumstances
3. Thoughts
4. Feelings
5. Success and failures
6. Financial status

This is what has shaped our False Identity. And to boot, the church has spent too much time correcting actions rather than revealing identity.

When you have someone that doesn’t know who they are, everything they do will be an effort to try to make themselves into something — to create their own identity. They will devote every effort to become a person of significance, instead of understanding that they are already significant.

If you put your identity in what you can do instead of who God says you already are, then you’ll be on this perpetual cycle trying to earn approval and gain something that you already have.

1. We all have three images of identity: Projected Image - How you want others to see you
2. Perceived Image - How others see you
3. Actual Image - Who I am 

Deep inside every one of us is a need and drive for significance.

- A craving to be known

- To have influence

- To excel

- To be respected

- To be important

- To be acknowledged

- To have a name

- To leave a legacy

We all fear a shallow existence.

- A life that amounts to nothing

- Doing a bunch of work that goes unnoticed

- We want purpose.

- We want greatness

- Even the disciples argued about who was the greatest

- And in sports, business, and entertainment ... it's about who’s the best, the top dog, the king

God has given us a new identity!1 Peter 2:9 (NIV) - But you are a chosen people, a royal 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.

Instead of a sinner, you are now called a Christian.

Instead of lost, you are called found.

Instead of an enemy, you are called a friend.

Instead of unrighteous, you are called righteous.

Instead of sick, you are called healed.

Instead of the poor, you are called rich.

(2 Cor 5:17, 2 Cor 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24, 2 Cor 8:9, Eph 1:6,  Rom 6:2-22)

Your identity is not found in what you do. Your identity is found in who God says you are. There is nothing you can do to change your identity because your identity is already established (as a believer). It’s not about trying to manage who you were. It’s about learning to live out who you have become.

God chose you!! 

John 15:15-16 (NIV) - I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

Ephesians 1:4 (NIV) - For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

Ephesians 1:11 (NIV) - In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

Ephesians 1:18 (NIV) - I pray 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 his holy people,

It’s when you realize who you are, that you realize that you were behaving below your nature — you were living short of your potential.

-Gerald