Stolen Identity
I. One Satan’s most prevalent
areas of attack is a man’s image of himself, his self-identity or how he sees
himself; ultimately how a man sees himself will determine who he is in life
A.
Prov 23:7,Mt 8:8,13, 9:18-25,12:33,15:19, 3 Jn 2, Prov 4:23-Satan works this principle
1.
EX: The Eagle and the Chickens
2.
No matter who you really are, if the enemy
can distort your view and get you to see yourself in a different way, he can
keep you from being who you really are and walking it out in your life
3.
God can say something about you, but if you
don’t believe it you won’t walk in it
B.
Adam-Satan knows they are like God, but if he
can get them to believe they’re not he can keep the God-like identity from
coming to pass in their lives
1.
Genesis 1:26-28-Who was Adam? He was a man
created like God
2.
Genesis 3:5-They believed they weren’t like
God and eating of the tree would make them like God
3.
They had the self-image/identity that they
were not like God and that’s exactly what came to pass in their lives
C.
Jesus-Matthew 4-Satan knows Jesus is the son
of God, but if he can get Jesus to believe he is not the son of God, he can
keep that from manifesting in Jesus’ life
1.
Satan’s Plan: If Jesus would have tried to
turn those rocks into bread he would have failed because he wouldn’t have been
acting on the words of God in faith, but on the words of Satan in fear; if he
failed then the next thing that would have begun is him questioning his
identity; maybe I’m not the son of God because the son of God should be able to
turn rocks into bread; he wouldn’t have fulfilled his ministry and maybe would
have worked as a carpenter all his life, while the whole time he really his the
son of God, but the enemy would have stolen his identity
D.
We can be like God, the righteousness of God,
redeemed from the curse, joint-heir with Jesus, have authority over the devil,
but if Satan can get us to see ourselves differently, then he can keep all of
that from coming to pass in our lives
II. Satan’s main concern is not
who you are, but how do you see yourself
A.
Who you really are becomes irrelevant when you
see yourself a different way; the real you won’t show up
1.
Satan does not have the ability to change who
you are; however through deception he can change your self-identity
B.
The children of Israel had an identity crisis
1.
If Satan can steal our identity, he can keep
our potential from manifesting
a.
Exodus 33:1-4-Their potential is to possess
the land, but if their identity is stolen, this potential will not manifest
2.
As long as your identity is unknown your
potential will be unmanifested-when you don’t know
who you are you won’t know what you can do-Mark 4:35
a.
Their identity: Let us pass over to the other
side---Their potential: Nothing could stop them
b.
The storm came, but they didn’t know who they
were and consequently the potential they had to stop that storm was never
released
c.
Jesus knows who he is and because he did his
potential was released and he stopped the storm
d.
Somehow in their minds they got the image
that the storm was bigger than them, but when Jesus spoke those words, he gave
them their identity and their potential
3.
Satan used those10 spies to reflect and a
distorted image to the people (Num 13)
a.
They saw themselves as not being able to take
that land
1)
That’s not really who they were, but that’s how
they saw themselves
2)
They got their identity from the wrong
source/mirror
3)
Numbers 14-They died in the wilderness with
the potential to go into the promise land, but that potential remained locked
up because they didn’t know who they were
b.
Religious correctness will always have a
voice that’s trying to shape your image and keep your potential trapped
1)
When people who know who they are encounter
people who don’t know who they are they’ll get mad
2)
They got mad at Joshua and Caleb (Numbers
14:7-10)
3)
They got made a David (1 Samuel 17)
a)
28,33-Voices trying to shape his image;
trying to get him to believe that he is something other than what God said he
was to keep the potential that he had to defeat Goliath locked up
b)
26-David knew who he was, knew who his enemy
was
c)
The reality was every one of those men could
have done what David did, but the potential stayed locked up because they
didn’t know who they were
4)
They got mad Jesus (John 10:34-38)
c.
Josh 14:7-Caleb was still running with the
image of who God said he was
1)
They looked in the right mirror and knew who
they were and their potential was unlocked
III. Your view is distorted and
your identity is stolen when you look into a funhouse mirror
A.
The word is likened to a mirror and to find
out about me I look into the mirror (Js 1)
1.
A mirror reflects back to you who you are
right now
a.
Whatever the mirror says you are, you are; You
might feel a different way, but the mirror will never lie
2.
The process of change says: you see yourself
as an unrighteous, condemned sinner, but then you look into the mirror and it
reflects back to you that you really are the righteousness of God and you
continue to look into that and as you do you believe it more and more and you
start acting like that
B.
We got to find ourselves in the scripture (John
1:22, Luke 4:16)
C.
Who told you that? Don’t get your image from
a distorted mirror – Genesis 3:11
1.
God is supposed to be the source of our
knowledge
a.
God didn’t tell Adam that so he wanted to
know where he got that
b.
Adam got that knowledge through his five
physical senses and his senses told his mind and his mind told his spirit and
now he believes he’s naked because of what his senses said
1)
He’s living from the outside in when before
his spirit was getting in from God and his spirit was telling his mind what to
think and his body what to
2.
Where are you getting your knowledge (about
you) from?
a.
“I’m depressed, I’m unworthy” – The
mirror didn’t tell you that
b.
You believe that about yourself and as you
think in your heart so are you
3.
Your feelings will distort who you are, but
the mirror never lies
a.
Stop feeling to find out who you are and start
looking in the mirror
b.
Some believers need to take a good long
continued forever look in the mirror
c.
EX: Women don’t feel to see if their make-up
is good, they look in the mirror