When you think about identity so many thoughts may cross your mind about your own identity – who you are, likes and dislikes, culture, gender, finances, family and even circle of friends. Personally, this was my exact thought but as I grew, I realized identity is much more than our interests and the people in our lives. In fact, identity runs deeper and should be classified as the blood that runs through our veins. Who we are, what we do, how we operate in the world, family, career and friends are a reflection of our identity. When you think about blood flow, think about the makeup of who we are that flows through our blood vessels throughout our bodies, giving our organs oxygen that we need to breathe. In order to breathe, our blood flow requires a pump, a strong muscle to pump blood through our bodies, to keep us alive, hence, without it, we would not survive. Well, you may have already figured out, I am speaking about the heart.
When you think about a cold-blooded murderer, they tend to reflect someone who does not have a heart, but quite frankly, they do. However, the condition of the heart reflects who they are in response their actions. Therefore, the heart is the foundation of your own individual identity and a person’s heart reflects who they are, what they do, likes and dislikes, gender expression, how they see themselves and the world around them. Who you are and what you are goes hand in hand to a definite definition of individual identity based on the condition of their heart.
We live in a world where our heart is conditioned to respond through emotions, more specifically what makes an individual feel good. The more you think about it, anything we desire, whether morally righteous or immoral, makes us feel good. Our human nature responds to and are drawn to stimulants. I remember being drawn to what feels good and later facing conviction about my guilty pleasures. Some of the things that makes us feel good – drugs and alcohol, masturbation, winning a verbal argument or getting even with someone, spending money, falling in love, having sex etc., but not all make us feel good after the moment has passed. A woman may have sexual intercourse with a man who treats her like garbage but after the moment has passed, she finds herself in regret. What am I saying? The heart desires to promote a feel-good response to an internal and external stimulus no matter what the stimulant is and will continue to desire the stimulant no matter how harmful it is. Many times, stimulants create a stronghold in our lives, for example, a porn or masturbation addiction.
My identity, my breakthrough speaks to this area. Since the heart desires to feel-good, there heart also requires an identity, and we cannot rely on our heart to define who we are. This is where Christ comes in. As human beings currently existing on earth, we are drawn to emotional responses that desires to feel-good, sometimes aware and unaware of the long-term consequences of those responses. Many people become addicted to what initially started as an emotional response to a stimulant and remain in bondage for their rest of their lives. This is where breakthrough comes in but first, we must understand our origin.
God created in the world through the Word, and the Bible lets us know the Word was God and the Word is God. The Bible also lets us know there is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. When you study further, the Bible also lets us know the Word is Christ, therefore through Him all things were made and for Him all things were created. Human beings were also created, and men were created in the image of God [Genesis 2:7]. To confirm this further, Christ asked God to prepare Him a body to be like us on earth, therefore our origin and maker is God. Hence, our true identity lies in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:17 lets us know we are a new creation through Christ Jesus, meaning born again, which is to rededicate our lives to Him. Remember, when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, we became separated from God but Christ dying on the cross connected us back to God The Father. However, this connection comes when we confess our own personal sins, recognize, and accept Christ as the Savior and make a commitment to serve God.
Do you know when I spoke about the heart being a muscle that seeks our stimulants, well this is where the power of Christ comes in to transform our heart into the likeness of image of Christ, taking on the new man which is a reflection of Christ. Where Christ is, there is no room for addiction and false identity rooted in one’s own beliefs about themselves but a manifestation of the God in you. My identity, my identity is Christ, is my breakthrough, my breakthrough from anything contrary to the truth of Christ. Therefore, when the truth of Christ lives in me, this is my identity living in its fullness and totality of who I am. This doesn’t mean, I become a nun abstaining from enjoying my life but I enjoy my life in complete freedom knowing who I am and what I do is a reflection of Christ’s truth and not what I believed myself to be before I knew Christ.
Your breakthrough is knowing who you are in Christ, which is your identity.