Tag: Identity in Christ

  • Matthew 4:3

    Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. – Matthew 4:3

    How many of us are easily tempted by food? I have noticed something interesting every time I set my heart to fast, suddenly people start offering me food or inviting me out to eat for free. Is that just coincidence? or is it temptation? And to be honest, there have been moments when I have given in and completely forgotten that I was fasting until the Holy Spirit reminded me. Have you experienced the same thing? How weak we can be when it comes to food!

    When the Scriptures say, “when the tempter came to Him,” notice that word “when,” not “if.” When speaks of certainty. It tells us that temptation is not a possibility but a matter of time. It will come, the only unknown is the timing. as it is written,“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” The devil is not passive. he is not sleeping. he is always watching, always seeking, always waiting for the moment to tempt for he is a tempter that his identity.

    But if speaks only of possibility something that may or may not happen. And to imagine that we might live untouched by temptation is to believe a lie. As Spurgeon said, “God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without temptation.” If Jesus was tempted, we will be tempted. Temptation is certain for every child of God. As Peter also warns us, to be sober and be vigilant. For the enemy is always seeking an open door. Therefore we must not be filled with dissipation, but filled with the Holy Spirit, for only the Spirit of God can truly sober our minds. And to be vigilant means we cannot afford to slumber or sleep, we must stay awake, watchful, and alert. This is why the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” He calls us to pray to God at all times, because He knows how weak our flesh can be, even when the spirit within us is willing.

    When the Scripture says, “If You are the Son of God,” we understand that the word if speaks of possibility or condition, not certainty. This reveals one of the enemy’s first tactics to stir unbelief within us. We see this same pattern in the garden. The serpent said to Eve, “Has God indeed said…?” (Genesis 3:1), planting doubt in her heart. Then he followed with a direct contradiction of God’s Word: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). And the Words of God warns us again and again about the danger of unbelief. The Israelites could not enter the Promised Land “because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19). Even in Revelation, the Lord lists the unbelieving among those who will have no part in His Kingdom: “But the cowardly, unbelieving… shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8).

    This is why satan so often attacks us with doubt because if he can get us to doubt the Word of God, it becomes easy for him to lead us astray. That is exactly what happened to Eve, and the result was the fall of all humanity. The enemy has not changed his tactics, he still seeks to shake our assurance in what God has spoken over us. satan loves to target our identity. If he can confuse who we are, he can influence how we live. But our identity does not come from feelings, circumstances, failures, culture, or even our family background. Our identity comes from God alone. And when you know who you are in Him, the lies of the enemy lose their power.

    And this is why Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus teaching us how extremely important for every Christian to be filled with the Word of God. Physical food keeps our bodies alive, however spiritual food, which is the Word of God, keeps our spirit strong and alive. As Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). This is why we must continually feed on God’s Word, because it shapes our thoughts, strengthens our faith, and keeps our hearts aligned with His truth.

    satan says GOD says
    “You are worthless.”“Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you…”— Isaiah 43:4
    “You are ugly.”“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.”— Psalm 139:14
      “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”— Genesis 1:27
    “Your identity is whatever you feel.”“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”— Genesis 1:27
    “You are a failure. “




    “You will never change.”
    “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

    “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11 
    “God is done with you.”“…He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”— Philippians 1:6
    “You are unforgivable.”“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”— Romans 8:1
    “You are alone. No one cares.”“For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”— Hebrews 13:5
    “You will always live in fear.”“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”— 2 Timothy 1:7
    “You cannot overcome temptation.”“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”— 1 Corinthians 10:13
    “You are not really God’s child.”“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”— 1 John 3:1

    The Word of God is not only His commandments showing us how to live rightly. It is also filled with His love for us and His adoration toward His children. It is filled with His promises, His plans, and His purposes for our lives. The Scriptures reveal God’s heart and His faithfulness, and they declare who we are in Him. When we continually feed on God’s Word, we grow strong, we become firmly rooted, and we walk in the truth of our identity as God’s people.

    When the Scriptures say, “Command that these stones become bread,” we see that satan has moved from questioning Jesus’ identity to attacking His dependence on the Father’s will. First the enemy said, “If You are the Son of God,” attempting to stir doubt about who Jesus is. Now he challenges Jesus to act outside of God’s timing and God’s direction. This is the same tactic he used with Eve. The serpent said, “You will not surely die,” directly attacking what God had spoken. His goal was not only to plant doubt in Eve’s heart but also to push her to act independently of God’s will which she did. satan always targets God’s Word and God’s will, because once he gets a christian to question what God has said, it becomes easier for him to lead that believer into disobedience.

    At first glance, this temptation does not sound like an invitation to sin. Bread is good, fruit is good, and God created food to satisfy our hunger. Food itself is not evil. However, living for food is wrong. Many Christians today struggle in this area. Surveys even show that many christians are overweight, yet we often forget that when we received the LORD Jesus into our lives, Scripture teaches that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in us. We also forget that our bodies are the temple of God. It is not about what we think is good, but about what God says.

    On the surface, there seems to be nothing sinful about turning stones into bread. Many Christians think the same way about food. Yet this is part of the devil’s deceptions. satan told to the LORD Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread if He was the Son of God. satan was not only targeting the LORD Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. He was attempting something far deeper and far more dangerous. He was daring the LORD Jesus to step outside the will of the Father and use His divine power to satisfy His hunger without God’s direction. In other words, Satan tempted the LORD Jesus to act independently from the Father. His message was subtle but deadly, “Since You are the Son of God, You deserve this. You should do as You please, when You please, especially if it is something good and harmless like food.” How often do we think the same way? We say, “I deserve this,” even though our blood sugar is rising, our cholesterol is climbing, and our blood pressure is out of control. We justify our cravings rather than submit them to God.

    Scripture teaches us that even a child is subject to the Father. Being children of God does not give us permission to live outside His will. Our lives must reflect the will of our Heavenly Father. Jesus Himself modeled this for us when He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do” (John 5:19). And again, Scripture says, “Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Jesus demonstrated to us that a true child of God walks in complete dependence and obedience to the Father. This is why Paul writes, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). We are called to be led by God, not to drive our own lives. A child does not guide the Father; the Father guides the child. And in the same way, our lives must be submitted to His leading in every area.

    The LORD Jesus also knew that the will of the Father led Him into the wilderness. He understood it was the will of the Father for Him to face this temptation in a moment of extreme weakness after fasting for forty days and forty nights (Hebrews 2:17–18). The LORD Jesus fully understood that His mission on earth was not to do whatever He chose. Do we have this same mindset? Paul did. He said, “But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:24). Paul understood what The LORD Jesus understood, it is not about us anymore. It is about the will of God for our lives. We are commanded to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth.

    Even when something appears reasonable, or good, or harmless, if it is not directed by the Father, it is still disobedience. Scripture makes this truth unmistakably clear. King Saul practiced partial obedience, and God rejected him as king. The Israelites, when they were possessing the Promised Land, also repeatedly walked in partial obedience and suffered the consequences. Even Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts faced judgment because they pretended to obey God while holding back what they had promised in the presence of God. We are commanded to live and walk in the Holy Spirit, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is life and liberty. As it is written, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Corinthians 6:12). And again, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Corinthians 10:23).

    The mission of The LORD Jesus was to do only what the Father commanded, only what the Father revealed, and only what pleased the Father’s heart. This temptation was never truly about bread. It was about obedience. It was about dependence. It was about whether we would live by our Father’s will or by our own will.

    And The LORD Jesus demonstrated that true life, true strength, and true victory do not come from meeting physical needs first. They come from submitting to every word that comes from the mouth of God. This is how we are called to live. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, meaning every desire should be to please God; with all our mind, meaning our plans should align with His plans; with all our strength, meaning everything we do should be for His glory; and with all our soul, meaning our deepest longing is to spend eternity with Him. God must always be first.

  • Mark 5:27

    “When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.”– Mark 5:27

    This passage tells us about a woman who had been suffering with a bleeding condition for twelve long years. She had gone from doctor to doctor, searching for relief, hoping that someone could finally heal her. But nothing worked. Every attempt left her worse than before, and eventually she lost everything she had trying to get better.

    She heard that Jesus was passing by. Absolutely this woman heard the stories how Jesus healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame walk, fed thousands, and set people free from evil spirits. And right at that moment, Jesus was on His way to heal the daughter of a synagogue ruler. Hearing all this stirred something deep within her. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and as she’s aware to what Jesus could done, faith began to rise in her heart. She became fully convinced that if Jesus could do all those miracles for others, He could heal her too. So she said to herself, “If I can just touch His clothes, I know I’ll be made well.”

    I am going to focus on this woman’s behavior. As the Scripture says, “When she heard about Jesus…” she didn’t come directly in front of Him to ask for healing. Instead, she approached from behind, quietly and carefully, hoping only to touch the hem of His garment. And today, many women carry that same kind of belief that they are somehow less seen, less valued, or less welcome in the presence of God. Some have even been taught false ideas that Jesus is “anti-woman,” or that God only cares about men.

    Yet look at how Jesus addressed the situation and corrected this woman’s false beliefs. At that very moment, He was on His way to help a respected ruler—a man with position and authority. If God’s priority were only men, and if women were less important in His sight, then Jesus would never have stopped. He would not have paused everything, looked for her, and halted the entire crowd just to honor her faith and reveal His heart toward her.

    But Jesus refused to let her stay hidden, afraid, or ashamed to come into His presence. She was God’s child. That’s why Jesus said to her, “Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well.” He wanted her to understand that she didn’t need to sneak into God’s presence. She was His daughter not a stranger, not someone pushed aside, and not someone unworthy of His attention.

    She did not need to fear.

    She did not need to hide.

    She did not need to fight for a place in God’s heart because she already had one.

    Jesus showed her that she was seen, valued, and worthy of His full attention. Notice that He called her “daughter.” In that one word, Jesus restored the identity the enemy had stolen from her.

    To understand why she acted the way she did, why she hid? why she approached Jesus from behind? We have to go back to what the Levitical law says about women with prolonged bleeding,

    “‘If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean. Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity. Whoever touches those things shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.” Leviticus‬ ‭15:25-27‬ ‭

    Through this law, we can understand why she acted the way she did. According to Leviticus, a woman who had a discharge of blood for many days was considered unclean, and anything she touched became unclean as well.
    Anyone who touched her or anything that belonged to her was considered unclean . In her mind, if she touched Jesus, she thought He would become unclean as well. Because of that, we can understand why this woman came into Jesus’ presence with fear and trembling. She didn’t dare to approach Jesus boldly. She only reached for the hem of His garment, just enough to touch Him without being seen. She didn’t want Jesus to be defiled by her condition. She didn’t want to bring shame to Him or draw any attention to herself. For twelve long years she had lived with people avoiding her, stepping away, distancing themselves so they wouldn’t be made unclean.

    Yet the moment she touched Jesus, everything changed. Scripture says, “Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up” (Mark 5:29). Instead of her uncleanness flowing into Jesus, power flowed out of Jesus into her (Mark 5:30). Her impurity did not touch Him, His purity touched her. Her sickness didn’t reach Him, His healing power overcame her sickness.

    Jesus took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. He carried our sins in His own body on the tree. And by His stripes we are healed 

    Her condition made her live separated, avoided, and treated like an outcast—just our iniquities have separated us from our God (Isaiah 59:2) reminding us that like her, we were spiritually cut off from God’s presence. What a powerful picture of how sin affects our relationship with our heavenly Father. We all have sinned before God (Romans 3:23) and that the verdict of our sin is death (Romans 6:23). Before Jesus came, none of us had the power to save ourselves. The law judged us guilty and sin separated us from God. Her situation speaks for all of us—we were unclean, hopeless, and unable to heal or save ourselves.

    This is also why so many women today struggle with identity and their worth. The enemy fills their minds with lies, deceiving them until they don’t even realize their true identity has been stolen. Many women seek healing, value, and affirmation from the world, but the world only leaves them worse just like this woman who “spent all she had and was no better, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26).

    But this woman heard about Jesus and the Jesus she heard about is the same Jesus who will stop everything just to restore you and bring you back into your true identity. To Jesus, you are worthy! Even while the ruler’s daughter was dying, Jesus did not ignore her or treat her as less important. Jesus does not rush past people the way the world does. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is not bound by time. He is not limited by circumstances. Death has no power over Him. And if Jesus stopped for her, He will gladly stop for you as well.

    So let me ask you, Have you heard about Jesus like she did?

    Come to Jesus! not from behind, not hiding, and not feeling unworthy. Because Jesus died for you and for me, so we can approach God with confidence through His blood. Jesus defeated sin and death, the very things that separated us from God. Jesus reconciled us to the Father. Now we have full access to Jesus not only to the hem of His clothes, but to His entire being. You don’t need to sneak your way into His presence, because He already sent His presence to dwell with you through His Spirit. Jesus restored our position to the Father, and He loves you. Isn’t He the One who died for you so that you could be with Him in His Kingdom?