When I started my new life in Christ, one of the first things I noticed among believers in the Church was the level of humility and unblemished morality displayed even in troublesome times. But as time progresses, I began to question every form of the appearance of the outward display of humility: I thought something was not right since it looked to me as an act induced to reflect a value required in the believer's walk of faith but denying the power of God. While humility is a desired virtue found in believers, yet it was possible to show a form of false humility that has no bearing of Christ living in us.
Then I realize the reason for this is that many believers lack the basic teachings of the personality of Christ. They know Christ in the flesh as revealed in the scripture, but not Christ Jesus the King of Glory represented in the present state. Out of these, I concluded that if believers do not know the identity of Christ Jesus, then how they could claim their place in the kingdom with authority as sons and daughters baffled me.
Therefore, we as believers take for granted many things concerning our identity in Christ in relation to themselves, the present world, and the future. Some feel it is overbearing to talk about who they are in Christ as a subject that offers an inconsequential benefit. To them, when they are engaged in a discussion about identity, it looks like the excitement of the ear.
Nevertheless, I started developing cold feet after learning my knowledge in this area might lack so much in substantial detail. However, it became clear after a while that I was at the dead-end of my effort. That was when the Holy Spirit awakened my understanding to consider the important relationship between identity and authority, and that touched a live wire in me.
Then I realize the Bible has more to say about identity and authority than we can ever know. More than that, I came to know the Bible as a book that reveals more about the confrontation between heaven and earth on the issues of identity and authority. It is a book where identity encounters authority. Therein you can find the powers of darkness acknowledging the identity and authority of our Lord Jesus while denying the carnal man the same privileges.
Furthermore, I must admit my blindness over the years kept me from comprehending these truths. Since I have read and studied both in devotional and doctrinal the New Testaments, especially Acts of the Apostles more times than I can recollect, but missing the point of the story of the sons of Sceva found in Chapter 19. Yet I have never for once thought about the significance of the biblical unveiling of identity and authority so obviously displayed in plain sight in these books.
Suddenly, I discovered my focus was more on the great doctrine found in our Bible, but omitting the spiritual substance of the word of God. Something I later remedied by submitting to the Holy Spirit to teach me the missing link that completes the whole. Then something happened, and the Holy Spirit awakened me to gaze deeper into the mirror with all the distractions that kept me from looking at the scripture with an untainted lens taken away.
The breakthrough came during my engagement with our identity in Christ as revealed by the Bible. An intensive study that later yielded the ultimate discoveries of a lifetime. That was when the interplay between identity and authority took a definite silhouette.
Then I found out the historical book of the Acts of the Apostles reveals more about the great commonality between authority and identity in Christ than is expected. Out of this relationship, I saw a clear map of how God's authority establishes our identity. In the same way, our identity in Christ reinforces our authority In Christ.
Believers must know the strength of our authority rests on our adoption as sons and daughters of God. In fact, our authority is effective in the affirmation of our knowledge of the Lord. Since our walk of faith demands the full knowledge of our identity in Christ.
At the beginning of the creative works of the Lord, Adam received authority over all the creatures in the Garden of Eden because he knew who he was with God. For the Lord God had given Adam exclusive control over all the expressions of his personality with the boldness to answer the question “Who are you” which declares identity.
Adam, the first man created, had a strong identity, built upon the unchanging foundation of God. God gave him dominion and blessed him with material and spiritual blessings. When the Bible says dominion, it means executive authority over the works of God on earth.
That is one reason to have the same authority as Adam in the beginning. It requires this, that we lay hold of the substance of our identity in Christ. Adam had that unbroken authority before he sinned against God. In the same way, as believers, we can have the same authority in Christ through the forgiveness of sin and receiving the new birth experience.
That is why we must first answer and settle the question of our identity before walking in the shoes of authority. While the question of identity answers to "Who am I"? The question of authority answers to the utility of the power and purpose of identification, including He that gives meaning and substance to identity.
Therefore, knowing the Lord is the first step to victory without which the derivation of our identity is impossible. Without Christ Jesus, it is impossible to activate and execute authority, which is the power of God over any sphere. For God has delegated to the believer's authority with the knowledge of who we are in Christ.
Thence, one of the genuine issues behind the identity of believers is the question of how God restored our lost heritage, which includes our authority over the works of His hand. Because without knowing and having a recognized identity, we are powerless to use our authority over the things in the heavens and on earth. The sons of the High priest called Sceva tried using authority without identifying with the Lord Jesus in the times of the Apostles and failed woefully. It was a case of mismatching identity to execute unauthorized authority in Christ.
They had wanted to use the authority of Christ in casting out demons from people without identifying with Jesus Christ the source of the authority. They failed because they had no grounds to affirm their identity in Christ. This story fully explains the importance of having an identity derived from the Lord Jesus in line with the power of the new man.
The demons knew the men lacked the one thing needed in life, which is having a relationship and newness of life worked by the Holy Spirit of God. This is the sum of our reconciliation with God through our Lord Jesus, the origin of the new identity in Christ.
They were still maintaining the old carnal identity represented by Adam. But they needed the new from the Last Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord. Their failure to exchange the old distorted and disconnected identity for the new man's identity in Christ was their undoing.
The demon asked them who are you, a question of identity. The same demons acknowledged the superior identity of the Lord Jesus, whom they know, and the Apostles as of the Lord whom they recognized.
The power of authority comes alive when we can settle the questions of our identity based on the acceptance of the omnipotent rule and reign of God our all. The question of authority demands, we subject ourselves to the person of Christ and the power of the new man created in Him. No better way is workable than accepting who God says we are by grace.
