For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Pet.1:23)

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom.6:4)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor.5:17).

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. (Gal.6:15)

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph.4:22-24)

As I said in my last blog, your identity or your self-image is essential to living the life that God has ordained for you. We live up or we live down to the expectations we have for ourselves and our identity determines those expectations. Typically, our biggest hindrance to being like Jesus, other than our fallen nature, is our past which was directed by our fallen nature. This isn’t true for every believer but is probably true for the vast majority. Somewhere in our past is a trauma or a season of sin that defined us in our own minds. Whether we see ourselves as a gross sinner, a victim, an addict, a loser, etc. that self-image was created in the past and the enemy whispers confirmations of shame, accusation, condemnation, and rejection daily in an effort to reinforce that broken, inadequate view we hold toward ourselves. When we carry that identity into our Christian life we never feel adequate to serve or worthy of blessing.

The first thing you must settle on in your heart is that when you came to Christ you were born again and that the only power your past has over you is the power you give it. You are a new creation. In Christ all things are new. But we must also understand that the “newness” is in the form of potential. Many things come to us in the kingdom in seed form. That seed of a new creation has to be watered, nurtured and prayed over. That new creation will begin to blossom and bloom when we do the things that nurture spiritual life – Bible study, quiet times with God, obedience, prayer, fellowship with people who encourage us and stretch us, and stepping out in faith to do scary things in the name of Jesus. Those are the things that water and nurture the capacity in us to leave our past behind and become a truly new creation.

Many of us continue to do what we have always done except for an hour of church on Sunday morning. Doing what we always did will not cause this new and transformed life to emerge. Doing what we always did reinforces our old identity rather than enforcing our new identity in Christ. Even ceasing to do what we used to do will not change our old ways of thinking and feeling. We must actually take on new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking in order to overwrite our old habitual lifestyle.

God wants us to take on a new, vibrant identity but it takes some effort. Here’s the thing. God will not do that for us but will do it with us. Just know that because the Spirit of God lives in you, the capacity for a brand new life and a break from your past is present. It won’t take years. You can experience that in months but you must take God at his word and then do the things needed to nurture that new life. Remember – Jesus called us to be doers of the word not just hearers.

Your past has no legal claim on you. Being born again is a positional promise in the sense that God has actually delivered you from the dominion of darkness into his kingdom of light. You have a position of being a new creation but your condition will need to come alongside that position. A slave, even though released, will continue to feel like a slave until he begins to act and speak as a free man. The beginning of your new identity in Christ is to declare each day that you have been born again, that you are a new creation, and that your past no longer has a hold on you. You are free to walk into your destiny because when “the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (Jn.8:36).