START HERE • STAGE 2
Before You Do Anything Else
Read This About Who You Are In Christ.
The identity series starts here. This is why it matters.
Most believers start in the wrong place.
They begin the Christian life focused on what they need to do — read the Bible more, pray more, sin less, serve more, be better. All of those things matter. But when you start there, you build on a foundation that cannot hold the weight of what God is calling you to.
Here is the problem: you cannot consistently live from an identity you do not know you have.
A child adopted into a wealthy family who still thinks like an orphan will make orphan decisions. He will beg for things he already owns, compete for approval he has already been given, and fear rejection from a Father who has chosen him permanently.
Behavior doesn't change until identity changes. Identity doesn't change in the mind until the mind is renewed by the truth already true in Christ.
That is what this series is about. Not behavior modification. Identity revelation.
Why Identity Has to Come Before Behavior
There is a sequence in Scripture that most teaching skips over.
In Ephesians, Paul spends three chapters establishing who believers are in Christ before giving a single command about how to live. Three chapters of declaration — you are chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed, raised up, seated with Christ, before one instruction about conduct.
That is not an accident. Paul is not disorganized. He is theologically precise about the order.
The indicative — what is true about you — always precedes the imperative — what you are called to do. Being before doing. Identity before behavior.
Why? Because Jesus said it Himself:
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
— Matthew 7:18
The fruit does not determine the tree. The tree determines the fruit. You do not become a good tree by producing good fruit but produce good fruit because you are a good tree.
When you know who you are in Christ — really know it, at the level where it shapes how you think about yourself, behavior follows. Not perfectly or without struggle, but from a different place than willpower and performance.
You stop trying to become what you already are. You start living from it.
What Happens When You Don't Know Who You Are
The enemy is not primarily interested in your behavior. He is interested in your identity — because he knows that if he can keep you confused about who you are, your behavior takes care of itself.
Think about how he opened his attack on Jesus in the wilderness:
And the tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.'
— Matthew 4:3
Notice the opening move. Not 'do something evil.' He started with: If you are the Son of God.
He attacked the identity first. Because if he could get Jesus to act from a place of uncertainty about who He was, everything else would follow.
He uses the exact same strategy on believers today. The whisper sounds like:
You're not really forgiven — not after what you did.
You don't belong here. Real Christians don't struggle like this.
God may love other people, but He's disappointed in you specifically.
You have to earn your way back every time you fail.
None of those statements are true. But a believer who does not know what God's Word says about their identity has no answer for them. They feel true. And feelings, left unchallenged by truth, function as facts.
That is exactly why Paul writes in Romans 12:2 that transformation happens through the renewing of the mind, not through trying harder, not through emotional experiences, but through consistently replacing the old lies with the truth of what God has said.
The 10 Declarations — A Preview
Over the next several days, you will receive an email series walking you through 10 identity declarations rooted in Scripture. Here is a preview of what is coming:
1. I am a new creation in Christ.
2. I am a child of God.
3. I am forgiven and fully redeemed.
4. I am the righteousness of God in Christ.
5. I am chosen and loved.
6. I am sealed by the Holy Spirit.
7. I am more than a conqueror.
8. I am God's masterpiece.
9. I am free from condemnation.
10. I am seated with Christ in heavenly places.
Each one of these is not an aspiration. It is not something you are working toward or hoping to earn. Every one of these is a completed reality — already true about you right now in Christ, regardless of how your morning went, regardless of what you did last week, regardless of how you feel reading this sentence.
These declarations are drawn directly from Scripture — from what God Himself has said about everyone who is in Christ. The emails go word by word, verse by verse, into the theological foundation of each one.
How to Use This Series
A few practical things before Day 1 arrives.
Read each email slowly. These are not designed to be scanned. Each is short enough to read in five minutes but contains truths deep enough to sit with for the whole day.
Speak the declaration out loud. Every email ends with a declaration — a single sentence of truth to speak over yourself. Do not skip this. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word. Speak it.
When the enemy contradicts it, go back to the verse. The declaration is anchored to Scripture. When doubt surfaces, do not fight it with willpower. Go back to the verse. The Word is the weapon, not your determination.
Do not rush through it to get to the next thing. The believer who spends two weeks truly understanding these 10 truths will spend the rest of their life living from a different place than one who skimmed through them in a weekend.
The Series Starts Now
If you have not yet signed up to receive the email series, the opt-in is below. Day 0 arrives in your inbox today and it starts exactly where Paul starts: with the new creation.
If you have already signed up, Day 0 is already on its way.
Before you move on — read the list again. All ten of them. Read them slowly. Read them as statements of fact, not as goals.
Because that is exactly what they are.