Who You Are Instead

Unlock Your Purpose + Discover the Reason You're Here

In chapter 1 of Identity (the first book in the LifeLift framework) we observe that Jesus shows us who the Father is. I illustrate this on the following graphic with the line from Jesus to the Father, showing that Jesus reveals the Father. 

Notice also the arrow from Jesus towards us. Not only does He reveal who the Father is; He reveals our identity, too.

The fact that Jesus shows us who we are is the main idea of lesson 2 of Identity, as well as the first chapter in Purpose.

This sounds like a radical idea, but the apostle Paul actually said this (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV, emphasis added): 

…we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

Did you catch it? 

Paul said that looking at Jesus is just like looking at yourself in a mirror. 

John (one of the disciples who spent a lot of time with Peter), wrote it like this (1 John 4:17, emphasis mine):

We will have confidence in the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.

I love what John says— a lot of people are afraid of approaching God because of their sin issues. Because they’ve waffled like Simon. They’ve had some great moments and some “nonsense” moments.

Yet, even in that, John says there’s no fear of judgment, that we’re not “like that,” because we’re like Jesus. 

And Paul says we’re so much like Jesus that when we look at Jesus it’s like we’re seeing our own reflection in the mirror. 

I know. Mind-blown.

What does that mean? 

For starters, it means that I’m enough. You are, too. You’re enough. 

I mean, Jesus doesn’t lack anything, does He? 

And everything’s going His way, isn’t it? 

It’s important to begin our study on finding our purpose, discovering our spiritual gifts, and walking in supernatural empowerment here— at the subject of identity— because we don’t pursue the gifts or our purpose in order to discover our value or worth as individuals. Rather, the things we do are simply an overflow of that value spilling forth. And that value is found in our identity, in who we are, not anything we do.

You see, apart from a deep revelation of our true identity, we’ll look everywhere else to find something that we already have. Let me show you what I mean. This verse comes from James (Jesus’ little brother). 

Read it— but don’t read it like a legalist, OK? 

Here you go (James 1:23-24 NKJV):

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

Let’s unpack that verse. 

First, let’s discuss the “doing the word” thing that James mentions in the first part of the verse. At first glance it sounds like James beckons you back “into the field,” to live as a hired servant, rather than staying in the house to thrive as a son or daughter.

(This is one of the “go to” verses for people who want to “older brother” their way through Christianity— a topic we’ll discuss in the final chapter of this book.) 

Jesus was clear that "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29 NLT). 

The work you need to do is to believe that when Jesus says you’re a Peter that you’re actually a Peter instead of a Simon. That is, you’re actually a rock and not a sliver of sand.

Pastor Kris Vallaton says, “You were saved when you believed in Jesus, but you were transformed when you realized He believes in you.”

He says exactly what we need to see with this first point.

Second, let’s discuss the mirror part. This imagery sounds familiar. 

Let me ask you this: I bet if I showed you a picture of yourself you would recognize your own face, wouldn’t you?

Sure, you could.

How so?

Because you’ve seen yourself in a mirror. You know what you actually look like.

(Yeah, even little kids recognize themselves in family pictures or on the camera reel of your smartphone! They are the first person they look for in any pic! In fact, most of us adults do this, too! We know exactly what we look like!)

There’s no way you’d be confused about you, correct?

Yet James says this is what we’re prone to do. Spiritually, anyway.

He says it’s exactly the same. In the same way that we don’t forget who we are physically, we shouldn’t forget who we are in Christ— as new creations, as His image bearers, as people for whom He’s called forth greatness.

It means we don’t get “tripped up” over our mess-ups. Like Peter, we’ll have episodes in which the evidence seems to suggest that we’re not who Jesus says we are. In time, though, Jesus is right— 100% of the time.