How Understanding Your Identity Will Reveal Your Purpose
Understanding your identity is the key to revealing your purpose. Once you begin to step into your identity in Christ and embrace and trust the covenant you are in, your purpose will start to emerge.
Let’s unpack some biblical truths about understanding your identity that will reveal your purpose.
You’ve heard of a “midlife crisis,” right? It’s a time many of us go through when we seem to have lost our identity and self-confidence. It is also a season when hope can be lost. We wonder if long-time roadblocks in our lives will ever turn into moments of rejoicing.
We struggle to see ourselves ever coming out of a situation. The problem seems bigger than the promised outcome. In fact, many Believers can lose sight of the promises of God during this time. We can get lost in the mundane and forget that we each have a hope and a future.
But this is a time to return to your roots.
This is the season for sowing into understanding your identity in Christ so that your purpose for the years ahead will be revealed.
When You Have Lost Hope | Understanding Your Identity before Your Purpose
Proverbs 13:12 says…
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”
When we have lost hope, it can make us physically, emotionally, and spiritually sick. But when we desire and long for the covenant relationship that we all were designed for, we step into our lives and purposes.
But something comes before purpose—it is the missing piece many of us skip over simply because we want the outcome.
Wanting the outcome over the covenant relationship is a dangerous place to be. Your purpose will not prevail if you don’t have a firm understanding of your identity.
Understanding Your Identity through Romans 11:17
Romans 11:17 says…
“And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,” (emphasis added)
You were once a “wild olive tree.” But now you have been grafted into the established olive tree through Christ. But what does being “grafted in” look like? Thinking about this strictly in terms of the olive tree, that wild olive tree branch becomes part of the established olive tree when it is grafted in.
Does the wild olive tree replace the established olive tree?
No.
Does the wild olive tree overtake the established olive tree?
No.
The scripture says, “grafted in among them.” Then as one, they partake in the fatness, which is the rich blessing of the cultivated olive tree. Being grafted in looks like “oneness”—the One New Man (see Ephesians 2:14-16).
Understanding Your Identity in Three Biblical Truths
Biblical Truth Number 1 about Understanding Your Identity…
The cultivated olive tree is Israel. Understanding your identity in Christ starts with understanding the family you are grafted into—the family that has been set apart by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
“… ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’”
—Exodus 3:15
Biblical Truth Number 2 about Understanding Your Identity…
In order for that wild olive tree to be grafted into the branch, it needs to be cut off from the root that was holding it back.
This is what is meant by “circumcision of the heart.”
“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,”
—Colossians 2:11
You see, the counterfeit identity must be cut away from the heart so that you can be grafted into the cultivated olive tree and “partake of the root and fatness.” Then, the seed you produce—your purpose—will take after Abraham and not Adam.
In other words, when our hearts are circumcised by Christ, we will reproduce the declaration of our freedom and inheritance—our identity—rather than the bondage of slavery and lies that were a result of Adam’s disobedience in the garden.
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
—Luke 6:45
Biblical Truth Number 3 about Understanding Your Identity…
The third truth is to believe by faith that who you are in Christ is better for you than the false labels and counterfeit identities that the world places upon you.
“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’”
—Romans 4:3
God called Abraham to leave his home and all he knew. God told him to depart from his father’s house so the Father could reveal something better to him. Abraham could have listened to those around him who were likely opposed to his leaving, but he didn’t.
“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him…”
—Genesis 12:1-4 (emphasis added)
Abraham believed God’s plan was better for him than his current situation. As a result, God revealed to Abraham his identity and purpose.
Takeaway
We can cut off the counterfeit identity that holds us back and steals our hope. We can claim our true identity in Christ as we begin to uncover the Hebraic roots of our faith. Understanding your identity is what unlocks God’s purpose in your life so that you can leave a legacy grounded in biblical truth.
Once you understand who you are, you have the power and confidence to step into your purpose.
To gain even more prophetic insights about your identity, listen to Curt Landry’s podcast with Dr. Greene about reclaiming the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Click HERE to listen now!
