Spiritual Truth: When we don’t know our identity as sons and daughters of God, we begin to settle or accept a state of existence that is inconsistent with God’s will for us

• Inheritance has everything to do with knowing your identity in Christ
• Why do we settle today? And how do we get ourselves unstuck?
• I believe the Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15 shows a clear picture of a child of God reclaiming his identity

1. Revelation

Luke 15:17 - “…When he came to himself, he said, how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!…”

• Suddenly the light bulb went on and he was who he needed to be
• Sometimes God will take you to the pigpen to remind you who you are supposed to be
• Sometimes we identify with what we own and forget about what was given to us
• He had a revelation of WHO HIS FATHER IS AND WHO HE IS TO HIS FATHER
• We need a revelation of who we really are in Christ
• You’re not who you’re supposed to be

• Once his thinking cleared up, he didn’t think about ways to make the pigpen better

• When the revelation is clear the obedience becomes radical

  • You’re not thinking about ways to make the pigpen better
  • I will arise and go, I need to go home, I need to go to my Father
  • The revelation changed his thinking which caused a change is his believing
  • When his belief changed his response changed
  • When he thought of his father it was no longer give me but make me
    
    • You no longer live under the law of earning and deserving
    • You live under the law of grace through the Spirit of Adoption
    • And now you believe and receive
  • There promises that require you to have the right key/response
    
    • But your work doesn’t obligate God to do something He had already decided He wanted to do
    • Your work unlocks the promise because you obeyed the stipulation He put forth

• As shocking as the news was, I was profoundly aware that I am a daughter of the King of kings and the Lord of lords

  • Because of Jesus’ death, life, and resurrection, I have been adopted into the family of God
  • Knowing that truth… and I had worked hard at knowing my identity in Christ because I was so messed up from my past when I first got saved
  • I spent years immersed in the Word learning who I was in Christ
  • Who I was as a daughter of the King and what I had access to being in Christ
  • Knowing those truths deep down in my heart (revelation) not just knowing it in my head is what helped me to navigate an extremely difficult season
  • Knowing who I am in Christ, knowing the Word of God, knowing how God felt towards me gave me a sense of identity, belonging, security, significance, and stability
  • When everything I thought to be true was shaken
  • Knowing who I am in Christ kept me from being shaken and kept me grounded
  • Understanding that we have been adopted into the family of God and everything that comes with that is central to our lives as Jesus followers
  • Discover the immense importance of your true identity in Christ as a child and heir of God
  • How God can hold you in a world full of shaking, division, chaos, where your identity is being pummeled left and right
  • Knowing who you are actually transforms everything and keep you grounded

2. Response

Luke 15:18, 20 (NKJV) - “…I will arise and go to my father… and he arose and came to his father…”

• The greater the clarity of the revelation the more courageous the obedience
• Move from thinking to believing to doing
• How many of us need to rise up out of the pen we find ourselves in today?
• I will arise and go to my Heavenly Father
• I will not continue to stay down
• Why would he say I have sinned against heaven?
• In his clear thinking, he didn’t blame his brother, friends, boss, or pigs
• He recognized his misery without focusing on it and focused on his father
• He didn’t think about the palace, or the village, or the things
• He thought about his father
• This is how we need to come back to God - to come back to Him first and foremost, before coming back to church or coming back to Christian friends
• The son didn’t just stop at thinking, he actually did it
• He didn’t just feel sorry and think about repenting
• Some of us think ourselves into perdition
• May you, by divine grace, be turned from thinking to believing, or else your thoughts will become the undying worm of your torment

3. Ask the Father to Mold My Thinking

Luke 15:19 (NKJV) - “…Make me like one of your hired hands…”
- Move from give me to make me

Conclusion

• Information leads to relationship
• The person you allow in becomes the person who starts feeding you
• Their hearts were on fire because the Word of God will always lead you to an encounter with God