Creflo Dollar - How To Avoid Identity Theft - Part 2
So, while Adam was originally created in God's image, Satan stole that identity from him and ultimately stole it from us. So the fall changed everything. And as a result of the fall in Eden, we are born in Adam's spiritual image, spiritually dead, not God's image. Does everybody see that now? So it's only when we receive new life in our spirits that we are recreated and renewed again in God's image. So the day you got born again, life came back in, and you're no longer spiritually dead, because you got born again and the Holy Ghost joined his Spirit with your spirit, and now we're recreated, and now we renewed, and now we are in God's image. We regain the spiritual identity that God intended for us to have.
Look at Colossians 3, 9 and 10 in the NLT. Colossians 3, 9 and 10 in the NLT. So the day you got born again, life came, restored you from spiritual death, you regain that identity that God intended for us to have, and then in Colossians 9 and 10, he says, "Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him". Oh my goodness. So because of our death with Jesus, we're now reborn. We're plugged into the life of God. We've been recreated in the image of Jesus Christ.
Now I'm gonna show you the scripture now. 1 John chapter 4:17. I'm gonna show you the scripture, and I don't want you to read it lightly. I want you to take it in light of what we're talking about here. 1 John chapter 4:17, it says, "And as we live in God, as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him". Lord have mercy, "We can face him," how? "Because we live like Jesus here in this world". We can be confident because we live like him in this world, because we're like him. Now look at this in the King James, 1 John 4:17. I gotta have confidence in this. You gotta have confidence in this, and that's the thing that's gonna be under attack. Your confidence about your identity is gonna be under the attack. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is".
As he is... alright now, let me amplify it some. As he is the Son of God, so are we the sons and daughters of God in this world. Yeah, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. You don't hear what I'm saying? Let me show you something, go to 1 John 3, 1 John 3, 20 through 21 in the NLT. Let's start with the King James first and then the NLT. You gotta have confidence in this. You gotta have confidence. The King James says, "For if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knoweth all things". Twenty one, "Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God". Now, look at this in the NLT, look at this in the NLT. "Even if we feel guilty..."
How many you ever felt guilty about something before? You ain't got to raise your hands. That's everybody in the room. "Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings". Say it with me. God is greater than my feelings. And he knows everything. Okay. He says now, "Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, then we can come to God with bold confidence". Now think about this, if he's gonna get you, if he's gonna rob you of your identity, somehow, he's gonna use guilt to try to get you not to have confidence in who he said you are. So you gotta watch out for the guilt. When the guilt shows up, you gotta realize God's greater than your guilt. When the shame shows up, shame is less about what you've done, and more about trying to convince you who you are, feeling shameful.
Condemnation, those are feelings, and he says, God is greater than those feelings. But Satan has always tried to use feelings to get you to doubt your identity. And if you feel like a bad man, then you identify as a bad man. If you feel just any kind of way that's outside of the Word of God, then Satan will try to say that's who you are. You are as you feel. You are as you behave is what Satan will do. You behave bad, you bad. And what God is trying to say is, what you do and how you feel did not determine your identity. I determined your identity. Ah, we gonna keep rolling. You gonna get this. As new creations, we are already like Christ in our human spirit.
As new creations, we're already like Christ in our human spirit. Everybody that's born again, you're already like Christ in your spirit. We are called to live out this new identity as our minds get renewed to the truth of this grace of God, of who we really are. We got our minds renewed to who we really are, who we really are at the very core. Now, listen, there is no cleaning up of the old, it can only be replaced. It can only be replaced. This is exactly what happens to us at salvation. The old goes away and the new arrives. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 says it like this, 2 Corinthians 5:17. See, there are a lot of people trying to clean up the old.
Now you can't clean up the old, you gotta get rid of the old. "Therefore if any man be in Christ," say out loud. I'm in Christ. I'm born again in Christ. So I'm a new creature, he says, "he is a new creature". He said, "Old things have passed away," they moved and they've been replaced. "Behold, all things are become new". So God didn't try to clean you up. He replaced the old with the new. We are reborn in God's image. Now because we are now in Christ, we are now in Christ. The day you got born again, you are now in Christ. Don't look at your behavior, don't look at what you did. We'll get to that. You are now in Christ. You are born again, now in Christ. We are in a safe place. I'm in Christ, I'm in a safe place. There are just certain things that can't happen to me like me missing heaven. I'm in a safe place. Y'all understand what I'm saying?
In order to fix this thing, he had to change, he had to put me in the right location. I'm in a safe place. We are hidden with Christ in God, hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 in NLT. Look at that, look at that. I normally pass these scriptures by, but when you're fighting religion and folks saying stuff and they don't, it ain't in the Bible, and then, you know, you done heard it all your life and now you look at it as the truth. He says, "For you died to this life, your real life is hidden with Christ in God. You died to this life, your real life is hidden in Christ". So we tossed around phrases like, being out of fellowship. You ever heard that before? He out of fellowship. Phrases like, "Well, we trying to get close to God, all the while, God's Spirit is bearing witness. If we would only listen, that we are one Spirit with him". Ain't no out of fellowship. You one Spirit with him.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6:17, NLT. 1 Corinthians chapter 6:17, NLT. He says, "But the person who is joined to the Lord," how many of you are joined to the Lord? You got born again, you joined to the Lord, right? "He is one Spirit with him". I am one Spirit with him. Oh my goodness. And you know, you have to have confidence in that. I'm one Spirit with him. Alright now, watch this now. We're hidden safely in him. We're hidden safely with him, according to what I just showed you. We're hidden safely in him. We are right next to Jesus. We are in the safest of all spiritual locations in God, being hugged tight by the King himself, right now. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 in the NLT. I like to hammer things home scripture, after scripture, after scripture, and then show you the same scripture all over again before I hit my point. He says, verse 30, "God has united you with Christ Jesus". How many of you believe that? "For our benefit, God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, he freed us from sin".
Have you noticed something here? Everything I read here, he did. "God has united you with Christ," not me, "for our benefit. God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God". I said, Christ made you right with God, and you still trying to get right with God. You working hard to try to get right with God. Some of you came to church this morning to get right with God, and Christ made us. You couldn't get right with God. You've been trying to get right. How many of y'all remember trying to get right with God? Before you weren't even saved trying to get right with God. I ain't gonna smoke as much as I used to. I ain't gonna drink as much, and every time you said that, you did it more, you did it more. I ain't gonna cuss as much as I used to, you did it more. Christ had to make you. You're a made man. You didn't do this on your own. He had to make you right with God. So I am the righteousness of God. I've been made, right.
And then he said, "And he made us pure," check this out, "and he made us holy". I'm holy. I don't care what you say, and I don't care what you saw, and I don't care what you heard. It's too late now. I'm born again. It's too late now, I'm already in Christ. I'm in the safest location I can ever be. I am righteous. I am pure. I am holy. Whether you think so or not, whether my behavior represents it or not. First base, that is my identity. I am holy. And watch this, and I'm free from sin. And he is able to keep me from falling. Temptation can come, but he's able to keep me from falling. Oh my God, you want me to say that? Oh, got it ready. But even if I fall, I'm still holy, I'm still his son, I'm still his child, and he'll pick me up wherever I fell, and we'll keep working at it. But I am no less a child of God when I fell, than I am when he picked me up. And because I know who I am, I'm gonna want to get up. I tell myself, wait a minute.
Boy, what you doing? You're a child of God. You wrapped up, tied up, tangled in Jesus. You fell down, and then you're like, that don't feel right. I don't like the way this feels. I know I used to like it but it don't feel good no more. It's just a mess. I'm just wasting my time. I realize I'm not supposed to be here no more. There's something that's going on, on the inside of me. You can't be wrapped up in Jesus and come out the same as you were before. I'm a child of God. I don't like that no more. I used to love cussing you out, but it don't feel right no more. You will say, something wrong with me. No, something right with you. I used to love going to bed with Tom, and Jack, and Jim. Just don't feel right no more. I don't know what's going on, but I know what's going on. You're being transformed. Hallelujah. You can't spend time with the Savior and come out doing the same thing. Hallelujah. But don't you ever let go of your identity. You are still Jesus kids. Hallelujah.
This gonna probably go viral. Y'all hear what Creflo said? Creflo said... oh there he go again. Don't get mad at me because I know how to read. Oh, Jesus. We're quick to say I'm redeemed. We'll say that real quick. I'm redeemed. But we are slow to agree that we're also righteous. What's that? Oh, yes, Brother Dollar, I'm redeemed. Are you holy? Well, you know, God's holy. Yeah, but ain't you in him? If you believe it, because he said he made you holy too. He said he made you pure. My goodness. Oh yeah, I know what you're saying Brother Dollar, in Christ. Ha, ha, ha, in Christ. As if that's some sort of distant, far off righteousness that is useless for us now. But how righteous are you if Christ has become your righteousness? And how holy are you, if Christ has become your holiness? These are qualities that we possess because Jesus has become our life.
Colossians 3:4, flip over there. I'm almost finished with the introduction, then we'll start. I ain't lying. You know, all this had to be said, so we get on the right page, and there's still some people in here like, I don't know about that. And I'm reading straight from the Bible. You just don't want to know about it. I don't know about that brother. I get what you said here, but I don't know about the rest of that. Oh, the rest of that, what I just read? He said, "And when Christ, who is your life, and when Christ, who is your life," when Christ is your life, Christ is your life. "And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all of his glory. When Christ, who is your life is revealed to the whole world".
So once we realize our crucifixion, and burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ, once we realize that, we can see that God announces us as righteous and that God announces us as holy because he is describing our nature. He does more than put a righteous label on us. He does more than merely adopt us into the family. In our human spirit, he has made us like him. We are righteous. We are holy. God sees us this way because we are this way. We don't get a final polish right before we go to heaven. We get a new body when we escape this world, but not a new human spirit or soul. Why not? Because our inner man is heaven ready. Our inner man is heaven ready right here and right now. In our human spirit, we are already seated in heaven. What? Ephesians 2:6, Ephesians 2:6. This is just stuff you got to make up your mind to believe and have confidence in. "For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and he seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus".