Gregory Dickow - The Power of Knowing Who You Are
Welcome back to "The Power to Change Today," I'm Gregory Dickow, and over the next 30 minutes, I want to share with you how to win every battle you face this year. In spite of everything going on in your life, in our nation, the world, with chaos and uncertainty and change and violence all around us, you not only have the right as a child of God, but also the power already within you to walk in victory in every area of life. We all face challenges in our family, our emotions, our finances, our health, and you may feel overwhelmed by what you're facing. In fact, when some of you woke up this morning, instead of saying, "Good morning, God," you might have said, "Good God, it's morning," and you wanted to pull back the covers over your head.
But I'm here to tell you what the Bible says about you, you can stake your life on. Romans 8:37 declares, "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us". Did you get that? In all these things, even though all these things might surround you, you're more than a conqueror. You're more than a winner. You're more than whatever you thought you were before, far more than whatever you thought you were before, but more than a conqueror. And few people understand what that really means and how to activate the amazing promise of knowing who you are. But I get letters and questions all the time from viewers just like you who say, "Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but how does that apply to me? I don't feel like a conqueror".
Well, in order to succeed, we've gotta identify what the enemy is after. We all know that he comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and what I've found in 30 years of ministry or so, what the devil is coming after more than anything is, he is coming after our identity. Today, I'm gonna show you how to release the power of knowing who you are. You'll win every battle, you'll pray with authority, you'll see results and fulfill God's awesome purpose for your life, check this out.
Spiritual warfare is the battle over who you're going to believe you are. Who are you gonna believe you are? Because, as soon as Satan showed up in the Garden of Eden in the form of the serpent, as soon as he showed up, the first thing he wanted to do was challenge who Adam and Eve thought they were. He challenged their identity. Let's look there in Genesis chapter 1 in verse 26. God says, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea". Now, notice, what we are is what determines what we have. He said, "Let us make man in our image," and then, "Let them have dominion". You're not gonna have what God wants you to have until you know what God made you to be.
"Let us make man in our image," and then, "Let them have dominion". You're not gonna walk in what God wants you to have until you renew your mind to who you are. You are made in the image of God. I want you to say that, say, "I am made in the image of God". Notice what he said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness". So, we are made just like the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We're made in that same image. We are spirit, soul, and body. So, the first thing God says about man is I've made you in my image and in my likeness. And then, the first thing Satan does is, he attacks that fundamental truth in Genesis 3 verse 1, when he says, "The serpent is more crafty than any beast of the field," and says to the woman, "Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden," and she said, "You shall not eat it, lest you touch it, lest you die".
Verse 3, and he says, "You shall", she says, "You shall not eat it or touch it, lest you die," verse 4, and the serpent says, "You will not die". God says you will, the serpent says you won't, that ought to tell us something, that everything Satan is trying to do is challenge what God said. So, spiritual warfare really is believing what God said, no matter what the devil says. No matter what anybody else says, no matter what your mama says, or your daddy says, no matter what the teacher said, no matter what the preacher said, what does God's Word say? What does God's Word say? And then, verse 5, look at what the devil says. Verse 5, "Oh, God knows the day you eat from it your eyes will be open, and you will be like God". "You will be like God," so, the devil is trying to promise them something that they already had. They already were like God.
Last time I checked was Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness". So, guess what, who is Adam and Eve like? They're already like God. They're already made in his image. They're already made in his likeness, and what does Satan come after? The likeness of God. Well, if you eat from this tree, then you'll really be like God. No, they already were like God, and this is Satan's game with most all of us is he's always trying to get us to try to go after something that we already have. You already have the image of God in you. You already have the love of God in you. You already have the peace of God in you. You already have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Satan's trying to say you don't have this, you don't have that, you already have it. Now, what Satan is trying to do is blind you from realizing that you have it. The whole goal of spiritual warfare, to win in spiritual warfare, we need to know what we already are.
Now, so, notice, Satan goes after their identity. You'll be like God if you eat... you're not like God now, but you will be like God if you disobey him. So, he goes after their identity. Now, let's look at what he did with Jesus. If you look in Matthew chapter 4 verse 3, the same thing happens. So, Jesus is in the wilderness, just like Adam and Eve were in the garden, and Satan comes. Jesus is in the wilderness and Satan comes, and when the tempter comes to him, he says, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread," as if Jesus had to prove that he was the Son of God by turning the stones into bread. And what the reality is, you don't have to prove anything to know that you're the son of God, or a daughter, you're a child of God, because 1 John 3 verse 1 says, "Behold," look at this, 1 John 3 verse 1, "Behold, what manner of love is this? What manner of love the Father has for us that we should be called children of God," that we should be called children of God.
You see, everything in the Bible is an announcement that we have become children of God the moment we're saved, because when you know you're a child of God, you know you have the rights of being an heir of what is yours in Christ. And so, if Satan can undermine the confidence of who you are in Christ, then you won't pray with authority, you won't go to God boldly to the throne of his grace, you won't speak boldly, you won't give boldly, you won't smile boldly, you won't live boldly, you'll live sheepishly, cowardly, with inferiority all of your life, because Satan has undermined who you are. He'll say to you, "Well, look at you, you're, you know, you're not black enough, you're not white enough, you're not feminine enough, you're not male enough, you're not rich enough, you're not skinny enough, you're not smart enough, you're not educated enough, you don't have this, you don't have that". And remember, what you have flows from who you are.
So, when you know you're a child of God, look at what Paul said in Romans chapter 8 verse 15. He said, look, Romans chapter 8 verse 15, "For you are no longer enslaved to the spirit of bondage that leads to fear," he said, "For you have received the spirit of adoption, you're a child of God". You've been adopted to the family of God, and he said, "And now, you can cry out, 'Abba, Father,'" he's as much your Father as he is Jesus's Father. Even when I mess up, even when I screw up, even when I... yes, haven't your kids messed up, and screwed up, but you're still their father, you're still their mother, they're still your child. Verse 16 goes on to say, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God," verse 17, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ".
Whoa, we're not sub-heirs, we're joint heirs. When we file our taxes, we file them jointly, that means everything she owes, I owe, everything she has, I have, it's jointly, it's equal. And the Bible here says we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, joint heirs. We have the same inheritance that he has, and what we need to do, it says if we suffer with him, we need to suffer, and it doesn't mean suffering with sickness, or suffering with disease, or suffering with poverty. Those are forms of suffering, but that's not the suffering he's talking about here. The suffering here is the word resisting. We must resist the way Jesus resisted. How did Jesus resist the devil? It is written, it is written, it is written. How do we resist him? It is written, it is written, it is written, that's suffering. Anybody can just accept that whatever happens in your life God meant it to happen, but that's not God's way of spiritual battle.
We're supposed to gird up our loins with the truth, and the truth is, is that God's Word is our tool and our weapon to use against every lie of the enemy. When you speak God's Word, stuff happens. When you read God's Word, stuff happens. When you pray God's Word, stuff happens. You're a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Say that, "I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ". I'm joined with him, I'm a joint heir. I'm a joint heir, I'm joined with him. Some of us, the only meaning we know of joint is... Brother knows, right? From the past, from the past, from the past, from the past. We're joint heirs, what is his is ours, where he is, we are.
Ephesians 2:6 says, "We are seated with him in heavenly places". We're not seated under him, we're not seated a few notches below, he's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are seated together with him. His authority is our authority. When we pray, it's like Jesus praying. When we speak to the mountain, it's like Jesus speaking to the mountain. You don't wanna walk like that? That's okay, you can be a little sheepish little Christian that doesn't have any authority. You have it, you're just not using it because you have a false humility. False humility is, "Oh, no, I don't have that kind of power". Shut up, and gird up, and speak up, and rise up, and be the man or woman that God created you to be, and speak to that mountain, speak to those dry bones, speak to the valley, and say, "Sun, stand still". Speak to the dry bones and say, "These bones shall live".
We got too many Christians, we got too many Christians that are just bound up, and we gotta start speaking up so that we can take our rightful place, and rise up, and be the parents God called us to be, be the business owners God called us to be, be the brothers and sisters to one another that we're called to be. Stop living as a grasshopper with an inferiority complex, and start taking your rightful place by knowing who you are. You're a joint heir. Say, "I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ". This is what Satan is after, folks, he's after your identity, because you bear the image of God. When you know who you are, several things will happen.
When you know yourself the way God intended for you to know yourself, you will forgive like God forgives, John 20 tells us. You will stop comparing yourself to others out of inferiority complex, like 2 Corinthians 10 tells us. You will be completely free from jealousy like 1 Corinthians chapter 3 tells us. You will be able to withstand all of hell's power, Matthew chapter 16 tells us. You will be able to overcome temptation and stop sinning, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells us. You will do great things for God, Daniel 11:32 tells us. And you will pray with authority and power, James chapter 5 verse 16 tells us. You will do all of these things when you know who you are. So, the focus doesn't need to be on I gotta do this, and I should be able to do this, and I should be able to do this, no, the focus should be on knowing who you are, because when you know who you are, these things flow naturally and freely out of your life.
When you know you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ, you start praying like heaven's gonna move some stuff around. When you know who you are in Christ, you start speaking like some mountains are about to get their running shoes on and they're gonna run from the utterance of your voice. When you know who you are, you're gonna walk into some hospitals, and you're gonna start putting some hospitals out of business, because nobody's gonna be able to stay sick in that place. You gotta know who you are. We gotta know who we are. You know who you are, you know what you have, you know what you're made of? Let me give you some things and then we'll close. You've been made in the same image as God, Genesis 1:26 says. You have been made with the same spirit, you carry the same spirit that Jesus carried, Romans 8:11 says. You have the same love inside of you that Jesus has, Romans 5 verse 5 says.
Now, don't get me wrong, we're not tapping into these things because we didn't know these things were in our account. It's like if you had a bank account with all this money, but you didn't know that you had the money, you'll never put a withdrawal through, you'll never use your ATM card unless you know you got something in there 'cause you know if there's nothing in there and you put that card in, the card disappears, has that happened to anybody? That's another subject for another day.
All right, but when you know this is who you are, you start placing a demand on these things that are in you, and you start drawing from the account of love, you start drawing from the account of the Holy Spirit. According to 2 Corinthians 4:13, you have the same faith that Jesus had, all you need is a mustard seed. According to Galatians 3:29, you have the same promise that Jesus had. According to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11 through 16, you have the same mind that Jesus had. And, 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "God has not given you a spirit of fear, but power, love, and sound mind". And, 1 Corinthians 2 says you have the mind of Christ.
You say, "Well, if I have the mind of Christ, why do I make so many stupid decisions"? Because, you have to choose which mind you're gonna listen to. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me". What he's saying is there's two different people he's talking about here, his old man, and his new man, his old self and his new self. I, my old self, was crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I, my old self, who lives, but the life that I now life, my new self, lives in the flesh, I live by faith, I, my new self, lives by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me. My old self was crucified, my new self lives by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me.
You see, you have to be the deciding factor. You can either side with your old self, or you can side with your new self, you must choose. That's the battle between your flesh and your spirit. The flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh. The flesh is your old self, and your old way of thinking, and the spirit is your new self, and God's way of thinking. And your mind has to choose, "I'm siding with my new self today. I'm going to align my thinking with God's thinking, so my mind gets in agreement with my spirit". Does this make sense to anybody? You have the same mind as Christ, the same anointing, 1 John 2:27 says, and the same authority, Luke 10:19 says. "Behold, I give you authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means injure you, hurt you, or harm you". Now, we can walk around this life like Christian ostriches, and we can stick our head in the sand at all the problems in the world, or we can pray with authority like Jesus gave us to pray. We can pray as the righteousness of God like James 5:16 tells us to.
We can start talking like we have, and we are, who God says we are. We can start, or we can be, you know, just sheepish, wimpy, banana-back, flimsy, flamsy, milquetoast Christians, or we can be men and women of whom the world is not worthy, men and women who know their God, and therefore, we know ourselves, and therefore, we will win every battle, because the great author of "The Art of War," said, "If you know yourself, and you know your enemy, you'll win every battle. But if you know your enemy but you don't know yourself, some battles you'll win, and every battle you win, you'll have an equal defeat and a loss to every battle that you win". So, we have to know our enemy is the devil trying to rob us of our identity, but we know ourselves, who are we? Children of God, sons and daughters of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and when you start thinking that way about yourself, you'll start living that way from yourself.