Gregory Dickow - The Miracle of a Restored Identity
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your presence. I thank you for your purpose. I thank you for your power and your provision in each of our lives. I thank you, Father, that your provision will start showing up supernaturally in each person's life. I thank you for the lives and the souls that will be saved through their giving, through their generosity, through their impact. Through each of our impacts, we believe that we are better together and can make a bigger difference. And I thank you, Father, for healing people today. Delivering people today. Saving people today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Well, I want to talk to you about the biggest battle that any of us will ever face in this life. It is the battle for our identity. The devil is working overtime to get us confused about who we are and what we're living for. Identity is everything, because embedded in our identity is the DNA of our destiny. Embedded in our identity is the DNA of our destiny. When we get a hold of that, then you realize that who you are is more important and needs to be on the forefront of your mind more than what you do, what you want to achieve, what you want to become, what you want to accomplish in your life. It's who you are that matters most because that's your identity. And Satan is a thief.
And his number one objective is to rob you of the reality of your identity as a son or daughter of God. And that's why he works so hard. The devil works so hard to confuse our culture and to confuse people and to get people distracted on trying to figure out where they fit on the spectrum of gender rather than truly understanding who they are as sons and daughters of God. Well, this topic, because I want to talk about not only the identity that each of us have to become aware of, discover the power of identity, but also we're going to heal our trauma through this process And we're going to step into our purpose and our destiny through this process as well. But it reminds me, when we talk about identity, it reminds me of a verse in Ephesians chapter one, verse 11 in the message Bible, and it says, for it is only in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for.
I want you to think about that. Everyone in this world is trying to discover who they are, trying to figure out who their descendants are, their ancestors, their relatives. They're trying to figure out what they are, who they are, what they belong to, what tribe they belong to, what they're supposed to do with their lives. Everybody's trying to figure out what's my purpose, what's the reason for my existence. But notice what he tells us here in Ephesians chapter one. And until we get this, nobody will ever truly be able to answer that question, because even the people that have become successful athletes, politicians, business people, celebrities, they're always ending up at the same place, trying to figure out who they are and what they're living for. Because none of this world's accolades or this world's success is ever enough to fill the soul that is the size of eternity inside.
The Bible says God has placed eternity in our hearts. Eternity. You cannot fill an eternal hole with a temporary fix. You cannot fill an eternal hole with money. You cannot fill an eternal hole with fame. You cannot fill an eternal hole with business and success and celebrity and achievements and accomplishments. You can only fill an eternal soul with an eternal God. You can only fill an eternal soul with an eternal identity. You can only fill an eternal soul with an eternal destiny and purpose. So when he says this in Ephesians chapter one, verse 11, we should take this seriously, for it is only in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for. I plead with every one of us today to truly make it your ambition and make it your highest and greatest aim to find out who you are, to really know who you are as God defines you, and to discover what you're living for.
And in fact, I would say discovering what you're living for is the reflex, and it is the fruit of someone who is truly rooted in knowing who they are in Christ. And I love this verse, along the same lines in First Peter, chapter two, verse 25 In the message Bible, he says, You were lost sheep with no idea who you were, or where you were going. This is truly the story of each of our lives. We were lost sheep and we had no idea who we were or where we were going. But he said, Now you're named and kept for good by the shepherd of your souls. What a blessing, what a calming truth this is, that we were sheep that were lost. We had no idea who we really were. We had no idea why we're on this earth. We had no idea where we were going. But really, when you understand the who, it creates the where. When you understand the who, it creates the why. When you understand the who, it creates the what.
So we're on this journey and the next steps in this journey of experiencing true revelation of our identity and the fulfillment of our destiny. There's some healing along the way in healing our trauma, and we're going to understand simply who we are in the next couple of weeks. We're going to heal deeply the trauma that we've sustained in our lives. We're going to identify clearly the dragon that needs to be slayed in our lives. We're going to slay violently the dragon within. This is what's going to happen. And all of this happens when you truly get a hold of who you are. The biggest battle that any of us will ever face is the one for our identity. That's why Satan tries to distort your identity so, so much and so persistently.
But you know, when you understand your identity, you become a true winner in life. Because you know who you are, you know whose you are. And defeat in life it's an amazing word, the word defeat. The Latin word for the word defeat is the undoing of the self, the undoing of the self or the falling apart of the self. When your self is undone, when you don't know who you really are. That's what he's talking about here. That's what this word is talking about it. And Jesus, of course, has given us the victory. But why are we living defeated lives? Because we don't really know who we are. And defeat is the result of the undoing of the self, the undoing or the breaking up of your knowledge of who you are when you don't know who your self truly is, you are going to be defeated. We fail and defeat ourselves.
When we fall away from our true identity. We fail when we start questioning who we are and doubting who God said we are. This diabolical war over our identity has been around from the beginning. "Did God really say" in Genesis chapter three, the Serpent says to Eve, "Did God really say that you're not supposed to eat that tree from that tree of knowledge of good and evil"? The Bible says that Satan was very crafty, the serpent here in this case was the most cunning of all the animals. And he said, "Did God really say you must not eat from the tree in the garden"? And she said, "He said, we must not eat it or touch it lest we die". And the serpent says, "You will not die, for God knows..." And now the serpent is trying to speak on behalf of God.
You can't let anybody else speak on behalf of God except God and people that are anointed to speak on behalf of God. The serpent is not. And he said, "God knows that when you eat from that tree, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil". You will be like God. This has been Satan's distortion and his plan all along to try to get you to question who you are. God had already made Adam and Eve in the image of God. They already were like God. They were already made by him in his image, in his very likeness. And so no wonder Satan is trying to get them to question that because he knows he can't undo or stop them from being made in God's image.
But he could get them to think they're not made in God's image, and then they would feel shame and feel like something's missing in their life. The fear of missing out FOMO would hit their lives and they would start doing whatever they had to do to become like God. But they already were. And he got them blinded from it. And Satan's done this throughout history. So he meets up with Jesus. When Jesus is being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and it says, and the Tempter approached him and said to him in Matthew 4, If you're the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. If you're the son of God, if that's who you really are. Notice the tempter and the temptation is to doubt our true identity. It's to doubt you're made in the image of God, to doubt you're the Son of God.
In each of these cases Satan goes after the first Adam, and Satan goes after the second Adam. And Satan is coming after you to try to get you to doubt your identity too. He'd rather you think you're a failure, you're a mistake, you never really succeed, you never really make it, or you're so successful you don't need God, you're so successful, you're a God by yourself. So Satan will try to trap us one way or another to get us to either believe we're less than who God said we are, or that we are who God said we are without needing God.
And that is also a trap of the enemy. The devil is the tempter, and his temptation is to get us to doubt who we truly are. Why? Because then he gets us wandering and floundering in life with an identity crisis, and where we can't recognize and we can't address our trauma in our lives. Because you can't fulfill your purpose if you're constantly living in your trauma and living in a post-traumatic stress disorder. Everybody has that. Everybody faces that. Everybody experiences that some much more than others. But you have to learn how to heal through that. And God is our healer. Jesus is the healer of broken hearts, if we have time to get into that verse you'll really see something amazing.
Look at some of the people who knew who they were in the Bible and what they had in common. Notice how God introduces Himself in Exodus chapter three, verse 14. He says, I am who I am. I am who I am. God knew who He was. I am who I am. Jesus introduces Himself in John 8:58 saying, Before Abraham was born, I am. Jesus introduces Himself. Before Abraham was born, I am. So God knows who He is, I am. Jesus knows who He is, I am. Even Paul introduces himself in 1 Corinthians 15, verse ten, saying I am who I am by the grace of God. So God knows who He is. Jesus knows who He is. And Paul even knows who He is after He got born again.
Now, contrast that with what happens when you don't know who you are. Acts 19:11. Now God was working unusual miracles through the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. You know, before we go any further, God's anointed you to be healed. God's anointed me to be healed. God's anointed us to be healed and delivered. And I want to pray for you. I want to just interrupt my own teaching here for a moment and pray for your healing and your deliverance to whatever you're facing right now. You ready for that?
Heavenly Father, I thank you that you worked unusual miracles through the hands of Paul. And if you worked unusual miracles through him, you will work unusual miracles through us. And we thank you, Father, for healing diseases. We curse and command them to leave. Evil spirits that are oppressing people, spirits of fear, inferiority, anxiety, depression, spirits of self-hate, spirits of anger, spirits of violent spirits of self-destruction, spirits of self-hatred, we bind those forces of darkness. And I command those evil spirits to back away and to be gone in Jesus name. Amen.
Just say amen. Just take that healing, take that deliverance and receive it as yours, in the name of Jesus. Now, going on with this verse. Now, there were these Jewish exorcists who took it upon themselves to call the name of Jesus the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. And this is how they would try to cast them out: "We exercise you, we cast you out by the Jesus whom Paul preaches". Notice, this is like a third-hand knowledge, second or third-hand knowledge. "We speak to you evil spirits by the name of Jesus, who Paul preaches". They didn't even just stop with the name of Jesus because all they knew was the Jesus that Paul preached, but they didn't know Jesus themselves, according to this passage of Scripture, when we see it.
And it says, These were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest who did this. And verse 15 says, And the evil spirit answered back and said, "Jesus, I know and Paul, I know, but who are you"? Now you might be watching and saying, Oh, I I've heard that verse. I've seen that verse. I've heard you preach on that verse. Well, there's so much truth in this passage of Scripture that we can really take and apply to each of our individual lives. And I don't want you to miss this. It's so important, what we can learn, what happens when somebody doesn't know who they are. What the devil can do to a human being, what the devil can do to a family member, what the devil can do to an innocent person just who doesn't know who they are. And it says, the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus, I know and Paul, I know, but who are you"?
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, this is one man with an evil spirit jumps on seven of these men that were trying to cast them out, overpowered them, prevailed against them, they fled out of their house, naked and wounded. All of this became known both to the Jews and the Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and it says in fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Even in this failure of these Sons of Sceva, their failure to cast out this demon, although they did halfway succeed, they got the demon to leave the man, but the demon came on them and drove them nuts and destroyed their lives.
What did this demon do to these seven sons of Sceva? And how could he do that to them? The description of these men give it away. Notice they're identified as sons of Sceva. Are you still identifying that you're the son of a person with a heart attack? You're the son or daughter of a person with blood disease, you're a son or daughter of a person that had a drug addiction? You're a son or daughter of a person who had some sort of sickness, had some sort of rare disease that's passed down genetically?
We have to decide that we're no longer going to identify ourselves through our natural bloodline, but rather we're going to identify ourselves through our spiritual supernatural bloodline. So these men were sons of Sceva. No wonder they didn't have any authority over this demon-possessed man it's because sons of Sceva don't have authority, but sons of God do. Daughters of Sceva don't have authority, but daughters of God do. You see, when we don't know who we are, there are five things that happened to these men because they didn't know who they were. They identified with being Jewish but not being sons or daughters of God.
So what happened when they didn't know that? Number one, it says the devil overcame them. Number two, it says the devil prevailed against them. Life was against them. The devil was against them. He prevailed against them. Number three, they ran in fear. So now their lives are governed by fear. And the devil had them on the run. Number four, it says the demon stripped all their clothes, made them run out of the house without their clothing and wounded, which is the fifth thing. He wounds, the enemy wounds you, leaves you in a worse condition, steals everything you got—the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy steals everything you have, and then leaves you wounded or leaves you in worse condition than you were before. All of this happened because these guys started to try to meddle with the devil without knowing who they were.
And we have authority over the devil. But you can't exercise that authority over the devil until you know who you are. Because when you do know who you are, you can reverse all five of these things. Instead of the devil overcoming you, you overcome the devil. The Bible says you submit to God, you resist the devil, and he will flee. The Bible says that we can overcome him because we are more than conquerors, in Romans chapter eight, verse 31. What shall we say to these things? We are more than conquerors. What shall we say to these things? See, we can overcome the devil by knowing who we are and declaring who we are. Secondly, you can prevail against the devil because you can prevail in prayer.
James 5 says the prayers of a righteous man avail much or prevail much so we can overcome the devil by speaking God's word, we can overcome the enemy by declaring who we are in Christ. We can prevail against Him through the power of prayer. Thirdly, we can put the devil on the run rather than the devil putting us on the run. Jesus said, Get away from me, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. When Jesus said that the devil left Him and the angels came and ministered to Him. You can do the same thing because as He is, so are you in this life. And the fifth thing is, as we know that, or the fourth thing is that we can literally, as we said, the devil stripped them... You can get back everything that the devil stripped you of. You can get back everything that the devil stole from you.
And how do we do that? He stole your health? Demand him to give it back. He stole your family? Demand him to give it back. I'm not saying that we need to pray to the devil to do something, but I'm saying I command Satan to let go of my family members. I command Satan to let go of my finances. I command Satan to let go of my health. I command Satan, I command demonic forces. I command all the forces of darkness to let go of me because I am a child of God in Jesus name. And there are so many verses that you can speak and declare to exert your authority in this life.
And the fifth thing that the devil did to these men, because they didn't know who they were, was he wounded them and left them in worse condition than he found them.But Mark chapter seven, verse 27, says, All this can turn around because Jesus said, let the children be satisfied. For the children's bread is healing. Healing is the children's bread. Healing is the children's portion. It's your portion because you're a child of God. It's what God has given to you because you're apart of His family. Boy, when we get a hold of this, that Satan, though he overcame these men, he can't overcome you. You can overcome him because greater is he that is in you the he that is in the world. That the devil prevailed against these men, but you can prevail against the devil through the power of prayer, through the power of speaking God's word.
That the devil put these men on the run, but you can put the devil on the run because the Bible says, Submit to God, resist the devil, and He will flee from you. The devil stripped these men of everything they had their possessions, their home. But you can take back what the enemy stole from you. The Bible says that God will give you double back seven-fold back. God will restore what's been lost. Restore what's been stolen. God is the God of restoration. I prophesy "restore" over everything in your life that has been stolen. Your health, your finances, your peace of mind, your family. I command restoration. I speak and prophesy restoration over your life in Jesus name. And the devil wounded these guys. But we can be healed by His stripes. By Jesus' stripes we're healed.
And you know, this is a good place for us to stop. Because when we come back together, next time, I'm going to talk to you about healing and in particular healing the trauma in your soul, in your emotions. But as I close today, I want to close with this thought that we truly need to understand who we are, because knowing who we are is what gives us power over all of the forces of the enemy. And I want to tell you who God says you are. First of all, when you know who you are, you'll understand your value. When you know who you are, you'll get back up when you fall. When you know who you are, you'll become a creator of things, not just a consumer of things. When you know who you are, you'll see that you have an extraordinary future.
And when you know who you are, you'll dream big dreams. When you know who you are, you'll begin to exercise your authority in life, no matter what comes against you, no matter what's going on in the world at that time. So who are you? I'll just give you a couple of things, a few things, and we'll close with this. You are more than a conqueror, according to Romans chapter eight, verse 37. You are a king and a priest before God, according to Revelation chapter one, verse five and six. You are a son or daughter of God, according to John chapter one, verse 12 and Romans chapter eight, verse 29. You are a joint heir with Jesus Christ, which means all that belongs to him also belongs to you and me. We're joint heirs with Jesus, according to Romans chapter eight, verse 16 and verse 17. And you are the seed of Abraham, that if you belong to Christ, it says in Galatians 3:29, if you belong to Christ, you're Abraham's seed and you're an heir, according to all the promises of God.
And all those promises that He fulfilled in Abraham's life, God will fulfill in your life too. And finally, you are the righteousness of God. Well, you've heard me say that a thousand times. A million times, maybe. But you can never hear this enough. The Bible says Jesus became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God and through the abundance of grace. Romans 517 says, And through the gift of righteousness, we reign in life as kings. We reign. You reign When you know who you are, You're going to put the devil on the run. Ready? Come on. Let's pray that God gives us a revelation. And first of all, if you've never become a son or daughter of God, you're one prayer away, one breath away, one utterance away. Just simply say, "I believe Jesus died for my sins". If you've never become a son or daughter of God, now is your time. Just say:
Heavenly Father. I believe Jesus died for my sins. I believe Jesus rose from the dead. You said to as many as received him. To them. You gave the right to become the children of God. I received Jesus. Therefore, I have the right to now be a son or daughter of God in Jesus name.
If you prayed that prayer, make sure to let me know and make sure to get a copy of this gift that we have for you that I want to send you my book. You can download it anywhere in the world, actually for free. So it's the power of a new life. It's the next step in this journey with God. So please make sure to download this and get ahold of it. Life changes church dot com slash salvation. Again, it's absolutely free and it is the next steps in this journey with God.
Father, give us a revelation of who we are. Just as you father know. And you said I am that I am. Just as Jesus said before Abraham was born, I am just as Paul said, I am who I am. By the grace of God. Give each person today a revelation of who they are in Christ, a son or daughter of God, and may they go conquering and taking back all that the enemy has stolen. In Jesus name. Amen.