Dear Friend,

The question, “Who am I?”, can be answered in three ways: I am the person I think I am, I am the person others think I am, I am the person I think others think I am.

Who am I really? I am the person God says I am. Regardless of what I was before God saved me, regardless of what other people think of me, I am now the person God says I am. Let us see what God says about those who belong to Him.

• I am God’s forever-forgiven child.

God has forgiven me of all my sins—past, present, and future. he will not even remember them. God says,

“Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17).

• I am a new person in Christ.

My old life ended with my “death” with Christ. When Christ rose from the dead, I “rose” with Him as a new person in Christ. The Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Faith makes this real to me.

• I am a son of God.

I stand before God, not as a servant, but as His son, accepted and loved in Christ. The Bible says,

“You are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).

• I am a person in whom Christ lives.

The apostle Paul said, “Christ lives in me.” This is true of every believer.

• I am a citizen of Heaven.

The Bible says,

“For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

God’s way of saving me.

We should never forget that we all were born in Adam’s sinful family. We all were “in Adam” by birth. We all were sinners because we inherited the life and nature of Adam.

When I was in Adam, I had the life and nature of Adam flowing in me. It was natural for me to be selfish, to tell lies and to lose my temper.

God’s way of saving me was not to try to change me, but to take me out of Adam and put me in Christ. Now Christ’s life and nature flow in me. The Bible says,

“But of Him [God] are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification [holiness], and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

This verse does not say that God makes us wise, righteous, and holy. It says that God has put us in Christ, and we have wisdom, righteousness, and holiness in Him, because I am in Christ and He is in me.

God has united me with the glorified Christ.

If you drop a lump of sugar into a cup of boiling hot tea, the sugar is united with the tea. It becomes one with the tea.

God has given me the place and acceptance of Christ Himself. The Bible says,

“…as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17b).

This is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible. It is speaking of how God sees me. In God’s eyes, my position before Him is the same as Christ. God looks at each Christian as Christ. To be one with Christ means to be one with Him in all that He did and all that He is today.

• I am one with Christ in His death.

The Bible says, “Knowing this, that our old man [our old self] was crucified with Him…” (Romans 6:6). My old life ended with my death with Christ.

• I am one with Christ in His resurrection.

My new life in Christ began with my resurrection with Christ. The Bible says,

“Now if we died with Christ…we shall also live with Him” (Romans 6:8).

• I am one with Christ in His exaltation.

“[God] has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

• I am one with Christ in His Father’s love.

Jesus prayed to His Father for His disciples,

“I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in One: and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me” (John 17:23).

• I am one with Christ in His righteousness.

Without a righteousness that is acceptable to God, no one dare face God. What is my righteousness? The Word of God tells me that my righteousness is Christ Himself.

“For He [God] has made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

• I am one with Christ in His plans.

Jesus said,

“From now on, I do not call you servants; for the servant does not know what his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all that I have heard of My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

• I am one with Christ in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

God has given me the very same Spirit that dwells in His Son. The Bible says,

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son, into your hearts…” (Galatians 4:6).

• I am one with Christ in His glory.

Jesus prayed for His believers,

“The glory which You gave Me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22).

• I am one with Christ in His sonship.

The first thing Jesus did after His resurrection was to place His believers in the same relationship as He is with His Father. He told Mary Magdalene,

“…go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:17).

• I am one with Christ in His acceptance with God.

The Bible says,

“To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved [in Christ]” (Ephesians 1:6).

God’s side of Salvation

We know something about our side of salvation—what God has done for our satisfaction and happiness. But did you know that God has His side of salvation?

God’s side of salvation is what He does to satisfy His own great heart of love. Jesus gave us the wonderful parable about the prodigal son to teach us God’s side of salvation. The prodigal might have been satisfied to be one of his father’s servants, but this would never have satisfied the heart of his father.

The father’s heart was not satisfied until the prodigal was in his house, received and accepted as a beloved son in whom the father delighted.

It is a wonderful day for us when we see God’s side of salvation. We might be satisfied to be in Heaven as God’s servants, but God’s great heart of love can only be satisfied by having us in His house, received and accepted as His beloved sons and daughters in whom He delights. We will be with Christ and be like Him forever.

The prodigal’s father was pleased when his son accepted and enjoyed all that his love had provided for him. He was pleased when his son was conscious of the fact that his father loved him and delighted in him.

When we come to the end of the story of the prodigal son, what do we find? We find the prodigal, received and accepted as a son, made suitable to his father in every way, sitting at his father’s table, enjoying his father. The Bible says, “They began to make merry.”

This is a picture of our spiritual place as sons of God! God is doing all this to satisfy His great heart of love for us. It is His delight to have us in His presence as His sons and daughters, enjoying him and all that He has provided for us.

Think rightly about yourself.

At times a child of God may be discouraged and say, “I am such a poor, sinful creature. I am of no account to God.” This is not pleasing to the Lord.

God is pleased when we take up our true spiritual position of being one with Christ in all that He is. God is pleased when we are conscious that He loves us and delights in us as His sons and daughters.

I have a new way of looking at things. I have discovered that God is not at all like I thought Him to be. Before I was saved, I thought God was a hard judge who wanted to punish me for my sins.

To my amazement, I have discovered that I have a heavenly Father who loves me with all His heart and blesses me in spite of myself. I am filled with the consciousness that God is for me! He delights in me! I am at home in “my Father’s house.”

I am a “believer,” not a “feeler.”

My biggest battle as a Christian is: “Am I going to live by my feelings or by God’s truth?” God is pleased when I choose to be a “believer,” and not a “feeler.” Regardless of my feelings, I can choose to believe God’s truth.

When I feel worthless, I choose to believe God and not Satan. The truth is I am precious to God and He delights in me. How can God delight in me when I have so many faults and failures? God delights in me because He sees me in Christ.

When I feel lonely, I choose to believe God. The truth is that I am never alone. At times I may be lonely, but Christ lives in me, and He said,

“I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

When I feel rejected, I choose to believe God. The truth is, God loves me and accepts me as He loves and accepts His own Son.

When I feel condemned, I choose to believe God. The truth is,

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1).

When I feel discouraged, I choose to believe God. The truth is, I can be “confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (See Philippians 1:6.)

When I feel afraid, I choose to believe God. The truth is,

“God has not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

When I feel disappointed, I choose to believe God. The truth is,

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” (Romans 8:28).

When I feel unchanged, I choose to believe God. The truth is, I am a new person in Christ.

“If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Lord told Gideon to destroy all the places of idol worship. Gideon obeyed the Lord at once. The Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he rallied an army of 32,000 warriors from the surrounding towns.

Gideon had 32,000 men, but he was going into battle against 130,000 Midianites. Gideon probably thought he needed many more soldiers, but the Lord said, “You already have too many. If they defeat the enemy, they will brag that they did it. Tell your men that whoever is fearful and afraid, let him leave now….” When the men hear this, 22,000 left.

In the service of God, the fearful must be eliminated. God wants His believers to have the courage to stand for Him. The Bible says,

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Gideon now had 10,000 men. But the Lord said, “There are still too many men.” The Lord gave Gideon another test to further sift his men. After this test, Gideon had only 300 men! But the Lord was with him.

The Lord gave Gideon His battle plan. He was to divide his 300 men into three groups. He was to give each man a pitcher with a torch of fire inside it, along with a trumpet to carry. At night they surrounded the enemy camp. Gideon was to give the signal and the men would break the pitchers, wave the torches, blow on the trumpets, and shout, “The sword of the Lord and Gideon!”

The Midianites and the Amalekites were terrified! In the confusion they slaughtered each other. Before the night was over, 120,000 enemies were dead.

Gideon’s 300 men chased the rest of them, and before the battle was over, the Israelites had killed nearly everybody. The few that survived ran into the desert and never came back.

The great lesson of Gideon is this: the Lord chooses to use the most unlikely people. Gideon had small thoughts of himself. He said, “My family is the least of the families, and I am the least in my family.” Have you ever thought, “God can use other people, but I am just a nobody”?

That is just the kind of people God uses! The Bible says,

“God has chosen the foolish things of the world…and God has chosen the weak things…and base things…and things which are not…that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

God is not looking for “wonderful” people. If you are little enough, God will use you. He uses ordinary people who give themselves to Christ and trust Him to work through them. A great man of God said, “If you are willing to be a nobody, Christ will be to you that great Somebody.”

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