0:00: Most of us are receiving our identity from the enemy. \
0:03: You're not good enough, you're not smart enough. \
0:05: We don't know how to resolve anything apart from fear and power and war, and that's how we do everything because we're operating in identities that are false. \
0:20: How many of you have ever painted your house, painted a room in your house, and we're in a big hurry and you slapped some paint up there and then the next day or a few weeks later, it just wasn't sticking. \
0:35: It didn't look good because you did a shortcut and you didn't take the time to prime the wall. \
0:42: Well, guilty. \
0:43: We have done that. \
0:44: You're just so hurt in such a hurry to see the results. \
0:48: It's so important to put the primer on the wall first so that that expensive paint that you spend a lot of money on really sticks and really looks good, and then you're so proud of the hard work and energy that you've put into that paint job. \
1:08: Well, you may be wondering why I'm talking about painting, but I'm talking about it because identity is the primer that makes every other learning effective in your life. \
1:23: We have done almost every type of test, assessment. \
1:30: Learning course, as I'm sure most of you have too, to strengthen our skills, to understand our self-awareness, to build ourselves up in our walk in the kingdom of God, Bible studies. \
1:48: But it wasn't really sticking. \
1:50: We still felt a certain amount of inadequacy, unworthiness, and it was this constant striving to be better and better and to even find approval with God. \
2:06: And it wasn't until we discovered this concept of true identity that it started to stick, and we feel like identity is really the primer that made it all come together when you say. \
2:20: So for some of you that are new to, identity exchange, we just wanted to give you a little background of how we came into this concept of identity and how we started identity exchange. \
2:35: , there's a lot of stories out there that I'm sure you've listened to of us living overseas and Jamie being a police officer and getting arrested and some amazing stories. \
2:47: I think you've probably heard a lot of those. \
2:51: but the way we came into the concept of identity. \
2:56: is that we were trying everything we knew how to do to really be effective in helping people come to understand Jesus and to know Jesus. \
3:09: And it wasn't really working. \
3:12: And it started to make us feel like we were failures, and we didn't know it at the time, but we kind of took on this identity of failure. \
3:23: And then we started to feel shame attached to that. \
3:26: And then we started to feel guilt attached to that. \
3:29: And then we realized also that a lot of our sense of worthiness came from getting the approval of people that were in authority in our lives. \
3:43: And it was really complicated. \
3:45: And It it was a bad situation. \
3:49: And when you, you know, when you say when we were in those years, those earlier years when like we were seeing results, I like your paint analogy because we were seeing people affected by what we were doing. \
4:02: We were seeing people get saved. \
4:04: What we weren't seeing was lasting transformation. \
4:07: It was, it was. \
4:09: We didn't see any real transformation in the culture we were in, right? \
4:13: We'd see kind of these individual things happen, but we see decisions, but we didn't see transformation, and it wouldn't last. \
4:19: It would peel, so to speak, or or the old would bleed through like in a wall that's not primed. \
4:26: So that was the frustrating part for us. \
4:29: If we really were honest and really looking at, you know, we, we just spent 3 years here, 4 years in this location and what really has been transformed it was not what we were seeing in scripture, so. \
4:40: Yeah, so then we, we, moved to a different location in Asia and we met some people that really taught us about hearing from God and how to experience God, not just read about God. \
4:58: You've probably heard us say that information doesn't lead to transformation, but experience leads to transformation. \
5:07: And I know, there's a previous episode that we recorded about the different meanings of the word word and scripture. \
5:16: And two of those, Rama and logos, mean the spoken word and the experiential revelation of the Holy Spirit. \
5:25: And that's what we discovered when we were being mentored by these people, and we didn't know that before. \
5:31: And it was in the course of learning about that. \
5:35: And practicing it, we and honestly we were afraid of it. \
5:38: It was new to us. \
5:40: And as we started to practice that. \
5:44: This is when we discovered identity, and it was very personal for me. \
5:49: This one woman teaching me looked at me and said, Donna, you can't give away what you don't have. \
5:55: And she taught me that every negative emotion is an invitation to be searched and known by God. \
6:04: And to recognize that every negative emotion is a chance for transformation and to not be afraid of fear, that fear is your friend. \
6:15: Fear is pointing to lies you believe about God and showing you where you're operating in a false identity. \
6:23: And as I was learning about this, I was sitting alone one day reading through the book of Isaiah, and I came across this verse, and it's Isaiah 43:1. \
6:34: Now, this is when the Israelites, Isaiah 43, it's 50 years after the exile. \
6:42: So just think about your own life. \
6:45: Where have you been held captive? \
6:47: Where spiritually have you been held captive by an enemy? \
6:53: In your own life, think about it right now. \
6:56: I know that I was held captive by certain fears, certain lies that I believed that I was a failure, that I wasn't good enough, that I was inadequate. \
7:06: This was the exile that I had been in. \
7:09: And I'm reading this verse in Isaiah, and it's talking about the prophet Isaiah is talking about Jacob's own transformation and how God had renamed him. \
7:22: And I never thought about it in that way before. \
7:25: I'm reading from the amplified, it says, but now, in spite of past judgments for sin, thus says the Lord, He who created you or formed you, O Jacob, fear not, I, I have now called you Israel. \
7:44: There's that name change. \
7:46: I saw it for the first time. \
7:47: I'd been a believer for 20 years at this point. \
7:51: I never noticed the name change. \
7:53: Fear not, for I have redeemed you and called you by your name. \
8:03: So you will know that you are mine. \
8:07: And for some reason my eyes were open to the reality that we have a unique and personal name that God calls us by, and it's more than just a moniker. \
8:22: It's an identity. \
8:24: Israel has a huge meaning to it, more so than just a name, the name Donna, you know, my parents named me that after a relative because it was meaningful to them. \
8:38: And so I looked at the next verse, context is king. \
8:42: Always look at it in context. \
8:45: I have called you by name, so you will know that you are mine. \
8:50: What's the reason he calls you by your unique name? \
8:54: So you know your job in life, you know your purpose, you know your vocation. \
8:59: No, one simple reason, so that you know your belonging to God. \
9:07: Isn't that the desire of every human being's heart that you know you belong. \
9:16: Unconditionally to the God of the universe. \
9:19: He sees you. \
9:21: He knows you. \
9:22: He hears you. \
9:24: You belong to Him. \
9:26: And then the next verses talk about great trial and tribulation, fires and floods. \
9:33: It doesn't say if they come, it says when they come. \
9:37: Because we live in a broken world, these things will happen to us, but because we are fully connected to him in belonging, he calls us by name that intimacy. \
9:51: When we go through those things beyond a shadow of a doubt, he will be with us just like you would be with your child. \
10:02: You belong to him. \
10:05: And in that moment, because I'd been learning that listening prayer, how to tune in to the communication of God, how to sense His presence with me. \
10:16: I just sat there and I said, Wow, God, you changed Jacob's name. \
10:22: And then I remembered you changed Abraham's name. \
10:26: You changed Sarah's name. \
10:27: You changed Gideon's name. \
10:29: You changed Moses's name. \
10:30: You changed Peter's name. \
10:31: You changed Saul's name. \
10:33: It suddenly flooded me. \
10:35: Every prominent person in Scripture had a name change, and I thought, do you have a name for me? \
10:42: And I just prayed I said, God, my parents named me Donna. \
10:47: Who do you say that I am? \
10:50: And the very first thing I sensed was beloved beautiful daughter, and that was very personal to me because of just my family upbringing. \
10:59: There were reasons I didn't ever believe that. \
11:02: And when I heard that, when I heard it from a voice outside myself but also inside myself, it changed my life. \
11:12: When you, that's the mystery of being fully connected to God and His kingdom. \
11:17: When you hear his voice, it changes you. \
11:21: It absolutely changes you. \
11:23: This is Romans 12:2 in action. \
11:26: Stop conforming to the old patterns of thinking. \
11:30: And be transformed by the renewing of your mind. \
11:34: This is how your mind is renewed. \
11:37: And so I started searching the scriptures. \
11:40: Where else is this in the Bible? \
11:41: And people ask me that all the time. \
11:44: Almost in, you know, they, they don't believe it. \
11:48: They're, it's, it's, it's negative how they ask me. \
11:52: Oh, that's nowhere in the Bible. \
11:54: I've never seen identity in the Bible. \
11:55: Where's that? \
11:56: I started searching the scriptures, and I have a whole list of verses right here. \
12:01: That's Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 453, Isaiah 565, Isaiah 622, Jeremiah 15:16. \
12:13: These are all verses that just talk about a name change, John chapter 10 in the New Testament. \
12:21: The sheep hear my voice. \
12:23: He calls his own sheep by name and brings them out. \
12:28: And when he brings them out, they follow him because they know his voice. \
12:32: He calls them by name. \
12:34: Revelation 2:17. \
12:36: I love that one. \
12:38: God gives us a new name written on a white stem that only you and the Lord understand. \
12:45: And then I started to see the Bible as just a whole case study of people walking in these false identities of not good enough, unworthy. \
12:57: Think about Gideon hiding in a cave and for for fear of the Midianites, and he feels like he's the least of his clan, the lowest in his family. \
13:08: Such a false identity. \
13:10: And he hears the angel of the Lord call him my mighty man of valor. \
13:15: Go and save my people Israel. \
13:18: And as we started to study this, Jamie also diving into it. \
13:25: This is what changed our life more than anything up to that point. \
13:29: And we started as we received it for ourselves, you know, you can't give away what you don't have. \
13:37: You can only reflect what you have received. \
13:42: So if you feel like you're a failure, you're gonna reflect that in the lives of other people. \
13:48: You know, the definition of wholeness is when the way of your being expresses. \
13:55: The truth of who you really are. \
13:58: And so if you believe you're a failure, you're gonna be acting like a failure and people will sense that. \
14:05: But in the truth of who you are, if you're walking that out, that's contagious to people. \
14:10: It's infectious, and they want to know, be ready to give an answer for the hope that's within you. \
14:16: People want to know, how are you like this? \
14:20: Tell me, you seem to know something I don't know. \
14:23: And as we started to live this out, we started to share it with our friends. \
14:29: We were living in a Muslim country at the time. \
14:32: And this seemed to be really effective. \
14:35: It was good news to people. \
14:38: And it's a long story, but as we came back to the states, we started teaching and training on this, and this was how Identity Exchange was birthed. \
14:47: Our company Identity Exchange. \
14:50: We, we built just a whole series of talks and trainings and Bible studies and even corporate trainings on how to learn to hear from. \
15:03: The voice sense the communication of divine love and discover who who you really are. \
15:10: Yeah, and it's been Transformational for for us and other people. \
15:16: It's interesting too, as you start to notice this, this concept in scripture from the very beginning, from Adam and Eve, and God names, God names us. \
15:25: Names are hugely important to God, and God gives humanity the power to name creation. \
15:33: And naming ceremonies has all has been a part of every culture for all time, and we've lost track of it actually. \
15:41: We've lost track of identity, for, for Jewish people, the bar mitzvah is a time of naming. \
15:48: It's when a child becomes an adult, they receive their name from the community. \
15:53: They know that they now belong to that community, that they have a role to play in that community, and they they never have to wonder who am I and what's my community. \
16:03: So identity. \
16:05: When you, when as you even explore outside of scripture in the living sciences, identity is the only organizing principle for any organism. \
16:15: No organism can form around any other concept other than identity. \
16:21: Every living systems because being informs doing, always being informs doing and Jesus says that a good tree. \
16:30: Produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. \
16:33: That's, that's the being informs doing. \
16:36: So as we explored that more and more beyond scripture out into, you know, what, what, what Paul says, if you look at creation, you see even the invisible qualities of God. \
16:47: So when we looked at creation and we look at science and we look at our universe, it's all based on identity. \
16:53: It's all based on authentic identity produces healthy systems. \
16:59: A corrupted identity produces cancerous parasitic results. \
17:05: In Scripture also you because of the passage John is using in Isaiah, when a foreign power comes and takes a a people group captive, the first thing they do is change their names, right? \
17:17: We see that with Daniel, we see it with Joseph. \
17:20: They take away the identity of the person and replace it with the identity of the empire. \
17:26: And for us as humans, we we most of us are receiving our identity from the enemy. \
17:33: You're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you're you're always in in in conflict. \
17:38: We don't know how to resolve anything apart from fear and power and war, and that's how we do everything because we're operating in. \
17:47: Identities that are false. \
17:50: And so, and so in scripture and in the story of Daniel, what God does as he does, it's not he's giving us a new identity. \
17:58: He's restoring us to the identity that he gave us when he knit us together in our mother's womb. \
18:04: So when the angel of the Lord says to Gideon, you're a mighty man of valor, it's not like all of a sudden he's a mighty man of valor cause he meets, you know, the pre-incarnate Christ. \
18:13: What the angel of the Lord is saying to him is, you've always been a mighty man of valor. \
18:18: Why are you living as if you're a coward? \
18:20: Doesn't he actually say go in the strength you've always had, yes, and Paul says in Galatians, in my mother's womb I was called to the Gentiles. \
18:29: It's not Just on the Damascus road, suddenly his mission has changed because he's met, he's met the risen Christ. \
18:35: It's, it's Christ telling him you're, you're the, everything you've been doing has been in opposition to who you actually are. \
18:43: You're persecuting me, Jesus says. \
18:46: And so his transformation, his he's being born again, he's been born once with that identity, but he doesn't know what it is. \
18:55: And so now he's being reborn by the spirit into the truth of who he's always been. \
19:01: And Paul says, at the right time, God made it known to me, which means none of the years are wasted. \
19:07: You've always been in that identity. \
19:09: It will all work together for good, but it Won't work unless you are called according to the identity and purposes of God. \
19:16: That's the beauty of it. \
19:18: So, today, if I move from the sense of false identity that I've gained from what I do, what I have, what people think about me. \
19:27: Into, God, I lay these down before you, I give these to you in confession. \
19:33: This is what I believe about myself. \
19:35: What do you say about me? \
19:37: And the spirit of God of Christ looks at you and said, I'll tell you who you've always been, because I don't make worthless and I don't make not enough. \
19:47: I make, and then he reveals to you the truth of who you've always been. \
19:51: It's this resonance inside of the human that's like, yeah, that's true, that gives me joy, it gives me peace. \
19:58: And then transformation is to walk in that. \
20:00: What is that identity look like on Monday morning? \
20:04: What what the Lord calls you, and then how do my whole life becomes organized around the truth of who I am. \
20:12: Which is other focus, self emptying unconditional love for others, which is the model of Christ. \
20:17: So, this is, this is the beauty of identity and when we study levels of change or transformation in any situation. \
20:27: Most organizations go in and try and change the value structure, or the belief structure, or the environment of a place to get it to be better. \
20:35: This is what programs do all the time. \
20:37: Churches try this. \
20:39: But the only thing that brings real transformation is an identity transformation. \
20:44: Once the identity is transformed, the beliefs change, the value change, everything changes. \
20:51: But if you skip identity, We know, we know from our own lives that nothing changes. \
20:57: You're back to the primer, you're missing the prime. \
21:00: And so this is what we've built identity exchange on is this very beautiful idea of in my mother's womb, God named me. \
21:10: And each of us in those unique identities fit together beautifully without competition, without comparison, and then we work together as a whole body because we each know who we are in the body and we don't want to be another part. \
21:27: And your identity grows throughout your lifetime, you're on this beautiful mystery of endless discoverability. \
21:36: And it develops, you may have several different identities. \
21:40: They, they grow and build on one another. \
21:44: And the most beautiful part is you're created in the lightness and image of God. \
21:49: So your identity is a facet of the identity of God. \
21:54: It's his gift to you and in turn your identity without striving. \
22:00: But it's an overflow and a gift to other people, a gift to the world. \
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