LIBERTY/FREEDOM I: IDENTITY

Are you sick and tired of living a lifetime of continual, habitual sin? Sinning, repenting, walking in the light for a little while, falling into sin again? A continual cycle that never seems to end. Some even reading this have already resigned their fate and have given up hope of ever attaining freedom i.e. liberty from sin. My dear friend, don’t give up! Please, read on.

In 2013 I, Patrick Maiyo, had been a Christian for two years and I was devastated by the presence of sin in my life. I prayed and repented fervently but the consciousness of sin in my mind continually oppressed me. It seemed as though the more I made resolution to never sin again, the more I plunged into my sins!

One day the Lord prompted it in my heart, as I spent time with Him in prayer and worship, I felt it very heavily, to read Romans chapters 6, 7 & 8. I don’t remember if I had read this Bible text before that but I read and meditated those Scriptures maybe over 20 times in a space of a few of weeks. I even listened to them audibly as I had audio Bible recordings.

I learnt from my meditation of these texts that number one, despite being born again, I have a physical body that inherited sin from Adam. Number two, this flesh or body or earthly tent which is part of our triune nature i.e. spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23), loves to sin (it was corrupted by Adam’s disobedience – Psa. 51:4-5; Mark 7:20-23; Rom. 5:12; 7:14, 20-23; Gal. 5:19-21) and is at war with my spirit (which is the born again nature in me – Eph. 4:23-24; Col. 3:10). The flesh has been corrupted by sin, and so the spirit and flesh are both fighting for control over my mind (a part of the soul). I realised that which I fed more, whether the spirit or the flesh had victory over the other in my daily battle to walk with the Lord Jesus.

The third thing I learnt was that, the Law though being perfect and good, triggers the sinful nature in us. When you are told not to do something, that is actually when you want to do it and there is a deep desire in us that lusts after breaking God’s commandments despite the fact that we know that these things are not only wrong, but that they bring both physical and spiritual death. So the more you say “I will never do this… or, this is the last time I will ever do this…” you are actually in effect, without knowing it, creating a law unto yourself. Because of the flesh that is riddled by sin, these laws give strength to your besetting sin (Rom. 4:15; 5:13; 7:5, 8, 13) because “the strength of sin is the law” – 1 Cor. 15:56.

But, the most important thing I learnt was that the reality for the born again Christian is that “sin does not have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). I then understood that walking under grace is akin to walking in the Spirit as described in Gal. 5:16-25 and again is the same principle of abiding brought out by the Lord Jesus in John 15:1-8 and the Apostle John in 1 John 3:6. We are branches in the True Vine. And what a great treasure I had found! Spiritually speaking, at least, in my pursuit of holiness.

I began to teach these revelations as I preached and between 2014 and 2015 this was the subject I taught the most. But there was one problem, I was still struggling with sin and many times I felt condemned and a hypocrite. I knew like the Apostle Paul that,

“I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring [fighting] against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” – Rom. 7:22-23

But I also rejoiced with Paul that,

“I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” – Rom. 7:24-8:1-2

Yet, despite all this I was having a margin of victory. I knew how to win the war against sin theoretically but yet I couldn’t get a full grasp on the practicality of this revelation. It seemed to evade me and when I had gotten hold of the victory, it slipped through my hands. It was a frustrating experience. I knew that abiding in Christ was the secret to holiness (the source of a continual flow of the fruit of the Spirit in me) but I couldn’t maintain being in His presence 24/7.

Now let me clarify, my relationship with the Lord was growing steadily despite all this. I loved the Lord more and more and walked with Him more intimately and as the years passed, I saw spiritual change and growth in my life. Every year since I have been saved, I have grown in every aspect of my life. It’s been amazing.

This is my ninth year as a Christian and I wonder how it’ll be for me 60 years from now because it’s already been so good. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. But yet, I knew that there was more to the subject of sanctification i.e. becoming more like Jesus, growing in holiness and I coveted it. I sought the Lord earnestly and fervently. Then the Spirit of God began to open my eyes.

In 2014 I listened to a teaching by Kenneth E. Hagin, The Believer’s Authority, which he preached at the Rhema Bible Training Center in 1991. He mentioned in the teaching that he was prompted, by the Spirit, to pray from Ephesians 1:15-23 and chapter 3:14-21 and after praying these Ephesian prayers authored by the Apostle Paul over 1000 times, his life dramatically changed. That is when he says he began to understand the authority of the believer and the identity of the born again Christian that has evaded the Christian Church for almost two millennia except for small pockets of saints throughout the centuries who understood these vital truths. Rev. Hagin told his wife after he had had these revelations, “I don’t know what I’ve been preaching all these years,” because he was a new man and saw the Bible and his Christian walk as he had never seen before. I now know what this experience feels like. It’s almost like a born again Christian being regenerated again!

Well, I began to pray those same prayers in 2014. I would do this every morning whenever I began the day with prayer and worship. I prayed these prayers over myself for a good part of that year, though not consistently but regularly. For some reason I stopped praying these prayers and I can’t remember why. I did continue praying though in general, in fact my prayer life and intimacy with the Lord grew more but for some reason I stopped specifically praying those Ephesian prayers consistently.

In 2019 after a time of prayer and fasting, the Lord prompted me to pray those prayers that I had been praying in 2014. And so, I began praying those prayers daily and added more Scripture into my routine so that these are the Scripture I’m currently praying weekly:

1. Ephesians 1:15-23
2. Ephesians 3:14-21
3. Philippians 1:9-11
4. Philippians 3:7-15a
5. Colossians 1:9-14
6. 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
7. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Don’t get intimated by my weekly prayer schedule. These prayers are prayed as they are in the Scriptures and they take me each about 2 to 3 minutes and at most 5 minutes daily. They are seven prayers and therefore I pray them individually, one each for every day of the week. You can do it too. Just spare 2 minutes from the 24 hours you have in a day to pray them and you will be grateful because of their fruit. Notice that these prayers are not prayed to obtain anything but rather so that the scales may be removed and that your spiritual eyes may be opened to what you already have as a born again Christian. You will grow in your identity in Christ.

The object of this article is not to get you to compare your Christian life with mine or try to make you try to reach to my ‘level’. We are all on level ground in Christ. Yes, there will be different levels of growth depending on how we respond to the Gospel but my aim in writing this is to point you to the finished work of Jesus Christ for you two thousand years ago, not my personal prayer, fasting, Bible reading, worship etc. When you get understand who you are in Christ, the fruit will be that you will automatically become more and more like Jesus, not by your effort/works but by His grace that works in you (Eph. 2:8-10; Phil. 2:13).

After these few years of praying the Pauline prayers mentioned above, something has definitely changed in me. I am now starting to understand why Kenneth E. Hagin lived out his Christian faith so simply and why his teachings were so simplistic yet so powerful. In fact Papa Hagin makes the Christian walk seem so easy that you’d think he’s either being hypocritical, insensitive to people’s problems or both!

Another turning point is about a year or two ago, in 2018, I ‘stumbled’ on an audio recording, on the internet, of Kathryn Kuhlman teaching on this subject of identity in Jesus. I don’t believe this was coincidence, rather it was divine direction by the Holy Spirit. In the recording (which is probably from anywhere between the late 1940s to early 1970s) she shares a revelation she received from a letter written by Hudson Taylor in 1869 about the victory, the freedom or liberty that the Christian has already but does not realise it yet.

After listening to the Miss Kuhlman’s teaching a good number of times, it all came together. A light flicked in my mind, illumination flooded my soul. I realised that the Holy Spirit had done to me just what Jesus had promised He would do to all His followers. He had guided me to a great truth (John 16:13-14).

All of a sudden I knew that I AM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS. I had known and quoted this Scripture before (2 Cor. 5:17, 21) but now I had seen the light. My main problem all along had been an ignorance of my IDENTITY in the finished work of Jesus!

And this is the exact challenge or problem that some members of the Early Church experienced. They were not living the full life, life in abundance, because of ignorance of their identity. They had truly been saved but they had not adopted the Kingdom mentality. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us, “For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

What a statement. We have the mind of Christ. Believe it!

 When James and John asked the Lord for permission to call down fire from Heaven to kill the unwelcoming Samaritans, Jesus rebuking, told them that their request was out of ignorance (Luke 9:51-56 KJV). “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” He said.

The Apostle Paul appalled at the gross sexual sin entertained amongst the Corinthian Church (a man having sex with his father’s wife) reminded them who they were in Christ. He said to them, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). Again, “And such were some of you [every kind of wickedness]: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God…Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” – 1 Cor. 6:11, 19-20

In responding to accusations that his emphasis on the Gospel (good news) of God’s grace was a license to sin Paul says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” – Romans 6:1-2. In other words, if the born again Christian knew that they died to sin in Christ (Romans 6:1-18) and were raised to righteousness, they would not live in sin. Knowing who you are in Christ is the key to living a victorious life in every area and circumstance of life.

The Apostle Peter, writing from a prison in Rome encouraged the persecuted brethren throughout Asia Minor (most of present day Turkey) by showing them their identity, their spiritual DNA and how it was the solution to all things for us Christians, both in life and in godliness. 1 Peter 2:9:

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

What great identity we have and what great things God has wrought in the born again Christian!

I knew these Scriptures though, and many more mentally. I had known to a certain extent but I did not embrace whom I really am as a born again Christian. And that’s because I was trying to work for my righteousness, earning holiness and not living by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus’ perfect atonement. It is the just who live by faith, Habakkuk 2:4 says.

“Abraham believed God, [and then] it was counted to him for righteousness.” – Genesis 15:6

You see, I have walked in divine health for years. I have become sick many times and I stood with the Word of God knowing that my sickness were ALL healed by Jesus’ wounds (Isa. 53:5; Matt. 8:16-17). Even when the symptoms of sickness became more severe I found myself quoting Scripture to the fact that God was my healer, thanking Him for my healing and He has never failed me yet. I have been healed time and time again. I was assured that God would keep His promise to heal my body from physical sickness but it seemed that I was not fully persuaded that He would heal me from soul sickness i.e. sin because of the symptoms of sin springing up in my life every now and then.

Then I saw that just like I trust God every time to heal me when I have been attacked by sickness even when the symptoms become severe, I am to stand with the Word of God and quote my identity in Christ, speak the Word of God over the situation and believe that I am righteous even when the situation seems beyond hope! The more sin rears its ugly head trying to devour my life, the more I stand firmly in grace (Rom. 5:1-2; 1 Peter 5:12), rooted in Christ (Rom. 11:16-17; Eph. 3:17; Col. 2:7) and confess who I am based on the finished work. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new…For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him” – 2 Cor. 5:17 (KJV), 21 (TPT)

This seems absurd and if you’re thinking that, it does sound absurd but faith always does look absurd, unrealistic and foolish. The mourners at Jairus’ home laughed Jesus to scorn for saying that his 12 year old daughter was only asleep and not dead. The end result vindicated the Messiah.

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1-2 tells us that it is,

“The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders [all the great people in the Bible] obtained a good testimony.”

The Amplified Bible (AMP) defines faith in a more clear way:

“Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. For by this [kind of] faith the men of old gained [divine] approval.”

You are not worthy neither will you ever be worthy in God’s eyes by your good deeds. You cannot receive divine healing from the Lord because of your goodness. No, you put faith in the finished work of Jesus at the Cross. By His stripes you are (“were” already done – 1 Peter 2:24) healed from your sickness and disease and in the same way through His blood you have been redeemed; blood bought, forgiven and declared to be free without guilt, condemnation and imputed righteousness (not attained by works but through faith in Christ) the moment you were born again and accepted Jesus as your Saviour and Lord.

For the Believer, everything that pertains to life and godliness is attained by the righteousness of faith i.e. righteousness that comes from putting your entire faith and reliance on Jesus (Gal. 2:19-21; 2 Pet 1:1-4). Whether it is salvation, justification, sanctification, glorification, deliverance, the anointing, healing, prosperity, etc. it is ALL obtained by grace alone through faith. It is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. Believe it my friend. Just believe. “Abraham believed God [despite lack of evidence] and it was counted to Him for righteousness.”

Romans 4:16-25:

“Therefore it is of faith [the complete package of salvation] that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they are [existent]; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

Abraham learnt from God to call things which be not as though they are. He disregarded the physical state and feelings of his old body and Sarah’s (including her barrenness) but focused on God’s promise and was fully persuaded of it. No matter how worse things got he continued thanking God for a son for 24 years before Isaac was finally conceived. This text concludes by saying that God will do the same for you just like He did for Abraham if you believe, i.e. have child-like faith that believes (Matt. 18:3-4) even despite contradictory circumstances and or evidence. Remember that the Scriptures consistently tell us that God is no respecter of persons and what He did for Abraham He will do for you today. In John 20:29,the Lord Jesus said to doubting Thomas, “happy [blessed] are those who have not seen and yet believed.”

This is the secret to liberty in Christ. Knowing who you are in Him. Say what the Bible says about you in light of the finished work. This truth is applicable in every part of our lives. God by “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” – 2 Peter 1:3-4.

I love the songs such as “Who You Say I Am” by Hillsong Worship that show us our spiritual DNA. Another great song is Sinach’s “I know Who I Am” and lesser known songs such as “Your Grace is Sufficient for Me” and “Your Love” by Marty J. Nystrom.

I would honestly advice you mediate (read and reread again and again) what you have read and search through the Scriptures. Seek Jesus Christ, He will not fail you. He is the answer to ALL of your needs and He satisfies more than anything this world could ever give. Read Romans chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8. Find all the Scriptures that remind us of our identity in finished work of Jesus. There are all over the place, both in the Old & New Testaments. This is the way to true holiness because as 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, Jesus is made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness [justification], and sanctification [holiness], and redemption [freedom/deliverance].”

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but to us who are born again Christ is in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Hallelujah!

If you are not saved, that is, born-again please read this article here and accept Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Saviour and Lord. He loves you too much. Please make this decision today, it’ll save your life. God bless you.

This is a teaching series. The rest of the articles can be found here: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.