Seed Sower: My Identity In Christ

Hello my brother; hello my sister, my name is Dean Davis, and this is a word of encouragement for village church planters.

I remember when I first gave my life to Christ.  I was so thankful for his forgiveness.  I was so glad to know that I had a Father in heaven who loved me and received me.  I read one chapter from the Bible every night before I went to sleep.  I was learning so much about Jesus, so much about how to live as a follower of Christ.

Even so, I was a new believer.  I hadn’t walked with Jesus very long.  The funny thing was, my mornings were very similar to the mornings I had experienced before Jesus came into my life.  I would wake up and start my day without remembering that I was a child of God.  I just went about my life like I had before I was born again. I can remember many mornings when, around ten or eleven o’clock, it dawned on me that I was a child of God.  Usually it happened when I had a need and would pray silently.  It was when I prayed that I remembered that my life was different, that I could pray with confidence because I was a child of God. 

As a follower of Jesus, I had a new identity. I was a redeemed child of God.  I was a citizen of the Kingdom of God. I was forgiven and made new.  After a few years, I got over that problem of waking up and not remembering my new nature as a child of God.  Now I wake up praying.  I am conscious of who I am in Christ all day long.

As a church planter and disciple maker, one of your most important ministries is to help people understand and accept their identity in Christ. The people you are leading to the Lord have spent their whole life living as a child of this world.  But when they are born again, they gain a new nature.  They become children of God.  Your job as a church planter and disciple maker is to help them fully embrace their new identity in Christ.  As you help them know and understand who they are in Christ, your disciples will experience freedom from fear, peace with God and power for living that comes by actively trusting in the goodness of God.

The Bible says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new… Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

As you teach the members of your church about their new identity in Christ, you of course will teach them about forgiveness of sins and what it means to be a dearly loved child of God.  You will teach them about the privilege of prayer that is theirs because they belong to Christ.  Be sure to also teach them that their new nature as a child of God makes them an ambassador for Christ.  Teach them that it is a great privilege and a great responsibility to be a messenger for King Jesus. Teach them that being an ambassador for Christ who helps other people be reconciled to God is a vital and essential part of their identity in Christ.  As you do so, you will see new believers transformed from passive recipients of God’s grace into powerful messengers of the King of Kings.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

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