You'll believe that about yourself, so many people in this church here today would define themselves not as God defines you, not as God sees you but according to how you see you and it's defined by what's happened in your past; I'm a failure, I'm a reject, I'm a nothing see? Well that's going to affect how you run your life, and so clearly the motivational people are right. You need to get a good view of yourself, your self-esteem, but the problem with all of the teaching stuff on self-esteem is it never has the cross in it. It always exalts self rather than exalting Christ, so it tries to build a person without actually becoming rooted in who I am as God intended me to be. That's the problem with it, so it's got good concepts. They're all drawn from the Bible actually [although they may 00.05.44] not admit that. That's where they come from.
So some people identify themself by the words of others; I'm a failure. How do you know you're a failure? I'm useless, I'm this, I'm that because someone told me and I believed them. Then so we looked at - particularly last week we looked at the area of victim, defining ourselves I'm a victim. In other words I'm powerless, I can't do anything, bad things always happen to me, what's the use. Now all that kind of mentality leaves you disempowered. That's not who God called you to be. God called you to have dominion, you're a person with dominion, so we're going to share with you in another time how you actually arise in your personal life and begin to assert dominion into the realm that's around you. But to do that you've got to know who you are. Okay, now I want to before I get into the final one on identity, I want to look at another way that people define themselves and this is a really important one.
If it rings your bells then put your hand up and get to change okay? [Laughs] So another way is that people define themselves is by their performance, what they do; I am what I do. So what I do tells you what I am. Now it's only a partial truth in that, so Jesus [identity 00.06.50] and the key to your identity is revelation. The key to your identity, your true identity, is revelation. It's what God says about you. If you don't know what God says you are how do you know who you really are? You're just defining yourself according to your background, or experiences, or what people say about you or even the group you're in. They put a label on you so they can say who you are; oh, you're just that. Oh, you're just a Pentecostal. Oh, you're just a Catholic. You know, people put labels to box us, but I need to know who I am according to what God says. Every one of us needs to know clearly who we are according to what God says about me, and then I live out of what God says.
Now I may not be living up to it completely, but I'm not trying to prove that's who I am. I'm actually living up to who I am. Got the idea? So it's a real different thing, whereas most people try to establish who they are by doing something. God reveals who you are and then you begin to live up to it. Getting the idea? Okay then, so just have a look - I want to have a look first of all in John 1:29. Now Jesus' identity was defined very clearly. He knew exactly who He was. Because He knew who He was He didn't worry about position or rank, title. He didn't worry about what people thought about Him. He was actually free to be Himself, because He knew who He was so He didn't need someone else to say who He was. But we find His identity's defined in two places; one, it's defined by the prophet of God revealing something to Him in John 1:29.
And He says the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and he said behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Now you notice what's happening here. You have to understand this. John was God's representative in the earth and John was preaching the gospel, a repent of sin and repentance towards God and then water baptism. Now you've got to understand what the significance of this water baptism thing is. Water baptism was this, it was I have repented from my old life, my old way without God, and now I want to demonstrate openly that the old identity of life as I used to live it is gone. And I'm beginning a new life as a new person with a new framework - God is the centre. So baptism then was they go down into the water; the old life identity as you used to know is buried. Now there's a new person risen up, a walking with God person.