Identity - Week 4
Who am I?
Royalty
Identity - Week 4
I want to begin this week by recognizing much of its content comes from the book The SupernaturalWays of Royalty: Discovering your rights and privileges of being a son or daughter of God by Kris Vallotton & Bill Johnson. This book is so good and I encourage you to read it over and over again until its truths sink deep into your souls.
Paupers and Princes
When I was a kid, my Dad owned a gas station in a small town. I would frequently go to his gas station and work on weekends and during summers. I would pump gas, help with oil changes, brake jobs, and clean the shop. After a long day working at the gas station, I would come home covered in dirt and grease. I learned from an early age how to work but I could never quite figure out how to stay even somewhat clean. Dad worked hard to provide for us growing up and we never had to worry about a roof over our heads or where our next meal was coming from.
However, Mom and Dad often fought about money. Dad would earn it and Mom would spend it(or at least that is what we heard growing up) and that drove Dad crazy from time to time. It was as if we never had enough. Even after Mom graduated from college and began to work full time as a nurse, they still fought about money.Mom now brought in more than Dad did monthly. This seemed to just add fuel to the fire.
The problem wasn't that we didn't have money, the problem was Dad thought we never had enough. It was as if he always expected the bottom to fall out and we would have nothing. Dad had the mindset of a pauper. He saw himself as being insignificant to provide for his family and assumed that resources were too limited for him to have a fulfilling life.
As Christians, we can have this same mindset. We can live from a place where life may be good, but we are just waiting for the bottom to fall out one of these days. We may feel insignificant and limited. Our relationship with God may be one of constant desperation where we seek his hand (or his handout) more than we seek his face. We are continually looking for what He will give us rather than what He has already promised.
We are not just sinners, saved by grace, who continually need to go to God for everything. We’re His children, adopted into the Kingdom through Christ Jesus. In ancient Jewish culture, adoption of a child into a family is identified as “spiritually equivalent to procreation.”So, when a child is adopted into that family they are spiritually equal to the biological children. And as God’s adopted children, we are part of the royal bloodline of Christ and we have the same inheritance. Do you know what that means? You are Royalty! You are no longer a pauper who needs to live from a poverty mindset. You are a Prince! Not only that, you are a prince with an inheritance just waiting for you to claim as your own. And I don't mean when you someday get to heaven, I mean right now! When you read the 40 scriptures this week, don’t just read them to get through them. Claim them as your own! Those are part of your inheritance.
We all need to recognize that there are areas of our lives that we tend to think like a pauper. There are circumstances that occur from time to time that are completely out of our control. How we react to these circumstances may highlight where we have that pauper mindset. Maybe it’s that unforeseen bill that comes out of nowhere, or an argument with your wife or your boss, a demotion at work, or any other circumstance that is unforeseen. We all have certain areas of our lives that God has spoken into and we received healing and we never looked back and there are others that are a rut that when life happens, we keep going back to over and over again.
How do we go from thinking like a pauper to thinking like a prince? This transition can be difficult, especially if we try to do it all by ourselves. Our approach to a change of mindset must not be “how fast can I fix this.” The exchange of pauper to prince must happen with the Lord.
First, we need community. Doing life with other men who have experienced freedom in areas where we haven’t is why we do discipleship! We can glean from the men around us. We all have something to offer others can glean from as well.
Second, we need to partner with theHoly Spirit. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to teach us about everything. John14:26 says, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” If we work hand in hand with the Holy Spirit, He will tell us the way to go. It may be through a simple nudge or through quiet conviction, but He will guide us.
Third, we must know what God has already spoken. Knowing and understanding scripture, even beyond the 40 verses we have been repeating over the last 4 weeks, is pertinent to our transformation. God will never contradict what he has already said. And knowing His Word will help us understand what Holy Spirit is telling us now.
Royalty
Solomon, the second son of David and Bathsheba was raised to be king. From birth, people taught him what it meant to be royalty; how to walk, talk and act like a king.You can see the influence of these royal teachings in the Book of Proverbs, which Solomon wrote later in his life. Can you imagine that though? What would it have been like to be raised in a palace where everyone around you spoke into your destiny as a king? Who would you be today if someone spoke like that into your life? How much different would life be now if you believed that from an early age? How would a childhood like that shaped your future differently? I don’t know about you, but I think I would hold my head a little higher, have more confidence in anything I did and probably treat others with more respect than I did. If I knew that I was destined for greatness and raised to confidently pursue that greatness, it would have changed everything.
But here is the thing guys, it is not too late! We can start thinking the same way that Solomon did. I want to repeat this, you are royalty. And nothing can take that away from you. You have greatness inside of you.
1 Peter2:9 says, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
When we continually follow Jesus and partner with the Holy Spirit, we start to act like royalty. And then, when we face hard things, our mindset changes. We face them with the confidence of kings and everyone around us witnesses our character in the face of hardship.
Question:
1. What areas of your life do you tend to think like a pauper? Is it finances? Relationships? Talk this through with your group.
2. The 3 things that Luis mentioned in the podcast that we need to help us transition to a royal mindset is community, a partnership with Holy Spirit, and knowing God’s Word. Which of those 3 is easy for you? Which one challenges you?
3. Can you think of any other people in the Bible that would be good examples of royalty? Explain in your group.
Activation:
Alright gentlemen, we have repeated the 40 scriptures over and over again for the last 4 weeks. Now, I want you to go to the Lord and ask Him this question. “God, who do you say that I am?” Ask Him how He sees you. The answer is what we call “I Am” statements. What He speaks may or may not sound like the scriptures you have repeated the last 4 weeks but it will not contradict them either. Some of you are going to hear “I Am”statements that may not make sense to you yet but they are still true. Write down what the Lord speaks to you and then talk about it with someone in your group this week.
Identity - Week 4
Who am I?
Royalty
Identity - Week 4
I want to begin this week by recognizing much of its content comes from the book The SupernaturalWays of Royalty: Discovering your rights and privileges of being a son or daughter of God by Kris Vallotton & Bill Johnson. This book is so good and I encourage you to read it over and over again until its truths sink deep into your souls.
Paupers and Princes
When I was a kid, my Dad owned a gas station in a small town. I would frequently go to his gas station and work on weekends and during summers. I would pump gas, help with oil changes, brake jobs, and clean the shop. After a long day working at the gas station, I would come home covered in dirt and grease. I learned from an early age how to work but I could never quite figure out how to stay even somewhat clean. Dad worked hard to provide for us growing up and we never had to worry about a roof over our heads or where our next meal was coming from.
However, Mom and Dad often fought about money. Dad would earn it and Mom would spend it(or at least that is what we heard growing up) and that drove Dad crazy from time to time. It was as if we never had enough. Even after Mom graduated from college and began to work full time as a nurse, they still fought about money.Mom now brought in more than Dad did monthly. This seemed to just add fuel to the fire.
The problem wasn't that we didn't have money, the problem was Dad thought we never had enough. It was as if he always expected the bottom to fall out and we would have nothing. Dad had the mindset of a pauper. He saw himself as being insignificant to provide for his family and assumed that resources were too limited for him to have a fulfilling life.
As Christians, we can have this same mindset. We can live from a place where life may be good, but we are just waiting for the bottom to fall out one of these days. We may feel insignificant and limited. Our relationship with God may be one of constant desperation where we seek his hand (or his handout) more than we seek his face. We are continually looking for what He will give us rather than what He has already promised.
We are not just sinners, saved by grace, who continually need to go to God for everything. We’re His children, adopted into the Kingdom through Christ Jesus. In ancient Jewish culture, adoption of a child into a family is identified as “spiritually equivalent to procreation.”So, when a child is adopted into that family they are spiritually equal to the biological children. And as God’s adopted children, we are part of the royal bloodline of Christ and we have the same inheritance. Do you know what that means? You are Royalty! You are no longer a pauper who needs to live from a poverty mindset. You are a Prince! Not only that, you are a prince with an inheritance just waiting for you to claim as your own. And I don't mean when you someday get to heaven, I mean right now! When you read the 40 scriptures this week, don’t just read them to get through them. Claim them as your own! Those are part of your inheritance.
We all need to recognize that there are areas of our lives that we tend to think like a pauper. There are circumstances that occur from time to time that are completely out of our control. How we react to these circumstances may highlight where we have that pauper mindset. Maybe it’s that unforeseen bill that comes out of nowhere, or an argument with your wife or your boss, a demotion at work, or any other circumstance that is unforeseen. We all have certain areas of our lives that God has spoken into and we received healing and we never looked back and there are others that are a rut that when life happens, we keep going back to over and over again.
How do we go from thinking like a pauper to thinking like a prince? This transition can be difficult, especially if we try to do it all by ourselves. Our approach to a change of mindset must not be “how fast can I fix this.” The exchange of pauper to prince must happen with the Lord.
First, we need community. Doing life with other men who have experienced freedom in areas where we haven’t is why we do discipleship! We can glean from the men around us. We all have something to offer others can glean from as well.
Second, we need to partner with theHoly Spirit. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to teach us about everything. John14:26 says, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” If we work hand in hand with the Holy Spirit, He will tell us the way to go. It may be through a simple nudge or through quiet conviction, but He will guide us.
Third, we must know what God has already spoken. Knowing and understanding scripture, even beyond the 40 verses we have been repeating over the last 4 weeks, is pertinent to our transformation. God will never contradict what he has already said. And knowing His Word will help us understand what Holy Spirit is telling us now.
Royalty
Solomon, the second son of David and Bathsheba was raised to be king. From birth, people taught him what it meant to be royalty; how to walk, talk and act like a king.You can see the influence of these royal teachings in the Book of Proverbs, which Solomon wrote later in his life. Can you imagine that though? What would it have been like to be raised in a palace where everyone around you spoke into your destiny as a king? Who would you be today if someone spoke like that into your life? How much different would life be now if you believed that from an early age? How would a childhood like that shaped your future differently? I don’t know about you, but I think I would hold my head a little higher, have more confidence in anything I did and probably treat others with more respect than I did. If I knew that I was destined for greatness and raised to confidently pursue that greatness, it would have changed everything.
But here is the thing guys, it is not too late! We can start thinking the same way that Solomon did. I want to repeat this, you are royalty. And nothing can take that away from you. You have greatness inside of you.
1 Peter2:9 says, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
When we continually follow Jesus and partner with the Holy Spirit, we start to act like royalty. And then, when we face hard things, our mindset changes. We face them with the confidence of kings and everyone around us witnesses our character in the face of hardship.
Question:
1. What areas of your life do you tend to think like a pauper? Is it finances? Relationships? Talk this through with your group.
2. The 3 things that Luis mentioned in the podcast that we need to help us transition to a royal mindset is community, a partnership with Holy Spirit, and knowing God’s Word. Which of those 3 is easy for you? Which one challenges you?
3. Can you think of any other people in the Bible that would be good examples of royalty? Explain in your group.
Activation:
Alright gentlemen, we have repeated the 40 scriptures over and over again for the last 4 weeks. Now, I want you to go to the Lord and ask Him this question. “God, who do you say that I am?” Ask Him how He sees you. The answer is what we call “I Am” statements. What He speaks may or may not sound like the scriptures you have repeated the last 4 weeks but it will not contradict them either. Some of you are going to hear “I Am”statements that may not make sense to you yet but they are still true. Write down what the Lord speaks to you and then talk about it with someone in your group this week.