discovering your true identity
What’s In a Name? Discovering My True Identity
I’ll never forget the time I walked into a room where someone asked the dreaded question: “So, who are you?”
My mind started scrolling through the usual responses—my job title, the roles I play, the responsibilities I juggle. Husband, Dad, Pastor, Worship Leader, I.T. Director. But if I’m honest, deep inside I knew those weren’t really me. They were hats I wore, not the essence of who I am.
That’s when I came across Jamie Winship’s teaching on True Identity. He says most of us are walking around in “false identities”... names we’ve picked up along the way, often without even realizing it. Labels from childhood, scars from failure, even “compliments” that locked us into performance. Names like unworthy, not enough, failure, klutz, don't fit in, or sometimes the shiny ones like achiever or rescuer.
Step 1: Quiet the Noise
The first step is to ask God: “What false identity am I living under?” That’s a brave prayer. When I asked, I heard a label that hit me like a ton of bricks... "Not Enough"...it was a label I’d been carrying for years without even knowing it. Suddenly, I could see how much of my striving, stress, and second-guessing came from that one false name.
It was like God was pulling weeds from a garden. Painful at first, but it made space for something new.
Step 2: Give Your False Identities to God
Talke your list of false identities (write them down on paper) and picture yourself handing them to God. Then ask Him what He wants to do with the List? Wait for HIm to show you what He does with them. (He threw mine in the trash barrel and burned them).
Step 3: Ask for Your True Name
The next step is simple, but it changes everything: “Lord, what name do You call me?”
This isn’t about self-help slogans or pumping yourself up in the mirror. It’s about listening for the voice of the One who created you. For me, what I heard wasn’t complicated. It was "Bold Freedom Fighter". It came with peace. It was like God was saying, “This is who you’ve been all along... you just forgot.”
Step 4: Live Into It
The final step is the real adventure: Live as if the name He calls you is true. Because it is.
That means when you face a tough decision, you ask, “Does this line up with who God says I am?” When fear shows up, you remind yourself, “That’s not my name anymore.” And when opportunities come, you filter them through your identity, not your insecurity.
Why It Matters
When we live under false identities, we’re always protecting, performing, or pretending which always produces fear, guilt and shame. But when we live out of our God-given identity, we become free... free to love, free to create, free to lead without striving.
Discovering Your True Identity is simple:
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Quiet the false names.
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GIve your false names to God.
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Ask God for your true name.
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Live into it.
It’s not about religion or ritual... it’s about relationship. The Father still speaks. And the name He has for you is better than anything the world could ever stick on a nametag.
Takeaway for Today:
If you dared to ask God right now, “What do You call me?”.. what name might He be waiting to whisper into your soul?
John 10:3
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Revelation 2:17
Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
Isaiah 43:1
But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.
Click Here for More Information on Jamie Winship and Identity Exchange
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