I is for Identity Theft
Judi Tillett

This article is an excerpt from, “Protecting God’s Greatest, The ABC’s of Protecting Your Child From a Male or Female Sexual Predator,” by Judi Tillett.

Judi has served as volunteer chaplain in mental institutions and as a Family Crisis Counselor for battered women and children. Her years of pastoral ministerial experience and the Child Abuse Prevention/Investigation Techniques (CAPIT) Course prompted her to write this book to encourage prayer and protection for the children of the nations. She has a passionate belief that God’s Church is called to demonstrate His power and victory for His greatest, His children, “for such a time as this.”

Judi can be contacted at [email protected], or by private message on Facebook. Ordering of “Protecting God’s Greatest” can be accomplished by either media or it should be available on Amazon shortly.

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I is for Identity Theft by Judi TillettJohn 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 10:10 is a contest scripture. We see that Jesus came because He desires to give us His Life and abundant way of living. The thief, that is the devil, has a threefold objective. He determines to “steal, kill, and destroy” God’s life in us.

Let us unfold the enemy’s strategy for clarity and trustingly to prevent his corruption.

  • he manipulates to “steal” our identity
  • he then “kills” by altering our passion
  • he then is positioned to “destroy” our purpose

We will need to look at the demonic plot for stealing identities. Matthew 4 teaches that Satan “contested” with Jesus with the intent to cause Him, the Son of God, to be snared by his demonic tools, of which there are three. These three comprise the whole world system.

1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Satan’s first pressure point of temptation against Jesus, as evidenced in Matthew 4:3, was to imply reservations regarding His identity. That was the first fiery dart thrown, because if an individual does not know whose they are, then they do not know who they are.

It is this simple to understand. One of the first points of strengthening for any person who has become “born again” (a new Christian), is to teach him or her their new identity in Christ. Once that truth is established, they begin to grow.

1 Corinthians 6:20
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Acts 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

We were “purchased” with the Blood of Christ and we belong to Him. That is whose we are. We belong to God and that knowledge established the foundational truth of our identity. We are God’s “purchased,” Blood Covenant family, and it is in Him that we have our being.

The enemy’s threefold world system of tools is sharpened and people are more readily his targets when they have an identity crisis.

Matthew 4:3
Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

And again, in Matthew 4:6, “And saith unto Him, If you are the Son of God…”

Young children belong to God. At their conception in the womb they belong to Him. They are to be taught that truth and to grow up as His “offspring” into all the covenant passion and purpose of God. So the demonic thief’s first point of attack is to steal their identification.

He who was Lucifer is first and foremost an identity thief. He was ejected from heaven as he thought to steal the identity of the One True and Only God. He pressed Jesus for His identity, and he presses against and pursues the identity of God’s people and especially His children today. He lost his original identity; he wants the God identity.

To “steal” means to “take away by stealth.” (Strong’s Concordance) “Stealth” has the sense of a hungry cat sneaking up to pounce on its prey. And that is how the prowling enemy works.

To destroy a child’s identity can be a robbery of long lived consequence. To target and attempt takeover of a child’s identity is the enemy’s priority as he has then stolen not only the child of God’s love, but His messenger and His message going into a future generation.

We are made by and belong to God. Sexual violations dramatically alter a person’s wholeness, well-being, and their identification.

A person’s initial identification is determined in the womb by gender. Typically, the first question asked of the pregnant mom or expectant dad is, “Is it a boy or a girl?” There is a seeking of the child’s identity by genitalia. The enemy well knows how this works.

Sexual molestations and genitalia violation often do damage to a person physically and always psychologically. These heinous acts of sexual violation cloud and corrupt human sexual identity. Even as we are initially identified by genitalia, we can be twisted and corrupted by dark manipulation of genitalia.

“When a child is made to participate in a sex act with an adult, it leads to intense feeling of fear and guilt and betrayal, which can easily color his or her entire existence.”
– Dr. Keith Ablow, Fox News website

Far too many ministers and other professionals could accurately testify that the “color” of the molested child’s existence often results in gender confusion. The very least of the corrupt “color” is an inability to express their femininity or masculinity in a fully healthy and wholesome way.

There is in a true sense, by the stealing of sexual innocence, a fading away of God-ordained wholeness.

Whatever the degree of victimization, i.e. fondling, stroking, penetration, or any form of inappropriate or violent touch, there is always psychological identification damage. The debris left behind can be shame, humiliation, guilt, fear, anger, hate, and usually all of these thoughts and feelings. They are the stunting devices, the tools, of the enemy.

These tools of the enemy’s trade often grow to increasingly overwhelm the victim and result in acting out in various forms of anger. Sadly, that anger fuels many victims to perpetuate the cycle of violence and take on the role of their predator. They take on the role of identification assassins.  This is the enemy’s ultimate plan, to “steal, kill, and destroy” generations.

Understanding the damage caused by sex sin is necessary to partnering with God in protection of the innocent. The understanding of that damage is also necessary in the restorative healing process for those who have been violated.

It is important that we know that no child, actually any person who is sexually violated against his or her will, has lost their purity. But, sadly, they have had their innocence stolen, and their identification is in jeopardy.

“The true identity theft is not financial. It’s not in cyberspace. It’s spiritual. It’s been taken.”
– Stephen Covey, Brainy Quotes

“It is only because He became like us that we can become like Him.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Thank you, Mr. Bonhoeffer, for that is exactly our identification process.

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PRAYER: “Father, we thank You and are grateful that Your life defines ours. You have formed us in the womb with the intent that we identify with and imitate You. Whatever the enemy thinks to have stolen, we know that You restore us to health and rightful position. We belong to You, and we will walk in Blood Covenant innocence by Your grace and sufficiency. You are, in all things, more than enough. The enemy is defeated and we are defined by You and Your Word. We walk in Your Word and identify with Your Truth. In Jesus Name, Amen.”