Discovering Spiritual Authority: Personal Identity in Christ
About this episode
Pastor Thomas McDaniels of Thomas McDaniels Ministries in Longview, Texas joins Philip Cameron for a powerful conversation on spiritual identity — what it truly means to know who you are in Christ and why that revelation changes everything. Drawing from Matthew 16, McDaniels unpacks the moment Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" — and how Peter's answer unlocked his own identity: "The moment that we realize who He is, who Jesus is to us, is the moment He can reveal to us who we are in Him." McDaniels shares his personal testimony of being saved out of methamphetamine addiction and the nightclub business, explaining how the instant he found Christ, purpose replaced confusion. He traces how the enemy always targets identity first — just as the devil challenged Jesus in the wilderness with "If you are the Son of God" — and how believers must stand firm in the authority that comes from knowing whose they are. The conversation explores the difference between living as merely "forgiven" versus living as a son or daughter of God, and why that distinction reshapes how we walk out our faith daily. Visit thomasmcdaniels.com to connect with his ministry.
Part of our Identity collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“The moment that we realize who he is, who Jesus is to us, is the moment he can reveal to us who we are in him. And I was just blown away by it and thought, this is where our purpose is found.”
“I didn't realize then, and I do realize now, it wasn't who I was that was important. It was who Simon Cameron was. I was going there in the name of Simon Cameron. Now when you know who you are, and you look at your circumstance and you say, in the name of Jesus — every demon in hell says, oh my goodness. This isn't just Philip. This isn't just Thomas talking to us. This is in the name of Jesus. That's your identity.”
“I took him by the hand through the kitchen, and I opened every cupboard in the kitchen, opened the deep freeze, opened the refrigerator. I said, all of this is yours. It's all yours because you're no longer an orphan in Romania. Your name is Andrew William Cameron.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Thomas McDaniels of Thomas McDaniels Ministries (Longview, Texas) joins Philip Cameron to explore spiritual identity rooted in Matthew 16, where Jesus asks His disciples who He is. McDaniels argues that Peter's confession — "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" — was the gateway through which Jesus could reveal Peter's own identity to him. McDaniels draws on his personal testimony of deliverance from methamphetamine addiction, explaining how salvation instantly unlocked a sense of divine purpose. The discussion covers how the devil targets identity first, why believers must speak with the authority of Christ's name, and how seeing oneself as a son or daughter — rather than merely a forgiven sinner — transforms daily Christian living.
- Peter's Confession Unlocks His Identity
- McDaniels' Testimony: Saved from Addiction
- Devil's Attack on Spiritual Identity
- Authority in the Name of Jesus
- Knowing Who You Are Reveals Your Why
- Sonship vs. Merely Being Forgiven
- Andrew Cameron's Story: Orphan Becomes Son
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith Today. My name is Philip Cameron, and we have got a special show for you today. We are living in an incredible situation. The whole world, especially America, is in a turmoil over this horrendous assassination. And it's causing all of us to question our faith and our identity in Christ. And we are gonna be talking about that today. I believe God's gonna send a word into your spirit that will help you know who you are.
Philip:Once you know who you are, then everything changes. And this young kid, Charlie, that has shaken us — the President was in London the other day, and right in the middle of all the discussions, he was talking with Charlie Kirk in front of the king, because this young boy at 18 found his identity and knew why he was there and what he was doing. And that is where your authority comes from. Your identity is where — my dad, I have a brother called Neil, who was adopted.
Philip:He's black, he's a great pastor, a great man of God. And he was the only black kid in the whole of our town in Scotland. But the one thing my dad spoke to him constantly — he never called him Neil. He always said, Neil Cameron, listen to me, Neil Cameron. He was telling him over and over again, you are who you are. You're not an orphan. You're mine. Your name is Cameron. And now I have a son called Andrew. Most times when I talk to him, I'll say, listen to me, Andrew Cameron, because I'm reinforcing in him who his identity is.
Philip:And we're gonna be talking about that today. I believe God's gonna bless you. If you can help us by sharing today's program, I'm getting texts and messages on Facebook from the Facebook people saying that because of the high quality of your program they're expanding your reach, and I'm thinking, you shouldn't be limiting my reach. You should be letting us go where it needs to go. But you sharing the broadcast and letting other folk know about us would really help. And if we bail on your screen, tap that bell, and whenever Daily Faith comes on, it'll notify you that we are coming on.
Philip:We try and bring you the best of the best people that can bring something light and life into your life and your experience. And the reason why we're called Daily Faith is we want to affirm with you and for you that you are more than conquerors. So we are just excited to be with you, and I believe that God's gonna speak. I'm thrilled you're here. Welcome to Daily Faith.
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith. I'm so glad you're with us today. We have got a program that I believe is gonna be a blessing in your life. And we are in a tremendous season in the whole world. It seems the whole world is groaning — wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and floods and all kinds of stuff going on. And you and I better know whom we have believed, and we better be persuaded that he's able to keep what we've committed unto him against that day. That is the key to survival in the day we're living in.
Philip:And my dear friend Thomas McDaniels is with us. He has a great ministry, pastored for many years a fabulous church that he's still involved with. I believe his son is now pastoring the church, and he is now establishing new churches. So he is doing more work now than he did when he was just pastoring a church. And he's gonna be talking to us today about spiritual identity — knowing who you are in Christ. And if you know that, when the winds of adversity blow, when the storm comes, you won't be blown over.
Philip:You'll just stand firm. Hallelujah. So we're just excited to have you with us. We're gonna have a great time, so stay tuned. In fact, you might wanna call your pastor to let him know what we're gonna be talking about, because because of my unique situation in the church last night, I had two pastors calling me after 11 o'clock, both of them in a somewhat bit of a crisis asking for wisdom. And I was up until the wee hours talking to them about their circumstance. And all of it comes down to knowing who you are. If you know who you are, you don't listen to rubbish.
Philip:If you know who you are, you don't sell yourself cheap. And I believe God's gonna use us today to speak into your life. But if you've got a pastor that you love, you might wanna give him a call and say, hey, check out this broadcast today. This podcast may be a blessing in your life.
Philip:We have a ministry in Moldova. In fact, I was just talking to Tom about how we started this thing 30 odd years ago. My dad called me — he was living in Scotland and I was here in America. I'm from Scotland, for those that may not hear my accent. And my phone rang and I picked up the phone, and he was calling me from Scotland saying that babies were dying. I said, what on earth are you talking about? He'd had cancer surgery, the wound had burst open. He was a terrible mess physically. We didn't know if the cancer had spread. And here he was weeping about orphans he'd been watching on the BBC.
Philip:Next day he called me again, same thing. Next day I said, dad, you are sick. I'm busy. Leave it alone. And he said, well, if you won't go with me, I'll go there by myself. And if I die, it's your fault. So that was the end of that story. I ended up going to Scotland. The local press found out that a cancer-stricken pastor was going with his family to Romania. And people started bringing us hundreds of tons of clothes and food, and what was gonna be me and him and a van ended up a convoy.
Philip:And we got there and finally found the orphanage after four or five days. Walked into hell — the smell of raw sewage and ammonia. I almost threw up. I was carrying a wee box of milk and I dropped it and ran outside. I said, I don't need this. So my dad came out and he said, get in there. I said, no, no, no, no. You want to see an orphanage? There you go. I'll just wait here until you're finished. He said, these folk are living like this. You'll embarrass them.
Philip:I said, that ain't my problem. Go ahead. And he grabbed me. I said, if I stay here, I'm innocent. If I go in that door, I'm guilty. And he grabbed me by my coat — it was freezing cold, a January day — and he pulled me by my coat. He said, well, you're gonna have to be guilty. And he dragged me into hell. And I walked around the place. I said, let's go, dad. Okay, we've seen it, let's go. He said, let's go upstairs. I said, no, no, no, no. It's the same up there as it is down here. Leave it. And he ignored me and went up the stairs.
Philip:And I'm walking behind him complaining, mad. We've got 2,500 miles to drive through snow and ice back to Scotland. This has been a waste of time. And he just kept on going up the stairs, got to salon number five on the door, and he opened the door and walked in. And there were over 30 kids in this room, all of them screaming and crying and rocking, holding on the crib, rocking because they had never been cuddled by a mom. Self comfort. And in the middle of this melee, this mess,
Philip:I looked down the fourth row from the outside wall, and there was a wee face looking back at me, covered in puss. And his hair was standing up, just a mess, never even washed — God knows how long. And the Holy Spirit said, that's your son. And I said, dad, look at that boy. He's a born boy. And we walked down. I walked down between the cribs and picked him up. And I said, I don't know who you are, but I'm not gonna quit until I adopt you.
Philip:I had two kids at that time and I was done having kids. Took me a year to adopt him, and then there were no toilets, so I put in toilets. The beds were laid, painted. I painted, remade the beds, made new beds, fixed the whole place up, and got addicted to helping people that can't help themselves or can't offer anything. And that's what we've done ever since. Now, 35, 36 years ago, I've been in Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine over 200 times.
Philip:And the most crazy thing happened. We built this place and they asked us to go and fix another orphanage whose windows were rotten — 391 windows. And we replaced all the windows. And at the end of the time, when I paid the third installment for the windows, the director said, come, I will show you something outside. And there were 18 girls on a park bench. And I said, what is this? He said, they must go. I said, where are they going? And he just walked away.
Philip:And that was the day I realized that when they were put out of the orphanage, they had nowhere to go. And they were used by the traffickers 30 to 50 times a day. And that changed my whole outlook. I had two daughters of that age at the time. And we started immediately — we built houses, and we built a place called Vatra Village. You should see this place. It is right on the largest lake in the country. It is a village of homes that were being built for rich people. And they poisoned that lake to kill algae with chlorine, and the whole deal fell through with the houses. And we bought them — never been used, unfinished. And we've finished them off, and they're beautiful now. They're gorgeous. They were built for rich folk, and now our kids that were once orphans live in them.
Philip:Every girl you see in that video is worth $300,000 a year to a trafficker. $300,000 a year. And we are constantly growing. In fact, we just had a whole bunch of new kids come to Vatra Village, and they sent me this video that I think you'll enjoy watching. Watch this.
Philip:You are looking at miracles that just happened last week. All of those kids are brand new into our village last week. I've seen it, and my heart is just overflowing with thanksgiving. They come with a bag — sometimes they don't even have a bag — a life of abuse and abandonment. And they come to us and we tell them, if you are born, God has a plan. You are not a mistake. And God is helping us save lives because of my son Andrew. 35 years ago, God helping us today rescue these kids.
Philip:And the crazy thing is this — when they come in, the first thing we do is we get them out in the villages to give things away. They go and they bring clothes and they bring food. They chop wood for widows all through the wintertime. They keep widows in villages alive all over our area. In the spring, they go and they dig gardens and put in vegetables. They paint houses. They continually give out. That's why it's called the Orphan's Hands.
Philip:Every one of those kids needs someone like you to stand behind them and say, we'll make a place at the table of hope for them. These houses take 300 people giving $1 a day. You can change a life for a dollar a day. If I could take you there and stand there with these kids as they walk in the door for the first time — as you just saw, the house parent that you were watching there, the girl in the blue dress, her name is Gina.
Philip:She was one of the orphans we rescued 15 years ago. And now she's married with two kids and she's a house parent in the house that you were watching. The kids come in. You can make a miracle happen. If you'd like to help our family keep this going, our address is really simple — just the Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. The address will be on the screen on my right here, under my name, so you'll be able to take it down.
Philip:You can also go to dailyfaith.tv — there's a giving page. Just say monthly support. A dollar a day. You won't miss a dollar a day, but those kids will. They'll appreciate a dollar a day. It gives them life. We put them back in school and they become doctors and lawyers and policemen and all kinds of miracle things that take place. One of our girls worked in the French Embassy as an interpreter — a hopeless family situation that Jesus redeemed. DailyFaith.tv is our home address.
Philip:You can also dial 1-833-DAILY-FAITH and a real live person will pick up the phone and talk to you. Any gift you give today, or if you become a monthly sponsor — if you want to hear the story and read the story of how I adopted Andrew, it's called Our Bummer Lamb. That's the book you need to get. It will blow you away, I promise you. Get ready. You better get some tissues because it's a miraculous story. So do that today to help us if you would.
Philip:I'm delighted to have with me a dear friend, Thomas McDaniels. He's a pastor, and he also directs Thomas McDaniels Ministries from Longview, Texas with his wife Charlotte. Tom, God bless you. Welcome to Daily Faith Today.
Thomas McDaniels:Always honored to be with you, Philip. Thank you. What a great story. And I just love Daily Faith, love what you guys do. And I always just sit here every time I'm on your show and I cry with you. So you're doing great work. And I've partnered with you before, I'll partner with you again. That new video — that video of these new kids, every time I see these — I've never met these kids, and you see them coming in and they all have the same look of confusion. They all say, this is too good to be true. When will this end? And then you watch them blossoming, and it gets to me every time I see them. I choke up.
Thomas McDaniels:But Philip, you know what I was thinking? I was thinking, show them day one, and then show them again in six months. Because some of them you can see their pain, and then six months from now you're gonna see their joy.
Philip:Absolutely. And that's another video all by itself. And I love what you're doing with them — the Orphan's Hands, amazing. Getting them out there, giving them purpose and serving others is always such — I call serving the miracle. It is just the miracle of God, which we serve.
Thomas McDaniels:I appreciate you being a partner with us in that ministry.
Philip:We are so grateful.
Thomas McDaniels:I'm glad, and I'm honored to be it.
Philip:And what we're gonna be talking about today is they are an example. They come to us broken, hated — I mean, you have no concept what these kids have gone through. And the first thing we say is, if you are born, God has a plan. You are not a mistake. You are loved by the Father. And we work immediately on their identity, because that is the victory point or the failure point right at that place. And tell us what God's been showing you about identity.
Thomas McDaniels:You know, first of all, you said so many wonderful things about identity already. And I think it's the key to being in Christ, knowing Jesus. And this revelation hit me when I was reading Matthew 16. And we all know that Christians know this text where Jesus asked the disciples, who do you say that I am? Who do people say that I am? And they say, you're Elijah, you're Jeremiah. And then he says, but who do you say that I am? And then of course Peter, who always finally got something right in this text, he says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Peter's Confession Unlocks His Identity
Thomas McDaniels:And then Jesus says, hey Peter, you got this right. But you didn't do this yourself. It wasn't flesh — the Father gave it to you. He says, you didn't figure this out on your own. The Father gave it to you. But then he says something to Peter that just caught me. And he said, you are Peter. And when it hit me, the Holy Spirit was like, Tom, do you see this? It's like the moment that Peter knew who Jesus was,
Thomas McDaniels:then Jesus can tell Peter who he is. Because that revelation comes, and for all of us — you've already said it — the moment that we realize who he is, who Jesus is to us, is the moment he can reveal to us who we are in him. And I was just blown away by it and thought, this is where our purpose is found. And you mentioned Charlie Kirk, and of course Charlie went down doing what he loved, and he did what he did because he knew who he was.
Philip:That was obvious. Every time he put a microphone in his hand, he revealed his identity — that he had found Christ, that Christ had found him, and that Charlie had found his purpose.
McDaniels' Testimony: Saved from Addiction
Thomas McDaniels:And that happened for me. The moment that I was saved, Philip, I realized — because I was an addict, a methamphetamine user, an IV user. And God saved me. I was in the nightclub business. God saved me out of the nightclub business. The moment that I got saved, the moment I found Christ — or he found me, which is a better way to say it — I realized I had a purpose far beyond what I was doing. And it changed my whole life.
Thomas McDaniels:And so in the whole moment of that, when God said — when Peter knew who I am, now I can tell Peter who he is — those of us, whether we're in an orphanage, and there are people that had those homes where you built the village, those people may have had a lot of money, but it doesn't mean they had a real purpose. Because our purpose is revealed in Christ, and we find our real life and real purpose in him.
Thomas McDaniels:And the other thing I thought is, you know, Peter tells Jesus this, and just because Peter said that to Jesus, that didn't unlock his identity. His identity was already in him. And Jesus just revealed to Peter what Peter already was. And so for some of us watching, you might think, who am I? And the big question in life — I mean, when we were kids, you were raised in the same generation I was — it was like, oh, we're trying to find ourselves. Well, we're really trying to find the one who created us, and then we find ourselves.
Thomas McDaniels:And that's what happened to Peter. It was already in him. Jesus made him aware of what was already inside of him. And Jesus said, I can give this to you now, Peter, because you know who I am. You're not gonna ruin this because you found your purpose.
Philip:I'd like for you to say something more, but I'm so intent listening to you because I know that what you're talking about, Tom, is one of the crucibles of the church. If we don't know who we are, we can't present who he is. You know, one of the things I love to say is, if we know who we are, we know who we're not. And that's so vital because so many don't know.
Thomas McDaniels:And the other thing is, when we know the who, then we really figure out the why. And so if we know who we are, it unlocks in us the why we were created. You know, the apostle Paul said, I might know the reason you put your hands on me. So he wanted to know. He said, I'm pressing on, I'm going, but I wanna know why you laid your hands on me. And so when we find him, that's the open door. The open door is, who am I? And then when I find out who that is, my why answers itself almost, as God opens these seasons in life. And it's just a beautiful thing because it gives you purpose and meaning and all the things.
Devil's Attack on Spiritual Identity
Thomas McDaniels:And also, here's a beautiful thing when we take this a little further. Jesus is baptized, and you get this story, and the Father says, this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. And then Jesus immediately goes to the wilderness. Why? Because now he's assured. And then the devil comes and says, if you are the Son of God — the devil.
Philip:And he's like, hey devil, I know I'm the Son of God. Daddy just told me.
Thomas McDaniels:I love it. The devil always works on your identity. If he can move you off center, so that you're unsure —
Philip:— that when I speak, I'm not speaking as little Philip Cameron in Tennessee in a studio. I am talking as the son of God. It's part of my being. And the devil fears my words as he feared Jesus' words, because I have that authority.
Authority in the Name of Jesus
Philip:When I was a boy, my dad was doing some work. I came home from school one day and he'd knocked down the wall in our kitchen. And he said, I want you to go down and pick up some stuff for me. And I've made this note. So he gave me this piece of paper, and I went out on the street and walked down to Bruce the Ironmonger, as it was. And I walked in — I must have been nine. I remember this so clearly. I walked in with the note, and this guy with a gray overcoat kind of uniform on — I handed him the note and I said, my name is Philip Cameron, and my dad is Simon Cameron, and he sent me down to get this stuff.
Philip:Well, that piece of paper was like magic. This guy suddenly — I'm not a kid that's just trying to steal something, which is how they normally looked at kids in their stores. And he went and he's running around picking stuff off the shelves, and he gets it all in a pile and he wraps it all up and puts it up and gives it to me. And I'm standing there thinking, wow, look at me telling this guy what to do. And I'm standing there proud of myself.
Philip:I didn't realize then, and I do realize now, it wasn't who I was that was important. It was who Simon Cameron was. I was going there in the name of Simon Cameron. Now when you know who you are, and you look at your circumstance and you say, in the name of Jesus — every demon in hell says, oh my goodness. This isn't just Philip. This isn't just Thomas talking to us. This is in the name of Jesus. That's your identity.
Knowing Who You Are Reveals Your Why
Thomas McDaniels:It's the perfect example. You know, when David went to Saul, he said, who is this kid? And he said, I am your servant David, the son of Jesse. So even in that part of the country, in Scotland and all that, we are the house of — we're the house of the McDaniels, the house of the Camerons.
Philip:Absolutely.
Thomas McDaniels:And now we are sons and daughters of the most high God.
Philip:Absolutely. And we get that.
Thomas McDaniels:And one of the things that I've been sharing — and I know we don't have too many minutes — but one of the things I've been sharing is how, by our identity, by the things that are our terminology, certain terminologies have stolen the true meaning. Like I talk about forgiveness and it's powerful, but when you see yourself as only forgiven, then you can be forgiven over and over again. But when you see yourself as a son and daughter, hallelujah, Father God, then you live to please him, not just to get forgiven by him.
Sonship vs. Merely Being Forgiven
Thomas McDaniels:And so I've been saying forgiveness has really robbed us of our sonship. And I've been doing that in several areas where certain things have stolen from us who we really are. And because of our apathy toward our identity, we allow things in our life and live certain ways because we don't realize how serious God is about our sonship.
Philip:That is so powerful. When I adopted Andrew, I went into his room one night and his chest of drawers had a piece of plastic sticking out from the drawer. And I opened the drawer and it was a bag of hot dog buns. And I opened another drawer and he'd been taking food from the kitchen, because he didn't understand that he was now a son. He was keeping this bread in case all of this stuff went away. And I took him by the hand through the kitchen, and I opened every cupboard in the kitchen, opened the deep freeze, opened the refrigerator. I said, all of this is yours. It's all yours because you're no longer an orphan in Romania. Your name is Andrew William Cameron.
Andrew Cameron's Story: Orphan Becomes Son
Philip:And the old song — a new name written down in glory, and it's mine. And if you're watching us today, I wanna encourage you that the devil will try and steal who you think you are. He'll try and tell you lies, he'll deceive you. But I'm gonna tell you something — you are born again into the family of God. No weapon formed against you. Hallelujah. And you can say, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he's able to keep what I've committed to him against that day.
Philip:Every time you come here, Tom, you bless me. You give me something in my spirit. If you wanna get in contact with this great ministry — if you're a pastor and you're looking for a partner, a mentor, this man needs to be in your life. It's really simple. Put the address up on the screen right now. It's Thomas McDaniels Ministries, and that's the address, Longview, Texas. www.thomasmcdaniels.com. And the number — I just look forward to tag-team preaching with you on here every time.
Thomas McDaniels:And I love that. We're gonna have to do that in public. We're gonna have to team up sometime. I gotta get you to Longview. We're gonna have to figure it out.
Philip:You get me all worked up.
Thomas McDaniels:I love the gospel. I love the difference it makes.
Philip:Me too, bro. Every man in my family for 200 years told to be a drunk until Jesus came. Listen, thank you for being with me, Tom. Thank you for watching Daily Faith Today. Tune in again. I believe God is gonna bless you today. And if you wanna get this book, The Bummer Lamb, I promise you — you talk about making an orphan a son. We love you so much. Help us with these kids. God bless you today. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God help the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine.
If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 1-833-DAILY-FAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What Bible passage gave Thomas McDaniels his big revelation about spiritual identity?
Thomas points to Matthew 16, where Jesus asks the disciples who they say he is. When Peter answers correctly, Jesus immediately turns around and tells Peter who *he* is — and Thomas says that's the pattern: the moment we recognize who Jesus is, he can reveal to us who we are in him.
How does Thomas explain the difference between seeing yourself as 'forgiven' versus seeing yourself as a son or daughter of God?
Thomas argues that thinking of yourself only as 'forgiven' keeps you in a cycle of repeated forgiveness, whereas embracing your identity as a son or daughter of God changes your motivation entirely — you live to please the Father rather than just to get forgiven by him. He says forgiveness, as a standalone concept, has actually robbed many believers of their sense of sonship.
Why does Thomas say the devil always attacks your identity first?
Thomas uses the story of Jesus' baptism and temptation to make the point: the moment the Father declares 'This is my Son,' the devil immediately shows up in the wilderness and says, 'If you are the Son of God…' His takeaway is that the devil's primary tactic is to make you unsure of who you are, because if he can move you off that center, he can neutralize your authority.
How did Thomas McDaniels personally experience an identity shift when he came to faith?
Thomas shares that he was a methamphetamine addict and IV drug user who was also in the nightclub business. The moment he was saved — or, as he puts it, the moment Christ found him — he immediately recognized a purpose far beyond what he had been living, and it completely changed his life.
What does Thomas mean when he says Peter's identity was 'already in him' before Jesus named it?
Thomas explains that Jesus didn't create something new when he told Peter who he was — he simply revealed what was already inside Peter. His point for viewers is that our identity in Christ isn't something we manufacture by searching for ourselves; it's something God placed in us that gets uncovered the moment we find — or are found by — the one who created us.
Topics
thomas mcdanielsspiritual identitybiblical authoritysonshipmatthew 16purpose in christidentity crisis