Child of God

Tauren Wells on How to Live From Your True Identity

When you think about who you are, where does your mind go first? To your job title? Your family role? Your gifts or passions? For Tauren Wells, that question once exposed something deeper; he had spent years defining himself by what he did for God, instead of who he was to God.

In a counseling session at age 30, Tauren realized he couldn’t fully answer a simple question: “Who are you if you’re not a husband, a father, or a worship artist?” He remembers sitting quietly, realizing that his sense of worth had become tangled up with his achievements and roles.

“I thought that the greatest thing I could be is be used by God,” he admits. “But more than that, God wants to love you. And it’s so much more than usig you.”

God doesn’t just want to use you. He wants to love you.

Scripture declares: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NIV). Tauren realized his value wasn’t in being useful but in being loved, chosen and named as God’s child.

Loved for Who You Are

Tauren began to see the Father’s love in a new way, through the eyes of his own children. “[My kids] aren’t useful to me,” he said.  “They need us for absolutely everything… That diminishes in no way my love for them. It is not what they bring to the table or contribute to our home that makes me think, ‘Oh wow, now you’re really valuable.’ They were valuable when they were helpless.”

That realization changed everything. Our heavenly Father’s love isn’t measured by our productivity or performance. Before you ever served, led, or created, you were His. You were valuable the moment you existed.

Identity, Calling, and Assignment

Through that journey, Tauren began to separate three life-shaping truths:

• Identity—Who you are: a child of God. This never changes.
• Calling—What you’re made to do: the larger purpose God breathes into your life.
• Assignment—Where that calling is lived out in a given season.

Tauren explains how assignments shift. “In one season of your life you’re assigned student. In another season of your life you may be assigned husband or wife. Assigned: fill in the blank [with] whatever that thing is for you.

For Tauren, that calling became deeply personal: “I am called to call greatness out of others,” he says. “That’s what I feel like God has put on my life. How do I extract greatness from other people that they may not even see in themselves?”

He adds, “The trick is to not let that assignment eclipse your overall calling.” When we tie our value to what we do instead of who we are, we risk losing sight of God’s greater purpose. “Having those lanes, [identity, calling, and assignment] really help me,” Tauren shares. “Now I’m not held hostage to an assignment that God called me to for a season. But now He’s lifted grace from that thing and I need to move on.”

Your role can change, your platform can change, even your circumstances can change but your place as God’s beloved never will.

Holding Your Seasons Loosely

Tauren’s understanding of his identity has moved him to live it with open hands. “When I was in Royal Tailor, my band, that was a season and an assignment in my life,” he explains. “But I had to be willing to hold that open-handedly, and saying, God, [what] do you want me to do? Or I would never stepped into Tauren Wells. I would have never stepped into Church of White Stone. I would have never stepped into author because I’d been holding onto all those things too tightly.”

That choice to release one chapter so God could write another is what allowed him to step into new seasons.

Becoming Who You Were Created to Be

For Tauren, living from that truth opened new freedom. He could step boldly into new seasons without fear of losing himself. “I’m a Child of God,” he says simply, “that’s my identity. It’s irrevocable. God has called me His own.”

The same is true for you. God’s love isn’t waiting on your next success or spiritual milestone. He calls you His masterpiece not because of what you produce, but because of who He designed you to be. (See Ephesians 2:10.)

Think about two questions Tauren asks:

• What is God spoken over your life assignment?
• How are the unique ways that God is going to use that purpose in your life?

Remember, you are loved before you’re useful, chosen before you’re capable, and known before you ever began to understand who you are.

Want to go deeper—and wake up to who you are in Christ?
If your soul has been running on autopilot, join us for our YOUVERSION study. The Wake Me Up, Lord 5‑day devotional will help you rediscover your true identity in Him. Each day invites you to awaken your heart, remember who you belong to, and walk fully alive in the light of His truth.

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