Just yesterday, I was listening to podcast by Joseph Prince about how the enemy tries to build strongholds in our minds. Our enemy is a crafty liar. He tries to get us to think wrongly - especially about ourselves. When our adversary introduces a thought to us, he "decorates it" or camouflages it to look like one of our own thoughts. Mostly, he will feed the thought to your mind dressed like this:
1. Inside your mind, you will "hear" yourself accusing you with phrases like, "I am ___________." Then he fills in the blank with words like "stupid", "unloved", "lazy", "depressed", "sick", "sick-n-tired", "rejected", "hopeless", "helpless", "crazy", "not going to make it", etc.
The thought of, "I am ___________."(whatever bad thing the enemy has suggested) seems to you to be a revelation of who you "really" are, but IT IS NOT! It is a lie! It is an artful, subtle, crafty deception. Christ alerted us to the fact that our enemy is both the Father of Lies AND the accuser of the brethren. Notice: lies AND accusations. The accusation comes cloaked in the phrase, "I am _______" and there is a very important reason he uses this approach. There is a reason the enemy puts the accusation in the first person "I am".
If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you will remember how we learned the truth that our enemy takes the good processes of life and corrupts them, bends them, perverts them to work against us. The enemy "hijacks" the good processes that God has designed for our benefit. For instance, the process of " renewing our minds", God designed hat process to result in our transformation; our minds renewed to the mind of Christ and thereby us becoming conformed to the likeness of Christ. When we "think" like Christ, we become more like Christ (i.e. "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he").
So our enemy uses his "devices" (2 Cor 2:11) to cause us to think along his lines. He uses trickery and deceit to make us think like him. The RESULT? We are transformed, but the image is so wrong! We become like that wrong image (i.e fearful, doubting, bitter, envying, critical, accusing, sowing discord, being strife bringers, fault finding, depressed, angry, vengeful, complainers, whiny, morose, morbid, downcast, sarcastic, hopeless, apathetic, giving up, giving in, etc. DON'T BE IGNORANT OF HIS DEVICES!
When you "feel" these negative emotions, that is your clue the enemy is using a device against you!
It is him - NOT you.
Start interrupting this cycle. Bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and get your life back!
Now, back to the important reason why our enemy puts the accusation at the first person" I am ________."
Our Savior, the Living Word, says we are to "call those things that be not as though they are". For example, let the weak SAY, "I am strong."
- Weak is what "is".
- Strong is what "is not" (at the moment).
- Therefore you call yourself strong.
This is not delusional thinking, it is you using the faith that has been given to you by your Savior to call forth those things that need to be. You are made / designed in the image of God - the very God who SPOKE the worlds into existence - the same God who "upholds all things by the Word of His power." You speak what He says you are and you become that!
Say
"I am strong."
"I am loved."
"I am healed."
"I am redeemed."
"I am healed."
"I am accepted in the Beloved."
"I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."
"I am more than an overcomer."
"I am patient."
"I am kind.
"I am peaceful."
"I am joyful."
You are calling things that be not as though they were. You say, "I am ___________."BECAUSE He is _____________. (that very characteristic). For example - I say, "I am patient" because Jesus is patient.
I say, "I am ______________" because He says I am _______________!
I say, "I am ______________" because He is the great I AM and He lives in me.
He is that way and He is in my earthen vessel "so that the excellency of the power is of Him"(2 Cor 4:7).
When I say, "I am ____________" I am yielding to Him, bowing to the truth instead of the enemy's lie. This kind of thinking and speaking shoves out the old, accusing "stinking thinking" of my enemy.
This is renewing my mind to the mind of Christ.
This is using faith to "overcome evil with good".
This is me speaking to the mountain and removing it. The mountain of garbage the enemy has been trying to get me to think, believe and say.
INSTEAD of his garbage thinking / his garbage image / his garbage report.
I choose LIFE!
I choose to think - believe - say what God says I AM!
I choose to call those good things that be not...and they come.
No longer am I allowing my enemy to call those garbage things into being. No longer am I allowing him to usurp the authority that has been given to me by Christ.
INSTEAD...
I take hold of my thoughts (and words) and bring them captive to the obedience of Christ. I only speak what I hope for, not what I dread. I only entertain the thoughts that stem from Christ's love. I stop permitting the enemy to use my thoughts to hate me. I stop letting the enemy renewing my mind to his warped image. I do not accept his woeful report. I do not allow his accusations to creep into my thinking. He is a creep and God gave us authority over every creeping thing. Pick up that mighty weapon of authority over all the power of the enemy and stop letting him harm!
Christ said to us,"Behold (look and keep on looking) I give YOU power over all the power of the enemy and NOTHING shall by any means harm you." (Luke 10:19) Use that authority to stop your enemy's barrage f lies and accusations. Stop cooperating with him. Stop accepting his report of how bad he wants you to think you are. Start believing your Savior's report instead.
You are loved.
You are accepted.
You are righteous.
You are an "able minister of the new covenant".
You are a king under the King of Kings.
You are all these things and MORE because He has made you by what He has done on the cross.You didn't make yourself that good thing. You don't become these things by your doing or your performance; you are "made" this by His doing in the finished work on Calvary.
You "become" those things experientially by:
Beholding Him (2 Cor 3:18).
Believing Him.
Saying what He says you are.
"I am ___________."
Then fill in the blank with His good report and you will see those good things come! Put this into practice and you will see the good results!
P.S. Also put this into practice on behalf of those humans in whom the enemy is trying to get you to reject, be offended at, be upset with and write off. Instead of using your mouth to report on their shortcomings, say what Christ says they already are by His doing then watch the transformation in your attitude and in their lives.
