Unleash Your Inner Warrior
“A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.” My dear warrior, If you find that your wings are easily clipped, and your flight is quickly taken from you by discouragements (whether big or small), this letter is for you. You are so good at letting yourself become heavy-laden, so good at taking on the burdens of the world, and becoming wounded by the circumstances of life, but you are not so good at laying your burdens down. Since you are likely very good at negative self-talk, at reprimanding yourself, at flogging yourself with disparaging running commentary in your mind, it seems I have been given the unique opportunity to encourage you back to life. Beloved, if an ocean of gloom envelops your heart then it is time for you to surface again. Gasp in a lung-full of air and leave the critical thoughts of failure and worthlessness behind you. It’s a new day, and you have a choice: either continue on in your feelings of despair/ worthlessness/ failure, or square your shoulders and let the truth of who God says you are become your new reality.
So often, these feelings of shame that seem to blanket us and gnaw at our insides come from moments that we regret; moments that we reprimand ourselves for later on. These can be anything from “Gah, I should’ve said she looked nice!” to a mistake so massive that you’re sure everyone can see it written on your forehead. When you reprimand yourself afterwards for something (“I should’ve…”), we call that “living present-past.” In living this way, you recognize in the present what you should have done. Well my warrior, rather than letting the mistakes weigh you down, I want you to realize that this is just your training ground with God. This is a good way to learn; you take corrective action and make sure not to repeat the same mistakes a second time. However, even better than living present-past (learning from your mistakes after the fact), is Progressive Truth. With progressive truth, you recognize what you are learning in the moment and you respond accordingly. You recognize in that moment that you could or should act a certain way and you immediately course-correct. This is the better of the two options. Progressive truth can be blurting out something incorrect and immediately correcting the mistake, but if you think of yourself as a warrior on the training ground (as you are), you train that “muscle” to respond more quickly so that you learn to avoid the mistake in the first place. I want you to recognize that life is always either a training ground or a battleground. It is by the grace of God that you can effectively train as a warrior for Christ on either one. With that said, we return to the mire. Pull yourself out of the muck and the mire. Your pity-party ends now. It is time for you to find out who you are in Christ, who God says you are, what God is calling you to, and what it will take for you to step into your God-given Persona. You will need to begin your conversation with Him and stay in constant conversation with Him. He is the kindness person you will ever meet. He is so gracious and merciful and will help you grow every at every moment. You must practice laying down your burdens at His feet every day, practicing giving up your whole Self. No holds barred. Hold nothing back from Him. Give it all to Him and let Him love you outrageously. When you do, you will wake up one day and realize that you’ve become the man or woman of God that you had scarcely imagined you could truly become. Today, begin to course-correct, and don’t let it stop there. Let His outrageously love fill you to overflowing, and learn to love yourself and others the way He loves: extravagantly. Beloved, be encouraged as you endure process. Do not be discouraged or heavy-laden. Lay your burdens down at the foot of the cross. Rest easy knowing that at the end of the process you are going through comes with wonderful promises. I know this because God has proven this to be true countless times, both in my own life and nearly everyone mentioned in Scripture! God does not allow us to go through process for no reason, and He is kind enough to always give us a hint about where He intends to take us through this process. (Hint: if your process brings your faults to surface, it’s almost a sure sign that He is pointing to your next victory in your life. Whatever faults He points out to you, those are the things He wants to make right). You must seek God on the outcome in order to understand how to get there through your process. The objective behind process, behind conflict, is to increase God’s love in our hearts and to bring us to full maturity as warriors. Process is designed to bring you into relationship with the Father. This may sound counter-intuitive, but give thanks for being in process! You are being made new. This is a wonderful, glorious thing! The only way of being renewed is to fully enjoy the process. You are probably wondering what kind of masochistic person would tell you to cheerfully and happily enjoy the heart-breaking problems that life has been throwing at you, and why on earth you would thank God for all that is wrong. That is not at all what I am saying! Indeed, it is not the problems we thank Him for; no, we thank Him that He is a good God, that He loves us, that He is merciful, and we thank for all we have. We give Him thanks and praise for who He is, simply because He is worthy! If you are going to walk with God, learn to love His process. Love that He love you so much that He would refine you by fire. Embrace the Refiner’s fire. All discipline has the potential to be enjoyed as you learn to focus on what you are gaining, not on what you are losing. Focus on who you are being made into, not where you lack or where you have failed in the past. You are in Christ, dear warrior, so let the tension of performance and of striving leave your body and soul. Relax. Rest in him. Let your heart be filled with His joy and gladness. Come before Him with thanksgiving and praise and adoration and He will replace your dirty, scratched up lens through which you see life, and He will give you His own lens. Open your heart to accept Love from Love Himself. Your circumstances are not the problem, beloved—it is your perception of them. No matter what is happening in your life, the way God sees you must rule your heart, mind, emotions and will. You must make a conscious effort to keep seeing through His lens. Laziness will simply cause your own lens to become smudged, dirty and scratched all over again. Push away anything that would cause worry, anxiety, fear or doubt. As a Christian, there is no room for negativity or cynicism. Believe the best of the Father: He only gives good gifts to His children. Spiritual warriors focus on the journey/ process, not on the destination. It is a series of steps. All you have to do is take the next one. That’s it.If you have no idea who or what you’re meant to be, I will give you a simple starter prayer: God, I am who you say I am, and that is a blood-bought son/ daughter of God. I have the mind of Christ, I can do what I need to do and I will not be satisfied with anything but excellence in my life, in Jesus name, Amen! Take time to dig into the word, and find out the promises He has over your life. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So choose to believe who God says you are; don't listen to those silly voices in your head that would try to lie to you about your identity in Christ. Come into agreement with who God says you are. Scripture lays it out pretty clearly, giving you truths you can declare in the war for your mind. Here are some verses to get you started in the right direction: https://bible.org/article/who-does-god-say-i-am Live in the battleground and fight the good fight, Warrior Beloved ©Michèle Aimée, 2015
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