Unleash Your Inner Warrior
My dear warrior, It is on my heart to write is about your worth according to Him. There’s a difference between being worthy and being deserving, and it is one of the most important things we must understand as Christians—and yet, it is never talked about in church. We need to be fed spiritual truths to help us grow and mature, and build us up. That’s what you are called to do. You are called to feed others, but you cannot feed others where you yourself are starved. You cannot give what you do not have. Bill Johnson expresses this idea better than anyone I’ve ever heard: You cannot afford to have a thought about yourself that God does not think about you. You cannot afford to entertain thoughts that God does not have about you. The moment you do, you entertain a lie and you actually war against God’s purpose in your life. When you dwell on and feed those things that are contrary to His word over you, you are actually warring against His purpose for your life. You have the choice to either partner with who God says you are, or to partner with the enemy. There is no other choice. It is not humility to view yourself as anything other than who God says you are; that is false humility and means you are partnering with a lie from the enemy.
Let me explain worthiness for a moment. The way that being worthy and being deserving were explained to me was in terms of gifts. If someone gave you a gift, you would be grateful for it, right? You wouldn’t reject it and say you don’t deserve it. That would be an insult to the one who is giving it to you. A gift is freely given, not earned, and no matter our feelings of our worth, we must learn to graciously and gratefully accept gifts that are given us. A gift is also not something that is ‘deserved,’ despite the beliefs of our entitled generation. We ought not ever demand that people give us gifts because we ‘deserve’ them. A true gift is freely given from one person to another without payment; it is something we humbly receive, not something we require. God’s grace, forgiveness and all He has done for us is a gift. He gave His only Son as a living sacrifice for us, not because of anything we have done to deserve it (we haven’t, we don’t and we never could), but because He deems us worthy. The root of the word is ‘worth’ meaning that there is value to it. God placed value on you (yes, you specifically!) simply because He loves you. Even if there was no one to save but you, Christ still would have died just to save you because that is how much He values you. C.S. Lewis says, “He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” Beloved, this is true of you. You don’t deserve His gift, but God calls you worthy because He values you. If you have feelings of unworthiness, they will permeate throughout every aspect of your life; the influence of that lie will run deep and absolutely sabotage your inner life. To say you are “not that worthy” is to deny God’s gift to you; to deny your forgiveness (by carrying around your past and your wounds and who you were BEFORE you died and were born again) is to snub Christ’s death on the cross. What you are essentially doing here is saying that while you understand that God has forgiven you, you cannot forgive yourself; Even though God says you are worthy, you don’t really agree with Him; Even though He places value on you, you would rather devalue yourself. C.S. Lewis has a quote that sums it up perfectly, “I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.” Beloved, do not bloat your poor opinion of yourself to be of more importance than God’s opinion of you. You must align your thoughts and prayers with Him because the only other option is to partner with what the enemy says about you. There is no neutral ground. As it says in Matthew 12:30 and Luke 11:23, you are either with Him or against Him. Romans 8:7 says that the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God, that your corrupt nature has a hostile attitude towards God. Wherever your thoughts about yourself do not align with who God says you are, you are automatically hostile towards Him. It is so important to change your mind. You are who God says you are. Nothing less, and nothing other. You are worthy. You are redeemed and forgiven. You are a new man in Christ. You are set free from sin. You don’t live in condemnation. You have the Fruits of the Spirit available to you and can take them anytime you need them: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. You are deeply loved. God enjoys you. You are the righteousness of Christ. The hardening of your mind has been removed in Christ. He has replaced your heart of stone with a heart of flesh. You are no longer a slave, but a child and an heir. You are chosen, holy, and blameless before God. The peace of God guards your heart and mind. You need never fear having too high of a view of yourself or becoming prideful if you learn to see yourself as He sees you. God is so good and so kind that He will keep you rooted and grounded with a healthy view of yourself, in line with who He says you are. You will find yourself on steady footing if you partner with Him. But you must partner with Him. Graham Cooke explains it as such, “Colossians 3:2 says to set your mind on things above, not things on the Earth. Whatever we focus on, we give power to.” You cannot afford to give power to the lies of the enemy over yourself and your own life. The mind set on the flesh is death. It cannot obey God. So the mind that is contrary to the purposes of God in your life actually sets you up for failure and results in your inability to follow through on the commands that the Lord has given you. In Mark 8, Jesus asks the disciples, ‘Why do you reason you have no bread? Do you still not understand? Or are your hearts hardened?’ Bill Johnson explains that the word “reason” or “discuss” comes from the root word meaning imaginations, speculations and high things that have been raised up against the knowledge of God. “Why is your reasoning at war with My world? You are considering and dwelling on a reality that violates how I live, how I think and what I’ve assigned to do with your life.” Jesus is challenging your thinking. He is not just interested getting you to stop hating or lusting or being angry or greedy or whatever vices. He actually wants to change the way you think completely. He is interested in renewing your entire mind so that your thinking is aligned with His. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16, “We have the mind of Christ.” We have the privilege of experiencing His sanctifying power not only in our hearts but in our minds, and therefore bringing forth good fruit by the way we think. Do not reason with your carnal mind in a way that is counter to who He says you are; in doing so, you harden your heart and become hostile towards Him. One of my favorite quotes is from George MacDonald, who says, “Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it.” This is a prayer that was given to me by a wonderful God-fearing Marine years ago. It changed my life and the way I think. Add this to your daily prayers and you will find your thoughts aligning with who He says you are and having a right perspective of yourself. Having a right perspective of yourself will not cause you to become prideful, but will put in you right standing with God. Lord, I am who You say I am, and that is a blood-bought son of God. I have the mind of Christ and a heart after Your heart. 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! I look forward to seeing you come into agreement with who He says you are, to seeing you transformed by the renewing of your mind, and for you to no longer partner with the enemy. It is time to change the background track in your mind. The enemy has dictated your thoughts for far too long; he has no right to your mind and thoughts. This is just the beginning of your journey to a completely renewed mind. I can’t wait to see that become your new reality. Live in the battleground, Warrior Beloved ©Michèle Aimée, 2016
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