That, if ever you should be avowing with your mouth the declaration that Jesus is Lord, and should be believing in your heart that God rouses Him from among the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart it is believed for righteousness, yet with the mouth it is avowed for salvation
Paul to the Romans 10: 9-10, Concordant New Testament
One of our discussions this week centered around the spoken word. A good friend of mine has the bad habit of proclaiming the false identity for himself. That being his own negative image he seems to carry with him. This is the image which so many others have spoken to him that he is. So much so over the years, that he has now come to accept these false words of others as being true. I respectfully disagreed with his description of himself, because I've been where he is now. I've been in those dark places wondering why God would love a sinner and bad guy such as me. Like my friend, I had bought into the words and lies that others had spoken about me. I fully believed that was who I was in the eyes of God. Of course, nothing could have been further from the truth. But this was the lie which had been spoken to me so many times that I had come to expect it as truth. There is some truth to the old saying that the lie, spoken often enough, soon becomes truth. We see evidence of this in the false separation theology of the mainstream church today. That it is our own sins that have separated us from the presence of God Who created us in His likeness {Genesis 1:27}. I use the corny examples of cars to illustrate this. How is it that we refer to our cars? We usually refer to them by their manufacturer, right? Ford, Chevy and Toyota. The cars maker is identified with the car itself. So it is with us as well. God has created us in His likeness, and we are forever in Him {Johns Account 17:21}. The false words and lies of others might try to convince us otherwise, but they cannot overcome the truth of who we are in the Father.
In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you
Johns Account 14: 20, Concordant New Testament
I would say that rarely are true and positive words spoken about our one true identity unless they are spoken from someone who is in or being led by the spirit. This is where the truth of who we are really lies. Now, God can certainly use those around us to speak to us what He wants us to hear as well. I have been witness to this in my own life. Where I feel for my friend is when he chooses to proclaim the negative false identity of himself. I get it. For too many years, people have been filling his head with everything that THEY want him to believe about himself. Others might argue, but I see this as verbal abuse. People choosing to attack someone else through their negative words. Yet something I have learned over the years is all too often those same negative words which people are using against others can be a clear indication of how it is that they feel about themselves. That the one using negative words to describe someone else actually is struggling with negative feelings about themselves. I didn't need to fork out hundreds of dollars to some quack psychologist to come to this understanding. I simply observed others around me. More often than not, those who were speaking negative words to me were struggling with a negative self image for themselves. It's called projecting, and we can use negative or positive words to project this onto those around us. How can we use this in a positive, Godly way? By proclaiming the truth and speaking it unto those around us. That we ARE NOT the product of the negative words spoken by others. No, the truth is that our life is one with the Father. Jesus has proclaimed that our life is in Him {Johns Account 14:20}. Knowing the truth of who we are in God can overcome the negative words spoken unto us by others. One key step to knowing the truth is to speak it to ourselves daily. My life is in the Father. I am created in His likeness. What can possibly be negative about knowing that? So, my advice to my friend would be, keep speaking Jesus.
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment