If you remember nothing else from this message, remember this:
Who you are is not who you were.
You have unimaginable power on the inside of you. When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart.
Can you imagine that?
God’s Spirit lives in your heart. That’s what makes your body His temple.
Now I did not always know that. As a result, the enemy kept me in bondage to negative thoughts and destructive habits for years.
But one day, the Lord illuminated 2 scriptures that shook up my perception of who I am:
- Galatians 4:6: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
- 2 Corinthians 1:21-23: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
I realized the enemy was keeping me in bondage through reminding me of how I used to be.
He showed me mental movies of how I used to respond to situations negatively.
His tactics remind me of the story of how elephants are trained. When elephants are young, the trainer uses a rope to bind them to a stake in the ground.
The young elephant tries to break free of the rope, but find that they are too weak to do it.
So eventually, they give up trying.
The young elephant grows up to be a powerful creature. But his mind remains at the level that it used to be.
He still sees himself as small and helpless compared to the rope.
As a result, this small rope is sufficient to hold a creature that now weighs up to 14,000 pounds.
The elephant could break free anytime that he wants, but his mind does not believe that he can.
So he remains in bondage.
You may be in bondage to negative thoughts and destructive habits right now.
But the first step of freedom is to know who you are now.
Do you know who you are?
I don’t mean who you were; I mean who you are!
1 John 4:4 is just one scripture that tells you who you are:
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
The real problem is that your mind must be renewed to the truth in God’s word constantly.
Why?
Because the enemy is always trying to remind you of who you were B.C. (Before Christ)!
As long as you agree with the enemy that who you are is who you were, then your mind will always oppose what your Spirit knows is true in your heart.
No agreement, no power.
However, once you renew your mind to the truth in God’s word and your mind and heart agree, then you will speak and act according to that truth.
That is when freedom comes!
I always tell TBYT members that the mental work they do in the program is always greater than any physical work they will do.
It is challenging to walk by faith and not by sight. Working the steps of the Take Back Your Temple weight loss program is definitely a faith walk. But praise God, you don’t walk it alone!
You have your Christian sisters and brothers backing you up in prayer and encouragement.
So remember, you have God’s Spirit in your heart.
- Meditate on that truth today.
- Recall this truth when you greet people, especially those who’ve made you feel insecure in the past.
- Remember this truth when those old memories try to drive you back to worthless comforts.
Once you believe the truth that God’s Spirit lives in your heart and act according to that truth, then no demon in hell can ever bind you again!
Be blessed in health, healing, and wholeness,
Kimberly Taylor
Author/Christian Life Coach of the Take Back Your Temple weight loss program
P.S. “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change.” When I learned how to use God word to change how I looked at things, my body started to change!
In the Take Back Your Temple online weight loss program, you will join a community of your sisters and brothers in Christ who are also undergoing their own mind makeovers and can support you on the journey to reaching your ideal weight.
With each passing day, you will be encouraged and gain confidence that you can do this with God’s help!
Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple online weight loss program
Thank you so much for this post. So encouraging. May God continue to Bless you and your spouse.
Thank you, I really needed to hear this precious truth about God’s Spirit. Now I understand why I feel like that elephant in captivity listening to voices and images from past from the enemy.
Abba, thank you for your WORD and our Sister Kim. Heavenly Father
continue using her and her spouse. Thank you Jesus for them.
Wow! That is awesome. I have done that so much, thinking who I was, rather than who I am in Christ. Thank you. 🙂
What do you do when someone else reminds you every chance they get of who you were?
Hi Linda, That is a great question. The first thing to do is pray for them because they are living in the past and that is not good. Whenever they speak the past to you, you speak about what the Lord is doing in your life now. They may not change but changing them is not your job. Your job is to proclaim the good news of the gospel to them and walk in the truth the Lord has revealed to you. Much love, Sister!