I just all the last week I worked with a retreat and so I work with this lady that lives in Texas
but she hosts these retreats out here in Santa Barbara at the Bacara and they're not necessarily
Christian they are they are luxury retreats designed for for women in the the corporate
world that are burned out and it's really enjoyable to do these because these ladies come
and you know they make a lot of money they have a lot of status and all that but they're
just a mess internally and they have like really hard stuff they're dealing with and they're
basically like on the brink of just nervous breakdowns. Things are happening at an accelerated
rate so you know one of these ladies that came in three weeks ago she wanted to kill herself
in a five-day retreat and at the end of five days completely transformed. At the beginning
zero. I asked her if she had any spiritual beliefs she sees she said none. Like most people believe
in something right? She was hearing God talk to her so and I didn't tell her I'm not I don't like
direct them like oh this is what you should do this is you know I just kind of like set it up
so that they can start to develop their own you know spiritual relationship with God or whatever
they want to call it. I kind of changed my language I kind of said well where do you think
this world came from you know like how did it get here and she said well yeah I guess that's true it
doesn't make sense that it just appeared out of nowhere so I had to come from somewhere or someone
and I said well that's the one that will be good for you to connect with the one that is the source
of this life that created it and she said yeah so she spent the rest of the week trying to connect
with this person she didn't know who it was or what it was. By the end of after five days she
said yeah well if it's God or whoever it is just told me that I have a purpose there's a purpose
for my life. Wow. And she that's not a language she's familiar with I mean we're familiar with
that kind of language in church circles but I didn't tell her that she got that on her own
and that was a rebel that was a revelation to her she'd never heard that before.
Change your life. People are so hungry and so it makes me really excited for this group because
you all know truth like you know regardless of all of the traumas and difficulties and challenges
that we've all been through because we live in a fallen world at least you all know truth and you
know God and you know God's heart and so just that alone you all are like way far you have an
advantage and I mean I just feel like you all are going to be you know up here up above your
earthly circumstances which do not dictate who you are or anything like easily I don't think it's
going to be hard I think it's going to be easy easier I think we complicate it in our minds
and we make it into this complicated thing that has to take years and years and like looking at
every single detail of your life and I don't think it's that complicated I think it's simple
God is for you he already did the work he already did the heavy work
yeah set us free and to get us into the right place where we can live a thriving life and display
him and it's simple and so I just want to encourage you that I think it's going to be
easier than you think I don't think it's a hard thing I don't think it's complicated
so this is week five um it's gone by very fast yeah so this is the um fifth part of the human
identity is your spiritual identity and um this is your your new spiritual dna that was created
that was created through the blood of Jesus so all of humanity was separated from God you know
he created the world and created humans um there was the fall there was this separation
and God made a plan to literally reconcile us back to him we're taught in church that
that the reason Jesus um shed his blood was to save us from our sins but that's actually
not true I mean that was one of the byproducts is that we were saved from our sins but the reason
Jesus did what he did was to reconcile us back to God to the father to restore our connection to
reconnect us back to the father so if Jesus did all the work Jesus accomplished that 2,000 years
ago we couldn't do that we couldn't reconnect ourselves back to God we didn't have the capacity
to do it but Jesus did it already that means we are connected to God that's it we are always
there's a secure connection that we have with God that can never be broken it can never
be undone no matter what, no matter what we do or don't do, no matter what happens to us in our
lives, no matter if we have a good day or a bad day, no matter if we're being super productive
and doing a lot of things that we're sitting on our couch doing nothing, that connection to God
doesn't ever change. It is solid and secure because Jesus already did it. So for us there's
nothing else that we need to do. He did it. It's already done. The heavy lifting, the big work
has been done. So that's why I mean it's so simple. We complicate it in our own heads
and it's so simple. We can rest, we can relax, we can enjoy being God's children,
you know, where he supports us and he leads us and he directs us and he guides us and he protects us.
We can relax just like the verse says. He leads us besides still waters. He restores our souls.
You know, we can rest just like a sheep next to the river. We can literally like hang out and rest
and relax because we have a shepherd. We have God that's involved in our life and we can just move
along with him, you know, in this like easy, there's an ease. I'm believing more and more that
God intended our life to be like an ease to our life. It's not, he didn't intend it to be
like difficult and strenuous all the time. I mean those, you know, we obviously have
strenuous difficult times because mostly because of broken hurt people that we interact with or,
you know, evil plans against us. But those are to be the exception, not the norm. Those aren't to
be like our normal way of life, to always be struggling, always to be strained and stressed.
That's not the life God intended us to have. So Jesus did all the work. He reconciled us to the
father and he recreated us. That is the most incredible news is that we are new creation. So
when Jesus reconciled us to the father and we, you know, believed that and applied his finished
work of the cross to us personally, we literally received a completely new spiritual DNA. We don't
have, you know, Adam sinned and messed up and that created like a genetic code of a different nature.
But we don't have that. We don't have that nature anymore because we got a new spiritual
DNA. We got a new nature and we have Christ's nature. That's the truth. Literally the nature
of Jesus is who we are and it's written into our spiritual DNA now. So our spiritual identity is
that we are, our identity is in Christ. We are new creations. We're united with the father. We're
united with Jesus. We're the living temple of the Holy Spirit and we're royal heirs because it says
that we are heirs with Christ. So everything that Jesus has as a son, you know, as a royal son
of the creator, we also have. And the other thing about who we are in our spiritual identity,
it's so funny because when you think about it like this, like through this lens, it's all
over the Bible of who we are. Like who we are, our identities, it's written as clear as day
in the scriptures. Just a lot of times we're just not thinking about it so we don't notice it
or we've seen it but we don't really believe it about us or something. So here we are,
our spiritual identity. First Peter 1 9, but you and me, you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a special people for God's own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies, the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections of
him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I mean, that's pretty simple.
That's who we are. This is who we are. And this is more true than what, you know, your peers at work
say about you or your spouse says about you or your mom says about you or your dad says about
you or all these other people out here that try to tell us who we are or make us feel a certain
way about who we are. None of that is real. This is real. This is who we are. And if this is who
we are, we don't ever have to question. We don't ever have to wonder, are we good enough? Are we
good enough for God to use us?
Are we, is God pleased with us?
Are we okay with God?
Is he upset with us?
You know, we don't ever have to question that.
We don't have to question, you know,
he called us out of darkness.
We don't have darkness.
We don't have darkness in us.
We only have light.
That's all we have.
We have light in us.
And the Bible is very clear
about not to cover up your light.
We're meant to be seen.
We're supposed to be a city on the hill that shines.
And so that's who we are.
And honestly, it comes down to a matter of what we believe.
Do we believe this, who God says we are?
Do we believe who Jesus,
like Jesus' actions on the cross speaks of who we are?
So do we believe that?
Do we believe what the scripture tells us?
Do we believe the truth and reality
that is in God's kingdom and in his heart and mind for us?
Or do we believe what we feel
because somebody said something mean to us
or somebody put us down or somebody didn't treat us right?
So which one are we gonna believe?
Are we gonna believe people around us,
broken, hurt people that are also have issues?
Or are we gonna believe God and believe what Jesus,
you know, actions speak louder than words.
Jesus' actions of going to the cross for us
speaks volumes about who we are, that we were worth it.
We were worth it to him and we are worth it to God.
Even when we were sinners, we were worth it.
So that's very, very exciting.
Hi Maddie.
So your spiritual identity is something that
the more you connect with that part of you
deep at your core, that you are, it's already settled.
You have a pure DNA in your spirit.
You have a, you're a new creation.
You're united with the father and Jesus
and the Holy spirit and you're an heir
of the kingdom of God.
Once you, the more you agree with that,
connect with that, align with that and believe it,
it will, that truth and that reality will come through you.
So it literally comes down to, it's so simple
that it's hard for us to comprehend how simple it is.
It comes down to which one are you gonna believe?
You're gonna believe the identity
that's really in your spirit, who you are there?
Are you gonna believe what you feel like
when you walk around in this earthly realm
and you feel bad about yourself or you feel guilty
or somebody says something mean,
like which one are you gonna believe?
So it comes down to pretty simple.
It's about, it's about belief.
And then when you choose, and the thing about beliefs
is that we tend to make those complicated as well,
but a belief is something simply that you choose
because we are all, we have a free will.
God brilliantly created us with our own free will
and we can choose.
We have the God-given right, ability, responsibility
and power to choose what we believe.
What we think about, what we focus our mind on
and what we allow to infiltrate our mind and beliefs.
We have a say, we are in charge.
God put us in charge of that,
which is why he gave us a will, a free will
and why he said to manage your thoughts
and take them captive.
It's our responsibility.
So the fact that we can choose our beliefs,
you can do that easily right now.
If you're believing something other than
you're a new creation,
you are perfectly securely connected to the father
that you are united with Jesus.
You are his embodiment.
You're basically, when you walk around on the street,
you are the embodiment of Jesus in physical form
because he's in you.
And you are a royal heir to the kingdom.
If you choose to believe that and you make the choice,
this is what I'm going to believe over anything else
that I think and feel, it's that simple.
Boom, you got it.
It's just a matter of choosing it and then holding,
hold on to that truth, hold it, hold fast to it
so that nothing else grabs a hold.
That's what, you know, when in deliverance ministry,
when people get entangled with demonic entities and stuff,
it's called a stronghold.
It's where something else gets a hold,
a stronghold on your mind.
So in order to not have a demonic spirit
or a demonic entity grab a hold of your mind,
you hold strong, you should hold strong
and hold fast to the truth.
That's it.
And you can do that.
And when.
Something else bombards you.
It may feel strong.
It may feel true, but it's just not true.
All you need to do is say, nope, that's not me.
That's not real.
That's it.
That's all you need to do.
Deflect it.
You hold up your shield of faith.
You got your shield out here.
All those flaming arrow or yeah.
Fire firing arrows at you by the enemy, the lies that cause you to doubt
yourself, feel bad about yourself, convince you that you're something that
you're not convince you that you're this low puny, terrible, you know,
mess of a person, all those things.
You literally hold up your shield of faith and go, no, that's not true about me.
That's not me.
I know who I am.
That's it.
It's such a simple, it's such a simple formula.
And I'm just laughing because I am just now coming to this clear
revelation of how simple it all really is.
And, um, this part of your identity, your spiritual identity, nothing can take it
away, there's, there's no amount of trauma or, you know, issues with your
families and parents and life hurts and all those things, none of that can touch.
Your identity and your spirit that, that can't be touched by earthly
circumstances, your earthly circumstances and relationships and all those things.
Who you are in your spirit.
It can't get, it can't get there.
So all that stuff that we experienced in life, that's difficult and hard and
challenging is only in the mind and the body.
So we're only experiencing those things in the mind and body.
Your spirit doesn't have any of them, which is amazing.
It's just an amazing, I mean, I'm in awe and wonder of how we're designed that way.
That that's why we can still be okay.
We're still whole.
We are still free.
We are still these beautiful creations of God, no matter what situations
and circumstances we experience.
No, even, even as, as tragic and difficult and heart-wrenching as, as,
as they are a lot of times in, in our spirits, we can be, we're still whole.
We're beautiful children of God that we can still be okay.
Beautiful children of God that bear his image, that are meant to be the cities
on the hill that shine and reflect his light to other people.
And I believe that the more of us that are believe the truth of who we are.
And we're shining that light.
We're bringing that light into the dark places of this world.
There wouldn't be so many broken people going around hurting other people.
I don't think there would, that would be a problem.
We'd literally just bring our light, bring our love, bring our joy, bring the presence
of God into any situation, into any person that we encounter, and it would
literally be instantaneous transformation.
And there would be no, there would be a lot less brokenness and strife and
turmoil and trauma going on in our world.
That's how I see it.
So I have a, I have a prayer that, um, I, I did with, uh, some of, uh, group
members a couple of years ago, and it's an identity prayer and it's
comprised of two different things.
Number one is like declaring out loud, the truth of who you are.
Um, it's also acknowledging and apologizing to God for the ways that we have.
Not agreed with who we are, that we've kind of like gone off on a tangent
away from the truth of who we are.
And then the third part of the prayer is apologizing to our own selves.
And, um, I started doing this several years ago, uh, realizing like how cruel
and harsh and how much stress and strain I put on myself with my crazy.
Negative thoughts and beliefs.
And so literally apologizing to myself for that.
And I didn't come up with that strategy.
Um, there's, I don't know if you're familiar with Bethel church, but
they're really, um, focus on healing and healing ministry.
And a lot of times what they do when they have their, um, different
conferences and stuff, they'll have people stand up and apologize to their
bodies for, for putting them through stress and strain and that type of thing.
And people literally get healed without anyone praying for them.
Wow.
People get healed of stuff, just apologizing to their own bodies.
If you think about it, because whenever you're harsh to yourself or cruel to
yourself, or you make a negative comment, like, oh, I hate my hair.
I hate my whatever, or I'm so stupid or I should have done better.
Why, why did I do all those things?
You're literally like putting yourself down and you're harming yourself.
It's like, if you wouldn't talk that.
way to your own child, because you know that that would harm them there.
You don't need to be talking that way to your own self.
So by, by simply apologizing yourself, you kind of, you're, you're becoming
aware and conscious of how to treat yourself and interact with yourself and
see yourself and that alone can like shift things at a deep level.
So I'm going to pull up, um, I'm going to pull up this prayer and we're going
to go through it together, well, I'm going to, I'm going to include this on
my, um, on your, with all the videos.
So you can refer to it, but I'm going to lead you through and I'll just,
um, we'll just say it out loud together.
Okay.
So this is called, I titled it the identity liberation prayer, because
this prayer literally liberates the true you, your true identity.
That's where in your spirit, in your innermost being, that's where it is.
Nothing that's on this physical earth can touch this, can touch your true identity.
That's why it's miraculous because you are, you could right now, if you never
did another thing in your life, you could fully be what God intended you to be.
If you, if you just sat on your couch and did nothing, you could
be fully liberated and powerful.
That's how simple it is.
Okay.
So let's go through this.
I'm going to say it at the same time.
So here we go.
Father, thank you for who I am and for how you made me.
Thank you for that extraordinary design and living miracle that I am.
Thank you that you love who I am.
You believe in who you made me to be and that you sent Jesus to pay for my
freedom and liberty to be exactly who you intended me to be, I apologize.
To myself and say that I'm sorry for not allowing me to be myself for not
allowing my true identity to be expressed for comparing myself to others.
For any way I have rejected myself, not valued myself,
disliked myself or hated myself.
I apologize to myself for every way that I have not, that I have been out of
agreement with who God says that I am and out of alignment with who God made me to be.
I apologize to you, God, for not recognizing my true value and worth.
I apologize for forming any kind of wall barrier or for locking the
door between my heart and my soul.
I apologize to you, God, for every way I've disagreed with you about who I am
and my design and for every way I've been misaligned with my true identity
and with who you made me to be right now, I declare that I'm willing to give
myself permission to be my true authentic self, I give myself permission
to shine the light within me and I'm willing to love and accept myself in
the same way you love and accept me, God.
Right now, I declare that I'm willing to agree with God about who
I am and who he designed me to be.
I am willing to align my whole self with the truth of who I am and who God designed
me to be in the name and authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Messiah,
who paid for and purchased my freedom and liberty to be who God intended me
to be and to function according to my true identity, amen.
Okay.
So, um, so I'm going to, uh, I'll have that included.
You can say that every day if you want, because even just saying it out loud
and sharing yourself, um, and, and applying it to you every day, it will
become normal, it will become your normal way of thinking, it'll become
your normal, just, this is true.
This is the truth of who I am and who God is to me and in me.
So anything else that else that's contrary to that, that
tries to convince me otherwise.
I'm holding up that shield of faith.
I'm keeping it way out here.
It's not even coming in.
You don't even let, let those things come in and get intertwined into
your head and your mind and all that.
Um, so this, this prayer is just a good way to just fix your mind on what's true.
And the thing about truth is that truth is true.
There's no variation.
It's not like some of the things God says about you is true, but not everything.
No, it's.
True, it's either true or it's not.
And if it's true, you hold it.
You hold onto that truth.
You hold it in your spirit.
You bring that truth into your soul,
into your mind and emotions,
and you bring it through in your physical body.
You let that truth radiate out of you
and you hold it no matter what.
No matter what situation you face,
no matter what person you encounter during the day,
no matter what you feel,
no matter what kind of crazy thoughts you may have,
you hold that truth.
That is your priority.
That's your priority.
Every day is to hold onto that truth of who you are
as God's child.
Free, whole, all those things.
Connected to him at all times.
Hold onto that no matter what.
For you all, before we go.
Thank you.
God, thank you for these remarkable,
amazing, glorious creations of yours.
God, thank you for everything
that you built into their hearts to be and to do.
Thank you for just their capabilities and capacities,
just the powerful impact and influence
and transformational potential that they are.
And just declare protection over them this week, God,
for your highest and best.
And I just declare just an accelerated
healing, restoration, transformation and reset for them.
That the simple, pure gospel,
the simple truth of who we are and who you are
to us, in us, for us, and working through us,
that we would live according to that simple truth
and be fully connected to who we are
and to who you are in us.
And that we would literally begin to live out
the truth and realities of our freedom, our wholeness,
our health, our healing, our abundant life
that exists for us in your kingdom.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.