The key to any spiritual victory is to think like the Lord. Perception is everything. Spiritual warriors need to be God conscious. The difference between Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6 was that one was focused only on earthly issues while the other was concerned with what God was doing. Elisha saw beyond the natural realm, and his perception was the difference between death and breakthrough.
As we become God conscious, our spiritual awareness will expand our perceptions in the spiritual realm. Nowhere is that more needed than in the art of people development. Warriors work with the Holy Spirit. They are doing whatever he is doing; their actions are aligned with his intentionality. Their speech also reflects his heart. Alignment is about developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit based on his affinity for people.
The Holy Spirit has a natural liking for people. He is so brilliant at understanding people! He knows their longings and desires. He sees the thoughts and intentions of their heart. He is familiar with their struggle, weakness, and yearning to be better.
Because Jesus has so thoroughly dealt with sin on the cross, the Holy Spirit is released to support our journey from the present to the future. He is happy and willing to apply this cross to any present – past dilemma that we may face as we proceed towards breakthrough. It is in the matter of who we are becoming that he particularly excels.
He knows who we are now, in the present; and he links that person with our future destiny and identity. In Genesis 18; 17 – 18 the Lord says;
Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m about to do since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?
The word since means; for the reason that. It is also a preposition that denotes the action to be taken in the intervening period between the time mentioned (now) and the time under consideration (when Abraham will indeed become a great mighty nation).
Because of Abraham’s future destiny, he can be a part of what the Lord wants to do in the present. The Holy Spirit has a particular genius for present – future living. One of his gifts is prophecy, which is the art of encouragement, not only for the present, but also for empowering us in our future identity.
We have two relationships with God; who we are in the present, and who he says we are in the future. Jesus occupies the space between those two identities as he stands in the gap, interceding for us before the throne – Hebrews 7; 25.
We are so much more beautiful than we know, and more powerful than we realize. Often when we are solely preoccupied with the present, we can lose sight of where we are going and who we are becoming. We get caught up with negatives, burdened by our sense of lack. At this point, we need someone to tell us who we are in Christ. We need people to remind us of our true identity. We need our companions to speak into our future destiny. Someone needs to see the treasure and not just the earth vessel.
The answer to our present is the future. Most of our current situations have a bearing on our future development; they are about training for reigning, learning about authority and power, gaining in wisdom and character, putting off the self and putting on Christ, developing gifts and abilities that will sustain us for the time ahead.
We are not locked into the here and now. We have a direction, a vision, a sense of ourselves beyond the present. Life in the Spirit is very different than life in the natural. It is so much more! Life in the natural is concerned with future goals and how we move towards them. The gap between aspiration and achievement is development. We try to upgrade our performance so that we can become someone.
Life in the Spirit works differently. We already are someone in Christ. We are not trying to extricate ourselves from an old lifestyle. Jesus has already done that. We are dead in him to our past. Life in the Spirit is simply about letting go of a life that no longer works. We are a new creation, a new person already in Christ. We are in the wonderful process of discovering who we already are in him. We do not become a new person by changing our behavior. We discover the person we already are in Christ and behave accordingly.
When the Lord shows up in our life, he has a wonderful way of declaring to us how he already sees us. He knows both who we are now in who we will become. Who we are now is earthed in our personality. This is a mixture that is both positive and negative.
Personality is the integrated organization of soul and body. It is the combination of psychological, intellectual, emotional, and physical attributes that have shaped our upbringing, training environment, and modeling into a learned behavior that is both positive and negative.
Our positive personality contains the values that we have learned in life where we have become optimistic, trusting, willing to learn, and brave. We have developed capabilities that enable us to try, take risks, be open to challenge, and become self-aware, uncritical, and open. We live by principles and values that empower us to be faithful, consistent, full of integrity, and worthy of trust.
Our negative personality is often shaped by disappointment, humiliation, betrayal, and the bitterness of life. We can find ourselves subject to discouragement in disillusion. We develop a victim mentality. We become cautious, pessimistic, and judgmental. We are fearful, hesitant, and prone to deception, believing the worst, unworthy and entirely too self conscious. We have a fear of man, being wrong, and looking stupid. We take comfort in the familiar and avoid taking risks. When the Lord shows up in our life he tells us who we are becoming. Our true identity is made up of our personality and our persona. God loves to reveal our persona, how we are known in heaven. Persona is linked to the journey of our relationship with God.
Gideon is hurt, angry, and afraid. He is hiding out from the Midianites in a wine press, making bread, trying to keep body and soul together. He is disillusioned and has issues that bother him about his country and the presence of God – Judges 6.
When the Lord shows up, he does not speak to any of those things. He is not here to deal with Gideon’s personality, but to introduce to him his persona. Our persona is how we are known in heaven.
The Lord is with you, old valiant warrior. Gideon meets this revelation in his personality….Why has all this happen? Where are all the miracles? The Lord has abandoned us.
The Lord does not respond to personality, he reciprocates with more persona. Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of median. Have I not sent you?
Once again, Gideon counters through his negative personality. How shall I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the least in our tribe, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.
Again the Lord ignores Gideon’s personality and speaks to his persona. Surely, I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.
There are three levels to our persona. These are; elevated status, legal authority, and permission to overcome. We are known in heaven. Our identity, as God sees it, gives us an authority over any opposition. We are resourced in our persona and given permission to overcome any obstacle.
I have a grandson and he is developing his personality. He gets his needs met every day by loving parents. He doesn’t have to do anything to get his needs met. Indeed, at this time it is utterly impossible for him to do anything. Children get their needs met. Mature people received their inheritance. We are all children of God learning to become sons of God.
Our persona is given so that we can grow into maturity. Inheritance is attached to persona. How we are known in heaven is combined with how we are resourced from heaven.
Spiritual warriors live in their persona. They walk on earth in the language of heaven. They journey with heaven’s perception of them. Therefore their own language and perception is taken straight out of the dynamic of their own relationship with the Lord.
Warriors look for treasure in people. They speak to the treasure and call it up. They remind people of who they are in Christ. They are a positive influence on people because they inspire people to become more. They have a new significance, an ability to see people and circumstances with a fresh spiritual, and therefore, mental approach.
Warriors are more prophetic, able to see what is hidden both underneath and behind the issues facing people. God-conscious individuals are especially gifted at seeing the treasure buried in the people around them. They see the good with a startling clarity, and their heart is moved with compassion and exuberance. The Holy Spirit has astonishing enthusiasm for people. When we see and listen from her heart (inner man), then we experience the heart of Jesus flowing through us.
Ephesians 1; 18 – the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
The father has an enlightened view of us in Christ. He looks at us affectionately through the lens of Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers grace in our lives. Grace is the wonderful reality of God’s loving- kindness towards us that compels us to feel loved as we are walking out our salvation in the goodness of God. We are loved always, and in all circumstances – in our strength and growth, in our weakness and struggle, in our learning and not getting it, in our awareness and maturity, in our freedom and in our hang-ups. Coming to Jesus and being with the Holy Spirit enables us to fully embrace the father’s love. We have three truly awesome, majestic, incredible, astonishing people who love us with great affection, intention, and power. Our low self-esteem has no chance of survival.
I lost my poor self image a while go. I have no feelings of shame, condemnation, unworthiness, or low self-esteem. They simply cannot exist in the love, mercy, grace, and affection of God. There is no place for them, just as there is no place for the devil.
I’m wonderfully and superbly loved. Each member of the Godhead takes time to upgrade me constantly to the next level of their enlightenment. They inhabit a place of shining brilliance where the light of the truth of how they see me is so powerful; it blinds me to anything else.
As I respond to what the Holy Spirit is doing, the affection of God for me is so strong it lifts me into a place in his heart.
Also, as I fail to respond to what the Holy Spirit is doing, the affection of God for me is so strong it lifts me into a new place in his heart. The Lord is consistent, faithful, and unchanging. My performance or nonperformance is quite irrelevant. He remains the same; yesterday, today, and forever.
He loves because he is love. He sees the treasure in me because he put it there. Jesus is in me (treasure), and I am in him (treasured). Brilliant!
Authentic spiritual warriors are treasure seekers. They see past the earthen vessel. If we were digging in our garden and found an old chest, we would want to see what was inside. We would be curious to discover something, excited and enthusiastic. Upon opening it and seeing the treasure, we would not close the lid to examine the box. The light would fill us. We would be gripped by elation and absolutely thrilled at all the possibilities that the treasure could open for us.
When the Lord shows us the treasure in people, we are fascinated by what we see. Our hearts are overlaid by his, and we speak from the place of his deep affection.
In prophecy, people are caught up in the love of God. New Testament prophecy elevates the Christ life within people. We edify, exhort, and comfort people when we graciously challenge their hearts with the beauty of Jesus.
Warriors do what God is doing. We look for treasure and speak to it. We declare peoples persona, and we help them to eradicate shame, condemnation, and a poor self image.
Assignment – what would it be like for you to see yourself through the lens of Jesus?
Sit down with a friend and agree to be one another’s treasure seeker.
Pray over them, asked the Lord questions about them; see them positively in the Scriptures. What vision does the father have of them?
When you are ready, write them a letter from the father (best handwriting) that outlines who they are in Jesus and what treasure they have.
Commission – train your heart in the goodness of God. What would it take for you to see everything (good, bad or ugly) through the goodness of God? When we exercise ourselves in godliness, we are learning to walk and talk in the goodness of God.
Think of the people who are around your life on a regular basis. Name them in the space provided. What can you say and do, that would influence them to feel the love of the father? Please note; the harder their heart towards you, the more you are going to change for the better as you practice treasure hunting with them; that is as you speak to their treasure, regardless of their behavior, something has to change. If not them, then surely it has to be you! Yahoo! As the Lord is faithful, you can become consistent and unchanging. You are not treasure hunting in order to make people better; you are a treasure seeker because it’s a brilliant way to live, regardless of outcomes.