Have you ever attempted to see yourself as the Father sees you? Impossible? No, quite the contrary. There are scriptures that tells us how He sees us. He wants us to be happy, to live an abundant life. He lavishes so much love on us and too often we seem to be blind to this. So, cast off your poor self-image, eliminate all the negative thinking, and begin the process of seeing yourself as the Father sees you… the REAL You.
In no particular order… one of the things the Father does is to prepare us for all eventualities. The Real You is can defeat the devil – You are equipped and able to stand – we just need to realize our provisions. Example: In Ephesians we learn that rather than leaving us defenseless He provided us with His armor… His. But though the pieces are the same for all of us, the particular armor is fashioned just for us, individually. Look at Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 11:
“Put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily-armed soldier], so that you may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious]. So stand firm and hold your ground, having tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart), and having strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation [to face the enemy with firm-footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news]. Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
I deliberately have used the Amplified version because in order to fight our fight, we need to know just what our armor is. Our armor is awesome! Notice that He not only provides the pieces in the armor but tells us what they are and what they do – our job is to Stand. All this tells you how the Father thinks of us, what He’ll do to protect us – how far He goes to show us His love.
One of our ‘weapons’ is stated in the final piece listed in our armor – The WORD of God. This was how Jesus defeated the devil’s temptations… by saying, It is written. If our Lord provided this example, why not follow it? Just how powerful it is. This is what God said about His Word.
“So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me void (useless, without result), Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” [Isaiah 55:11]
“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven [standing firm and unchangeable]. [Psalm 119:89]“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”
[Luke 21:33]
Just these 3 scriptures are not only powerful but should give us great confidence. What we all need to realize is that we all can be our Real us. And our Real us, when we abide in Him is undefeated and fruitful (John 15).
Remember … We don’t need to apologize for being us because we all are a work in progress. We slip, we make wrong decisions, we sin – but we have 1 John 1:9 to reinstate us. And that realization should give us great confidence and… joy. God’s not done with us yet. As we grow and learn, know and understand, and apply … we become our Real Selves.
Though significant and crucial for us to be effective in our world, this is only 1 part of the Real You. There are sooooo many more discoveries about how the Father sees us and how we demonstrate our belief through our behavior. All are important and allow us to become all that we are intended to be.
