Depression the Lastest Healing Article by TruLight Radio XM and Dr. Michelle Strydom MD. in the series “The Doctor says, The Bible says”

The root cause of depression is a low self-esteem, self-hatred, self-rejection, self-condemnation and/ or guilt in a person’s thought life.

Depression is extremely common. It is present in a quarter to a half of all medical patients. It affects people in all walks of life: professionals like doctors, lawyers and professors, blue collar workers, laborers, housewives, teenagers, small children, elderly people and even pastors. Even great kings and prophets in the Bible battled with depression such as Elijah (1 Kings 19 v 3) and King David (Psalm 40 v 3).

The diagnosis of depression is made according to the following criteria:
Diagnostic Criteria Of Depression

1. Five or more of the following symptoms present during the same two week period:
i. Depressed mood – most of the day, nearly every day.
ii. Loss of interest and pleasure – in almost all activities, most of the day, nearly every day.
iii. An increase or decrease in weight – change in more than 5% of body weight in a
month.
iv. Insomnia (difficulty sleeping) or sleeping too much nearly every day.
v. Movement is agitated or very slow (psychomotor agitation or retardation).
vi. Fatigue and loss of energy.
vii. A low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness or excessive and inappropriate guilt.
viii. Difficulty in thinking or concentrating. Indecisiveness.
ix. Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide or suicide attempts.
*At least one of the symptoms must be a depressed mood or loss of interest and pleasure.

2. Symptoms impair social, occupational or other areas of functioning.

3. The symptoms are not the direct effect of a drug (for example ecstasy), medication or a medical condition (Medical conditions and medical drugs that cause depression are mentioned
later).

4. The symptoms are not better accounted for by bereavement.
Depression can be genetically inherited. Therefore if other family members and those in generations before you have depression.

The root cause of depression is a low self-esteem, self-hatred, self-rejection, self-condemnation and/ or guilt in a person’s thought life. This has been identified by both the medical field (as you can see in the diagnostic criteria above) and by those in ministry. Henry Wright has dealt with many people with depression as a pastor over the years. He has observed that the low self-esteem behind depression often (but not always) comes from a lack of nurturing during childhood – often this is caused by the father although in some cases it can be the mother. The inherited component comes in because of lack of nurturing that has been there from generation to generation.

In order for you to understand depression, I need to first explain a little about how your nerves in your brain work. Your brain consists of 3 trillion nerves. These nerves are all joined or linked to each other. Information travels along these nerves in the form of an electrical current. At the joining or junction between two nerves, there is a gap which is called the nerve synapse. Like a bridge across a river joins two roads, so a nerve synapse joins two nerves. When the electrical current reaches the end of a nerve, it stimulates the production of chemicals called neurotransmitters that travel across the bridge (nerve synapse) to the next nerve. When these chemicals reach the next nerve, they attach to special receptors. This then generates an electrical current in that nerve. This is how an electrical current is passed on from one nerve to the next.

The chemicals in the nerve synapse are then taken up again by the first nerve.

There are different types of neurotransmitters in your brain. The most important ones in depression are Serotonin, Norepinephrine and Dopamine. The hypothalamus is the mind-body connection – it releases chemicals in response to our thoughts that travel throughout our whole body, thus affecting the way in which we function. The hypothalamus responds to those thoughts of a low self-esteem, self-hatred, self-rejection, self-condemnation and/or guilt by lowering the levels (amount) of the neurotransmitters in your brain.

Serotonin is lowered the most. Norepinephrine and to a lesser extent Dopamine is also lowered. When the levels of these neurotransmitters are lowered, it causes the whole central portion of your brain called the deep limbic system to inflame. Serotonin is the chemical that was designed to make you feel good about yourself. Therefore when the serotonin levels are too low, no matter what you do, you feel terrible – you feel depressed. Migraines, binge eating and weight problems are also caused by lowered levels of serotonin because of a low self-esteem.

When the electrical current has been generated in the second nerve, the first nerve takes the neurotransmitters up again (re-uptake) to use them again next time.

When the electrical current reaches the end of the nerve, it causes the end of the nerve to release chemicals called Neurotransmitters into the nerve synapse.

How information in the form of an electrical current travels from one nerve to the next in your brain Electrical Current Electrical Current First Nerve Second Nerve When the Neurotransmitters attach to the receptors on the second nerve, they generate an electrical current in that nerve.
The Neurotransmitters travel across the nerve synapse
The second nerve tries to compensate for this deficiency of serotonin by increasing the number of receptors.

These excess receptors on the nerves cause the symptoms of depression. The hippocampus is part of the deep limbic system in the brain. Some of its functions are learning, memory building and emotion.

Neurogenesis is a continuing process which involves building nerves that store memory and emotion . Neurogenesis only works when you feel good about yourself and the serotonin levels are correct. When you have a low self-esteem and you don’t like yourself, the serotonin levels within the hippocampus are low and neurogenesis is not very efficient. As a result you have difficulty in maintaining memory, emotional stability and you experience a low-grade degree of confusion.

The devil is the only one benefiting when your serotonin is imbalanced. He knows that the mind-body connection is real and he knows the physiology of your body better than most doctors. He knows that if he can get a low self-esteem, condemnation and guilt to dominate your thought life, he can cause the brain to under produce serotonin. He also knows that there is no way you can increase your serotonin levels unless you take a drug because you are in chemical imbalance. Now enters the sorcerer, otherwise known as your friendly local pharmacist or family doctor . They will say, “Ok, your deep limbic system is inflamed and your serotonin levels have dropped.

Therefore we’re going to give you a serotonin enhancer like Prozac to change that. This drug will make you feel good again.” You then become addicted to the drug that artificially restores the chemical imbalance and serves as a false comforter and false source of peace. As long as you take the drug you feel better about yourself, but you still have those unloving feelings of a low self-esteem, guilt and condemnation as part of your nature. Therefore even though you are on the drug you still do not feel satisfied, just more tormented.

God doesn’t want you to be chemically manipulated and artificially maintained by anti-depressants for the rest of your life. This is just disease management which is another form of bondage. Why don’t you sort out your thought life, which is the root of your problem so that you can be free from depression permanently?

The situation is that depression is a result of the inflammation because of the lack of serotonin in the deep limbic system, which all started upstream in your thought life. Depression is not the problem – your thought life is the problem. Depression is merely a symptom of your toxic thought life.
It is OK to take medication for a short period of time to help you and to reduce the inflammation and bring a bit of balance back into the serotonin levels, but it certainly does not solve the underlying problem. You have to parallel that with working on your thought life. According to the latest scientific information and research on how your brain works,
excess amounts of medication will upset the natural chemistry in your brain.
Very often we see that people need medication as a crutch or as an excuse to
hide behind, “Well there’s a defect in my brain – I don’t have enough serotonin.

I can’t help it.” We use this victim mentality as an excuse to submit to that disease,
meanwhile we can rise above it. We need to take back responsibility. We are fully able to control our thought life.

I would strongly recommend that you never start anti-depressants in the
first place because it is not easy to wean your body off them once you start and
they have terrible side effects. However, since many people are already taking antidepressants, it is worthwhile to discuss them. There are different types of drugs that are prescribed to treat depression. The most well known anti-depressants are Prozac (generic name is Fluoxetine) and tri-cyclic anti-depressants such as Amitryptaline and Imipramine. These drugs work by preventing the neurotransmitters (serotonin and norepinephrine) from being taken up again by the first nerve. Therefore the levels of serotonin in the nerve synapse increases.

The effectiveness of serotonin is prolonged because it is out there for longer and it gives the person a sense of well-being. It is an artificial way on increasing your self-esteem. The increased According to the latest scientific research on how your brain works, excess amounts of medication will upset the natural chemistry in your brain.

amount of serotonin in the nerve synapse causes the second nerve to decrease the amount of receptors it has. As a result of the decreased receptors, the symptoms of depression disappear.

Side effects of tri-cyclic anti-depressants (Amitryptaline and Imipramine):
• Heart can be affected – can cause abnormalities in heart rhythm.
• Can cause problems with constipation, passing urine, dry mouth and blurred vision.
• Can cause weight gain which worsens the depression because the excess weight makes people feel even worse about themselves.
• The biggest problem is that many people with depression have a suicidal tendency and it is common for them to purposefully overdose on their ant-depressant medication. An overdose of tri-cyclic anti-depressants causes convulsions, severe abnormalities in heart rhythm, suppression of breathing and death.

Prozac (fluoxetine) is the most frequently prescribed anti-depressant drug. This is a drug that is far too frequently and flippantly prescribed by doctors without any real consideration about the consequences.
Prozac is an amphetamine. It is the chemical equivalent of the recreational drug Ecstasy. They are identical.

Prozac is an illegal drug re-packaged as a legal drug. Prozac was the first illegal drug to be made legal and not many people know that. The drug world calls it an upper and then you have to start taking downers (for example sleeping pills) as well. Because Prozac is an amphetamine, it has a serious side effect and that is violence, aggression and psychotic
behavior. The teenagers that were involved in the high school shoot outs in America were on Prozac. In fact, a large number of mass murders in America were done by people who were on Prozac.

Another side effect of Prozac is amnesia, “Now that I’m on this drug I feel better about myself but I just can’t remember who I am!” The list of side effects continues: allergic reactions, palpitations and chest pain, dizziness, drowsiness, flu symptoms, coughing, dry mouth, nausea, indigestion, diarrhea and other intestinal disorders, increased appetite, weakness, apathy, sweating and tremors. Those are the most common side effects. Others include confusion, convulsions, hallucinations, paranoid reactions, twitching, muscle tension, slurred speech, suicidal thoughts and sometimes cessation of breathing.

One of the main side effects of Prozac is sexual dysfunction because it causes anxiety and loss of libido (sex drive). So the man is impotent and nervous and the wife wonders why he is no longer chasing her.

Because of the Prozac he loses all interest in his wife and he thought he had problems before! Women taking Prozac can also lose their libido which has adverse effects on their marriage relationship with their husbands. This creates another problem – more conflict, more guilt, more rejection and more anxiety. This all leads to a further decrease in serotonin levels and now we have a deeper depression.

So as you can see, these drugs do not solve the problem. In fact they interfere with dealing with the root problem because they mask the real issues. I’m a doctor who loves the Lord and wants to give you knowledge that when applied to your life will set you free from depression permanently. I’m not going to send you to Prozac. Anti-depressants are a cheap substitute for the Holy Spirit, who was called the Comforter by Jesus. In John 14 v 26 Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is “the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby).”

Jesus said in Matthew 11 v 28 – 30: “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls]. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. 30 My yoke is wholesome (useful, good – not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.”

If you are suffering from depression know that God loves you more than you could ever imagine (See Ephesians 3 v 16 – 20) and He deeply cares about your problem. He doesn’t want you to battle with it any more. He wants to set you free from depression permanently and heal you totally. He wants to heal you physically and right down to the wounds in the depths of your soul. However, you also have to take responsibility and deal with the key issue behind depression which is a low self-esteem. This is the only way that the serotonin deficiency behind depression is going to be resolved.

You Need to See Yourself as God Sees You Building a healthy self-esteem starts with knowing who you are in Christ and establishing your identity and sense of self worth in Him.

• CONDEMNATION – is a very common cause of depression. Even the medical community has picked
this up as you may have noticed in the box with the diagnostic criteria of depression. People with depression spend a large part of their lives feeling guilty. When you ask them what it is that they are particularly feeling guilty about, they couldn’t tell you. All they know is that they have this vague, underlying nagging feeling of guilt all the time. Remember that thoughts of guilt and condemnation are extremely toxic to your body. The chemicals that are released from thoughts of guilt and condemnation immediately put your body into a toxic state which will make you depressed. Condemnation and guilt is one of the devil’s greatest tools that he uses to make us feel badly about ourselves and he uses it to steal our joy. So take note of what I said about condemnation in the chapter “Who You Are In Christ.”

• HANG OUT WITH THE NEW YOU – you will become like those that you hang around. If you are suffering from depression and you sincerely want to overcome it, it is vital that you do not hang around other depressed people. You need to spend most of your time with stable, happy people who are full of the joy of the Lord. If you have no choice but to be regularly around someone who is depressed, keep yourself covered by faith with the blood of Jesus for protection against the spirit of depression.

You must be more aggressive against depression than it is against you. There is nothing wrong
with trying to help other depressed people. However, you must remember that not all people want help because they just want to be depressed. Some people get mad when you try to cheer them up.

Depressed people want others to be depressed and to wallow with them in their misery. Joy and a positive attitude irritates them. Well actually joy irritates the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61 v 3) oppressing them. The bottom line is that if you are struggling with depression, your friendships are very important. Don’t spend time with depressed people if you need to overcome depression yourself.

Laugh, Sing and Make Music!

There is another secret in the Word to overcoming depression which is also medically proven to be correct – laugh and sing, and make music!
Isaiah 61 v 3: “Put on the garment of praise instead of a heavy, burdened and failing spirit…”
Playing or listening to music, laughing and singing may be the last thing that you feel like doing, but it causes the release of chemicals called endorphins and encephalins that are natural anti-depressants. It also releases serotonin and dopamine which naturally balances the deficiency of serotonin that causes clinical depression in the first place. Playing music, laughing and singing have been proven to de-stress your brain and body, and it protects you from getting sick by strengthening your immune system.25 Sometimes you have to begin in the flesh to laugh and sing whether you feel like it or not. It is like priming an old fashioned pump by repeatedly moving the handle up and down until the pump kicks in and the water begins to flow. If you have ever used an old fashioned pump you will know that when you initially begin to move the handle up and down, it feels as though it will never kick in and begin to supply water. It actually feels like it is connected to nothing and is just pumping air. As you continue it becomes more difficult to move the handle up and down which is a sign that the water is about to flow.

It is the same way with joy. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is joy (Galatians 5 v 22) and He is on the inside of you. Therefore you have a well of joy on the inside of you. The pump handle to bring it to physical manifestation is smiling, laughing and singing. Initially these physical expressions may not seem to be doing much. After a while it gets even harder,
but if you keep it up you will soon get a “river of joy”. You can’t always feel
joy until you activate it by purposefully operating in it. Often the decision comes first, then the feelings follow.

Paul said in Ephesians 5 v 19 – 20: “Speak out to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, offering praise with voices [and instruments] and making melody with all your heart to the Lord, at all times and for everything giving thanks in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”
Acts 16 v 25 – 26: “About midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God… Suddenly there was an earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken;
and at once all the doors were opened and everyone’s shackles were unfastened.”

Paul and Silas were is a miserable position. They had just been severely beaten and were sitting in shackles in a cold and dark prison. However they choose to praise God in the midst of this situation, even though I’m sure they probably did not feel like it. There is great power to break any bondage in simply smiling, laughing and praise. The same power that broke the walls of the jail and shackles around Paul and Silas and the others in prison with them, is available today to break the bondage of people who are imprisoned and shackled with depression. If you react by choosing to smile, laugh and sing songs of praise
to God at the onset when you feel the symptoms of depression coming on, it will lift. The devil and his kingdom cannot stand God’s joy – so when you begin to purposely operate in it and start praising God, they will not stick around!

Psalm 42 v 5: “Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and
be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.”

Even the great spiritual giant David had to battle with depression. To overcome his down cast and depressed feelings and emotions he used to sing songs of praise to God and shouts of deliverance, in the midst of difficult and miserable circumstances. That is why so many of his Psalms are songs of praise to God.

David said in Psalm 1 v 1 – 3: “1I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2He drew me out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. 3He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God…” Part of praise is thanksgiving. You need to maintain an attitude of gratitude. In the laboratory they have proven that giving praise and thanks causes the release of those healthy feel good chemicals such You can’t always feel joy until you activate it by purposefully operating in it. Often the decision comes first, then the feelings follow.

as serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, enkephalins and ANF which flow throughout your body and brain.

These chemicals are wonderful because they uplift you and make you healthy. You can get those healthy chemicals in your body flowing by being grateful for everything around you. Thank people. Every time you want to wine, groan and complain – think of your blessings. Even if it means thanking God for a new day.

Thank Him for His Son and the privilege of being able to have a relationship with God. That is awesome and a lot to be thankful for!

Psalm 103 v 1 – 5: “1 Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my
soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits. 3Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases. 4 Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy; 5 Who satisfies your mouth [your personal necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s [strong, overcoming, soaring]!”

Get to Know the Father More!

Nehemiah 8 v 10: “…for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.”
One of the meanings of the Hebrew word joy in Nehemiah 8 v 10 is “to be joined”. In order for the joy of the Lord to be your strength, you must be joined with God. I mentioned earlier that joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit – Jesus said that you cannot bear fruit unless you are abiding in the Vine:
John 15 v 4 – 5 & 7: “4 Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me,
and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without
abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives
in Me and I in Him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me
[cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. 7 If you live in Me
[abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to
live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”
Being joined to God and abiding in the Vine means spending time in fellowship with God (daily quiet times!) and acknowledging and talking to Him continually through the day as you go about your business. An intimate relationship with God the Father and getting to know Him more through time spent with Him, is the key to healing from any disease. You cannot expect to experience any real form of joy and peace in your life, if you are so busy doing other things that you never get around to spending time with God.
Psalm 16 v 11: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
Rejection, Adoption and Depression If you have suffered from depression it might be due to the root of rejection in your life. To be rejected means to throw away as having no value or worth or being unwanted. We were designed for acceptance, not rejection. The emotional pain from rejection is one of the deepest kinds of pain known, especially when
it comes from a person we love or expect to love us, such as parents or a spouse. I once read the story of a woman who had been adopted. Here is part of her testimony:

“My adoptive parents told me that I was adopted as soon as I was old enough to understand, but nothing more: I didn’t know who my parents were or why they had given me up. This knowledge – or the lack of it – hit me hardest in my teens. I felt worthless and repulsive – why else would my own mother abandon me? I suffered from bouts of depression. Being adopted affected every relationship. I was cool towards my adoptive mother and the more I thought about it the less I trusted people. I was possessive and unreasonable with those I loved. As for boyfriends I was attracted to the men who never called – as if every relationship had to re-enact the one maternal act that had defined my life. The slow dawn of maturity and meeting the right man, who proved that I could love someone and they would stay, meant that adoption was less of an issue in my twenties. Yet it slyly informed the way I thought about myself – as a mother, as a person. My fiercest wish was to be a good parent, to counteract what she had done…” Many people who are adopted have a deep feeling that something is wrong with them and that is why they were not wanted by their real parents. The only way that these people are going to fill that empty void is to receive the love of God the Father. I say receive because many people understand the concept theoretically in their heads that God loves them but it is not a reality in their hearts and lives. The lady in the above story was ruining her life because she was striving to get something she would probably never
have, which is the love of her natural parents. The devil had taken advantage of her emotions from this tragedy in her early life and depression had become a stronghold in her mind.

If you have been adopted or rejected and are deeply emotionally scarred by it, I want you to know that God, your Heavenly Father accepts and approves of you (Jeremiah 1 v 5). Psalm 27 v 10 says: “Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child].”

This is the prayer of my heart for you and I encourage you to take the time right now to pray this prayer below for yourself from your heart: Ephesians 3 v 14 – 20: “Father, I ask You to grant me out of the rich treasury of Your glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in my inner man by the Holy Spirit [Himself indwelling in my innermost being and personality]. May Christ through my faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in my heart! May I be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that I may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love], what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [That I may really come] to know [practically through experience for myself] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that I may be filled [through all my being] with all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! Father, You by Your power that is at work within me are able to [carry out Your purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that I [dare] ask or
think [infinitely beyond my highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams].”

Instead of feeling unloved and worthless because your parents did not love you, you need to renew your mind to the fact that God loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die for you. You are extremely valuable and precious because you were worth the life of the King of Kings! Overcoming rejection is not easy but you can do it by drawing close to your Heavenly Father and receiving His love. And watch for all the ways that He shows you His love! God is continually showing His love for us in little ways everyday but we often do not even notice it. When God showed me this years ago I asked Him to open my eyes to notice when He showed me His love. I personally love the bush and natural beauty of nature. I began to see Him spoiling me with a beautiful sunset or when a flock of lovely birds came into the garden around me while I was studying. I recognized His love when a family member would bring me a cup of coffee with marsh mellows or an unexpected gift from a friend. I saw Him show me favor at work and wherever I went. There are many, many ways that God shows His love specifically for you every single day, you just have to watch If you have been adopted or rejected and are deeply emotionally scarred by it… know your Heavenly Father accepts and approves of you.

out for it. When you respond to Him with an attitude of gratitude even in the little every day things and express your thanks in praise, depression doesn’t have a chance.

When people reject you, Jesus takes it personally. Luke 10 v 16: “He who hears and heeds you [disciples] hears and heeds Me; and he who slights and rejects you slights and rejects Me; and he who slights and rejects Me, slights and rejects Him Who sent Me.” It is sin for one person to reject another because they are breaking the law of love (See John 13 v 34 – 35 and James 2 v 9). However, you don’t have to allow that sin to define your life or control your emotions.

Romans 12 v 21: “Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.” Drawing close to God through spending time with Him, praising Him, putting a smile on your face, laughing and being joyful on purpose are good things that will overcome the evil of rejection and the result of depression in your life.

Failure

Many depressed people have a low self-esteem coming from what they perceive as a failure in their life. We are programmed by a worldly mentality that winning is everything and that success is living in the absence of failure. However, failures and mistakes are important lessons learnt on the road to real success.

One of these lessons is humility because God cannot use us when we are full of pride. We are not automatically humble as we all deal with a generous portion of pride. However humility is soon worked into our character after a few experiences with failure. Failures will disappoint, discourage and depress us if we let them. However God sees it in a totally different light – He uses our failures and weaknesses to develop
our characters, all in preparation for His calling on our lives. You haven’t really
failed until you have given up. Joyce Meyer has a successful ministry now but
she had to endure some failures that were sometimes very embarrassing on the
way. She maintains the attitude: “Satan may knock me down, but He is not going
to knock me out!” Failing at something is not the same as being a failure.
I explained in the chapter on “Who You Are In Christ” that you are not loved
by God based on your performance. You are not accepted because of what you
have done but because of what Jesus has done. Learn to separate your who from
your do. You may do something and fail at it but that does not mean that you
are a failure. You are a child of the King and you are being changed from glory to glory into His Image (2 Corinthians 3 v 18) with a few lessons learnt along the way. You see it is not actually failure that causes a low self-esteem that results in depression, it is our attitude towards failure that causes it. There’ll be no room for depression if you choose to see your failure as an opportunity to learn from the experience and allow God to develop your character and make you a better person for it. People who don’t know God have
no choice but to go to depression when they fail, but you can be encouraged because you know that you don’t have to stay that way. Joyce Meyer has a good saying, “I’m OK and I’m on my way. I’m not where I need to be but thank God I’m not where I used to be!” God’s grace is the power and ability that He gives you to overcome sin. Romans 5 v 20: “…where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” How can anybody fail with a system like that set in motion on their behalf?

Rise Up Out of Your Pit and Take a Hold of Your Destiny!

There are many other different circumstances that can trigger the depression (for example after having a baby, getting fired from your job, etc) but in the end the devil is behind it all. For every thought that you meditate on, there is a physical reaction in your body in the form of electrical current traveling along nerves in your brain. There is also the production of hormones and chemicals somewhere in your body in
reaction to that thought. That is why if you allow Satan to control your thought process, He can control your body chemistry and cause disease. When you start listening to that self-hatred, condemnation, guilt and rejection, your body produces chemicals in response to those attacks that is counterproductive to your health and peace. If you will listen to God rather than the devil, God will cheer you up and make you feel good about yourself because you know who you are in Christ, He will give you peace about the past, joy for the present and hope for the future.

1 Corinthians 2 v 9: “…Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the
heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who
hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed.”
Ephesians 2 v 10: “For we are God’s [own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ
Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand)
for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.]”

The point of the above two scriptures is that God has a unique purpose and an awesome destiny laid out for you. The devil knows this, so his goal is to keep you in the pit of despair where you are hopeless and miserable, and where you will never rise up and fulfill God’s call on your life. The devil comes and brings every negative thought imaginable to your mind. He reminds you of every tragic and disappointing thing that has ever happened to you and tries to make you believe that nothing good will ever take place in your life. You see, God cannot use a depressed and discouraged Christian.
The principles for overcoming depression are not complicated. You simply need to meditate on (spend time thinking about) who you are in Christ, you need to see yourself as God sees you, and apply the principle of laughing and singing songs of praise to God at the onset when you feel that depression coming on.

Isaiah 60 v 1: “Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you
– rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!”
Don’t Play Around with Depression
Depression can be dangerous because it can get to a point where the serotonin levels are so low that you become suicidal. Studies from autopsies on patients who committed suicide showed that these people had very low serotonin levels in their brain. Joyce Meyer has a saying, “Don’t flirt with the devil!”

1 Peter 5 v 8 – 9: “Be well balanced, temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him, be firm in faith [against his onset – rooted,
established, strong, immovable and determined], knowing that the same identical sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world.”

2 Corinthians 10 v 5: “… lead every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

You need to resist the devil at his onset. As soon as those depressing, negative thoughts come to your mind, you need to purposely chuck them out and replace them with the Truth of the Word of God. I recommend that you don’t even allow yourself to dwell on those negative thoughts for even a little while. It may be all the time the devil needs to set up a stronghold that is not easily broken. We cannot flirt with the devil like that.

Once he gets a foothold, he can obtain a stronghold. He is progressive and aggressive in his action towards us. Therefore we must be aggressive and not passive towards him.”
God has given us His Word which is like a two edged sword which is our weapon that we can use in spiritual warfare to defeat the enemy. You cannot defeat Goliath with your mouth shut. You need to speak out the Word of God to counter the enemy’s attacks. Secondly, remember I explained previously that Jesus gave you the “garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61 v 3). If you don’t use what He has given you, you will sink deeper and deeper into the pit of depression, and you could end up in serious trouble.

Ephesians 4 v 27: “Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].”
If we flirt with the devil we will always get hurt. Refusing to put on the garment of praise and speak out the Word because we don’t feel like it or don’t want to is dangerous. It opens the door for more serious problems. However, when you choose to resist the devil at His onset with the Word and with praise, he will flee from you.

James 4 v 7: “Be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him]. And he will flee from you.”
From what I’ve studied in medicine and in the Word, I have come to believe that it is nearly impossible to get depressed if our minds are under control. That is why God said in Isaiah 26 v 3 that He will guard and keep us in perfect and constant peace, if we will keep our mind stayed on Him.
Isaiah 26 v 3 – 4: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind
[both its inclination and character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (Commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].”
When you renew your mind and begin to love and accept yourself for who you are
in Christ, the hypothalamus will recognize your fulfillment and signal the release and
increase of serotonin. This will cause your spirit, mind and body to be in balance again
so that you feel more complete. When the serotonin levels are normalized, the symptoms of depression will disappear.

If you are already taking anti-depressants I do not recommend that you all of a sudden stop taking your medication cold turkey, as your body will pitch a fit because it becomes chemically dependent on it. You have to gradually train your body to exist chemically without these drugs by tapering them down slowly over a period of two to four weeks. For example, start by only taking half your normal dose, then a quarter and then taking it only every second day and so on. Reduce your medication under the supervision of a doctor. Furthermore, do not even start tapering down your anti-depressant medication until you have dealt with the spiritual root of a low self-esteem and have renewed your mind first!

Other Causes of Depression In essence, depression is a chemical imbalance of the neurotransmitters in your brain. I’ve just explained how this can happen as a result of a low self-esteem, self-hatred, self-rejection, self-condemnation and guilt in your thought life. This chemical imbalance can also be caused by uppers (Alert pills) and downers
(sleeping pills), recreational drugs (for example ecstasy) and medical drugs such as:

• Oral contraceptives.
• Corticosteroids.
• Phenothiazides – this is an anti-psychotic drug used to treat disorders such as schizophrenia.
• Methyldopa and Resperpine – these drugs are sometimes used to treat high blood pressure.
• Phenylbutazone – this drug is used to treat ankylosing spondylitis.
• Interferon – a drug used to treat certain cancers and certain viral infections.
In some people depression is a symptom of another underlying medical condition which disrupts the function of the neurotransmitters or interrupts the structural pathways in the brain. Examples of diseases that cause depression are:
• Cerebrovascular disease (this is where the blood vessels in the brain are narrowed by fatty plaques (atherosclerosis) which eventually leads to strokes) *
• Brain tumor
• Multiple sclerosis*
• Parkinson’s disease*
• Alzheimer’s disease*
• Epilepsy
• ADHD*
• Hypothyroidism*
• Hyperthyroidism*
• Infections such as glandular fever, herpes simplex, typhoid and toxoplasmosis.

It is interesting to note that the conditions with a star next to them also have an element of a low self esteem and self-hatred as a spiritual root behind them.

Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of unpredictable swings in mood from one extreme of depression to the other extreme of mania.
In that section I explained that depression is caused by a deficiency of a chemical in the brain called serotonin. This is a result of a low self-esteem and guilt in a person’s thought life. Mania, which is the opposite to depression and the other half of bipolar disorder, is caused by an excess of serotonin. Thus in Bipolar disorder (which means two opposite poles) there is a deficiency and then an excess of serotonin which causes the mood swings. The diagnostic criteria for a manic episode is defined in the box below:

CRITERIA USED TO DIAGNOSE A MANIC EPISODE
(Taken from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition)
1. An abnormally and persistently elevated or irritable mood lasting at least one week (or any duration if hospitalization is necessary).
2. During the period of mood disturbance, three or more of the following symptoms have been
present to a significant degree:
i. Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity (This is because the serotonin levels are abnormally
high. Remember serotonin is the chemical that makes you feel good about yourself, so
when the levels are increased, you have an elevated feeling (like being on a high) where
you feel great about yourself – it is as if you can take on the world).
ii. Decreased need for sleep (for example you feel rested after only 3 hours of sleep).
iii. Increased goal directed activity (i.e. you become hyperactive) either at work, socially or sexually or you are not able to sit still – somebody would describe you as having “ants in
your pants” (the medical term for this is psychomotor agitation).
iv. More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking.
v. Flight of ideas – the feeling that your thoughts are racing.
vi. Easily distracted.
vii. During a manic episode the person tends to become involved in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences, for example:
• Going on an unrestrained shopping spree and getting severely into debt.
• Sexual indiscretions.
• Foolish business investments.
3. The mood disturbance is sufficiently severe to cause significant impairment in occupational functioning or in relationships with others. There are two types of Bipolar disorder: in Bipolar type 1 the manic episodes are more severe and can require hospitalization to prevent harm to self or others. A person with Bipolar type 1 can also get psychotic features such as hallucinations (for example hearing or seeing something that is not really there) or delusions (a false belief that cannot be corrected by reasoning – for example the person may believe that a chip in his tooth controls world events). A person with Bipolar type 2 has less severe manic episodes that do not require hospitalization and does not have psychotic features such as hallucinations or delusions.
4. The symptoms are not due to the direct physical effects of a substance, for example drug abuse or a side effect of a medication or another medical condition such as hyperthyroidism.

The serotonin excess in mania is a result of fear and anxiety.49 Therefore, before reading further, it is important for you to read through the chapter on page 180 which has essential background information on the different stages of stress and how long term fear and anxiety affects your body.
I spent several months working in a psychiatric hospital where I treated many patients with bipolar disorder. What I personally noticed is that most, if not all of them came from dysfunctional families. There is often abuse involved, whether it be verbal abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse or sexual abuse. There is always an atmosphere of strife, victimization, fear and not feeling safe. 1 John 4 v 18 says that he that
fears is not made perfect in love. So the home is filled with a lack of love and therefore fear comes in the door. That fear puts the person into stage 2 and 3 of stress, there is an over production of certain hormones in the body, including the over production of serotonin in the brain which caused the symptoms of mania.

Inheritance plays a very large role in bipolar disorder. It is inherited from a gene that is passed down from the mother on the X chromosome. (Males have an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the father. Females have two X chromosomes – one from the father and one from the mother).

The only way to overcome this is for the Lord to heal the genetics. God created the X chromosome perfect from the foundation of the world, and if the devil, because of generations of sin, was able to come in and mix up the DNA in the genes – God is well able to change it back the way it was. The devil is not more powerful than God is. I believe that when we line up with His Word and His conditions for healing, God can fix the genetics… and He does. Please read more about genetically inherited diseases and how to deal with them .

Antidepressants and Lithium (the drug of choice used to treat or prevent mania) are not a long term answer to Bipolar disorder because they do not deal with the underlying problem. These drugs are just a form of a form of disease management which often complicates the problem with their Pandora’s box of side effects. Apart from unpleasant side effects such as nausea, anorexia, diarrhea, excessive urination, fatigue, hair loss, swelling of the feet, skin eruptions and weight gain, Lithium can have more serious problems such as kidney failure, hypothyroidism, and can have a toxic effect on nerves causing tremors,
in-coordination, interference with concentration and memory (Note: Not everybody experiences all these side effects).

Total healing of Bipolar disorder is only going to come through dealing
with the root issues and toxic mindsets behind it. I explained how to deal with
a low self-esteem, self-hatred, self-rejection, self-condemnation and guilt
under the section on depression. You also need to deal with the fear that has come in through relationship breakdowns.

When you renew your mind and love yourself for who you are in Christ
and receive the perfect love of the Father which casts out all fear (1 John 4 v
18), the hypothalamus will sense your peace and fulfilment by stabilizing the
serotonin levels and the symptoms of Bipolar will be a thing of the past.
Lastly, if you have Bipolar 1 and you experience psychotic episodes (such as hallucinations and delusions)

Type A Personality
Interestingly, most doctors have a type A personality. A type A personality is where a person is driven to perform and achieve. They are workaholics and perfectionists. This is rooted in the fear of poverty and the need to perform and achieve in order to receive or earn love, acceptance and respect. This can also be a result of pressure and expectations by a parent or spouse.

When you are driven to succeed and you work yourself into the ground, you put your body into stage 2 and 3 of stress . This predisposes you a multitude of stress related diseases, such as heart disease, gastrointestinal problems, chronic fatigue syndrome, allergies and many others.

Your sense of self worth and value should be coming from who you are in Christ – it should not be based on your achievement. You need to separate your “who” from your “do”. God’s love for you is not performance based and you need to see yourself as God sees you. It is important for you to renew your mind with the Word and change your thinking in this area so that you can prevent serious illnesses down the road.

Who You Are In Christ
You may have discovered that you are physically sick because you have been attacking yourself spiritually through thoughts of self-hatred, self-condemnation and guilt, self-rejection, self disapproval, self bitterness and/or a low self-esteem. You’re not alone! 50% of all deaths in America are caused by heart disease (coronary artery disease due to atherosclerosis), which is a disease that results from self-hatred.

Insecurity, self-rejection, low self-esteem and self-hatred are in epidemic proportions in society in America and world-wide….and the church is unfortunately no exception. People simply don’t like themselves. Joyce Meyer says, “When you have a low self-esteem, you have a major crack in your foundation that the devil will use against you!” There are two big areas that people deal with in which disease flourishes and that is “state of being” and “state of belonging”. “Who am I”, “who do I belong to”, “who cares”.
This is very, very big even in Christianity as people are struggling with who they are.

Who taught you to hate yourself and have a low self-esteem? Who taught you to have guilt and condemnation about yourself? Who taught you to have bitterness and unforgiveness towards yourself?

All healing, self acceptance and building a healthy self-esteem starts with being restored back into a love relationship with God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. I’m not talking about religion. I’m going beyond the realms of empty man made religion. I’m talking about a genuine living, breathing intimate relationship with a very real and awesome God. I have no idea how to offer you real, long lasting, healing of your sickness without God. He is the Source of all healing. Therefore if you do not yet know the Father personally and intimately, and have not yet made Jesus the Lord of your life,
You are so special – you have such extreme value that the Son of God who is the King of Kings found it worth while to give His own life to save you (John 3 v 16). If you were the only one on earth, Jesus would have still died just for you. I know this because the Bible says that there is more value in the one sheep over the cliff than the 99 safe in the fold (See Matthew 18 v 11 – 13). The Bible says that nobody is expendable.
Everybody has value.

The New Testament says approximately 140 times that you are in Christ! One of the primary reasons for this wrong mindset of self-hatred and self-rejection is not having a proper knowledge and understanding of who you are in Christ. In your ignorance you have received and believed satan’s blatant lies and deceptions concerning who you are and your value and worth.
The Bible says that the devil is the accuser of the brethren (Revelations 12 v 10). You have an accusing spirit that has been accusing you to yourself for a long time and training you to think badly of yourself and you didn’t even realize it. Accusing spirits
gave you thoughts in the first person such as “I am unworthy”, “I am no good”, “I hate myself” etc. As you meditated on those thoughts which you thought were yours, you became one with them in your long term memory as if it were you and now you’ve believed that lie all your life that you are no good. These wrong mindsets have blocked you from loving yourself, receiving the love of the Father and from loving others.

In order to gain complete deliverance and healing, it is vital that you learn to place your identity in Christ, and develop a healthy self-esteem by choosing to see yourself as God sees you. In this chapter come on a journey with me through the Word to find out who you are in Christ, so that you can renew your mind and develop a Biblical self-image.

IT IS TIME TO DISCOVER YOUR FULLEST POTENTIAL AS A CHILD OF GOD

I would like to start by sharing an article with you that I read many years ago in a teaching by Pastor Casey Treat – see if you can guess the Bible character that the article describes:
“He suffers from chronic low level depression. He’s moody, impulsive and becomes angry when he feels victimized. He struggles with low self worth. Because of feeling intellectually inferior, he attempts to hide behind an exaggerated ego. He really trusts no one. And yet he relies on others more than necessary and becomes naïve in his relationships with them. He exhibits self criticism and irritability. He believes in individualism and has trouble in interpersonal relationships. His lack of trust often slaves him feeling anxious
around people. He has relative weaknesses in attention. He has trouble sleeping. His weight fluctuates.

He’s not mentally ill; he doesn’t have a personality disorder, and yet he often feels humiliated, embarrassed and remorseful.”
Did you guess who this could be? Well first of all, outside of the Bible he or she could be anyone you might meet in town tomorrow and even in church – or any man or woman who wasn’t raised with a Biblical self-image… including you. But the Bible character this best describes is a young man by the name of Gideon. Let’s look at his story because he is just like anyone else. If Gideon could believe what God said about him and develop a new self-image, so can you.

At the time, a tribe of people called the Midianites were oppressing Gideon’s land. His family were dealing with super high taxes and inflation. All around him was economic, cultural, religious and racial bondage. It was the worst of times for Israel – and Gideon was right in the middle of it. He was just trying to survive. He wasn’t thinking about being an over-comer or prosperous individual. When God called this young man of about 20 years old, he was hiding in a wine press, trying to thresh out some wheat. Threshing wheat in a wine press was a horrible, miserable job. The chaff, the dust – everything was unpleasant. In
that day in the life of Gideon, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and his life was changed forever. He said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6 v 12).

When you take the time to study what a “man of valor” is in the original Hebrew word, you will find that God called Gideon “a champion overcoming warrior who possessed valor, dignity and honor!” When the angel said that to Gideon he said, “Look, uh, Lord – would you please look around? Look at me. Come on, I’ve been a mess my whole life. I’ve been making minimum wage. I’ve just been trying to make it through life. I come from a family of dysfunctional people. We’re all just surviving – barely making it through. So are my friends. We are all trying to make a living. Everybody I know is sick, poor and in debt.”

But God told this insecure young man, “All that is going to change son. You are not what you think you are. Listen, you are what I say you are! You are a mighty man of valor – a champion overcoming warrior who possesses dignity and honor!” And this fearful young man from the tribe of Benjamin changed the course of his nation. Gideon went to war, and God fought with him:
Judges 8 v 28: “Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for 40 years in the days of Gideon.”

God told Gideon who he was and the rest was up to him. This is how God talks to anyone with a low self-esteem who is living below their potential. God is saying to you:

“YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU THINK YOU ARE, LISTEN, YOU ARE WHAT I SAY YOU ARE –
YOU ARE A MIGHTY MAN (OR WOMAN) OF VALOR, A CHAMPION OVERCOMING
WARRIOR WHO POSSESSES DIGNITY AND HONOR. COME ON, WE’VE GOT WORK TO DO!”

The next stop in our journey through the Bible to find out who we are in Christ is Jeremiah 1 v 5: You need to know that…

God Accepts and Approves Of You!
Jeremiah 1 v 5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen
instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you…”
Before you were even formed in your mother’s womb, He knew and approved of you… do you know that God can approve of you but not approve of your behavior? One thing you have got to know is that God will correct and discipline you, but He will never reject you.

Hebrews 12 v 6: “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.”
Before God formed you in the womb, He knew you… HE KNEW YOU! Psalm 139 v 4 says that before
the words are even on your lips, God already knows what you are going to say. So if you are going to say something wrong and sinful tomorrow, God already knows about it. In fact, before you were even born,
God already knew you… He already knew all the wrong, sinful, dumb mistakes that you would make during your life… and knowing ahead of time all these things….HE STILL APPROVED OF YOU ANYWAY! WOW!

Actually you are no surprise to God. He knew what He was getting when He made you and He chose you. Ephesians 1 v 4 says, “He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world.” He already knew every weakness and every flaw and He still said,
“I want you.” Ephesians 1 v 5 says that He predestined you to be adopted as His child.

Ephesians 1 v 6: “To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in
the beloved.”
In Ephesians chapter 6 where it talks about the armor of God, it says, “Put on the breastplate of righteousness.” But the translation in the Living Bible says, “Put on the breastplate of God’s approval.”
Part of your armour that God gave you to withstand the attacks of the enemy is to walk around knowing that your heavenly Father approves of you.
Say this out loud to yourself and mean it from your heart:
GOD ACCEPTS AND APPROVES OF ME, THEREFORE I ACCEPT AND APPROVE OF MYSELF!
You also need to believe in the same words that God spoke over Jesus – “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3 v 17). You are His beloved son in whom He is well pleased. You are His beloved daughter in whom He is well pleased. God wants you to realize that you are pleasing to Him just the way you are. The devil tries to keep telling you that you are not, but God is telling you that you are.

You are His beloved child who is well pleasing to Him. The devil tries to tell you that you cannot possibly be acceptable to God because you are not perfect, but God tells you that you are accepted in the Beloved because of what He has already done for you.

Now, say this out loud and believe and settle it in your heart:

“I AM GOD’S CHILD AND HE IS PLEASED WITH ME!”

You are Righteous Before God God’s love for you is not performance based. His love for you is not based on what you have done,
but on what Jesus has done and His work on the cross. It is impossible for you to ever earn or deserve God’s love, acceptance or approval because your most righteous acts are like filthy rags in God’s sight…
no amount of good works would ever be enough. Isaiah 64 v 6: “For we have all become like one who is unclean [like a leper] and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) are like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us towards destruction].”

However, when Jesus becomes Lord of your life and you meet Him at the cross, you are literally given His royal robes of righteousness. Isaiah 61 v 10: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.”

What does righteousness mean? The definition is found in Romans 8 v 21: “For our sake He made
Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become… the
righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].”

So righteousness means acceptance, approval, right relationship and right standing with God. It is essential that you understand that you have been made right with God through your faith in Jesus Christ.

Otherwise you are going to live on a performance treadmill trying to earn God’s acceptance, love and approval.

Trying to earn God’s approval is like trying to get into a chair that you are already sitting in! Talk about frustration for nothing! You don’t need to earn God’s acceptance and approval… you’ve already got it!

THIS IS THE BASIS OF SELF ACCEPTANCE – KNOWING THAT GOD COMPLETELY
ACCEPTS YOU THROUGH JESUS AND SEES YOU AS TOTALLY RIGHTEOUS.

This does not mean that you don’t sin anymore or that when you do sin, you can just dismiss it like it’s no big deal. It simply means that God loves you for who you are in Christ, not for what you do. For example, I know a couple who had a 3 year old son who used to scream and throw a fit when he didn’t get his own way. Even though they disliked and disapproved of his behavior, they still loved him tremendously.

They didn’t stop loving him or kick him out of the family because he does things wrong. They loved him and worked with him to develop the good character they knew he needed to succeed in life. The same is true with God, your Heavenly Father. He is not pleased with your wrong behavior, but He certainly loves and adores you! Romans 5 v 8 says that He showed and proved His love for you in that while you were still a sinner, Jesus died for you. In other words He didn’t wait until you were righteous to send Jesus – He sent Jesus because you would never be righteous without Him.

The next thing we need to learn about our Biblical self-image is:
You Are Crowned with Glory and Honor!

Look at how you are mentioned in Psalm 8, starting with verses 3 and 4: “When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earth born] man that you care for him?” When I have spent time lying on the grass at night, looking at the stars and observing the greatness and magnificence of God’s creation, I have often felt (just like David did) very small in comparison. Here David was saying, “Why in the world would you want to visit with us, Awesome and Mighty
God? Why are we so important to You? When we look at the glory of the universe and realize that You want to be involved with us… WOW!” Verse 5: “Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory and honor.” Verses 6 to 8 of this powerful psalm of your God-given image go on to say how God has given you dominion and that all things are under your feet.

So when you wake up in the morning and get out of bed to face the day, you get up crowned with glory and honor, you have dominion and you walk into every circumstance knowing it’s under your feet!

Say this out loud with me
You are a royal child of God. Spiritually you are wearing a royal robe of righteousness,
and a crown of glory and honor. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your
failures and short comings, He sees Jesus’ righteousness and He says, “Qualified!
Accepted! Approved!” There is now no condemnation for you in Christ.
The next important point in changing our thinking and renewing our minds is that we need to realize that:

There is Now No Condemnation for You in Christ!
One of the devil’s greatest tools to make us feel bad about ourselves is condemnation. Many people who love God and are serving Him, are tormented by negative thinking about themselves. They think that God must be so disappointed and angry with them for all their failures and shortcomings. How many “could have”, “would have”, “should have”, “if only” statements do you make in a day? These are guilt statements and thoughts that are full of condemnation which are extremely toxic to your body. How many times have you replayed in your head a conversation or a situation that pained you or one that hasn’t even occurred
yet? When you think like this you waste precious time building up a toxic thought and putting your body into a toxic state of sickness which will inhibit the way in which you function.

How much time do you waste living under guilt and condemnation? I purposely said how much time is wasted because that is precisely what that kind of thinking is – a waste of time. As long as you have repented for the things you did wrong, forget the past because God has (Hebrews 10 v 17). Don’t meditate on all that you’ve done to mess up – think about how you have been made the righteousness of God through Christ and therefore God accepts and approves of you. Remember that thoughts turn into actions.
If you want your behavior to change, your thinking has to change first. Keep meditating on how terrible you are and you will act worse.

Romans 8 v 33 – 34 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect [when it is] God Who
justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who aquits us?] Who is there to condemn [us]?
Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?”
So if God doesn’t condemn you…And Jesus doesn’t condemn you…Who is there to condemn you?
Romans 8 v 1 “Therefore [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for
those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.”

So every time the devil brings a condemning thought to your mind, quote Romans 8 v 1 to him and tell him to take his condemnation and “Hit the road Jack!”
In order to be free from guilt and condemnation, we not only need to receive forgiveness from God, but we need to forgive ourselves. We need to stop hitting ourselves over the head with something that God has forgiven and forgotten. This does not mean that we are perfect and will never mess up again, it just means that we can go on with our life without being weighed down with a constant burden of guilt and condemnation for what happened in the past. As long as we have repented from the heart and our hearts are right with God and we are doing the best that we can, we can stay out from under the burden of guilt. God is more interested in our heart than what we do. He knows that when our heart is right toward Him,
our actions will eventually come in line with our heart.

Now say this out loud:
GOD DOES NOT CONDEMN ME, THEREFORE I DO NOT CONDEMN MYSELF
The next important point we need to know in the process of renewing our minds and developing a Godly self-esteem is:

You are Loved Unconditionally by God
You are a woman or man of such tremendous value and worth that the King of Kings gave His life for you! I explained earlier that God’s love for you is not performance based. When you mess up, it does not affect His love for you one little bit. A friend once said to me, “I’ve found something that is impossible for God to do!” I replied “That’s rubbish! Nothing is impossible with God! In fact, God said that even I can do
anything (Philippians 4 v 13 says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me).” But she said,
“No, God cannot love you anymore than He does right now.”
Romans 8 v 35, 38 & 39: “Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?… For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus said in John 16 v 27: “For the Father Himself [tenderly] loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from the Father.”

How can you not love yourself if God loves you? The Awesome, Indescribable, Almighty, Holy God Who is the Greatest of all says He loves you! God spared nothing for you in His love for you – even His only beloved Son! So under which Gospel do you have the audacity to not love yourself and think that you are worthless? I want to tell you that the Great God – your Father loves you so very much!

It is important that you are secure in the knowledge that you are loved by the Father so that you can overcome rejection. Accepting rejection is a sin because you are telling God that man’s acceptance is more important to you than His. In your heart you are saying, “God, you lied when You said that I was worthy,
accepted and approved. I would rather believe what other people think of me.” Rejection can lead you on a desperate search where you strive for the love that would complete you. Many of us come from dysfunctional families where we have not known a godly, loving environment. This hinders us from an early age in receiving the love we crave so much. However this love cannot be found in the acceptance and approval of other people, but only in the Father!

As a believer, you need to come to the place where you are so wholly satisfied and complete in the love of God and who you are in Christ that if anybody even smiles at you today, that is just a bonus.
The next point in our journey through the Bible to find out who we are as children of God is:

Christ is your Spiritual Husband
The Bible says that the church is the bride of Christ (Revelations 19 v 7 and 22 v 17, Ephesians 5 v 26 – 27) and that includes you if you are a born again child of God.
Jeremiah 3 v 14: “Turn O black sliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you!”
Isaiah 54 v 5: “For Your Maker is your Husband – the Lord of Hosts is His Name – and the Holy
One of Israel is your Redeemer; the Lord God of the whole earth He is called.”
Song of Solomon 6 v 3: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”
Song of Solomon 2 v 4: “He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me is
love!”
When Jesus comes again, He’s coming for His bride. Let’s have a look at what He is going to look like when He comes back….
Revelations 1 v 13 – 16: “The Son of Man was clothed with a robe which reached to His feet and with a girdle of gold about His breast. His head and His hair were white like white wool, [as white] as snow, and His eyes [flashed] like a flame of fire. His feet glowed like burnished (bright) bronze as it is refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and from His mouth there came forth a sharp two edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full power at midday.”
Revelations 19 v 11 – 16: “11I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse [appeared]!

The One Who was riding it is called Faithful (Trustworthy, Loyal, Incorruptible, Steady) and True, and He passes judgment and wages war in righteousness (holiness, justice and uprightness. 12 His eyes [blaze] like a flame of fire, and on His head are many kingly crowns (diadems); and He has a title (name) which He alone knows or can understand. 13 He is dressed in a robe dyed by dripping blood,and the Title by which He is called is the Word of God. 14 And the troops of heaven, clothed in fine linen, dazzling and clean, followed him on white horses. 15 From His mouth goes forth a sharp sword with which He can smite (afflict, strike) the nations; and He will shepherd and control them with a staff (scepter, rod) of iron… He will tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath and indignation of God the All-Ruler (the Almighty, the Omnipotent). 16 And on His garment (robe) and on His thigh He has a name (title) inscribed, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
That is a description of a very powerful Son of God, Who is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords … and your Husband to be! Whooo hooo! Wow! So when you’re struggling with low self-esteem, self-hatred and an identity problem remember Who you are engaged to!

It doesn’t matter who has rejected you because God is your source and it’s about time you stopped making them an idol. If somebody doesn’t love you, that’s their loss. God is your father and Jesus is your husband and they are all you’ve got 100 years from now so you may as well get used to it now. Let me tell you that you are loved! I release you from those insecurities and those fears that say you are not loved. I release you from your dependency on humans who will possibly never love you. I release you to the love of your Father and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ as a work of the Holy Spirit. I release you to a peace
inside you that you have never known because you are wanted, and you are loved! God has saved you, He’s made you a son and a daughter, He has chosen you, you are the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2 v 8), you are engraved in the palms of His hand (Isaiah 49 v 16), He’s betrothed you to His Son as a wife, your names are written down in Heaven in the Lambs book of life…what more do you think He needs to do for you?

This next point is something that is especially important for the ladies. In renewing your mind and changing how you think about yourself, you need to think that you are beautiful…

You are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made!
The way that you look is intentionally designed by God for a specific purpose. I spent a lot of years being self conscious, thinking that I was ugly and not liking various parts of my body. I didn’t like the way that I am big boned with a broad body frame. I wanted to be small, thin and petit. However I’ve now realized
that God specifically made me that way, as part of His calling on my life is to be an Orthopaedic surgeon.

Orthopaedic surgery requires a lot of physical strength: for example when fixing the broken femur (bone in your thigh) of a large muscular man. Had I been small and petit, I would not have the body strength to perform operations like that. However because of the structure of my broad body frame, I have tremendous physical strength, especially for a woman. God knows what He is doing! God designed your nose,
eyes, ears, backside or whatever side it is that you don’t like for a specific reason! So just enjoy the way God made you!

There are many woman who do not like their sexuality as a female and hate their femininity. Often it is because their father wanted a son but got a daughter instead. As a result that curse followed her and she struggled with her female identity because there is a spirit assigned to her to accuse her in her creation.

However when God created you a female, He made no mistakes – you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Psalm 139 v 14 – 15: “I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are Your works; And that my soul knows very well! (KJV) My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, and when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Amplified Bible).

Now say this out loud:
I AM A MASTERPIECE OF GOD’S CREATION –
I AM INTRICATELY, FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!

Ladies, go and look in the mirror and say this out loud, “I am beautiful.” The men can say this out loud,
“I am a handsome hunk of dust!” That’s Henry Wright’s saying. Some of you felt a bit uncomfortable saying that you are beautiful didn’t you? You need to change your thinking…God thinks you’re beautiful and you need to see yourself as God sees you.
So far, you have learnt that: You are loved unconditionally by God. He accepts and approves of you. He is pleased with you. You are righteous before God – you are wearing Jesus’ royal robes of righteousness and a crown of glory and honor. There is now no condemnation for you in Christ. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are a mighty man (or woman) of valor – a champion over coming warrior who possesses dignity and honor. Spiritually Christ is your husband and His banner over you is love! When Gideon renewed his mind and changed his thinking to see himself as God saw him, he rose from being a pitiful
failure to a mighty warrior who shook a nation. Now I pray that as you continue to read, you will be blown away at the realization of who you really are in Christ… and what you are capable of in Him!
One man or woman who is willing to believe God, and rise up to who they really are in Christ
has the potential to shake nations and make a difference in the outcome of this entire world. The question is will you be one of them? You most certainly can be! Here’s why:

As Jesus is, So are You in this World!

John was the closest disciple of Jesus – he is the one who laid his head on Jesus’ chest. John was with Jesus when he forgave the adulteress, healed and miraculously fed the masses, cast out demons, walked on water and calmed the storm, blessed the little children and when Jesus laid down His life – John was there at the foot of the cross. So John knew the God who’d called him to a life of ministry. His image of his God was one of compassion, miraculous power and uncompromising, steadfast, unconditional love. In
1 John 4 v 17 he writes, “As He is, so are we in this world,”
The description of Jesus in Revelations 1 v 13 – 16 and 19 v 11 – 16 which I quoted earlier give us an image of a very, very Mighty God! That is who Jesus is and that is the image that the Holy Spirit is molding us into. You were made in the image of God (Genesis 1 v 27). That image is modeled for you by Jesus. As Jesus is so are you now – not when you get to heaven – no as He is now, so are you in this world.

Colossians 3 v 10 “Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him
that created him.” KJV.
In other words that scripture is saying get knowledge – renew your mind, change your thinking in the area of your self-image, and put on your new man which is your new self-image according to who you are in Christ. What are you seeing when you look in the mirror? If you’re seeing anything less than the image of Jesus, you need to renew your mind in knowledge according to the image of Him, so that you can begin to enjoy the life of divine health that Jesus provided for you on the cross and fulfill His destiny that He planned for you before the foundation of the world. But it all starts and ends with how you interpret His
image – and ultimately your image.As long as you see yourself as a useless nobody, you will be a useless nobody.
So declare this out loud:

AS JESUS IS, SO AM I IN THIS WORLD!
The Immeasurable and Unlimited and Surpassing Power of God is on the Inside of You!
I’m sure that you have realized by now, especially after reading the description of Jesus in Revelations that you serve a very powerful God… but did you know that HIS POWER IS ON THE INSIDE OF YOU???!!!

That’s what it says in Ephesians 1 v 19 – 20: “And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe,
as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in heavenly [places].”
Consider the magnificent huge expanse of the universe – the power of God created that. Consider the beauty of nature and the intricately complicated human body – the power of God created that. The power of God raised Jesus from the dead. THAT SAME POWER IS ON THE INSIDE OF YOU! As Jesus is so are you in this world and the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing power of God is on the inside of you!

If you would just get a grasp of that, I don’t really need to tell you anything else about who you are in Christ because that in itself would change the way you see yourself and the way you face every trial and circumstance in life. It did for me. For example I was in a situation years ago when I was first trying to get into medical school. I had to compete with 300 other South African students (who were the top 300 from schools across South Africa) for 20 places. I was having a panic about it one day when the Lord said to me, “Do you believe my Word or not?” I replied “Yes, Lord, I believe your Word”. Then He said, “Then act like it.”
Say this out loud and say it like you believe it:

THE IMMEASURABLE, UNLIMITED AND SURPASSING POWER OF GOD IS ON THE INSIDE OF ME!

When I first found out that the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing power of God is on the inside of me, it absolutely blew my mind. It still blows my mind! With the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing power of God on the inside of you…You have the ability to shake nations never mind over come your so called incurable illness! Remember what I said earlier:
One man or woman who is willing to believe God, and rise up to who they really are in Christ has the potential to shake nations and make a difference in the outcome of this entire world.

Why don’t you be one of them? God uses the so-called nobodies you know.Look at Joyce Meyer, she was just an average housewife but she chose to believe God and now she has a world-wide ministry that is impacting nations for God’s kingdom. Gideon was a coward, a pitiful failure and the least significant in his family and community but He chose to see himself as God sees him and he changed the course of His nation. And you’re never too old! God used Moses at the age of 80 to lead the biggest church in history of 3 and a half million Israelite’s! So what’s your excuse? I’m going to believe what God said about me and I’m excited to see what He’s going to do through me. How about you?

Having the power of God on the inside of you, means that you have the ability on the inside of you to do the things that Jesus did, and in fact the Bible says that you will do even greater things than Jesus did.
1 John 14 v 12 – 14: “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me,
he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will even do greater things than these,
because I go to the Father, And I will do [I myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son.
[Yes] I will grant [I Myself will do for you] whatever you shall ask in My Name]…”

Yet many of us still walk around believing and saying that they are weak, useless, pathetic individuals who will never amount to anything!
Renew your mind and say this out loud with me:

I WILL DO THE THINGS THAT JESUS DID AND GREATER THINGS WILL I DO!
You Are More Than a Conqueror!
Romans 8 v 37: “Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing
victory through Him who loved us.” I would like to really drive the meaning of this scripture home by explaining it to you like my grandfather once explained it to me. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents in the school holidays whilst growing up. They used to live on a farm in Karoi in Zimbabwe, where the flies were an irritating problem in summer. I would often stand in the kitchen whilst my grandmother was cooking dinner, with a fly swatter. One day swatting and killing the darn things left, right and centre, my grandfather said, “Do you know what being more than a conqueror really means? When you hit that fly
with the fly swatter – you killed it – you conquered it. But the Bible does not say that you are a conqueror,
it says you are MORE THAN a conqueror. According to the meaning of the original Greek word that means when you kill that fly, you pick up a 3 tonne sledge hammer and not only smash the fly out of existence, but you also break the table and the concrete foundation of the kitchen in the process!” Now this is a silly story but I hope you get my point. Am I exaggerating? No! Not at all! This is the kind of surpassing victory that you have in every circumstance in Christ.

Now say it out loud:
I AM MORE THAN A CONQUEROR!
With all that said, I now have one very sincere question to ask you:

IF THIS IS WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST – HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU HAVE A LOW Self-esteem?
If we as a church only knew who we are in Christ, this planet would not be in such as mess. We would be living with victory upon victory instead of this pitiful state of defeat and sickness.

Think like the New You!
I hope that by now that you have discovered the “real you” as a child of God – and just how much you have allowed the devil to rob you, by deceiving you into believing that you are unlovable, unworthy, ugly, guilty, defeated, useless, powerless and so on. If you truly want to be free of your sickness, and enjoy the abundant life (John 10 v 10) that God has for you – you have no choice but to let go of your old toxic mindsets of self-hatred/low self-esteem, and begin to see yourself as God sees you. Your value and sense of
self worth needs to be firmly rooted in the knowledge of who you are in Christ. Think like the new you!

Speak like the New You!
Be careful what you say about yourself because you are today what you said about yourself yesterday!
Your words shape your world because they have creative ability. What you confess over yourself is what you will become. What you confess over your life is what your life will become. You must never underestimate the power of your words.
Proverbs 18 v 21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].”
Your thoughts and ultimately your words are seeds which are containers of power – they will produce a harvest of either blessing and health or sickness and destruction. It starts with your mind (your thinking) and your thoughts become words.
Mathew 12 v 34 “Out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
If you permit thoughts of a low self-image and self-hatred to dwell in your heart, you will ultimately speak them with negative results in your life and health. Yes, your thoughts and your words are that powerful.
I want to encourage you to begin purposefully using your thoughts and your words for your good.

In Romans 4 v 17 it says that God calls things that are not, as though they were, and thus brings them into being. The Amplified Bible says, “God gives life to the dead and speaks of non-existent things that [He foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.” Now the Bible calls us to be imitators of God – if He does that then we can do it too! He calls things that are not as though they are and so brings them into being. When He first called Gideon a mighty man of valor, a champion overcoming warrior who possessed dignity and honor, the physical reality at the time was that Gideon was a coward and a pitiful

failure. But He spoke over Gideon’s life and that is what he became – a warrior who turned the course of a whole nation.
Faith filled words draw things out of the spiritual realm, where they do exist… into the natural realm where they do not yet exist.
God began this kind of work all the way back at creation. He didn’t say, “Whoo it’s dark here!” He said “Let there be light” and it was so (Genesis 1 v 3). The description above of who you are in Christ may be the exact opposite of what you look like in reality right at this moment. But as you purposefully change your thinking and choose to see yourself as God sees you – also purposefully speak out what God says about you in His word… and that is what you will literally become in physical reality. One of your most powerful weapons to defeat the enemy is to speak out the Word of God. Joyce Meyer says, “You cannot defeat
Goliath with your mouth shut.”

Hebrews 4 v 12 says that “the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing and effective]; it is sharper than any two edged sword.”

The Word of God is a powerful two edged sword that we can use in spiritual warfare to defeat the enemy in our life. However just as a sword left in its sheath is not effective in battle until you take it out and use it, the Bible on the shelf is not going to do anything for you. Its power is only released when you speak it in faith. Jesus was tempted three times by the devil when he was fasting in the dessert. Each time, Jesus simply resisted him by saying, “It is written…it is written…It is written…” (Matthew 4 v 4, 7, 10). That is the way we need to respond to the devil when he tries to tempt us with self-hatred, condemnation, regret,
guilt and any other negative thought that would make us feel bad about ourselves.

Personally, in dealing with spiritual roots and struggles in my own life, I have found it very helpful to write out what I call a “Faith Confession” with relevant scriptures, which I speak out on a daily basis until my mind is renewed and I have victory in that area. So to help you in the process of renewing your mind and developing a healthy self-image by seeing yourself as God sees you, I have put together a “Faith Confession”
containing scriptures that speak of who you are in Christ. I encourage you to speak this out on a daily basis until you have developed a new Godly mindset concerning who you are in Christ. This is not meant to be carried out like a religious ritual, it is just a guide to help get you started.

Faith Confession of Who You Are In Christ
“I am a precious woman (or man) of great value and worth because Jesus, the King of kings,
died and paid a great price for me. I am a royal daughter (or son) for I have a crown of glory and honor on my head, and I am wearing Jesus’ royal robes of righteousness. (Isaiah 61 v10; Psalm 8 v5). God accepts and approves of me. (Jeremiah 1 v 5). I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139). There is now no condemnation for me in Christ. (Romans 8 v1). Therefore I accept myself, and love who I am and the way I am made.
Father, I am who You say I am: I am called by God. (2 Timothy 1 v 9). I was chosen by God before the foundations of the world to be set apart for Him. (Ephesians 1 v 4; 1 Peter 2 v 9; 1 Thessalonians 1 v 4; John 15 v 16). I am God’s child. (Romans 8 v 15 -16). I am born again of the Incorruptible seed of the living Word of God that endures forever. (1 Peter 1 v 23). I am forgiven of all my sins and the blood of Jesus has washed away my guilt and
shame. (Ephesians 1 v 4 & 7; 1 John 2 v 12; 1 John 1 v9; Colossians 1 v 14). I am a new creation in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5 v 17). I am holy and blameless in God’s sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. (Ephesians 1 v 4). I am the righteousness
of God, which means that I am approved, acceptable and in right relationship with Him.(Romans 8 v 21). I have full access to the Father. (Ephesians 2 v 18) and can fearlessly, confidently and boldly draw near to His throne. (Hebrews 4 v 16). I am blessed and I am God’s favorite. (Galations 3 v 9). I am the apple of God’s eye and my name is inscribed on the palm of His hand. (Zechariah 2 v 8; Psalm 17 v 8; Isaiah 49 v 16). I am stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1 v 13). I am established to the end. (1 Corinthians 1 v 8). I am being changed into His image and He Who began this good work in me will bring it to completion. (2 Corinthians 3 v 18; Philippians 1 v 6) I am God’s workmanship, recreated in Christ for good works. (Ephesians 2 v 10). I am an ambassador for Christ. (2 Corinthians 5 v 20). I am complete in Him. (Colossains 2 v 10). I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6 v
19). I have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2 v 16; Philipians 2 v 5).
I am a joint heir with Christ and He has qualified me to share in His inheritance. (Romans 8 v 17; Colossians 1 v 12; Ephesians 1 v 11). I am redeemed from the curse of the law and Abraham’s blessings are mine. (Galations 3 v 13). I am redeemed from the futile way of life inherited from the tradition of my forefathers and am purchased with the precious blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1 v 18-19). I have been delivered from the control and
dominion of the devil and have been translated into God’s kingdom of love. (Colossians 1 v 13). I am set free.
(John 8 v 36; Galations 5 v 1; John 8 v 31 – 34). I am dead to sin and alive with Christ. Romans 6 v 11; Ephesians 2 v 5). I am raised up with Christ and am seated with Him in heavenly places. (Ephesians 2 v 6). Because I am born of God the evil
one cannot touch me. (1 John 5 v 18). I have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness and I am a partaker of His divine nature. (2 Peter 1 v 3-4). I am blessed with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer. (Ephesians 1 v 3). I am firmly rooted, built up and established in my faith (Colossians 2 v 7) and I have faith that can move mountains. (Mathew 16 v 20).
Father, I can do what You say I can do: I am a victorious over-comer (1 John 5 v 4; Revelations 2 v 11), a mighty woman (or man) of valor a champion overcoming warrior, who possesses dignity and honor. (Judges 6 v12). I am more than a conqueror. (Romans 8 v 35). All circumstances are under my feet. (Psalm 8 v 6). In all things I gain a surpassing victory (Rom 8 v 37) and in all things God leads me to triumph in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2 v 14).
Through my union with God, I am strong in the Lord and the power of His might. (Ephesians 6 v 10). I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency. (Philippians 4 v13). Everything I put my hand to prospers. (Psalm 1 v 1 – 3). I am the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. (Deutoronomy 28 v 13). Greater is He that lives in me than he that is in the world. (1 John 4 v 4). Because
I believe in, lean on, trust and rely on God, I do the things that Jesus did, and greater things will I do, for His Spirit within me knows no limit. (John 14 v 12 – 14). Therefore I believe that all things are possible and limit not the Holy One within me. (Philippians 4 v 13). I received power when the Holy Spirit came upon me, so every place I go and all I do, I do in the power of the Spirit: I have power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover (each and every one), and at my command, in the Name of Jesus all demonic powers are cast out and all people are set free; I have authority over all the
power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt me. (Mark 16 v 17 – 18). As Jesus is, so am I in this world (1 John 4 v 17) and the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing power of God is on the inside of me!
(Ephesians 1 v 19). The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me! (Ephesians 1 v 20).
AGAIN I ASK: IF THIS IS WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST – HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU HAVE A LOW Self-esteem??!!!
At the end of this chapter, I have done a lot of work for you in writing out all the scriptures I quoted in the above Faith Confession, which tell you who you are in Christ. However, you need to get into the Word for yourself and meditate on each one. Nobody else can do it for you, you have to take responsibility to renew your mind with the Word, and build a healthy self-image, by choosing to see yourself as God sees you.

Keep Company with the New You!
Your friendships are important because you become the same as those with whom you keep company.
Solomon said, “Don’t be deceived, bad company corrupts good character.” Daniel was a man of great integrity and excellence. He prospered and rose to the top in everything he put his hand to. However, did you notice that his friends were also excellent? Daniel would not compromise, but neither would Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. You need to be spending time with other people who share your vision for Godly change. You need to keep company with the new you! Build friendships with people who are going where you want to go or are already there! If you get on a bus with a group of people who are going to Botswana and you want to go to South Africa, and you say, “These people are all my old friends. We’ve been together
since high school. We’ve been through so much together and we’re so close!” Guess what, you won’t make it to South Africa.
Proverbs 13 v 20: “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.”
When strife came between Abraham and Lot’s men, Abraham chose to separate from Lot. He said, “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.” (Genesis 13 v 9).
You see, when strife comes, the anointing goes. As long as Lot was hanging around Abraham, God was limited to what He could do in Abraham’s life. The moment Lot left God showed up and furthered Abraham’s vision. Abraham had to get his social relationships right before God would lead him any further spiritually. “Yes but they’re my friends,” you may say. Well, you either have to give up your destiny and your destination in Christ or you have to give up those ungodly relationships. Which one is it going to be?
I’m sorry to seem so harsh and insensitive, but that is just the way it is. “Well, can’t I do both?” OK, sure,
just start fulfilling your call to share the gospel in their lives. They’ll either be saved or separate. Otherwise you’ll become what God calls an unstable, double minded person (James 1 v 8) because you refuse to make right choices. A double minded Christian will say, “I don’t want to leave my old friends but I want to go to a new destination. I don’t want to give up the world but I sure want all that God has for me. I don’t want to give up eating five doughnuts and drinking three cokes every day, but I would like to lose the extra kilograms.”

You have a dilemma here – it’s not going to work out well if you don’t learn to make the right choices.
You need to choose to hang out with the new you. You may feel comfortable with your old ties, but you may never become the mighty man or woman that God intended you to be. Many of us want to hang on to the longtime relationships in spite of the fact that they aren’t beneficial and are actually detrimental.

Are there people in your life with whom you need to dissociate? Has the Holy Spirit brought the names or pictures of people to your mind while you have been reading this? If you continue in these same old relationships,
you will continue in the same old lifestyle and the same old negative mindsets…and your same
old health problems. If you want to take a hold of all God has for you and become the new you that God talks about in His Word, you have got to choose your friends wisely. Psalm 1 v 1 says not to sit inactive in the pathway of sinners. You will have to accept the fact that your desire to change will separate you from some old friends. All the old clichés are full of truth:
Birds of a feather flock together If you sleep with dogs, you’ll get fleas,If you hang out with chickens, you’ll only stir up a little dirt.
God isn’t going to release you into His destiny and calling for your life, if you are hanging out with people who are sabotaging your destiny. So you have to decide, “Am I going to keep flapping with the chickens or am I going to fly with the eagles? Am I going to be a fryer or a flyer?” It’s always your choice.

What is more important to you – accommodating the past or moving forward into the future? Pleasing God or pleasing my worldly friends?
Jesus said, “Do not think I came to bring peace on the earth, I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” (Matthew 10 v 34). Now Jesus is the Prince of Peace and He does give us inner peace (Isaiah 9 v 6; John 14 v 27). However, what He was saying in Matthew 10 v 34 is, “Now look guys, I did not come to compromise and make everything smooth and easy. I’ve come with a sword because in some situations you are going to have to cut off some stuff.” Are you going to follow somebody on the wrong bus going nowhere? When God’s call on your life is sending you to South Africa and your friends are going to Botswana to serve themselves, where will you go? I am not saying that you must not love them and lead them to Jesus. Of course you must do that. But they will never help you become the new you until they know God. Be a light to everyone you know, but don’t allow ungodly relationships to put your light out.

Hang out with the new you.
Comparing Yourself With Others A common cause of a low self-esteem is comparing ourselves with other people and feeling inferior as a result. If only we could do what they do, own what they own, look the way they look and know what they know… You see, the devil doesn’t remind us what they don’t have, he just points out to us what they do have and what we don’t have. Others may have something that we don’t have, but we also have something that they don’t have. We can waste our days being miserable and unhappy because we are unfairly comparing ourselves with other people all the time. In John 21 v 18 to 22, Jesus told Peter of all the hardships he would endure in serving God. Peter then looked at John and asked Jesus what His will was for Him.

Peter wanted to make sure that if he was going to have to go through tough times, then so must John.
Jesus politely told Peter to mind his own business and not compare himself with John. Jesus said to Peter, “Never mind about John, you follow Me!”
John 21 v 21 – 22: “When Peter saw him (John) he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?
Jesus said to him, If I want him to stay (survive, live) until I come, what is that to you? [What concern is it of yours?] You follow Me!”

You see, God has equipped you with everything that you need to fulfill His unique plan, purpose and calling for your life. If you don’t have what they have, then you obviously don’t need it or it is not in God’s
right timing for you to have it. The Lord has an awesome individual plan for each one of us, and often we can’t understand what He is doing or why He is doing it. We cannot look to others as the standard of what our life should be because God sets an individual standard for each one of us. The fact that we all have
unique finger prints and DNA is proof enough that we do not have to unfairly compare ourselves with others. It is unfair to yourself and to God to compare yourself to others because you are telling God, “This is what You should be doing in my life and nothing else.” What if God wants to call you to something far greater than anybody you know? You seriously limit Him by comparing yourself with others. We think that we would be content if we had what the other person has, but God can do so much more for the person who will trust Him.

Galatians 5 v 25 – 26: “If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit]. Let us not become vainglorious and self conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.”

In Galatians 5 v 26, God commands you not to be jealous, envious and competitive with other people.
When you do these things you are in direct disobedience to His Word. As we are seeing throughout this book, sin and disobedience opens us up to the curse, which includes disease. Did you know that jealousy and envy can cause osteoporosis? That’s what the Word says and in clinical practice we are finding that to be true.
Proverbs 14 v 30: “A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body,
but envy, jealousy and wrath are like rottenness of the bones.”
So forget about comparing yourself with others – just enjoy who you are in Christ and celebrate God’s unique and awesome calling on your own life. Galatians 6 v 4: “But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with His neighbor.”

In other words this scripture is saying that you must just be the very best that you can be and do what you believe God has called you to do, without trying to do something greater than someone else so you can feel better about yourself. You will gain freedom from the agony of comparison and competition with others, when you learn that your value and worth as a person comes from who you are in Christ. This freedom releases you to become all that God created you to be.

I have exciting news for you… IT IS FINISIHED!!!
I’m talking about God’s good plan for your life. Yes,
God already has the entire start-to-finish plan of your life laid out – it is utterly complete in the spiritual realm. All God is waiting for is for you to realize the mighty man or woman of valor that you are in Christ, and to begin taking steps in faith as He directs!
Ephesians 2 v 10: “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ
Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand)
for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].”

When Jesus died on the cross, what did He say? “IT IS FINISHED!!” God has provided a way for you to be restored to His original plan. You can be free from the deception of the devil and the power of sin in the area of your self-esteem, and you can enjoy all the benefits of good health that Jesus provided for you on the cross.
Isaiah 53 v 5: “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain peace] and well being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.”
Let’s Begin Your Journey to Freedom through Practical Application of the Word of God:

At this point in your journey through this article, you have gained knowledge about how and why your disease developed. Hopefully the mystery has been taken out of your disease. Now it is time to apply this knowledge to your life so that you can begin your walkout into freedom. In the following pages you will be referred to several chapters that will highlight areas that need to be dealt with in order to set your healing in motion. Don’t rush through it – carefully and prayerfully deal with one issue at a time.

Remember this is not a ritual or a “10 steps to get what you want out of God” scientific formula. This book has merely been designed to help you practically apply the Word of God to your life. If you are just going to go through the motions because you want your healing for selfish reasons and you are using this as a system or mechanism, you are wasting your time. You need to do the will of God from the heart.
Ephesians 6 v 6: “Not with eye service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” KJV

Forgiveness Comes Before Healing:
Your journey of sanctification and restoration back to good health has to begin with repentance where you ask God to forgive you for your participation with sin, in this case a low self-esteem, self-hatred and/ or guilt. However, God’s forgiveness for you is conditional. He expresses very clearly in His Word that He will not forgive you if you are not willing to forgive others (Mark 11 v 25 – 26). Unforgiveness is a major
block to healing from both a medical and Biblical perspective. So before you come before God to repent of the sin behind your disease, you need to do an exercise where you forgive everybody who has injured, hurt or wronged you whether they are living or dead. You may also have to forgive yourself.
I assume at this point that you have come to the place where you have forgiven God, yourself and others. If you have felt the gentle and loving conviction of the Holy Spirit and are in a place where you are ready to repent, I encourage you to pray this prayer with me:

The Prayer
“Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus. I recognize that I have served the sin of self-hatred, self rejection, self disapproval and/or a low self-esteem in my life. I’ve allowed accusing spirits to train me in my thinking to have this toxic sinful mindset and as I fell into agreement with it, I became one with sin as if it were me. Father I confess my participation with sin, I repent to You and I ask You to forgive me.

Father in the Name of Jesus I ask You to break the curse of this iniquity so that the power of this sin is broken in my life and in the generations after me. As I have forgiven every single person I know who has hurt, wronged or injured me, I thank You for forgiving me of my sin and for the blood of Jesus that has cleansed me from all unrighteousness. Amen.”

1 John 1 v 9: “If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought and action].”

The Pathway to Wholeness
Revelations 12 v 10 says that the devil is the accuser of the brethren.
I wanted you to understand how accusing spirits had trained you to think badly of yourself. Accusing spirits gave you thoughts in the first person via theta brain wave activity such as “I am unworthy, I am not loved, I am unwanted, I am no good, I hate myself, I am ugly, I am unlovely etc”. As you meditated on those thoughts in your mind which is your soul, you built a long term memory or toxic thorn tree in your brain.
You became one with those thoughts in your long term memory as if it were you and now you’ve believed that lie throughout your life that you are not special. What was initially spiritual became a part of your body physically in the form of long term memory. You have become one with an accusing spirit in spirit,
soul and body. That toxic thorn tree of a low self-esteem, self-hatred and guilt released toxic chemicals that initiated a cascade of electrical, chemical and hormonal reactions that eventually lead to the development of disease. In summary disease develops through the spirit-soul-body connection.

Healing occurs through the same pathway which is sanctification of the spirit, soul and body.

1 Thessalonians 5 v 23: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your
whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Sanctification means cleansing or getting rid of filth – it is the process of getting rid of sin.
Sanctification of the Spirit
2 Corinthians 7 v 1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” KJV.
Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 7 v 1, “Let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit.”
If you have an accusing spirit, that is not a clean spirit, that is an unclean spirit by its fallen nature, so you need to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the spirit. In other words you need to be delivered from the accusing spirit and remove it from your life. You need to command it to leave in Jesus Name because it no longer has a legal right to your life if you have repented. That is sanctification of the spirit.

Jesus gave us authority over the devil and his kingdom.
Jesus said in Luke 10 v 18-20 “18I saw Satan falling like a lightning [flash] from heaven. 19 Behold!I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Mark 16 v 17: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will drive out demons. They will speak in new languages; they will pick up serpents; and [even] if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get well”
The devil has already been defeated. Jesus is an expert in war and He is an expert in victory. He has spoiled principalities and powers of darkness and He has made a show of them openly (Colossians 2 v 15).

He did it when He was here as Jesus, He did it when He was in hell and He wants you to do the same thing as believers because He gave you the power, He gave you the mandate, He gave you the sonship, He gave you the Holy Spirit and He gave you a command – go do it!
I encourage you to say the following out loud with authority:
“I take authority over the unclean, unloving, accusing spirits of self-hatred, self-rejection, self bitterness and guilt that have been accusing me to myself as well as inherited iniquity of self-hatred and guilt in my family tree – you cannot rule my spirit and mind any longer. I break your power in the Name of Jesus. I command you to go and to be cast out of my life and the generations in my family in the power and authority of the Name of Jesus! I also take authority over the spirit of death and spirit of infirmity. In the Name of Jesus I break your power and I command you to go!
Father, I ask You to help me to begin to love myself this day. I ask You for the grace, power, strength and ability that I need to renew my mind as I begin to meditate on the things I have been taught. Amen”

Note: You cannot just think these words above in your mind because evil spirits can’t read your mind

– you need to speak it out. Make it verbal so that the invisible kingdom can hear the declaration of your heart – the Word of God spoken out of your mouth is your weapon in spiritual warfare.

It is necessary to do sanctification of the spirit first because you will not be able to renew your mind until the accusing spirit has been removed.
Sanctification of the Soul
Even though the accusing spirit which initially taught you this toxic thinking habit of a low self-esteem,
self-hatred and/or guilt has been removed, you still have a toxic thorn tree (long term memory) of self hatred/ self-rejection/guilt in your brain. That toxic thorn tree is able to initiate the chemical and hormonal reactions that lead to disease, even without the accusing spirit being there. Therefore that thorn tree also has to be dealt with and removed through renewing of your mind. That is sanctification of the soul. You sanctify your soul through the washing of the water of the Word.
John 17 v 17: “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy]
by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.”
Ephesians 5 v 26: “So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.”

You set your healing in motion with your prayer of repentance where you asked God for forgiveness for your low self-esteem, self disapproval, self-rejection or self-hatred that caused the disease. However that prayer is not the beginning and end of it! That is just the beginning – you still have to go through the process of renewing your mind and that is where the effort on your part comes in. Repentance is more than just saying “Sorry God” with words. The original Greek word for repentance in the Bible means “changing
your thinking”. You need to renew your mind by changing your thinking to the way that God thinks. You find out how God thinks by meditating on His Word. His Word is what sanctifies your soul.

If you have suffered from a disease that was caused by a low self-esteem, guilt or self-hatred, you need to renew your mind and change your thinking concerning how you think about yourself. With the help of the Holy Spirit you need to develop a Biblical self-image by purposefully meditating on the Word of God and the transforming truths in these scriptures which tell you who you are in Christ.

Sanctification of the Body
As you renew your mind with the Word of God, healthy memories or lush trees are built in your brain.
These lush trees will secrete chemicals that will flow through the thorn trees and remove the thorns that were making you sick. 3 John 2 says you will prosper and be in health as your soul prospers. When you develop a new, healthy, Godly mindset, through the mind-body connection your body will also conform
to health. This is sanctification of the body – the removal of disease and everything that destroys it. Now you have sanctification of the spirit, soul and body which is true wholeness.
Coming back to 1 Thessalonians 5 v 23: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and
I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Take Heart – Remember that renewing your mind is not something that takes place over night – it is a process that takes time and your dedicated effort with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is not always easy. Furthermore the manifestation of your healing is not always immediate. You didn’t get into this mess over night and sometimes you don’t get out of it over night.

Finally:
Pray the prayer of faith with me, “Father, I have a covenant of divine healing with You (Isaiah 53 v 5).
You forgive all my sins and heal all my diseases (Psalm 103 v 3). Thank You that I am forgiven for having self-hatred and a low self-esteem (1 John 1 v 9). Therefore on the authority of Your Word and in the Name of Jesus – I claim and declare healing and complete wholeness in my mind and body. In faith I declare that I am free and totally healed of (name the disease)!”
James 5 v 14 – 16: “Is anyone among you sick? He should call in the church elders (the spiritual guides). And they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord’s name. And the prayer that is of faith will save him who is sick, and the Lord will restore him; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offences, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”

When your Body is Irreversibly Damaged:
Apart from the example of the prayer of healing above, when there is irreversible damage that is done to body organs or tissue, it is also necessary to operate in the gift of miracles. This is where you speak a creative miracle into being by commanding that damaged organ or part of the body to be made whole and perfect again as God originally created it from the foundation of the world.

Scriptures for the Faith Confession of Who You Are In Christ:
(In order of appearance)
1. Isaiah 61 v 10: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.”
2. Psalm 8 v 4 – 6 “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man
that You care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have
crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your
hands; You have put all things under his feet.”
3. Jeremiah 1 v 5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My
chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating
you…”
4. Psalm 139 v 14 – 15: “I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvelous
are Your works; And that my soul knows very well! (KJV) My frame was not hidden from You
when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered
with various colors] in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in
Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, and when as yet
there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How
vast is the some of them!” (Amplified Bible)
5. Romans 8 v 1 “Therefore [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for
those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after
the dictates of the Spirit.”
6. 2 Timothy 1 v 9: “God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began.”
7. Ephesians 1 v 4: “Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His
own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and
set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.”
8. 1 Peter 2 v 9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own
purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues
and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”
9. 1 Thessalonians 1 v 4: “[O] brethren beloved by God, we recognize and know that He has
selected (chosen) you.”
10. John 15 v 16: “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I
have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit
may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name
[as presenting all that I AM], He may give to you.”
11. Romans 8 v 15 – 16; “…You have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship]
in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father! The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies
together with our own spirit [assuring us] that we are children of God.”
12. 1 Peter 1 v 23: “You are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word
of God, which lives and abides forever.” (KJV)
13. Ephesians 1 v 7: “In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood,
the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with
the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor.”
14. 1 John 2 v 12: “I am writing to you, little children, because for His Name’s sake your sins are
forgiven [pardoned through His Name and on account of confessing His Name].”
15. 1 John 1 v 9: “If we [freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and
just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness]
and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His
will in purpose, thought, and action].”
16. Colossians 1 v 13 -14: “[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control
and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our
sins.”
17. 2 Corinthians 5 v 17: “Therefore if any person is [in-grafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a
new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has
passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come!”
18. Romans 8 v 21: “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that
in and through Him we might become… the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved
and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].”
19. Ephesians 2 v 18: “For it is through Him that we both [whether far off or near] now have
an introduction (access) by one [Holy] Spirit to the Father [so that we are able to approach
Him].”
20. Hebrews 4 v 16: “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of
grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our
failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed
help, coming just when we need it].”
21. Galatians 3 v 9: “So then, those who are people of faith are blessed and made happy and
favored by God [as partners in fellowship]…”
22. Zechariah 2 v 8: “For thus said the Lord of hosts…he who touches you touches the apple or
pupil of His eye.”
23. Psalm 17 v 8: “Keep and guard me as the pupil of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your
wings.”
24. Isaiah 49 v 16: “Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of
each of My hands.”
25. Ephesians 1 v 13: “In Him, you also who have heard the Word of Truth, the glad tidings (Gospel)
of your salvation, and have believed in and adhered to and relied on Him, were stamped
with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit.”
26. 1 Corinthians 1 v 8: “And He will establish you to the end [keep you steadfast, give you
strength, and guarantee your vindication; He will be your warrant against all accusation or
indictment so that you will be] guiltless and irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ
(the Messiah).”
27. 2 Corinthians 3 v 18: “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold
[in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured
into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another;
[for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”
28. Philippians 1 v 6: “And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He who began a good
work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return],
developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.”
29. Ephesians 2 v 10: “For we are God’s [own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ
Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand)
for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them
[living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.]”
30. 2 Corinthians 5 v 20: “So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were
through us. We [as Christ’s personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the
divine favor [now offered to you] and be reconciled to God.”
31. Colossians 2 v 10: “And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ
you too are filled with the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and reach full spiritual
stature].”
32. 1 Corinthians 6 v 19 – 20: “Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary)
of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You
are not your own, You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for,
made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”
33. 1 Corinthians 2 v 16: “For who has known and understood the mind (the counsels and purposes)
of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the
mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.”
34. Romans 8 v 17: “And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering
if we are to share His glory.”
35. Colossians 1 v 12: “Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share
the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God’s holy people) in the Light.”
36. Ephesians 1 v 11: “In Him we were also made [God’s] heritage (portion) and we obtained an
inheritance; for we had been foreordained (chosen and appointed beforehand) in accordance
with His purpose…”
37. Galatians 3 v 13: “Christ purchased our freedom [redeeming us] from the curse (doom) of
the Law [and its condemnation] by [Himself] becoming a curse for us, for it is written [in the
Scriptures], Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified).”
38. 1 Peter 1 v 18 – 19: “You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from
the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with
corruptible things [such as] silver and gold. But [you were purchased] with the precious blood
of Christ (the Messiah)…”
39. John 8 v 36: “So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably
free.”
40. Galatians 5 v 1: “In this freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand
fast then and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery
[which you have once put off].”
41. Romans 6 v 11: “Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken,
but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.”
42. Ephesians 2 v 5-6: “Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses,
He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ, [He gave us the very
life of Christ Himself…] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that
you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation). And He
raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with
Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed
One)”
43. 1 John 5 v 18: “We know [absolutely] that anyone born of God does not [deliberately and
knowingly] practice committing sin but the One Who was begotten of God (i.e. Jesus) carefully
watches over and protects him [Christ’s divine presence within him preserves him against
evil], and the wicked one does not lay hold (get a grip) on him or touch [him].”
44. 2 Peter 1 v 3 -4: “According to His divine power, God has given to us all things that pertain to
life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue: whereby
He has given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you may be partakers
of the divine nature…”
45. Ephesians 1 v 3: “May blessing… be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed
us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!”
46. Colossians 2 v 6-7: “Therefore as you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in Him:
rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding
in thanksgiving.”
47. Mathew 16 v 20: “…For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard
seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move;
and nothing will be impossible to you.”
48. 1 John 5 v 4 – 5: “For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory
that conquers the world, even our faith. Who is it that is victorious over [that conquers]
the world but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and
relies on that fact]?”
49. Revelations 12 v 11: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony.”
50. Romans 8 v 37: “Yet amidst all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing
victory through Him Who loved us.”
51. 2 Corinthians 2 v 14: “But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as
trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the
knowledge of God everywhere.”
52. Ephesians 6 v 10: “In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union
with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].”
53. Deuteronomy 28 v 13: “And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall
be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your
God and are watchful to do them.”
54. 1 John 4 v 4: “Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him] and have [already] defeated
and overcome them, because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the
world.”
55. 1 John 14 v 12 – 14: “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes
in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will even do greater things
than these, because I go to the Father, And I will do [I myself will grant] whatever you ask in
My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in
(through) the Son. [Yes] I will grant [I Myself will do for you] whatever you shall ask in My
Name]..”
56. Mark 16 v 17-18: “And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe: In My Name
they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; they will pick up serpents; and
[even] if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick,
and they will get well.”
57. 1 John 4 v 17: “In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and
attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance
and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.”
58. Ephesians 1 v 19-20: “And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable
and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in heavenly [places].

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