Establishing your Identity in Christ (4 of 4)

Mike Connell

Page 7 of 9
If you've got performance issues you've got to process that stuff - so what do you mean by process it? Well you need to actually allow the Holy Spirit to help you remember those painful experiences where you were humiliated or hurt and you began to form beliefs inside. As you remember them you just grieve over them, forgive the people concerned and begin to identify what you believe that needs to change. And it can happen so easily. I was just driving down the road, I was driving - where was I driving? Driving somewhere. I was driving around to a birthday part and I just felt tears come to my eyes. I said what is that [unclear 00.28.17] I'm going to a birthday party, [I might be 00.28.19] happy, not crying! And I felt the Holy Ghost just talk to me, just dropped a thought into my heart. I said can we put it on hold until after the party's over? [Laughter] I'm not going there to have a howlybag at a birthday part, so I went back afterwards, went into my room, began to just pray and then I began to engage and encounter the Lord showed me what He wanted to shift in my life.

The emotions were the first key to get that there was something there needed to be resolved. I was able to just bring it up, allow myself to feel the emotions, find what was going on and then Jesus touched me and the whole belief system shifted in my life. It wasn't so hard at all. It's not hard. It's not hard. I had another situation, I'd just turned the television on and I just caught the end of a movie and there was a bit of music on it. As I listened to the music I started to feel tears. I thought why am I emotional, it's only music, it's a movie? It's an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, [laughter] why have I got emotional? But then I turned it off and I stopped and I thought what does that music remind me of? Suddenly the Holy Ghost showed me exactly what it reminded me of and I began to weep and weep and let go the pain of that situation. Then the Holy Ghost, Lord just appeared to me and just brought comfort to me and shifted the belief system just like that.

It's not hard to renovate on the inside. You've just got to be open to stop controlling it all and engage, this is your stuff. If you're going to renovate the inside you've got to face what's there, even if you don't like it. If there's rot in the woodwork well that's okay, cut it out but don't paint over it for sure. [Laughs] Okay, so number one, you need to resolve past issues see and remember it, grieve over it and identify what you believe and just let it go. The second thing is we need to actually change what we see and what we believe. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 it says this, now beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image. I'll just give you this in a simple language. If you pick a mirror up and put it in front of you and look into it, who do you see? Aye? You see yourself. Is that right? And often when you look up there's spots and wrinkles and I missed a shaving spot there.

You see all the things that are wrong, did you notice? And you try to put them all right. Okay, now notice what the Bible says. Now beholding as in a mirror, what? The glory of the Lord. I need to be looking at what Jesus is like and seeing when I look at it that that's what I'm like. This is the new me! This is who I am! I am like Him! I am like that. I'm a loving person. Focus on your faults, they get out of control. Begin to focus on what you are in Christ, you begin to start to grow. You're a loving person. You're a forgiving person, you're a generous person. Start to see what Jesus is like, begin to meditate. How do you do that? Well very simple: find out what the Bible says about you. That's the first thing. What does God say that Jesus is like? Now I begin to meditate and as I behold Him, begin to fix on Him, I'm thinking that's what I'm like. I'm a generous person, [whoa! Yay! 00.31.25]

You begin to start to personalise the scripture. You make it personal. I am loved and I am a loving person, that's who I am. God is generous to me, I'm a generous person. You begin to look and make Him the focus of your heart. That takes time, you visualise it, imagine what that's like. You begin to repeat that, that's who I am. That's who I am. Oh, that's new to me. I thought I was pretty mean and selfish; turns out no, I'm a new person now. This is who I am! If you keep focussing on all your faults they just get bigger and bigger and bigger. You actually just put them off and focus on what God says you're like now. Let that be the emotional focus of your heart. You begin to picture it, make it personal. You begin to imagine how it feels, you begin to declare it, this is who I am. I am this kind of person. I am a forgiving person. I'm a loving person. I'm a person who walks in the Spirit. I am this. Why am I like that? I saw it in the mirror. I saw God's conforming me to Jesus Christ and that's what He's like, so that's who I am.