Restoring the Image of God in You
The effect of sin, the arrows of the world, and the full destructive force of Satan all target one thing in you - the image of God. As I was leaving a deliverance session yesterday the Holy Spirit helped me see this with great clarity. One thing is common in every deliverance session I have done, in every life I have discipled and in my own experience, the persons ability to rest in and live out of the image of God that they have been created in has been decimated.
Scripture says that man alone has been created in the image of God. God says in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness." This is never said of the angels. Angels, while they are beautiful, wonderful creations of God, were not made in His image. Man, and man alone, retains that distinction. Therefore, it becomes clear that if the enemy of God wanted to damage God he would set his sights on those who bear His image. And he would set his sights on the goal of destroying that image in those people.
Is this not at the heart of the attack on Eve? Essentially Satan said to Eve that resting in the image of God that He has made you in is not enough. You need more. And the image-bearer fell.
It is said of Jesus in Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God." This is why Satan attacked Him in the wilderness. He attacked the One who was perfectly the image-bearer of God. But, unlike the Garden, this image-bearer would not fall. He delighted in the image of God that He was. And He would not be moved to be conformed into the image of the world.
Jesus would also not be conformed by His own people into the image they had for a Messiah. They wanted Him to be something that God His Father did not have for Him to be. And Jesus refused that image as well.
Not even in the face of death would Jesus be moved from resting in the image of God. He would not give in to the attacks.
Brothers and sisters, your sin, every message of the world, and Satan himself have their sights aggressively set on your life as an image-bearer of God. You must see this with haste. You must be awakened to the deceiver and the deceptions. Your life has been and is being robbed from you - moments and days and months of joy and life and fullness. You must breathe, rest, and enjoy the beautiful, wonderful, amazing reality that you are an image-bearer of God Himself.
I continually see how immensely fragile this image-bearing is. The enemy regularly uses our parents to further destroy His image in us. (To be quite clear that we are all somebody's children. Everyone of us.) I have spent the past two weeks helping people get free from deep damage to their God-image brought about through their parents when they were young.
Do not be deceived. The things that happened to you in your childhood have real power. The enemy does not care if you were 2 or 5 or 15. He can use our parents to compound the destruction of our God-image.
You have choices. You can ignore what was done to you and live hardened because of it. You can choose to continually dwell on it and continually live as a victim of it blaming everyone for everything. You can think I am stupid or wussy and go on with your life. Or you can turn to Jesus. He can heal it. THERE IS NO MANAGING THESE THINGS IN YOUR LIFE. That does not work and it is not what God has for you. He has healing and He has life. The control that these experiences has over you can absolutely be broken! There is hope.
One man in his mid 50s regularly blasts his kiddos for their behavior at the dinner table. The table has been a place of tension in their family - and his oldest daughter is 18! We discovered when this man was 5-6 his dad turned his plate over at the table and yelled at him, "If you are going to eat like a dog you might as well eat like a dog." From that moment on his God-image took a huge hit. It took him 47 years of living in bondage to this and other things before he was healed.
I have seen the vulnerability of my own children in their eyes. I have been given the power to destroy their spirits. I can crush them. And I have been given the power to build them up. I can see with my own eyes the effect of what I do to them today will have on them for the rest of their lives.
I renounce the lies that say what we experienced as children has no effect on us today. LIE!
I have seen these deceptions at work keeping people from freedom:
1.Idolizing parents - people do not want to think badly of their folks or relatives so they understate what their parents/relatives have done. LIE! What happened to you is real. And those who did it to you are real. Before your parents are your parents they are people. And they are far more people than they are your parents.
2.Suppressing - the memories are too painful. It is perceived to be easier never to talk about it than to deal with it. LIE! The comforting work of the Holy Spirit eases a person through their healing.
3.Justifying - I am not perfect. Therefore, I am sure that I did something to deserve whatever happened to me. LIE, LIE, LIE! This is NOTHING but an effective tool of the enemy to keep you in bondage. I have had people tell me that when they were 4 years old they must have done something to deserve spankings every day and massive public humiliation. NO! They are justifying.
4.Accept as normal - It is what I grew up with so it is normal. LIE! It may be normal but it is not acceptable. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, neglect, public ridicule, constant yelling may be normal but they are not acceptable. I am saddened by what is considered as normal.
(There are others but these are those that I have seen most recently.)
In and through Jesus Christ you are restored to the image-bearer you were made to be. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." And in Colossians 3:9-11, "Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all."
Jesus has come not to "just" forgive you of your sins but to restore you in the image of God you have been made to enjoy.
Consider the names that you were labeled with as a child. These names will have either been spoken or unspoken. (And here we are solely dealing with damage to the image-bearer done in the early years through parents and others. There are other means when the damage is done through the messages of the world or directly through the demonic.) An unspoken name could be, "unworthy," because your mother or father regularly neglected you.
Write out every name you can think of that you were labeled with - spoken or unspoken. These names are lies! They are not true. What is true, from God Himself, is that you are an image-bearer of God. Write the names down. Go through every one of them and renounce them. It will go something like this:
Father, in the name of Jesus, I renounce the name "stupid." I am not stupid. In the name of Jesus I break all authority and control that this name has in me. I declare that I am a child of God and a son of the King.
When you have done this mark a line through that name. And then go on to the next one and repeat it. Work through your list. At the end of the list destroy the paper it is written on and speak Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of Man who died for me and have Himself for me.
Take a few deep breaths. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a picture of how our Father sees you. Allow yourself to see yourself as He sees you. You are His. You are an image-bearer of God Himself.
Rest in Him and allow Him to make you into who He wants you to be. As you feel the temptation to return to your old image declare your authority in Christ and do not return.
Let our Father love you. Let Him heal you. Let Him restore you in life and in power. And then let Him send you to love and restore others!