Happy New Year! Right now you find yourself having entered a new year, a new decade, and a new season. Upon this embarkment I want to ask you a very important question…who and what do you identify with? Do you identify with the weak? the hurt? the broke? the confused? Or, do you identify with the courageous? the rich? the well? the strong?
Colossians 3:1-2, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
This verse contains a life-changing key to living a victorious, God-inspired life. The word “affection” means mind, so you could read it as, set your mind on things above. We must be willing to set our minds on the right things, or in other words, change our mindsets! Moses was a stellar example of someone who was willing to change his mindset in order to align himself with his true identity.
Hebrews 11:24-26, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Moses was afforded an opportunity that no other Israelite was given. Though he was of Hebrew descent and according to Pharaoh’s law, should have been killed at the time of his birth, he was supernaturally saved from death and raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter. He lived a life of privilege and luxury that others couldn’t even imagine. However, there came a time in his life, at forty years of age, that he knew his identity was with his Hebrew brothers, not the Egyptians.
One day he saw one of his Hebrew brothers being mistreated, so Moses killed the Egyptian. Though he meant well, this act of heroism put him on the run for forty years. One moment, he was the adopted grandson of the Pharaoh, and the next moment, he became a fugitive all because his mindset was wrong. He had been raised to “fix problems” by killing. Though he meant well, he went about fixing in the wrong way what he perceived to be evil.
Oftentimes we prolong our situation simply because of a wrong mindset. Many of the things we deal with on a daily basis are not determined by God or the devil; they are determined by our mindset, and this reveals the necessity of RENEWING OUR MINDS TO THE WORD OF GOD.
According to Hebrews 12, Moses put off the Egyptian mindset by refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Refusing to be called something has more to do with what you answer to than what people call you. One of my favorite features of the most recent update for the iPhone is how you can activate a setting that will send anyone calling you to voicemail if they are not in your contacts. This feature allows me to avoid any sales and soliciting calls that I don’t want to answer. Before this feature was available, there was a certain amount of pressure to answer my phone any time it rang.
In the same way, we feel compelled to accept and answer what we’ve been raised in or called by others. If you were raised in poverty, that spirit will consistently call out to you, but you shouldn’t answer to it. Your identity has been completely transformed by the shed Blood of Jesus, and you should only answer to the prosperity that Jesus died to give you.
Jesus gave us perfect illustration of how to answer these temptations in Matthew 4 when He was led into the wilderness and He had been fasting forty days and nights. Imagine how hungry He must have been…
Matthew 4:3-4, And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. BUT HE ANSWERED AND SAID, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Jesus refused to answer the temptation (the thought) by SAYING. He said what God said, and walked away from that temptation victoriously. If you want to refuse to go the way of the broke, the sick, the weak, and the confused, you must answer that identity by SAYING what the Word says.
The great Reinhard Bonnke said that when he was a child, he decided to make his mind fit the Word of God instead of the other way around. I believe he achieved that desire, and so can you!
Friend, your identity is with the resurrected Jesus Christ, and if there is a mindset you must change to properly align yourself Him, DO IT! If you’ll refuse to be called anything less than who you are in Christ, then I believe you’ll see God’s greatness like never before in 2020!
If you would like to give you may do so here. Thank you for your faithfulness to sow!
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