In a world where we daily,  and sometimes hourly encounter lies and negativity it can feel like a constant battle to keep our hearts in a good place, our minds in a positive frame and our souls in a healthy state.  One of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves to become whole and healed is to absorb and integrate the truth of who God says we are and how He sees us. 

We all know that it takes 21 days to break a habit. Likewise knowing and regularly decreeing God's truth about ourselves over our body, soul and spirit will shift the structures in our being that have been supporting the lies we have been believing about ourselves. Below I have set out a framework for you to do that for yourself.

One of the most beautiful segments of a Liebust is encountering God's heart truth about ourselves.  Father wants us to know in an intimate, personal and beautiful way how much He loves us.  The enemy however, loves it when we keep rehearsing the terrible lies we have thought about and spoken over ourselves for years.  Some of them so nasty that we hide them away from God and even ourselves in shame.  Some of these lies look like this:

* I'm not worth investing in
* It doesn't matter how hard I try
* I'm small and insignificant
* I'm not a chosen person
* I'm not clean enough for God to use me
* I don't have a voice
* I belong in the gutter

How beautiful though are these truths that I have seen God demonstate and speak over the lives of women who have encountered Him personally as part of a Liebust. 

* You are who I say you are
* I don't have to push at doors anymore
* I can be who He made me to be
* I'm protected by God as I step out
* There's a place for me to step into
* Jesus has given me wings to fly
* Everything is coming together and flowing into me

Papa has in that place of intimacy and encounter with Him crowns of overcoming, sceptres of authority and scrolls of destiny to give you. He wants to dance with you in the ballroom of heaven and take you into the River of Life to be refreshed and restored.  He has jewels of remembrance, perfumes, flowers, paintings, experiencing the living breath of heaven in the flora and fauna of heaven, words of affirmation to speak over you, keys to give you, rivers of gold and the light of His glory for you to bathe in, elixirs for healing. For you to see barriers being removed, chains broken, doubt destroyed, being clothed in new robes, and encountering true joy and peace.  This is what Father has for us and so, so much more.  He wants us to enjoy encounter and oneness with Him anytime we go into our secret place with Him.

YOU CAN ENCOUNTER THE TRUTHS ABOUT YOUR OWN LIFE FOR YOURSELF
A Liebust is not necessary to spend time with the Father in this way or to find out His truths about ourselves. We have access to our heavenly Father 24/7. In John 17 Jesus tells us that we are in Him and He is in us. Jesus is the door to the Father and through him we come into that place of intimacy and encounter.  It is only a matter of knowing that we are already in that place of intimacy with Him. 

"I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one. I in them and You in Me-- that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me. Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.…"

Many of us have a few obvious lies that we know we believe about ourselves or speak over ourselves often.  Why not ask Father to bring you into His truth to replace those lies. 

Here's one way you can do that. 
1.   Find yourself a quiet, undisturbed place where you can nestle into Jesus.
2.  Ask Jesus to cover and protect you with His blood and give you eyes to see and ears to hear or a sense of what Father wants to show you about yourself. 
3.  Spend some time in gratitude, praise and worship for the goodness of God in your life. He always wants to release His goodness over us. 
4.   Ask God's forgiveness for the lies you have been believing. Ask Jesus to go to the very root of those lies in your own life or your bloodline and nail them to the Cross.  Break all agreement with them and the power they have had over you. Ask Jesus to dismantle every structure in your being that has supported those lies and to bring your DNA back into heavenly alignment. 
5.   Ask Jesus to show you what happened when you did that and to give you the truths to replace those lies. He may give you words, thoughts, pictures, scripture, a song, a feeling to communicate those truths to you.  Write them down.  They are now your reality to decree over yourself in the weeks ahead.  
6.   When you're ready ask Jesus to take you into the Throne Room to see your heavenly Father.  Ask the Father what He wants to say to you, or is there something He wants to give you or show you.  Write these down too. They are the truths of who you are.  Soak in Father's presence. 
7.   Take communion, acknowledging the cleansing power of Jesus blood through your life. Communion changes our DNA and brings us into alignment with the Father's heart for us. 

Remember we are spirit beings, citizens of heaven first, seated in heavenly places with Jesus.  We are to live out of that truth, not the lies we encounter in our daily life that the enemy would use to destroy us. 

John 8:32 says 'you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free'. 
   
Take a hold of God's truth for you and you will see chains fall off your life, obstacles removed, restoration, healing and freedom become daily truth. 



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I was 30 before I really began to deal with the low self esteem issue in my life. Up till then I had hidden it under aggressive or passive-aggressive behaviour. I was excruciatingly unhappy, with very low self esteem and no confidence at all. People called me 'strong' but I was dying on the inside. I had no real close, healthy relationships. Life was awkward and lonely.  I was suffering from massive rejection, that was eating away at my soul.
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I wanted to write about rejection because so many of us experience it to some degree. I want people to come into a place of freedom as I have (and still on the journey too). At it's worst it cripples the inside of you so much that you never have an anxiety free relationship. It's a terrible thing that causes us to isolate ourselves, and it destroys our self esteem and robs us of our identity.

Healing your self esteem is just plain hard work. Sorry to break that to you. But I also know that you have what it takes inside of you to change your state and become a much happier and fulfilled person. After all there are so many famous people we know who have overcome extreme adversity in their lives to go on and become world changers – you are able to be one of those also.

​Practical Steps to Healing
In Part 1 we looked at the benefits and some of the challenges of beginning the journey into self esteem wellness. I want to now give you a few practical things that helped me.

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I wanted to get real about the journey of healing our self esteem, because there are so many fluffy, make-it-sound-easy quick fixes on the internet. Of course there is truth in most of it and it is all helpful, but I’m a rubber-hits-the-road kind of gal and I’ve discovered that true commitment to change comes when a client understands the fullness of the effort and courage it will take them to grow. This blog is written out of my own journey to healthier self esteem and of course does not cover everything. As there is so much content to this subject I am going to spread it over two blogs.
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It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s that I really began to consciously work on growing my self esteem. The inspiration to do that came from work mates who assumed I had more confidence and self esteem than I actually did. That coincided with a reality check about who and what I was becoming. It kind of gave me something to live up to on the inside. The most powerful thing you can do to lift someone’s self esteem is to believe the best about them and love them back to life. That means looking past the behaviours they use to create self protective walls and gently loving them unconditionally.  When I was 30 I began my journey with God and that accelerated my healing a great deal.  After many years, God is still revealing more layers that have been hidden but I can finally say that a lot of my insecurity has now gone.  It is a journey, and we are not to beat ourselves up because we 'aren't there yet'. 

Identity is all we have. It is who we are, what defines us, how we see ourselves and how others see us. It is the sum of all that has been and all we can be – EXCEPT when we are in Christ and Sons and Daughters of God. We all know that we become a new creation in Christ when we acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour. It is a journey that takes place revelation by revelation, restoration by restoration as we grow into our true identity in Him.
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Today I want to talk about some identity snares that we can that can trip us up on this journey of walking into our new identity in Him. Let me give you a couple of examples to illustrate what that can look like.