One of Satan’s great tools to handicap God’s people is the tool of condemnation. In fact, there are spirits of accusation and condemnation that are attached to many of God’s people with the sole assignment of making them feel unacceptable to God.

I have known faithful believers who knew the Word but never felt fully forgiven nor acceptable to the Father. In fact, they could read through such affirming books as Ephesians and Philippians and still walk away with a crippling sense of condemnation. Something in them filtered out every positive promise and every affirming word about their identity.  Even if they understood what they were reading, they believed those promises and affirmations were for other believers, but not for them.

Condemnation seems to carry the message that not only have you done some things that are wrong, but you are defective, you are rejected, you are not enough.  Of course, the good news of Jesus is that, by his death, he has taken away our defectiveness, taken away rejection, and he has made us enough in the eyes of God.  

The writer of Hebrews declares, “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being madeholy” (Heb. 10:14).  Notice the fact that you have been made perfect in the eyes of God by that sacrifice.  The verb is past tense.  It is not something we can earn or strive for or beg for.  The blood of Christ has already given us a standing of perfection in heaven while we are yet imperfect.   

So, does God then simply ignore the sin in our lives, the failures, the imperfections.  In one sense, the answer is “Yes.”  He ignores it in the sense that he does not hold those things against us or even see us as being defined by those things.  We may define ourselves by those things but God does not. We are defined by who we are in Christ and those weaknesses and failures (past and present) no longer have any condemnation attached to them.

In addition, although those things bring no rejection or condemnation from God, he is faithfully working to make us holy.  This is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.  He isn’t doing this in order to make us acceptable, but simply to make us everything we can be in Jesus.

Satan’s ploy is to get us to focus on every past sin, every imperfection, and every failure.  The old axiom is, “We become what we behold.”  What we focus on defines us and we typically live up or down to the view we have of ourselves.  God’s strategy is to get us to focus on who we are in Christ…children of God loved and forgiven; citizens of heaven walking in power and authority, representatives of Christ on the earth with a destiny established by God; the forgiven, the cleansed, the perfected, saints of God on this earth with an unimaginable inheritance waiting for us in heaven.

As we consistently focus on those realities, we become them – those realities define us. Knowing that, Satan continually whispers condemnation in our ears, speaks it through the broken people in our lives, and keeps us in a constant state of self-rejection and insecurity.  

As a result, we never feel the love of God, never have faith that he will answer our prayers, and never step into significant roles in the kingdom that God has ordained.  As long as we are bound up by condemnation, Satan wins.

But Paul put condemnation to rest in his letter to the Romans.  He said, “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 7:21-8:2, emphasis added). 

Notice, Paul still struggles with sin and often does what he doesn’t want to do and feels the frustration of living out that reality.  However, he stands on the truth that the blood of Christ covers those failures and weaknesses in the courts of heaven.  He boldly declares to us, to himself, and to Satan there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.  That must be our answer to every condemning thought that trickles across our minds.  

Some of those thoughts are our own. In that case we need a renewed mind where God’s truth replaces our habitual thoughts that do not line-up with his thoughts.  We must constantly say what God says about us in Christ. Some of those thoughts are from broken people.  Maybe we need to distance ourselves from them, if possible. 

Some or most of those thoughts are from Satan. Because you are a child of God with power and authority, you need to call Satan out when those thoughts immerge in your mind.  Call him a liar, renounce the lie he has spoken to you, and then command him to be silent and depart. James tells us, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Ja. 4:7).  We submit to his truth about us by giving his Word more authority than our feelings or thoughts. We them must actively resist the devil by declaring God’s truth and exercising the authority you have in Jesus.  Command Satan’s demonic representative – the spirit of condemnation to leave and he will.  

If you struggle with condemnation, stay in the Word, submit your mind to God’s truth, and constantly say only what God has said about you.  Jesus himself told us we will know the truth and the truth will set us free (Jn. 8:32).  When the enemy comes, pull out the Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit and contend for God’s truth about you!

Knowing who you are in Christ is more than half the battle of overcoming the world and the attacks and temptations of the enemy.  We subconsciously act out of who we think we are.   “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7, KJV). These “core beliefs” about ourselves go deep.  They have been with us so long they project what we believe to be reality, although they are lies from the enemy.  If we think we are unworthy of love, defective, and incompetent, due to early experiences of rejection or abandonment, an expectation of rejection and disappointment will flavor our life and affect every decisions. If we have been told we are better than other people and more deserving, we will approach life with arrogance and an expectation of entitlement.  I have met a few of those individuals, but most of us are in the other category.

If we were rejected, criticized, neglected or abandoned as children, then we had no father or had a father who was wounded and broken himself. He had no vision for loving, encouraging or  shaping a child into a healthy, confident individual. As we “learned” we were of little significance to our father, we also became convinced that fathers are angry, indifferent, distant, and rarely keep promises. Many of us have been afflicted by an orphan spirit that whispers we are still on our own and cannot trust other people to provide, protect, or care for us.  If we do experience care and comfort from someone, our core beliefs generate an expectation that the care and comfort we are receiving will still be withdrawn or taken away some day. 

The trap is our tendancy to take the template we have of our earthly father and project it onto our heavenly Father.  When we do so, we find ourselves serving a God that we view as angry, unreliable, rejecting, critical, and so forth.  In our hearts, we fear his love is conditional and we cannot meet his conditions. The good news that the blood of Christ washes away our sin doesn’t seem to penetrate our core beliefs, so we continue to anticipate rejection even by God. We may serve him out of fear or duty, but not out of love.  We pray with little faith and anticipate disappointment in our relationship with him.  We also take our view of ourselves as defective and unworthy of love into the relationship and Satan continually whispers that a holy, perfect God will not love us because of our failure to measure up to his standards. 

But the Biblical view is God is love.  He has always known our weaknesses and our failings but has pursued us none the less. The Psalmist declares, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sinsdeserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 

for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:8-14).

Our view of God must match the revelation of who God is.  He is holy and just, but also kind and compassionate.  He is the perfect Father who loves unconditionally but who also disciplines us when we need it as an expression of love. As a father, he has loved us before we loved him.  He knows we are weak and that we will stumble.  Yet he called us to be his sons and daughters in his foreknowledge, when he already knew of our sins, our selfishness, our “mess-ups,” and even our moments of rebellion before we were ever created.  He has pursued us, forgiven us, ben patient, and has been working to mature and guide us since the day we were born. 

We are his adopted children who are co-heirs with Christ, made righteous by his blood, sealed by his Holy Spirit, and loved more than we can know.  We will not be perfect and he does not demand that.  We, like children, will fall short on many occasions bur he will never leave us nor forsake us.  Like any father, he will provide what we need and forgive us on many occasions.  

What he wants from us is faith that he is good, merciful, loving and kind.  He is not an earthly father who gets up in a different mood each day or who catalogues our failings so he can remind us daily of how disappointed he is in us.  He is the God who remembers our sins no more.  He is a father who is preparing an unimaginable place for us and who will come and take us to be where he is.  We are his beloved children.  We are royalty in the household of God – kings and priests.  He sings over us and longs for us to be in his presence.  He is more than willing to answer prayers that will bless us in the long run and will rejoice when we return…even after being prodigals.  He wants the best for us and wants us to trust his forgiveness and mercy when we fail. We are his children.  

A primary key to victory over the enemy is spending intentional time meditating on God as your loving father and you as his child.  Satan spends a great deal of time trying to convince us that we must be perfect in order to be loved and blessed by God and that God is like earthly fathers who sometimes keep promises and sometimes don’t. He whispers God is constantly disappointed with us, often angry, and when angry stops caring for us. When we listen to those lies we no longer trust in his provision, his protection, and his favor.  We feel like insecure orphans who must control the world around us and forage for ourselves.  We live with anxiety and distrust and never fully experience abundant life.

Paul prayed that God would give the Ephesians a “spirit of wisdom and revelation that they might know him better and that he would open the eyes of their heart so that they might know the riches of his glorious inheritance in his people and the power he is willing to wield on their behalf (Eph. 1:17-19).  We actually need a revelation of who our Father is and who we are to plant that truth in our hearts. I would encourage you to pray that same prayer every day.  Knowing who God is and who you are as his son or daughter at a heart levelchanges everything. 

Today’s blog is a very practical slice of spiritual warfare.  I spent a little time today with a man who loves the Lord and serves him well but has been tormented lately by memories from his past that carry strong feelings of shame and unworthiness.  Those thoughts tend to make him feel as if God can’t use him to do significant things in the kingdom.

Those thoughts are projected by demonic spirits.  One of Satan’s primary strategies is to make us feel disqualified from God’s love, service and blessings.  Most of us struggle with our self-image due to our childhood experiences of rejection, neglect, abuse, and criticism.  Satan preys on that insecurity about who we are.   We know what the Bible says about God’s forgiveness, love, and acceptance of us. In spite of that, spirits of condemnation, accusation and shame find their way in and begin to amplify the feelings we already have of “not being enough.” When the thoughts begin to persist and get stronger, we need to deal with the source of those thoughts -accusing spirits.  Command them to leave.  We then need to know what God says about us and give that truth more authority in our lives than our flesh or the devil. 

To keep these spirits from returning, we need to thicken and heighten the walls that protect us from the lies of the enemy.  Other than the blood of Christ, truth is one of our greatest weapons.  Every temptation from the enemy begins with a lie and lies can eventually hold us captive.  But Jesus declared, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (Jn.8:32).

Knowing who we are in Christ is a great defense against the spirits that come to accuse, condemn and shame us.  If you struggle with these issues, I invite you to read the following declarations out loud every day for sixty days.  It takes that long to establish these truths in your heart. When his truth settles into your heart, it is truly transformative. Knowing your identity in Christ and believing it in your heart disarms the enemy and foils many of his schemes against us.  We use this set of declarations in our Free Indeed ministry and it has proven to be one of the most powerful tools God has given us.  Please use it.


Declaration of Faith – My Position in Christ

These descriptors are what God says is true about you.  You must give his word more authority in your life than your emotions, “parent tapes,” etc.  Declaring these verbally and consistently helps to write them on your heart.

In the name of Jesus …

I renounce the lies of Satan and his accusations that come against me. I renounce the lies that I am bound up in my brokenness, weak, worthless, and displeasing to my Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus and by his blood, I renounce shame, worthlessness, inadequacy, rejection, guilt, accusation and condemnation. In Jesus Christ, I am totally loved, totally forgiven, totally accepted, totally valued, and totally competent.

In the Name of Jesus and according to the Word of God, I now declare that . . . 

• I am a beloved and blood bought child of God.  (Jn. 1:12, Jn. 3:16)
• I have been chosen as a personal friend of Jesus Christ.  (Jn. 15:5)
• I have been declared innocent of all sin by the blood of Christ. (Rom. 5:1)
• I am joined with Christ and his Spirit and I am made holy by that union. (I Cor. 6:17)
• I am highly valued.  I have been bought at an incredible price and belong totally to him. (1 Cor.6: 19, 20)
• I am a member of the body of Christ, designed by God, gifted by God, and placed exactly where he wants me so that I may fulfill the destiny He has ordained for me.  (I Cor. 12:27; Ps. 139:13-16; Eph. 2:10; I Cor. 12:18
• I am, in fact, a saint, a holy one of God. (Eph. 1:1)
• I lack nothing for godliness and love because I have been made complete in Jesus Christ. (Col. 2:10)
• Any condemnation is a lie from the evil one.  I am free forever from all condemnation (Rom.8:1).
• I am totally united to the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate me from that love.  (Rom. 8:35-39)
• I am a child of God.  I am established by Christ, anointed by his Spirit, and sealed by the King.  (2 Cor. 1:22-23)
• I am a beloved child of God.  I can come before his throne of grace with boldness at any time and expect help in time of need. (Heb. 4:1)
• I am a bold in Christ because I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self – control. (2 Tim 1: 7)
• I am a branch of the true vine, Jesus Christ.  His power, love, and grace flow to me and through me as I bear fruit in his kingdom. (Jn. 15:1, 5)
• I am a minister of reconciliation, made competent to serve by the Spirit and power of God.  (2 Cor. 5:17-21)
• I am a new creation, a servant of righteousness, and free from the power of sin. (2 Cor. 5:17)
• I am, in every circumstance, more than a conqueror though Jesus Christ. (Rom. 8: 37)
• I am loved and treasured. Since God is for me, who can stand against me? (Rom. 8:3l)
• I am never alone because God has said, “No matter what, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.  (Heb. 13:5)
• I am appointed and anointed to fulfill my great destiny in Jesus Christ. (1Jn.2:26-27, Ps.139:17) 

I am absolutely loved, totally accepted, and worthy in Christ. I am royalty in the household of God, personally chosen by Jesus Christ, holy, and destined for greatness in Him. In the name of Jesus, I renounce all lies to the contrary and in his name and by his blood, renounce and nullify all curses and judgments that have been spoken against me contrary to God’s declared truth.  Holy Spirit, write these truths on my heart today for every circumstance…in Jesus’ name.  Amen

Be blessed….tom v