What He Did

Jesus, take these words and do with them what you will🤍

There’s the guilt you feel when you do things you know you shouldn’t or when you get involved with the wrong things/people. There’s also a quiet guilt lurking at the back of your mind when these things happen to you disregarding your will. 

I don’t fully understand the latter, I find it quite ironic, to be honest. 

I know both feelings. My back still hurts from carrying their weight for years, before the Lord offered an exchange of burdens. 

Years and months would pass, with long streaks of silence from the taunting voice, and then on a random Thursday morning while doing the most mundane things, there it was again. Everything. As vivid as can be. I’d run into the arms of sleep (a temporary escape at least) and sometimes it worked. Everything was silent. Other times I’d be met with a full theatre experience…the stage, actors, and narrator… all too familiar. 

I had started learning about prayer so I’d pray and beg God to take it all away, and He would. Finally, everything was quiet again, right? 

Wrong.

Although the streaks were longer, the taunting was louder whenever it came. 

Then I let Jesus in.

I took a risk by opening up to someone God led me to talk to. That conversation was the beginning of my liberation. 

Although It’s not entirely our conscious fault, people tend to avoid painful emotions. I mean, our brains want to keep us alive, so it shuts us out of reliving some experiences until we feel safe enough to address them. 

(I like to imagine that the pain of those experiences feels like a death threat to our brains…don’t take my word for it, I’m just thinking out loud). 

It’s like when you remember something so embarrassing that you have a full-body cringe😂. Now replace embarrassing moments with traumatic experiences and you should understand why your mind may never let you revisit them. 

Now, the enemy loves a good foothold. This is why it’s important to let Jesus into these yellow-taped spaces of our hearts. In retrospect, I see that while I was keeping Jesus out, the enemy was busy planting lies in my mind through the words he taunted me with. 

“You’re so weak, such an easy victim”

“You were so helpless, how pathetic” 

“You’re so easy to target” 

“You could’ve done something”

“You shouldn’t have done that”

“You could’ve done better”

“You did xyz, bold of you to think you still deserve abc”

“Everyone knows”

And then the final one that led to my freedom;

“Your essence is tainted” 

Those exact words, in such a demeaning tone 

I almost believed that one like I believed the rest. Well, to be honest, I believed it for a few hours. Then I got home and almost immediately, before I could wallow in self-pity, I felt the Holy Spirit ask me “Whose voice was that?”  I thought about it for a while and finally, I laughed “Oh! It was just my mind!” I was a little relieved, and I went about the rest of my day. 

One thing I love about God is that He doesn’t do anything halfway. He asked again “whose voice was that on the bus?”I was about to respond out loud “It was my mind nau” (Forgive my local expression) then a part of scripture bubbled up in my heart; we have the mind of Christ. 

“For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes]…”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭16‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Coincidentally I had listened to a sermon a few days prior and the preacher had emphasized this verse while teaching on discerning God’s voice.

I read it over and over again, and then everything began to playback. 

I have the mind of Christ. 

I have the mind of Christ. 

If I have the mind of Christ, that means the voice of my mind should be the voice of Christ. Right? Right!!!

It was as if the enemy’s disguise failed in an instant. My eyes were opened (metaphorically and literally cos I was wide-eyed, mouth agape, staring into space like 😦😧😲). My life was about to change, and I knew it. 

Then the Holy Spirit reminded me of the gospel. He reminded me of what Jesus did and what that meant for me. He led me back to one of my favorite verses of scripture;

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 I read it over and over and in other versions. Then I saw something that changed my life forever 

“My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine!”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬ ‭TPT‬‬

the essence of this new life is no longer mine…

I live in union as one with Christ… 

The essence of this new life is no longer mine. If I am one with God, then I have His essence.

Now, riddle me this, what can taint God’s essence? 

I felt so cheated. I let the devil get away with bullying me for years and I didn’t know?!!!  My goodness! I was furious!

It’s amazing how the realization of the magnitude of my God and what He did for me automatically put the devil in his place. It stirred up such a boldness in my heart! I knew for a fact that the torment had ended. 

See, you’re not one of the devil’s victims. Your mind is not his playground. Despite what you’ve done or what was done to you, if Jesus set you free, then you’re free forever! 

“So if the Son makes you free, then you are unquestionably free.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭36‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Unquestionably free! 

So when next the enemy taunts you with his lies, here are a few things to note as a believer;

Recognize that if it doesn’t align with what God says in the bible about your identity in Christ, IT IS A LIE!

Even your mind doesn’t have the right to contradict God’s word. You have the mind of Christ! Anything that contradicts Christ is not your mind. I’m not invalidating your reality, I’m showing you your true reality as a Child of God. Even the voice of your mind must be conformed to Christ! 

“casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

‭‭II Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

You’ve been set free, and you can stay free. 

How?

By understanding what Jesus did for you in salvation, and remaining conscious of who you are because of what He did.