Seeing your identity through the lens of God’s Word part 1
You may know that it is God’s will for you to be well. That is the starting point. But, if you see it as I’m still sick trying to get healed, or I’m healed (the circumstance dictating your position), you’ll always be going back and forth because the enemy will continue to strike at you! And this is especially true when there are chronic physical issues.
In the natural, that sickness is something that can affect you at any time and as often as it likes. You can start to see it as perpetually part of your life. Making adjustments along the way. And that mindset will infiltrate your true identity, which is, YOU ARE WELL.
You are well, that is who you are! It is part of your new nature when you are born again. It does not change or depend on natural circumstances. The importance of disassociating from sickness is in understanding the exchanged life Jesus gave us. You are not the sick trying to get well.
Therefore, your goal isn’t to ‘get healed.’ Sickness or disease can come on you, even into your body but it is not part of the real you (your identity), unless you choose to see it as so. Victory comes when you know in your heart, no matter what the circumstance, that you ARE the WELL resisting sickness! Circumstances change, but who you are doesn’t!
I’ve had several chronic medical issues. I believed God wanted me well and that through Jesus, He provided healing for me. So I would stand against the pain or problem, and it would stop, so “now I’m healed,” then the pain would return, “I guess I’m not!” To press through, and obtain God’s will for me to walk in health and wholeness, I had to stop seeing myself as ‘healed’ one moment, and ‘sick’ the next in this terrible cycle, trying to be healed. Even trying to see myself as healed in an effort to keep the pain/problem from returning. A constant battle of trying to get healing to work. It was like being on a hamster wheel trying to believe I am well so that the chronic issues would not come back.
You can have the correct doctrine and belief system, work the mechanics of faith and still not experience healing. Why? Because true faith comes from trusting that Jesus already accomplished healing. Faith isn’t just belief; it is a response that flows from that point of view.
I had to begin to see myself, my true identity through the lens of God’s word, and then act on it. One of my favorite passages of scripture that explains this so well is James 1:22-25.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
This word ‘doer’ (poiétés) means: one who carries out; a doer, a maker, performer. One who implements or applies the truth of God’s Word into their life; enacts it or lives it out.
Some have misconstrued this passage to talk about our duty to live up to a standard of ethics and morality. Perhaps even religious duties like paying tithes, going to confession, etc. But James calls the Bible and specifically the Gospel “the perfect law of liberty.” We’ve been freed from the Law of performance based receiving. (see Gal. 5:4, Eph. 2:8-10, Romans 11:6). We receive because God has freely given us all things that pertain to life and godliness! (See 2 Peter 1:3). This is a gift, God’s grace, and when those truths are believed, it prompts us to live it out.
So what truths are we talking about? Regarding the topic of sickness and disease; Jesus has paid the price for your healing! The truth is, by His stripes you have (past tense) been healed (1 Peter 2:24) Therefore, you carry out, live your life from identifying yourself with the spiritual reality (according to God’s Word) that you are healed, you are well, and you have wholeness. It’s yours. Given by grace.
What happened when I truly began to believe that I already have health and wholeness as opposed to trying to get it? I started to identify as someone who is well. I began to view those chronic issues differently. I saw myself through the lens of God’s Word as well, whole, free! Those issues no longer dictated who I was. I began living like I was well. Expecting to be able to do things, in spite of some of the symptoms continuing. I became free! Free in my mind, painting a new picture of how I saw myself, which gave me the confidence and boldness to stand against those things that were contrary to that picture. My position of being a ‘well’ person became bigger in my mind than the physical issues, pain or even the continued natural limitations they posed.
It all begins with understanding who you are in Christ; your identity through the lens of God’s Word. Letting that dominate your thinking.
For more on the importance of disassociating from the sickness see my article: Disassociate – The Ability to See from God’s Point of View