Teaching on Overcoming Self Condemnation
& Embracing Self Acceptance
posted Jun 20, 2004
This is just a very short synopsis, but good, and a good reminder for us. They have more free teachings and tapes available to buy. Love, Pris
Self-Condemnation
Understanding the problem from God's point of view: 2 Cor. 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. NKJV Jesus was our substitute and acted on our behalf bearing our sin nature and our committed acts of sins. Remember the effect of sin is guilt, condemnation, shame, bondage, insecurity, inferiority-all of which Jesus bore on the cross, we don't have to carry it anymore.
Hope:
2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. We were resurrected with Jesus, as such, we are new creatures, living in a new dimension, now we are to think and live in an entirely new way according to God's specific directions and plans.
Rom. 5:20-21 NKJV Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We are gifted to reign in life. God's GRACE envelops us and empowers us to think and to do righteous acts, and these acts represent eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom. 8:29-39 NKJV For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31 God's Everlasting Love What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We did not initiate our salvation. God is the One Who called us, and thus, He is for us, all good things from Him belong to us. God cannot condemn us because He sent His very own Son to bear the penalty. It is God's love that initiated all of our salvation, if this is so, who can separate us from this Love? Verses 37-39-We are more than conquerors BY DWELLING ON GOD'S LOVE, this meditation in time persuades my inner being, and my mind that it is so.
Change:
Eph. 2:1-3 AMP AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins 2 In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God]. 3 Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God's] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.
Man was dead (powerless and without the ability to change)in sin but Jesus broke sin's dominion by being made sin for us. Jesus died with us in Him.
Rom. 4:25 AMP Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God]. Jesus rose again to make us righteous; Eph. 3:6 AMP [It is this:] that the Gentiles are now to be fellow heirs [with the Jews], members of the same body and joint partakers [sharing] in the same divine promise in Christ through [their acceptance of] the glad tidings (the Gospel). We rose up together and sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is to be our attitude 24 hours a day REGARDLESS of what my feelings are telling me.
Gal. 6:14 AMP But far be it from me to glory [in anything or anyone] except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) through Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!
Gal 2:20 AMP I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
The cross is my victory in righteousness, by the cross we live dead to the world and alive in Christ. Christ lives in me and I now live by faith of Jesus living in me enabling me to think and to do righteousness.
Rom 5:17-18 AMP
17 For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one). 18 Well then, as one man's trespass [one man's false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man's act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men.
Rom 6:11 AMP Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
Sin nature has been put away, now I practice the acts of right thinking and right doing because I have abundance of God's energy and power, the enablement to exercise the gift of righteousness.
Self-Acceptance
God's View: See Rom. 7:18 ; 8:12-13 ; Lu. 9:23-24
Nothing good lives in our sinful nature. We are not to look to our past, to change or heal, or to reform past memories through self-realization or self-actualization. We are to put the diseased memories to death with Christ on the Cross. Look to Christ, forgive others or be forgiven, then we find healing for past memories through taking those things to Him in prayer and worship, and allowing Him to touch those areas which have been wounded and removing the pain.
We are not called to self-realization but to identification with Christ. Our true self at any stage of becoming is in Christ. All the wounds we suffered in the past, accept as a reality and see Jesus take these wounds on the cross. There He took upon and into Himself our darkness and depression and gives us in exchange His light and life.
Hope:
See Eph. 4:17-24 ; 3:16-19
Failing to love ourselves aright, we will love ourselves amiss. Concern over our sins 'inferiority' or shortcomings are examples of the wrong form of self-love. Our reactions to the past must be identified, recognized and come to terms with. Our grievous and subjective reactions to the shortcomings and sins of others against us, must be accepted and not denied, and forgiveness extended. Once these are identified, we take them to God the Father and with Him we deal with the situation. His truths begin to flow into our being and our souls and we become that which God says we are in His Son.
See 2 Cor. 13:5 ; 3:16-18 ; Gal. 4:19 ; Lu. 10:19
You have the nature of God, and the great and mighty Holy Spirit, and you are the son of God. You have the authority that is in heaven, all you have to do is to go and practice it, the practice of who and what you are in Christ Jesus, not what you were or have done or what was done to you in the past.
See 2 Cor. 5:21 ; James 4:10
We cannot become good enough on our own, we can't heal ourselves by our reasons or feelings or self-effort. We must live from a new center, Jesus Christ. It is He Who will lead and direct us and make our lives significant.
Change:
See Isa. 55:1-3 ; 61:1
Self-hatred in the christian is a substitute for humility, It belongs to pride. We are to repent of this focus on self, go to the Lord, listen to His words and grow into His image. We bring dysfunctional, sinful, prideful patterns in the thought life and imagination into submission to Christ.
In listening prayer, every thought of the mind, every imagination of the heart, is brought captive to Christ.
Gal. 5:16-18 -To walk in the Spirit is to live in the present moment, always looking to Christ, always practicing His Presence, always moving in tandem with him.
Psalms 51
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba.
1 HAVE MERCY upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
3 For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment. [Rom 3:4.] 5 Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful]. [John 3:6; Rom 5:12; Eph 2:3.] 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness and death, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness (Your rightness and Your justice). 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; You find no pleasure in burnt offering. [1 Sam 15:22.] 17 My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise. 18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then will You delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, justice, and right, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then bullocks will be offered upon Your altar.
No matter how deep the wounding and horrendous the sin, the acknowledgement of ourselves as sinful from birth, the reception of Christ's forgiveness, and the extending of this forgiveness to others releases us from self-hatred and shame. We are to train our minds to think, to think through all the issues of our lives with God. Then, as we learn to hear God, we will receive from Him the true word, and we replace our old diseased negatives with the positive word He is always sending
for more studies go to : Immanuel's Church, 16819 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring MD 20905, USA.
