主題：身份認同系列之13 – 辨識並戰勝屬靈身份的盜賊
日期：2016年2月15日
作者：Tisha Sledd
在主裡面找到情感自由的過程當中，我認識到，被敵人使用來攻擊我們的其中一個最有效的工具就是來扭曲我們的身份。
如果敵人可以操控我們相信上帝所創造的我們是誰的這個信念，牠就可以使用它來欺騙我們讓我們從生命中真實的路徑上出軌。
身份認同的危機
當我7歲那年，我的家突然垮掉，我的父母離婚了。我被送到另一個州的農場去與他們的親戚一同生活，並且突然地被告知他們將會領養我。我在幾週之內從感覺像一個公主淪落到農場裡討生活的工人。對於一個帶著安全感與父母住在郊區的女孩而言，突然進入一個不同的家庭過著農家艱苦的生活，導致我的身份認同崩潰掉。
直到26歲時，我完全搞不清楚上帝創造的我到底是要成為什麼樣的人。有一個巨大的脫節存在我裡面，因為我所成長的生涯過程對我而言仍然不具意義。儘管我試圖融合，我不斷地覺得自己還是像個局外人。
當愛臨到，一位寶貴的婦女為我禱告將敵人對我身份的扭曲糾正過來。在我們的一個禱告會中，主讓我看到一個小女孩的異象，大約7歲大，她是金色的公主，但她渾身沾滿了豬圈的泥漿。這正是我的感受。如果我是一個公主，為什麼我待在一個豬圈裡？我看到了豬圈的泥漿開始從金公主身上脫落，我聽到聖靈說道，“這泥漿只有當你允許的時候才能夠粘在你身上”。
我覺得自從7歲以來，第一次有一道明光穿透我雲霧的世界。聖靈是在告訴我，我確實是一個公主 – 是一個國王的女兒並且對祂而言是極其珍貴。我破碎的家庭和艱苦的農家生活的經歷並沒有界定我的身份。我不需要讓其他人的否定來影響我。我可以很容易地就讓它脫離，因為唯一一個重要的認可是來自創造我的那一位。
我的身份是落實在我是王的女兒的這個真理上。沒有人能夠從我這裡奪走 - 如果我選擇不允許他們如此行的話。
揭露敵人的計謀
藉著我多年的輔導他人，我認識到一個模式。敵人企圖使我們無人性化而讓我們感覺無能為力。一旦我們感到力不從心，牠就有一個敞開的大門來扭曲上帝所創造的我們是誰的這個真理。它是一個兩個步驟的過程：首先感覺無力感，接著是屬靈上的操控。
這就是在伊甸園裡所發生在夏娃身上的事情。她讓蛇的話滲入她的心，導致她懷疑神對她的愛。當她心中相信了謊言，認為上帝心中對她並沒有最好的計劃時，夏娃對自己的身份認同混淆了。一旦她允許自己懷疑她在神心目中的價值，敵人就能夠欺騙她讓她吃那果子。
敵人在今天也是使用這完全相同的公式。牠讓我們懷疑自己真實的身份；隨後牠藉著人和情況來操縱我們，讓我們相信那些導致自己癱瘓無能，無法完成神在我們生命中的心意的謊言。
但是，敵人只能當我們允許的時候才能來進行操控偷走我們在基督裡的身份。
記住你是誰
在列王紀上17章和18章裡提到，以利亞有三年的時間在飢荒中挺身對抗亞哈王。然後，他在迦密山上單挑450名拜巴力的先知，並且擊敗了他們。皇后耶洗別因著迦密山上的敗陣生氣了，對以利亞怒吼道她要來殺掉他。
以利亞疲倦了，情緒耗竭。他忘了自己是誰，允許耶洗別的話進入他的心。不是起來對抗，相反的，他轉身逃跑並且深感沮喪。假如以利亞能想起真實的自己是誰，那麼耶洗別對他扔過去的泥巴就不會粘在他身上。
我們在近代歷史上看到這種屬靈的操控，如阿道夫·希特勒能夠操控整個國家。德國在第一次世界大戰中失敗必需支付賠償，導致該國深陷經濟困境 （注1）大規模的失業以及惡性通貨膨脹使該國的公民感到力不從心。
對於無能為力的德國人而言，這感覺讓他們感到非人化；因此，他們容易讓自己的身份認知產生扭曲。這打開了一扇門，讓納粹黨能夠在德國人民中進行屬靈的操控。不是從神那裡認知自己的身份，取而代之的是他們在民族主義中找到扭曲掉的身份。
思考納粹黨的旗幟，上面畫的是扭曲的十字架。正是敵人如何對德國的真正身份加以攻擊的一個真實寫照。魔鬼讓他們感到力不從心，然後藉著一個人的舌燦蓮花，蔑視耶穌在十字架上所成就的這個終極真理而扭曲他們的思維。
值得慶幸的是，神是靈魂的恢復者。祂恢復了以利亞，雖然花了一點時間。祂還在恢復德國，儘管這也花費了一點時間。總之，神是可以恢復你的。
我們的天父要我們在自己的生涯中前進時是墊基於一個堅實的基礎上。祂希望我們真實地知道祂所創造的我們是誰。祂要將我們從扭曲的身份中釋放出來，所以我們可以完成我們在地上的目的。祂希望我們能夠抵擋魔鬼並且堅強不移。當我們在為君王的歸來預備道路時，讓我們將腦海中那些彎彎曲曲的地方校直。
進入全人的步驟
為了要成為全人，我們必須來處理我們生命中對於自己是誰還搞不清楚的地方，要來面對那些已經影響了我們在基督裡的身份的信念的謊言。
- 花時間與天父禱告，請求真理的靈揭示出任何你對於自己的信念的謊言。
- 正如祂會顯示給你，大聲宣告出來棄絕這些謊言（例如，“我絕棄我不夠好的這個謊言”）。然後尋求真相（“父神，在袮眼中真實的我是如何？”）。安靜地聆聽在你靈裡出現的那微小的聲音。當你聽到真理，把它大聲宣告出來並把它寫下來是很重要的。每當敵人試圖來引誘你懷疑自己是誰，你就需要使用天父的真理如同一把劍來對抗牠。
- 饒恕那些讓你相信這些謊言的人。當他們被顯露出來，請求神砍斷你與這些人之間的連結。
- 請求神挪除你腦中任何扭曲的思維，以基督的心思來取代它。然後請求祂賜回給你你的真實身份。
尾注：
“納粹是怎麼奪取政權？http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-nazi-rise-to-power/#.VrPSgMc4n-Y Web。 2016年2月4日。
”http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-nazi-rise-to-power/#.VrPSgMc4n-Y網絡。 2016年2月4日。
Recognizing & Overcoming Spiritual Identity Theft
February 15th, 2016
By Tisha Sledd
In the process of finding emotional freedom in the Lord, I have come to understand that one of the most effective tools the enemy uses against us is the twisting of our identity.
If the enemy can manipulate our belief in who God created us to be, he can use that deception to keep us off the true path of life.
Identity Crisis
When I was 7 years old, my home suddenly crumbled, and my parents divorced. I was sent to another state to live with relatives on their farm and abruptly told they would also be adopting me. I went from feeling like a princess to a farmhand in a matter of weeks. For a girl who was used to living a suburban life with the security of her parents, being suddenly thrust into a different family and the hard life of farming caused a meltdown in my identity.
By the age of 26, I was thoroughly confused about who God created me to be. There was a huge disconnect for me because the life I grew up with still didn’t make sense to me. Even though I tried to conform, I continually felt like an outsider.
Love came down and rescued me by way of a precious woman who helped me to pray and untwist what the enemy had done to my identity. In one of our prayer sessions, the Lord gave me a vision of a little girl, about the age of 7, who was a golden princess, but she was covered in pig slop. It was precisely how I felt. If I was a princess, why was I in a pig pen? I saw the pig slop begin to fall from the golden princess, and I heard the Holy Spirit say, “The mud only sticks if you let it.”
I felt a bright light poke through my foggy world for the first time since I was 7. The Holy Spirit was telling me that I truly was a princess—a daughter of the King and precious to Him. The outward experiences of my broken family and the hard farm life didn’t define my identity. I didn’t have to let the disapproval of other people stick to me. I could simply let it fall away because the only approval that mattered came from the One who created me.
My identity rests in the truth that I am a daughter of the King. No one can take that from me—if I choose not to let them.
Exposing the Enemy’s Strategy
Through my years of mentoring others, I have come to recognize a pattern. The enemy attempts to make us feel powerless by dehumanizing us. Once we feel powerless, he has an open door to distort the truth of who God created us to be. It is a two-step process: first powerlessness, then spiritual manipulation.
This is what happened to Eve in the Garden of Eden. She allowed the serpent’s words to penetrate her heart, causing her to doubt God’s love for her. Eve’s identity was thrown into confusion when she believed the lie that God did not have her best interests at heart. Once she allowed herself to doubt her value to God, the enemy was able to deceive her into eating the fruit.
This is the exact same formula the enemy uses today. He gets us to doubt our true identity; then he manipulates us through people and situations to believe lies that paralyze us from accomplishing God’s will in our lives.
But we can only be manipulated by the enemy if we allow him to steal our identity in Christ.
Remember Who You Are
In 1 Kings 17 and 18, Elijah stood for three years against King Ahab in the midst of a famine. Then he stood against 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel and defeated them. Queen Jezebel was angry that she lost at Mount Carmel and roared at Elijah that she was going to kill him.
Elijah was tired and emotionally spent. He forgot who he was and allowed the words of Jezebel to penetrate his heart. Instead of standing up to her, the attack on his identity caused him to flee and become deeply depressed. If Elijah would have remembered who he truly was, the mud that Jezebel flung at him wouldn’t have stuck.
We see this kind of spiritual manipulation in our more recent history as Adolf Hitler was able to manipulate an entire country. Germany had lost World War I and suffered the consequences of paying reparations, causing deep economic troubles for the country. (1) Mass unemployment and hyperinflation caused the citizens of the country to feel powerless.
This sense of powerlessness in the German people made them feel dehumanized; therefore, they were vulnerable to having their identity twisted. This opened a door for the Nazi Party to spiritually manipulate the minds of the German people. Instead of getting their identity from God, they found a distorted identity in nationalism.
Consider the Nazi flag, bearing the symbol of a twisted cross. What an appropriate picture of how the enemy worked against the true identity of Germany. The devil made them feel powerless, then twisted their thinking through a human mouthpiece that defied the ultimate truth of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
Thankfully, God is a restorer of souls. He restored Elijah, though it took a little time. He is still restoring Germany, though it has also taken a little time. Above all, God can restore you.
Our Heavenly Father wants us to be planted on a firm foundation as we navigate life. He desires that we really know who He created us to be. He wants to deliver us from our twisted identities, so we may complete our purpose on earth. He wants us to be able to resist the devil and be strong. Let’s make the crooked places in our minds straight as we prepare for the return of the King.
Steps to Wholeness
In order to become whole, we must address areas in our lives where we are confused about who we are and face the lies that have affected our beliefs about our identity in Christ.
Spend time in prayer with Father God, asking for a spirit of truth to reveal any lies you believe about yourself.
As He shows you, renounce the lies out loud (for example, “I renounce the lie that I am not good enough.”). Then ask for the truth (“Father God, what is Your truth about me?”). Quietly listen to the still small voice in your spirit. When you hear the truth, it is important to declare it out loud andwrite it down. Whenever the enemy tempts you to doubt who you are, you’ll need to use the Father’s truth as a sword against his tactics.
Forgive the people who led you to believe these lies. As they are revealed, ask God to break the tie between these people and yourself.
Ask God to remove any twisted thinking from your mind and to replace it with the mind of Christ. Then ask Him to give you back your true identity.
End Note:
“How did the Nazis gain power?”http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-nazi-rise-to-power/#.VrPSgMc4n-Y Web. 4 February 2016.