Find out how Satan twists our images of God and ourselves.

A few years back I was praying with my prayer partner, Ed, and I said to God, “You are my Father.” I heard Ed wince. He told me that when I said those words, his spirit felt God cringe. Ed got a word of knowledge and he explained to me that God cringed because I had transposed my earthly father’s image onto Him. It’s like I had taken a snapshot of my dad and put it on God’s face. And not just my dad’s face—his voice, character, personality, and standards. I had imposed his whole image onto God. That wasn’t good. My dad was a tyrant.

At first I didn’t believe what Ed was saying about my dad and God because I couldn’t see what I had done. In my defense I told him that I could relate to Jesus. He was my Savior and my friend. I loved Him.

Ed replied, “It’s because you had a brother like that. You see Jesus in the same way you saw your brother.” Filled with God’s power, those words pierced my heart. Yes, it was true ; I had painted my dad’s face on God, just like I’d transferred my brother’s persona onto Jesus. That explained why I focused most of my devotion toward Jesus, because He was safe—like my brother. I tended to avoid God because I thought He was like my dad.

Sadly, this is more common than we think. We unconsciously take our definition or idea of “father” from our dad and apply it to God. God revealed this to me because He wanted me to know that He is not like my earthly father, and He never would be. God is not like your earthly father either, whether bad, absent, or even good. God’s love is far more perfect and so much higher than any human love could be.

That day God also revealed to me that I had a skewed picture of myself as well. My self-portrait had been pieced together from lies that I had accepted as truth. To correct my picture, I had to put the lies in a casket, close the lid, and bury the person I had always thought I was. Only then could I become my true self.

Do you remember the prodigal son? When he came home, he was wearing filthy rags. Because of his time spent in the pig pen, he didn’t look like his father’s son. But when his father saw him, he ran out and put the best robe on him and a ring on his finger. These symbolized the father’s power, authority, and unconditional love. God has done the same for us, but sometimes we still see ourselves as though we’re living in trough-stained rags. Those mud-covered clothes can’t be worn in God’s kingdom, and we can’t wear a robe of righteousness over them. We have to take the rags off. This requires a paradigm shift. We need to see ourselves as God sees us. But how do we do that?

The first steps are to understand and acknowledge that we might not be who we think we are. I was a fraud, and everything I knew about myself came from a fraudulent perspective. That’s why I still wore the rags, because my beliefs about myself were wrong. I wanted to see myself as God sees me, but I was afraid I couldn’t.
Sometimes our skewed picture is so familiar that it seems impossible to change. But in Mark 10:27, Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” Even so, this transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years.

Matthew 23:9 says, “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in Heaven.” Your dad is not your real father. He did not create you. God created you—in His image and likeness. When God adopted you, as Ephesians 1:5 says, you lost every oppressive tie with your dad. You are no longer his child and you shouldn’t be dressed in the rags he may have made you wear.

Part of the reason I continued to wear the rags is because I held my dad in high esteem. And that’s why I believed every demeaning word he ever said about me. I honored my dad’s ugly words, even though they were wrong.

In Revelation 3:9, Jesus said to the church in Philadelphia, “Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.” Likewise, someday our dads will acknowledge that God rejoices over us, whereas they don’t. God will make them show respect to us. The child abuser will be made to kneel before his righteous child.

I encourage you to ask God to show you the truth of who you really are.

Peace and joy to you,
Denise

Content is taken from my book, Original Design: Set Free to be Who God Created.