Is this a picture of you in your childhood? Left outside the circle and feeling rejected, lonely and confused? Feeling the spirit of rejection is one of the most emotionally devastating of all human emotions! It can leave deep, painful, emotional wounds in your soul, spirit, body and heart. There is a little child in all of us that has been rejected numerous times in our lives. Continually experiencing rejection can be physically, emotionally and spiritually devastating.
Rejection is a SPIRIT that pursues us, looking for an opening to cause pain and destruction. The spirit of REJECTION has several goals:
- Rejection and its gang want to torment you with lies about God’s love and acceptance of you, about your value, worth, and identity. Their assignment is to do everything they can to keep you from believing you are loved, accepted and valued by others. All of this aimed at keeping you in doubt, unbelief, confusion and torment.
- Rejection’s goal is to make rejection a normal occurrence in your life. It sets you up to be rejected over and over again until you believe that you are totally unacceptable … even to God.
- Rejection wants to lead you into self-rejection, self-hate and rejection of others.
REJECTION can find his way into your heart in many ways.
- Rejection by your father is a destructive open door for this spirit. The father is the primary love, encouragement and protective source in a child’s life. In RLI’s Fathers Love ministry we find so many cases of fathers who abuse and neglect their children: physically, emotionally, verbally and spiritually. All of this opens the door to rejection, abandonment and fear.
- A second open door is rejection by your mother. Just like fathers, many mothers have their own hurts, pains, fears and issues that keep them from being able to love and nurture their children in a Godly, healthy environment.
- Rejection by our spouse, children, friends, peers at work, school and church also opens the door. It is a rare person who has not experienced some rejection from someone close to them. When rejection roots in your soul, it will influence others to find some area where you are different and reject you.
- Once you feel rejection, you will look for rejection and be expecting it, whether it is there or not! The rejection spirit, once it gets a foothold, is always seeking to reject and to be rejected.
REJECTION has two popular lies for you!
- This spirit never stops telling you that you are unwanted, unloved and unaccepted by your friends, parents, spouse, church … essentially everyone. Rejection constantly assails us making us feel unworthy, unvalued and full of guilt and shame.
- Rejection tells you that you will NEVER belong! You will never be good enough. There is something fundamentally wrong with you. That you are different and flawed.
So let me ask you a question. “WHO TOLD YOU THAT?” Who told you that no one could ever like you? Who told you that you would never fit in anywhere? Who told you that you should reject someone else first so that you can avoid rejection yourself? Who told you that even God doesn’t care about you?
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? (Genesis 3:11 NIV)
We all know the answer to that question – the enemy, the father of lies. In order to defeat rejection and live God’s truths, you must identify these lies in your life.
The reality is that the Father God wants a relationship with YOU! He longs for you to make His love and acceptance of you number one in your life, NOT what others say or do – not the lies that you have been believing. He is your Heavenly Father. He will always think the best of you. Even if you are not there now, he destined you to be your best. He only has the best plans for you. He never misunderstands you. He is always there waiting with open arms to love, support, heal, listen, hold and protect you. Everything you will ever need is in and from Him!
Here are some promises God makes to YOU in His Word.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9 NIV)
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20 NIV)
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
So how do you overcome the spirit of Rejection? This is a good time to put the 8 R’s into practice:
- RECOGNIZE these lies for what they are and who they come from.
- Take RESPONSIBILITY for believing the enemies lies, and come out of agreement with them.
- REPENT for any self-pity, bitterness, fear, rejecting others and any other sins that are tied to the spirit of rejection.
- RENOUNCE the spirit of rejection. Refuse to focus on rejection and give it any more power in your life.
- REMOVE it. Tell rejection to go! It’s assignment is cancelled!
- RESIST. Instead of believing you are rejected, believe in God’s truth. God’s heart is that we focus our thoughts and attention on how much HE loves and accepts us. His love is the model for perfect acceptance that defeats all rejection.
- REJOICE in God’s love for you! Thank Him! As we approach the celebration of Easter, remember that the cross of Jesus Christ was God’s ultimate act of love towards us. You are accepted because through his rejection, Jesus opened the door to our Father God’s total acceptance. This is the gift He gave you!
- RESTORE others. One of the best ways to stay strong yourself is to reach out to others who may be dealing with the same issue. Pray for them. Invite them to a conference. Help build someone else up by reminding them of God’s love for them.
In conclusion, it doesn’t matter who has rejected you, what you did or didn’t do. Stop looking to the world and those around you for acceptance. God is waiting for you with open arms! Take one step forward and watch Him run to you!
Newsletter Archive – read previous months’ newsletters
#Powertools