“You’re stupid!”
“Why can’t you try harder?”
“You’ll never fit in!”
Words like these can strike like a white-hot sword and do terrible damage to our souls. Words are even more damaging when they are spoken by people with influence and power over our lives – people like parents, teachers, and friends. Hearing hurtful words, especially when we are young, can cause us to form ungodly beliefs about ourselves, others and God. We each have our own internal Belief System which will either sow into God’s kingdom or into the enemy’s kingdom. Our beliefs affect how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive others, how we relate to the world and they deeply affect our intimacy with God.
Our Belief System is built on a foundation of our beliefs, decisions, attitudes, agreements, judgements, expectations, vows and oaths. Our Belief System affects every aspect of our life. It is reflected in our actions. It is rooted in our heart. It affects our mental, physical and spiritual health. It affects our identity and our destiny.
There are Godly Belief systems and Ungodly Belief Systems. But the truth is, ALL of us, to some extent, have wrong beliefs about ourselves, others and God. It’s really pretty simple. Godly Belief Systems are in agreement with God (His word, His nature, His character, His kingdom). Ungodly Belief Systems are NOT in agreement with God.
Ungodly beliefs are like weeds that rapidly grow and take over our land. They suck out our nutrients, steal our light and choke out the abundant life that Jesus promises. They can also be likened to spiritual termites. They quietly work behind the scenes, undermining and eating away at our faith, relationships, health and peace.
In fact, Ungodly beliefs are by definition – “unbelief”. They hinder and block our faith in God and the truth of His promises. Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
We are what we think and what we believe! Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks in his heart, so he is …”
Ungodly beliefs can gain access to us through hurts and traumas in our life. In our teaching at Restoring Lives International we call these events “Door Points”. A “Door Point” is defined as a traumatic, hurtful event or experience in your life that causes a strong emotional reaction or pain and opens a door into your soul. At this point of entrance, the enemy takes advantage of the circumstance and begins to plant thoughts (lies) and manipulates our emotions. At this point we all have a choice to either believe these lies or flush them! We have a choice to either run to God or allow the enemy to manipulate us.
A huge part of my healing came when I started recognizing the lies I was believing. These lies were driving my negative thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. I discovered that for every negative feeling or emotion, there was a corresponding ungodly belief or lie behind it.
We must be constantly vigilant of the thoughts and beliefs we allow to enter our Belief System. Proverbs 4:23 says “Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.” At Restoring Lives International the first thing we teach you to do is ask … “Who told you that?” Did that thought come from you, from God or from the enemy!