Self-Image

I have these statements written on my laptop keyboard to look at everyday:
* Choice determines daily habits
* Daily habits determine direction
* Direction determines destination

In my countless hours of research and study, I was unexpectedly attracted to some wording in an article about one of the many woes affecting our society and culture today. I have seen the word, and knew the meaning, but something was different when I was looking at it this time. It was almost as if my Father was specifically highlighting it for me in order to develop an understanding in my heart. Here it is:

Penchant: a strong or habitual liking for something or tendency to do something

Thesaurus: he has a penchant for champagne: liking, fondness, preference, taste, relish, appetite, partiality, soft spot, love, passion, desire, fancy, whim, weakness, inclination, bent, bias, proclivity, predilection, predisposition, affinity.

This was such a concise and simple piece of vocabulary for describing one of the immutable, but often unrecognized, forces affecting our souls. If we are to truly embrace our Savior’s desire to, “prosper our soul,” that will divinely empower us to live prosperous and healthy lives (see 1 John 1:3), then this particular reality needs to be developed and embraced.

Most of the fruits (actions, words, thoughts, behaviors, etc.) of our daily lives are after-effects of this one particular reality. We all have a, “penchant,” that is built into our identity. As born-again believers, the completed work of Christ in full maturation and development would clearly manifest in walking as Jesus walked, talking as Jesus talked, healing as Jesus healed, thinking as Jesus thinks, doing as Jesus does… you know, WWJD… right!? I think, conceptually, we all get this and even agree, but does it really play-out in reality?

Genesis 5:24 (Young’s Literal Translation) brackets mine
And Enoch walketh habitually [penchant] with God, and he is not, for God hath taken him.

This is one of those super-cool yet doctrinally challenging places in the Scriptures. The simplicity of it is that Enoch walked with God so closely, intimately, and righteously, and for sooooo long (three-hundred years, according to God), that He just eventually vanished into the Heavenly realm he was so accustomed and drawn to. It was like God said, “Since we have been walking together so closely and for so long, we are closer to my house than yours now… you wanna just come stay with me?”

Enoch said, “Yes!!”

How do you and I answer that same invitation when Jesus calls us into deep discipleship, set-apart holy living, and being a peculiar people for Him?

Enoch was not a born-again man like we are today. He did not have the same type of access to the indwelling presence of Holy Spirit like we have post-Pentecost. Yet, his penchant was God and godliness. Maybe your thinking that it was just a uniquely Enoch kinda thing…

Genesis 17:1 (YLT) brackets mine
And Abram is a son of ninety and nine years, and Jehovah appeareth unto Abram, and saith unto him, ‘I am God Almighty, walk habitually [penchant] before Me, and be thou perfect

Here is another Old Covenant example of a person who just simply met God, believed He was who He said He was, and followed Him in loyal allegiance by changing all of the ways of his life, honor, direction, and purpose. He developed a new penchant by transforming his identity through allowing his God to renew is mind and character.

Psalm 1:2 (AMP) parentheses mine
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] (penchant) meditates day and night.

The residual self-image you have of yourself will dictate your penchant. A major part of the formation of that residual self-image is your thought life… what you, “meditate,” on day and night. If you believe you ARE a failure, you will DO and BE failing. If you believe you are UNLOVED, you will behave in unloving ways that verify your internal picture. If one has an internal image of themselves being an addict, then the fruit will be, “using,” because it exactly matches the image. There are applications in the physical as well as the mental for this principle. If God CALLS you beautiful and your spouse reiterates your beauty… why do you see ugly? If you have an internal image of yourself being fat and ugly, I am sure you can finish this sentence by now. Residual self-image.

This is the victorious and dark goal of our evil culture and wicked society. They have been abusively carving, gouging even, an image on your soul of the broken slave they NEED you to be in order to control your life.

1 John 3:8 (WNT) brackets mine
He who is habitually [penchant] guilty of sin is a child of the Devil, because the Devil has been a sinner from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the work of the Devil.

Here is the good news: you can change you residual self-image, and your penchants.

Consider this logically, please. If the culture and society that conformed or molded your previous, un-Christian environment produced the broken and enslaved person with negative penchants… what could Christ do with you and for you if you submitted yourself to the King and His Kingdom of Heaven environment, ways, and thoughts?

We just need to SEE the EXAMPLE… (pssst, it looks just like Jesus!)

3 John 1:11 (WNT) brackets mine
My dear friend, do not follow wrong examples, but right ones. He who habitually [penchant] does what is right is a child of God: he who habitually [penchant] does what is wrong has not seen God.

Beloved, we can do this… If we can see it, we can be it!

This world is desperately crying out for the authentic representatives of a better identity… a better way of life… a prospering soul. They are frantically looking for someone, anyone who can genuinely show them THE Way into THE Great Awakening, and you have been chosen, HAND PICKED for, “such a time as this!”

A major reason we need to all own this prosperous soul thing is because only people with healed and healthy souls can help others have healed and healthy souls. I proclaim this over you right now.

In Great Love,
Steve