The following article is condensed from Rachel Herbeck’s talk at the 2023 Lift Jesus Higher Rally in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can listen to it here. This article originally appeared in Renewal Ministries’ July 2023 newsletter.

The average person has 70,000 thoughts a day—eighty percent of which are negative, and ninety-five percent of which are repetitive. The Lord says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15). Often, we’re good at knowing and keeping the Ten Commandments, but we struggle to think God’s thoughts about ourselves. 

Recently, the Lord showed me, although not in a condemning way, that it’s disobedient to not align my thoughts about myself with his. God wants us to go to war with the things in our minds and hearts that don’t align with what He says about us. The Lord wants to transform anything that stops us from receiving what He says about us or growing in intimacy with Him. He wants to transform us—including our thoughts about ourselves. Our thoughts not only reflect what we think about ourselves, but what we think about the character of God. 

We must allow the Lord to point out negative thought patterns to us, and then we need to replace them with his Word. Let me give you an example. The Lord helped me realize that I had been functioning with the lie that I was hard to love, both for people and for the Lord. He wanted me to acknowledge that this was a lie and a wound that I was living out of. He asked me to stop saying, “Thank You for still loving me.” I asked, “What do You mean? It’s true—You do still love me.” And He responded, “No, I don’t still love you. I love you. You’re not hard for me to love. It’s hard for you to receive my love, but it’s not hard for me to love you. You were made to be loved by Me.”  

To replace these lies, we must look to Scripture. We need to know what God says about us in his book. If we don’t know the truth it contains, we can’t recognize the lies. Recognize and renounce those lies. Say, “That isn’t true about me.” Then, invite the Lord to say what is true. As we do this, our thoughts will better align with God’s thoughts about us. 

The process works like this:

1. Recognize lies.
2. Renounce the lies.
3. Replace the lies with the truth found in Scripture.

You may think, “My past will always define me.” Renounce that thought: “In the name of Jesus, I renounce the lie that my past will always define me.” Then, speak the truth from the Word of God: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). 

“I am alone.” Recognize the lie. Renounce it: “In the name of Jesus, I renounce the lie that I’m alone.” Then, speak the truth from Scripture: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). 

If I’m going through the process and I don’t feel anything, it doesn’t matter, because the Word of God is living and active. When it’s spoken, it never returns void. It always achieves the purpose for which it went out (Is 55:11). 

For everything that the devil throws at me, Jesus has a direct contradiction regarding what He has done for me and who I am in Christ. The Lord calls us to be equipped to declare this to others. When you are renewed, you will help renew others. If this is on your lips for yourself, it will be on your lips for others. And it cannot be on your lips for others unless it’s on your lips for yourself. 

The Lord is calling us into a new season of wielding our swords. “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rm 12:2). Stand in that truth and declare Jesus’ Word. Recognize lies, renounce them, and replace them with truth. Do that every day, and it will start to come more and more on your lips. You’ll start to believe that you are who God says you are. And when you live in that, you will walk with a different kind of power and authority—because you will know who you are in God.

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