Category: Confidence

Walking Like Christ

“I have loved you, says the Lord.”

“..As I have loved you…”

“God so loved the world that He sent Jesus His Son for you!”

3 direct scriptures that declare how much He loves you! I love the first scripture that starts off the book of Malachi. It is so personal. The Lord is calling out to all who have been created in His Image. I love you!!!! You are valuable to me!! I have been hearing from some prophetic people that the revival coming is not about longer meetings, but about family. What will revive our families in this nation more than God’s love?!?!

 

Dr. Lisa Winchell

Identity Crisis

One of our board members heard these words from God:

“Identity Crisis”. That is the issue in America and across the globe today. People are searching for who they are.

They think they are who others say they are.

They think they are their occupations and roles.

They judge their worth by the size of their wealth.

They think they are the sum of the actions they have performed or committed in the past.  The world is telling them they may not be who it appears they are.

They search and search for themselves when they should be searching for Me! I have created them for a purpose and a calling. Apart from that purpose, they will have no purpose. Apart from knowing Me, they will never know who they are. When they ask the question “who am I?” they will find the answer in the reflection of that statement… I AM who I AM! That is My eternal name. Until they know who I AM or until they know I AM, they will never know who they are. Their search should not be for themselves but for Me! In their search to know Me, they will come to know themselves. I AM the mirror that shows them their reflection. Everything on earth either reflects or rejects Me. I give identity to those who seek Me. There is no crisis in My Kingdom. To know who you are you must know I AM.” (Michelle Rumreich)

 

Dr. Lisa Winchell

Preparing for the Future?

So many more are talking about where to put their money, in preparation for all going on in our economy. This currency or that one or stocks, etc. In doing so, let’s remember our greatest currency is our ability to hear the Lord!  Build that each day, learn His voice, practice His presence and He will guide you for the future. Begin to confess, “I hear the voice of my Shepherd and the voice of a stranger I will not follow.” The key is we all must build this precious ‘currency” into our lives, a stronger ability to hear God’s voice. I remember the man who walked up to the tower on 9/11, put his hand on the door, and the Lord said, “get back in the cab and go home.” Minutes later the plane struck that tower. How many was God saying that to, who had not built that ability to tune into God’s voice? We will not know until heaven. But we want what that one man had, a fine-tuned spirit/soul to the voice of God, whether it leads us to our last breath on earth and into His presence or to more victory in Him, while on this earth. His voice will place us where we are supposed to be. Our job is “investing” the time in our relationship with Him to know His voice clearly! My grace is sufficient for you, says the Lord!. His grace is found in His presence!

The 3-1 Miracle to Peace and Joy

Do you know the Word says when you put your mind on gratefulness, you will have the peace of God? God is calling us to put our minds on who and what we appreciate every day, especially Him and our salvation. Want peace and joy? Practice daily, three times a day, for one minute, appreciating God 1st, self 2nd, and others the 3rd time. I call it the 3-1 miracle to peace and joy! Remember to use your imagination to SEE what you appreciate. When you only engage your thinking, it will not transform you as it will when you engage your imagination. The Word of God says to take every thought captive, casting down vain imaginations and breaking strongholds. So therefore, we need to take that same path to develop good strongholds of peace, joy, and love.  Put your thought on what/who you appreciate, then “see” it in your imagination until you feel completely engaged in joy and connection.  You see,  a strong emotional capacity is the ability to stay connected in the midst of pain, connected to God, your true self, and others! When we get offended, frustrated, angry, anxious, and fearful, we disconnect from God and our true self (who we really want to be) and often from others. We get in self-preservation mode, and that sends us into what we call enemy mode. That is when you and I act in a way that those around us feel they are all of a sudden our enemies.  But we can turn that around to love by focusing with our imagination on who we appreciate and retraining our brains to go that way instead.  So it works like this.   In the morning, I think, “hmm, what do I appreciate the Lord for? Oh yes, Lord, thank you so much for being near to me each time I have been in a hard struggle.” Then I engage my imagination to see those times He was so near and “see” them over again for 1 minute or more. When you are done, you will feel peaceful and connected to the Lord. Then when a struggle comes that day, it will be easier to retrieve that place of peace with Him at that moment and not react.  Then do yourself at lunch or when you want.  You will think, “what do I appreciate you for self (name)?  Oh yes, I really appreciate how kind you were to those people that other day.” Then see you doing that and stay in that appreciation for a minute or more. When you are done, you will feel so at peace with yourself and will more clearly be able to hear God and follow Holy Spirit,  because you are not jacked up with self fears, etc.  Then that evening, move on to someone else and do the same thing about them in your imagination for 1 minute!  If you practice this each day, you will find in a month that you are far more peaceful and joyful and far more able to stay connected to the Lord instead of being triggered by the world around you!!  Remember the 3-1 Miracle to peace and joy!  Dr. Lisa Winchell

We Belong to a Kingdom that Can Not Be Shaken

What can be shaken will be shaken, but since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude-through this we may offer worship in a manner pleasing to God, with reverence and awe, For our God is a consuming fire. Heb.12:28 We are not of those that shrink back to destruction, but those who have faith and are saved. Hebrews 10:39. Though they (the enemy and his diseases, his chaos, his poverty, his persecution) will fight against you, they will not win, for I am with you, to deliver you. It is a declaration of the Lord. Jeremiah 1:19 I was thinking about something David Wilkerson said years ago, in countering some people’s concerns that America would go through a great persecution phase. He said something like this, “Americans are wimps, God knows that American Christians would not come out well in persecution therefore we probably will not deal with as much as others.” I laughed, at how right he was and considered it a few times. But as time moves on, we get greater revelation on things that build on previous believers’ revelation. I agree with David’s premise but I do also see how God will USE things like the present scenario to strengthen American Christians. (I am not saying God sent the virus, it is the enemy fighting against us), God will prepare those He loves for whatever will come. We can even see how the economy got so strong right before this happened-preparation. Also, large parts of the church have been sensing and declaring that a great move of God is coming, and have been empowered in deep ways – preparation. Most of you can look at your lives and see great times of growth that were followed by great pain or hardship -preparation. God loves us and He prepares us. Will we answer His call to respond to HIs preparation in faith, not shrink back but allow our “faith muscles” to be tested and grow. We can come out of this a mighty army to be dealt with in the spiritual realm, or we can remain weak even as David saw decades ago. This world and God’s time clock will not wait on us. But God will never leave us behind, He worthy to be worshipped and worthy 

Standing Strong and Having Compassion

Standing against fear and having compassion! It is important to understand that every believer operates in different gifts of the spirit. Those that are more gifted in prophecy, discernment, words of knowledge, etc are going to be more instructional even in their natural statements about what is going on in the world. Those that tend to the prophetic will be more assertive in their approach to lead people away from things like fear, sin, etc. Those that tend towards the gift of mercy are going to speak, even naturally, from the perspective of mercy and feeling what those hurting are feeling. It does not mean either is wrong. It does not mean that those that take on the fight against fear and sin don’t have compassion for those hurt by the pain and disease creating it. It does not mean those who feel the pain and go there with people in their words or posts, don’t see the intense ramifications of the fear or sin. We are all different parts of the body, called to be who God has called us to be. What we are not called to is accusing each other that others do not see this or that or are minimizing this, or judging and not loving these people, etc. Yes, there are weaknesses each person with each gifting has, and each of us grows to have more of the part we need from God to bring balance. But we will always tend to the approach that comes from the giftings God gave us. God’s word is full of all of these because He, the Holy Spirit, is the one that fills us with His gifts in the first place. In one place in the Word He is firm and takes a strong stance against fear, and sin, in another place He is showing great compassion for those hurting and scared. God hates fear and sin, but He loves people. This is why there are different messages coming from godly people who care enough to speak out against the fear or sin and to have compassion for those most vulnerable in sin, sickness, or pain of any kind.

THE STRENGTH HIDDEN BEHIND YOUR WEAKNESSES

by Lisa Winchell

The Strengths Hidden Behind Your Weaknesses

 

We believe temperament is inborn, and God given.  According to Psalm 139, God formed your inmost being.  He knit you together in your mother’s womb.  He put the strengths, and traits in you that would lead you to what He has planned for you. You were not created to be someone else.  You were created to be YOU.  You have been created in His Image. You are able to bear His image to the world around you, through your individual traits.  If you try to be someone else, the world around you is going to miss out, and you are going to miss out on enjoying the person you are.

 

You might say, “Hey, what about those weaknesses, and failures I regularly have?”  Weaknesses are not fun. But our goal at In His Image Counseling, is to help you to see your weaknesses as the strengths God meant them to be.  When I review your temperament profile with you, we cover strengths and weaknesses that are in your unique God given temperament.  But according to the Word, every good gift came from above.  God does not give us weaknesses. So where did they come from?  Consider this, Adam and Eve were created with their own unique temperament as well.  Let’s say, maybe Adam was a melancholy and maybe Eve was a sanguine. Adam would have been very analytical, sitting under a tree for hours thinking about what to name each animal and plant. But when Eve came in from hanging out with all the cool animals, and hugging on them, and wanted to spend time with Adam he would have been happy to put everything down and forget about his task to enjoy his wife.  When it was time to go to sleep he rested easy.  Eve would have enjoyed, the animals, and engaged them and her husband in lots of fun conversations and exciting thrill seeking activities in the garden.

 

Before they allowed sin in their hearts, there was no fear in their hearts, therefore there was no impatience, fear of failure, offensiveness, or self-centeredness. When sin entered, fear, shame and guilt were the first negative feelings they felt.  These weaknesses would then cause Adam to start tossing and turning, because of concern that someone may not understand why he named that animal what he did, 100 years later.  Eve would have become, “it is all about me”.  “Adam, you never listen to me, I need you to pay attention to me, all the time”. :). This would be coming from her insecurities based in fear.   These may be a little exaggerated. But the point is that sin, causing fear, shame and guilt is what causes the traits God gave you to be weaknesses in your life.

 

So what we do at, In His image Counseling, is help you discover what strength each of those weaknesses were meant to be.  Such as, a melancholy deals with perfection issues. So what strength could be hidden in that trait?  God gave the melancholy the passion to be excellent, in all that they do.  They love to do their best as unto Lord. That passion is led by love and faith. Perfectionism is driven by fear.  All we have to do is work on letting go of the fear, and excellence will replace perfectionism.

 

Sanguines can have a tendency to walk away from people when they are speaking, because the sanguine is no longer interested and prefers another conversation.  Could there be strength in that?  Sure, God made a Sanguine to be able to shift from one thing to another to keep things moving and interesting.  When they are operating in self-centeredness/sin/fear they follow the flesh and use that to meet their own needs only. When they are operating in the Spirit, and love, they are honoring to people and listen well, and move on to the next person or thing with grace which draws the whole room into enjoying the sunshine the sanguine has brought into the room.

CALL FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL TEMPERAMENT PROFILE

813-684-7927

www.inhisimagecounseling.com

CONCEIVED BY GOD

By Lisa Winchell

You and me, conceived by God!   What an awesome revelation!   I received this revelation one day while in a counseling session.  My client brought up the issue of how much a baby in the womb is affected by the rejection of a parent, especially when considering abortion or adoption (I understand that adoption is not usually an act of rejection, but one of deep love).  We did not have much time to discuss the subject, but as I was praying for her at the end of the session the Lord just started praying through me.

“Thank you God for the deeper understanding we have in this age of all that goes on in the womb.    But, many are going back to the womb to find out where they first began to experience rejection,   They often get their identity from that place.   But, Lord if we are going to go back to the womb to find our identity we must go back even farther.  We must go back to where we were really conceived, by You”.

My client, you, and me were conceived by God.  We came from His will, His heart, and His perfect plan.  When He dreamed you up, He sent you to earth from His heart with a perfect plan for your life, with all the acceptance and love, and goodwill towards you that you would ever need.   There was no rejection in your beginning.

When born, we all entered a world of sin, were born with a sin nature, and were entrusted into the hands of human beings with a sin nature.  These are the places where the pattern of rejection, fear, etc. began.   We all must encounter this world of sin, until Jesus’ enemies are made His footstool.  Even more the reason we need to understand that God still loves you as much as He did when He dreamed you up.  He still has that great destiny for you to fulfill.   He has been reaching out to you all along, to draw you out of the pain this world has brought your way.

You must answer His love.  You must be willing to quit identifying with the pain of the past.  Quit blaming God and your parents.   Get free, through God’s glorious plan of forgiveness and restoration.  He put those in place for you and I, before sin even entered the world,  because He knew the choices man would make.  It is not easy to quit nursing the pains of the past, because they become our “friends”.   Many do not know any other way of living.

Oh, but if you can grasp what your real beginning is, and start anew with that revelation, I believe you can get free from the past.  Knowing that the sin and rejection that the enemy sent your way were all efforts to steal the great love and acceptance your Father placed in you at conception (his first thought of you).  Satan knows that you have been called to greatness, and he knows that being full of love will get you there.  That is why he works so hard to deceive us, through the deception of sin, fear and rejection.

Enter your rest in the perfect love of God.   He not only conceived you in that love, He has sent His Son Jesus to confirm it, and deliver you out of the enemy’s lies.  Read the Word, you can’t miss His love spread all over the place.   Get the revelation and do not let go of it!  It is the real truth!

Remember, before any man or woman spoke a word over you, God the Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, the loving Heavenly Father thought you up and perfected you in His heart and placed greatness in you!

To contact us:  813-684-7927
www.inhisimagecounseling.com

Suggested Reading:  A New Kind of Love  by  EW Kenyon

Bondage Broken  by Craig Hill