What Shapes You? ??
Have you ever wondered who or what truly shapes your identity? ?? Are you the unconscious manifestation of
?? your parents' influence,
?? society's expectations,
?? religious or political doctrines,
?? traumatic experiences, or
?? the sway of your emotions and circumstances?
Or are you shaped by
??a vision of who you desire to be?
??who God designed you to be??
?? As a faith-based individual desiring to live in the fullness of what God says is available to you (which is nothing less than abundant life) -- ?how do you move into the practical experience of living the abundant life intentionally and on purpose?
Step One: Awareness and Acceptance
?? The first step is to create the awareness of and accept who God designed you to be. You are not at the bottom of the totem pole or the end of the food chain. You are designed just a little lower than God Himself, in His image and likeness. ??
Consider these powerful words from Scripture:
“What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than God*, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:4-5) (*Note some Bible translations use the word angels instead of God in Ps 8:5. The original Hebrew word is Elohim which can mean God or angels. It is incorrect to use angels in this context as we are told in other places that angels are servants to us. We cannot be a little lower than angels if they are our servants.)
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)
A New Perspective on Self
With this awareness, you are invited to recognize and step into a whole different way of seeing yourself.?
?? You are not a victim of circumstances or people.
?? You have the ability and responsibility to create shifts for yourself.
No one outside of God can act upon Him without His consent, that is called sovereignty. You are made in His image and likeness and you too are sovereign over yourself. At a heart level, no one can act on you and tell you what to believe or how to think and choose, unless you allow it. ????
?? Many of us have never been taught this and we have allowed everything and everyone to tell us what to think, what to choose, and who we are supposed to be. But that doesn't mean you can't begin to see yourself differently now and step into your sovereign freedom of choice, starting to shift your present and your future. ??
领英推荐
The Power of Your Feelings and Thoughts
?? By God's design, everything in the universe is designed to be responsive to human beings. Whether we are conscious of it or not... we are constantly using our authority to "create" and “have dominion.” ?
We are sending energetic messages in the form of frequencies out into the universe that God designed to be supportive to us.?The universe does not distinguish between positive or negative outcomes nor does it alter what we are "creating"—it just responds because we are in charge and have dominion. ??
The problem arises when we live unconsciously to the fact of who we really are and the position of power we hold.
???What happens if we unconsciously live in the energy of fear, anxiety, doom, and gloom, and worst-case scenario thinking?
???Guess what the outcome will be?
?? We create those very things in our life. (For a practical demonstration of this search?YouTube for "Rice Experiment." ??)
Your Observations Shape Your Reality
As humans, we are powerful creators. How you observe your situation matters. It actually shapes the outcomes of your situations. Your internal beliefs and feelings, your emotions and thoughts, are powerful influencers of your external world. You are always creating, consciously or unconsciously. If there are things in your life you are dissatisfied with, ask yourself:
?? How you observe your situation is one of the greatest influencers of the outcome. ??
?? You may not think you chose the outcome you are currently experiencing, but by the decisions you made moment by moment, you did choose the outcome!
??Every feeling and every thought you allowed yourself to abide in altered your course.
??Whether you?allowed yourself to stay in negative and disempowering feelings or?thoughts?or you allowed yourself to stay in?positive and expectant feelings or thoughts, either way they produced the vibrational frequencies that engaged the powers of creation in the universe, getting you to where you are.
Next Steps
I invite you:
Stay tuned! Next week we will unpack more of how to consciously create vibrant living and a life you love.???
Lois Zehr is an outside-the-box coach who believes life is to be lived from a wholistic perspective. She is passionate about practical spirituality — helping people partner with God to take control of their lives, discover options outside the status quo and develop strategies for whole life success.
Lois' mission is to Heal Hearts, Resource Breakthrough, and Grow Individuals?to express their full God-given potential, consciously creating vibrant living and a life they love.