Identification 04 Stop the Hindrances to the Revelation

One of the most famous parables told is the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:

³ He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. ⁴ As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. ⁸ Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! ⁹ Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

The disciples did not immediately understand the parable, so they asked what it meant. It meant that when the Word is preached, different people respond differently, because things in their hearts hinder the message.

It’s not any different when it comes to our identification with Christ, people have ideas and thoughts and religious traditions in their heart that stops them identifying with Christ. The first hindrance to you knowing who you are in Christ is the footpath. A footpath is created when we walk the same way again and again, and create footpaths. Many of us have walked the same way in our thoughts so often even since childhood that we cannot think another way without great pressure and energy.

You see you have to realize something – satan enjoys you not knowing who you are in Christ. One of his favourite things is you rejecting moving in the kingdom, operating in the kingdom, and ministering the kingdom because you do not know you are one with Christ. Until you know you are in Christ and in the kingdom, and can do the works of Jesus, and can walk like Jesus, live in love and peace like Jesus, and can operate in the kingdom without fear of reprisal or grief, that we have every spiritual blessing, satan will walk all over you. He will steal your lunch and pop the bag to quote someone.

If you do not know that you are in Christ, satan will walk all over you. In what ways will he do this?

1. He will try and convince you over and over that you are not really saved or that you are in danger of losing your salvation. You cannot rejoice over an insecure salvation and you cannot have peace then.
2. That your life is a treadmill of doing things to earn your place in Heaven.
3. That you will never be anything other than a failure, doomed to repeat the same sins over and over and over.
4. That God will not even lift a finger to help you or bless you, and why should He.
5. Your prayers will not be answered.

If you are having these thoughts over and over, rest assured they come from satan not God. And you can also be sure that satan is a liar. He is trying to deceive you to stop you getting the Word in your heart and having a harvest, from getting the truth inside you and setting you free.

If you finally understood who you are in Christ, everything gets reversed – you overcome satan, you resist the powers of darkness, you resist temptation, you heal the sick, you cast out demons, you trust God and what His Word says. The only way satan can stop you operating as the powerhouse you already are – is by convincing you that God’s Word isn’t true and you are not really in Christ. And the best way satan stops the Word from working in your life is the footpaths – the ideas and traditions you have had from birth, things that are in your culture, your upbringing, well trodden paths of feeling like you are a loser, nothing works for you, and nothing goes well for you, and you cannot change.

You need to absolutely fight in your mind to get this revelation. You need to find the Scriptures that say who you are in Christ, and repeat them over and over until they start breaking these footpaths and start creating new paths in your mind – paths of righteousness. That when trouble comes you don’t instantly walk the old path of “oh, that must mean I am a scumbag, that God is against me, that I am in trouble” – but you think “awesome, there’s a demon out there dumb enough to mess with me, I am going to fight and win, I love fighting and I love winning, glory to God”

Work on this – find some people around you who do not share your culture and upbringing – and start to create new paths in your mind.