True transformation starts with believing who God says you are. The speaker walks through thought captivity: examine your thoughts against Scripture, rebuke negative ones in Jesus' name, replace them with God's truth. Joshua was called strong and courageous before he became it. Esther received a prophetic identity from Mordecai and lived into it through prayer and bold action.
Chapters
bear good fruit. So we need to change the roots so that the tree can change, and whatever comes out of us, whatever manifests in our life, will be changed as well. So how do we change all these things? Well, at the root, like I said, it's about our identity. Our identity is rooted in Christ and who he says we are. Being in his presence and filling our mind with his word and the truth about who we are is what ultimately will change the fruits in our life, knowing who we are, speaking out who we are, acting as if we are that, you know, like in take that thought captive, just as 2 Corinthians says, you take the thought captive, you analyze it. Is this a carnal thought? Is this from the Lord? Is this from the enemy? Is this true? Is this what the Word says? Is it— is this what God says about me? You take it captive, you examine it, you analyze it, and then you substitute it with what God says. Every time this negative thought comes, you rebuke it in the name of Jesus because the enemy will come and he will try. But the Word says, resist him and he will flee from you. How does he come? He comes in our mind. That's where the battlefield is, in our mind. We have to change the way we think, the way we speak. We start— we have to start acting as if we already are that person. You know, the Lord kept telling Joshua to be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. He was calling out his identity. He was calling him strong and courageous before he actually was, or manifested as somebody who was strong and courageous, before he acted as a man who was strong and courageous, God was calling his identity out. This is actually called the Pygmalion effect, and it means that you rise to the expectations of what people think of you. God kept calling Joshua strong and courageous, and he rose to that expectation. Same with Esther. You know, when Mordecai said, if you do not stand up for your people, God will raise another redeemer, another person that will save the people. But you and your family will perish. You and your house will perish, and you will miss on the blessing. Basically, I believe that those words that Mordecai spoke into her when he said, "What if you were chosen for such a time as this?" He implanted that identity in her. You know, she realized I am not here. Just because I am pretty and I am submissive and I pleased the king, I am here because God has chosen me to be here. So she rose after fasting and praying for 3 days. That gave her strength to rise into that identity, into that calling. And she looked the part. She dressed herself as the queen. She was terrified, as we know, because if you presented yourself in front of the king without being summoned, you could die. But she rose to the occasion. She embodied her identity. She embodied Queen Esther, the redeemer of the people.
