Healing of a bad self Image
Brendan Mc Crossan
Healing of a bad self image
Many children grow up with a bad self image of themselves, because others ridiculed them or mocked them pointing out what they seen as flaws in the persons facial or emotional being. There is nothing as cruel as children to other children. These children make fun of an individual, having everyone else laughing at them as they point out something in them that hurts, for example, I see a child in the street I live in being treated badly by other children, they are made fun of, they are treated as the object of ridicule, they are the one these children use as a means of having a laugh at a younger child’s expense. They pick them to be the one who searches for them when they play hide and seek and then they go somewhere else, leaving that child trying to find these so called friends, as they hoot with laughter at that child, making that child the butt of their sick joke. Or they tell the child to go away we don’t want you, or they have a play time inside someone’s garden and they leave the child standing looking in at them, hurting the child’s feelings telling them they are unwanted. That poor child will grow up with those feelings still inside them unless the lord heals those deliberate wounds.
I was a sickly child, I was paralysed with rheumatic fever when I was just seven years old and then again at nine and again at age fourteen, and I spent those years lying in bed with no one around me, to talk to me, These illness lasted for a year at a time, and my parents were ok they did their best for me, but I spent those years alone mostly in the upstairs bedroom unable to move, and a deep loneliness developed inside of me so that even now I feel alone even when in church surrounded by people. Things in life have a severe effect on us, things like being rejected or used by other children as sport, and it hurts our spirit and leaves an imprint in us unless healed.
Things people called us when we were growing up has a lingering effect on us that lies deep down embedded inside us, things like, “you, why you are just useless, you’ll never amount to much, your worthless, your stupid, and not only that but your ugly, a waste of space.” Recently I prayed with a woman who considered herself to be just a waste of space; she would never have though of herself as that, unless someone told her that a thousand times at least, as she grew up, now that’s all she thinks of herself as. No child grows up thinking of itself as a waste of space unless some adult kept repeating this to them and probably beating them at the same time enforcing this into the child using beatings with the words a waste of space.
The devil uses people to do these things to others, whom he sees as a threat to him when they grow up, he sees those children as having a good heart and kindness in them, and of great use to God, and he quickly tries to destroy their little spirits, and he uses their parents or brothers and sisters to put that child down every opportunity he gets; remember there are no bad children born, all children are born good until someone programs them with a bad program, telling them continually they are no good or whatever.
My own personal belief is that Satan knows children’s nature as he has been around since the beginning of time and knows what human beings are like, having studied them for centuries; and I believe he can pick out a child that is exceptionally good at heart, and then he goes to work at destroying that child’s spirit, by using people, probably parents, to bring that child down into thinking of themselves as bad or no good or a waste of space, and so that individual grows up and considers themselves no good for anything, and when they hear about God they think that God thinks of them as a waste of space also. Of course God does not think of his children as a waste of space but as of great value or worth. For a person who has a bad self
image this is hard to believe, that God who sees us as we really are would even consider them to be of any value or worth. God sees everything, he knew you before you were even born and in fact, you may find this hard to believe that millions of years before he even made this world that we live in, that he, God, had you in mind; that you would be conceived on such and such a date and would be born in such and such a time and date, and that you would be perfect in his sight for ever, and that he would make you spotless without sin and holy in his sight. Satan seeing your impending birth senses that there is something special about you, gets to work frantically, plotting to destroy you, either by amiscarriageor something else, and having failed in this he then has his evil spirits attack your parents or siblings and they begin to dislike you for no reason whatsoever and treat you in a bad way, causing you to grow up hurting and rejected, a waste of space as that lady said about herself. So that when you grow up you could never believe that God loves you unconditionally or think of you as someone worth dying on a cross for, or someone who could receive amazing supernatural gifts and powers. These are the reasons Satan tries to destroy your confidence in your self, if you have no confidence in you how could you go and lay hands on someone who is ill and expect God to answer your prayer, after all your a waste of space, and this is where Satan succeeds when we believe the worlds lies about us and believe our parents and others lies about us and refuse to believe what God says about us which is the complete opposite from what every one else says. God sees his child in you, he sees Jesus in you, he sees the great potential in you he sees the greatness in you, he sees himself in you, after all he is your spiritual Father, and you are made in his image.
God was the one who decided to give you birth and he was the one who planned for you to come into being at your birth, you are not an accident of birth to God, you are not the result of a drunken night between your parents, no, you were planned from before time even began to come into existence on a date that God had predetermined. You came into this world because God wanted you for his own to love unconditionally, to give his blessings and share his kingdom with; your not a waste of space, you are called from before time to fill a space and in that space you would grow in stature grace and love, that you would be a blessings to others.
Ephesians-1-4-Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. 5For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [[b]because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]-- 6[So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favour and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. {Amplified Bible}
Look at when God decided, picked you out for himself- -before the foundation of the world. Before he even made the world he decided to make you. It wasn’t your mother or father that decided to have sex and then you would be the result of their union and sex act, no! God used that moment in time when his timing would come into being to create you. You may say but my mother was raped so what kind of a God would leave a mother pregnant from a rape? This is the same kind of God who could use that situation to create you out of his love, not from some rapist act, but because he had planned for you to come into being at this time in the universe. God has a plan for everyone in creation, and Satan was probably there
when God discussed his plans with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, he was the greatest angel in heaven at the time so he probably was told of God’s great plan; and it could well be that is where he first became jealous of the human race, because he was only an angel, a great one mind you but these new race of people would become like their creator, making them more important than him.
Therefore his intense hatred of God’s chosen race grew and because he knew of God’s plan he knew who would be the greatest threat to his kingdom which was to come at mans downfall. Satan the Devil spent eternity plotting the overthrow of God’s plan, and that later even included God’s plan for his son Jesus, and also that plot included you. God designed to make your conception holy, and Satan tried to destroy you by having someone rape your mother, and God reversed Satan’s plans and covered you with his love anyway, and you were brought into the world in love, maybe not loved by your mother or father but loved by your Father God. God chose to make you holy at the moment of conception, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. 5For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, Ephesians -1-4/5
Can you see this scripture it says, he foreordained us, destined us, planned in love for us to be revealed as his own children. Think of it like this, your mothers womb was the place God designed for you to be created in, and scripture says that he was there with you as you were being knit together in your mother’s womb. The womb was the place for God’s plan, no matter what happened, the womb was the place of creation for you; it matters not whose womb you come out of if you look at things from God’s view, the fact that you were given life in a womb was God’s plan.
Of course I don’t mean that your parents were not chosen beforehand to be your parents, but they just like you had a good plan laid out for their lives and Satan destroyed those plans of God for them, and is trying still to destroy you. Satan is the one who really hates you because of his intense jealously that you took his place in heaven, as being the greatest being in heaven after the Holy Trinity. He is the one to blame for the acts of your parents; he was the one who put pressure on them to fail to live up to all that God had in mind for them to be, and they succumbed to his temptations probably because he got to their parents before them; he is always trying to destroy God’s plan. But God turns to good everything bad that happens in our lives because he loves us unconditionally. God sees you and what you are supposed to be, he sees the incredible talent and goodness in you, he knows every wrong thing that happened to you can be reversed by him and turned to good later on. He does not look at you as a sinner or no good, or other horrible name you may have been called; he sees you as his Son or Daughter and he sees himself as your Father, and calls you his child.
Psalm-139-13-For you did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb.14I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are your works, and that my inner self knows right well. 15My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colours] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. 16Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. 17How precious and weighty also
are your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with you.
Who does the scripture say that formed your inward parts, and knit you together in your mother’s womb? God that is who! Whose frame was not hidden from him, while it was being formed in secrete, and intricately and curiously wrought? Your little body was not hidden from him because he was the one doing the knitting together of your lungs, your heart, your liver, your bowels, your kidneys, your whole nervous system and muscles and sinews, bones and brain. It was all his work no one else’s. Then he tells you that he never stops thinking of you, how vast is the sum of his thoughts they would number even more than the grains of the sand. Who else thinks of you like this, no one, not even your partner or parents or friends, no one but God ever stops thinking about you.
A parent may not have wanted you or maybe even both parents may have rejected you but you are never rejected by God. You could chose to say I have had a terrible life, and terrible parents, but now I have found my real father, my real creator, the one who loves me because of who and not what I am, this Father loves me, even, with what I see as my faults and failings, but he refusestoseethosefaultsinmeanddecidedtoseemeasjustlikehim,Holy,spotlessandclean, and forever perfect in his sight.
Hebrews 10-14- For by a single offering He has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy.
This is how your real Father sees you; your earthly father had only temporary custody of you. Your real Father sees you as beautiful forever, {that means for all time} perfected and made holy.
We would all love to think of ourselves as holy but, wouldn’t dare say we were, because it seems to be prideful to say such a thing, but that is a lie told to us by Satan. Our Father declares us to be holy and consecrated, perfected forever, wow! what a dad I really have, this one loves me and calls me holy and perfect, my earthly one called me useless a waste of space worthless, and this heavenly one thinks I am the greatest thing since sliced bread, whom shall I believe. Our healing begins when we chose to believe the words our Father says in scripture, scripture is a letter to us telling us what God done for us and what Jesus done for us and what the Holy Spirit is doing in and through us.
John-15-16-You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you.
You see here in this scripture that you did not chose to come to God, but that actually he was the one who chose you, and that was from before time began.
Jerimiah-1-5-Before “I” formed you in the womb “I” knew [and] approved of you [as my chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
The lord is saying here that before “He” formed you in the womb he knew and approved of you, before you were even born “He” separated you and set you apart. Can you see that God approved you, approved means accepted and you need to now that God accepted you as his own son or daughter. God has great plans for you even if your parents though of you as worthless God does not and has amazing plans for you from before he even formed the world.
Jeremiah-29-11-For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. 12Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. 13Then you will seek me, inquire for, and require me [as a vital necessity] and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
God your Father says he knows the thoughts and plans he has for you personally, out of billions of people on this planet, God is thinking about you and has great plans for you and has those plans set out from before you were even formed in your mothers womb, he knew where you would be right at this very moment in time, he knew what you are going to say before you even say it, he both goes before you and follows behind you every millisecond of your life, not a moment goes by that he didn’t plan, and even when Satan got between you and God’s plan for you, God took it and used it for your good later on, he wove Satan’s attacks into his plan, thus turning everything Satan planned for you into good.
Psalm-139-17How precious and weighty also is your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with you. God your Father is thinking about you every second of the day and night, that’s how much you are regarded by him, he never stops thinking of you, not even for a millisecond. Your parents may not give you as much as a single thought, but your heavenly Father is thinking of you every moment of the day and night. When you are in love with someone you never stop thinking of them especially when you are apart from them. Well God is thinking of you all the time because he is in love with you, your always on his mind. Your birth or conception was not an accident; God wanted you to come into being at this very second in time, and even when Satan tried to destroy God’s plan for you, God turned it around and used it for good for you. You may have grown up with a bad self image, imagining that your no good or a waste of space or have no value or worth, but the truth is God planned for you to be, and he planned to give you a good future and a blessed life in him. He made plans for good things to happen to you, as his word says to give you a future and a hope. Many a person hasn’t a hope left in them, and they don’t realise that God loves them and has a great plan for them in this life. Perhaps you were neglected or abused by your parents or by someone, you may think that your life is terrible and it probably is, but when you give your life to the lord Jesus then he turns your old life around, and brings into effect his plan for you. Satan was the one, who tried to destroy you by the things that happened to you growing up, but once you give God your life and accept Jesus into it, then God turns everything into good believe it or not.
For example;
I was paralysed when I was a child, three different times, for approximately one year at a time, I suffered every disease as an infant that a child could ever have, and some of those diseases were life threatening so I was told later by my mum, and I should never have survived. As I grew up I was in constant pain in my body as a result of those illnesses, I was never without pain, even right up till this very moment as I write this. But when I gave my life to the lord Jesus, he turned my life around and he used the very suffering of pain in my body to make me feel empathy with those in pain and sick, because I knew what it is like to suffer pain and sickness, and now he is using me to heal hundreds from sickness and pain and cancer and other terrible diseases, because I have empathy with them, I know how they feel. My pain is not from God, I know this and I know that he doesn’t want me to suffer in any way, but to be truthful my pain is nothing compared to the feeling of joy I get when I pray with someone and I see the Lord Jesus heal them through me. This week alone the lord has used me to bring his healing touch to a man who was blind in his right eye, and to a child of three who had glue ear and was deaf, and now hears, and also to a woman who suffered chronic pain in her legs and he healed her through me, and he healed two other women whose bodies were deformed, one as a result of an accident, and the other was born deformed, and he straightened up their spines and took the sickness and bore their diseases all their pain left and they could walk normal. Pain for me means nothing compared to the joy of knowing Christ Jesus within me. I don’t want to be in pain and it gets really sore but I have lived with it now for sixty three years and it does not stop me from living a good life and an even greater one now that the lord is healing so many people through me. I could have complained every day of my life about my pain, and there were days I did, but for the majority of my life I just get on with it and enjoy more than anything praising God and sharing intimate moments with him. I now understand how important it is to be loved by God even more so than to be loved by a parent, I grew up feeling very unloved by my parents because my older brother was the light of their lives, and that’s fine because I love him more than anything, it wasn’t his fault that he was the chosen one, to be my parents favourite. I could give off to God for a life of pain, being second to my older brother and laying paralyzed in bed for a total of three years out of my life, but what for, he didn’t do it, but he turned it all around for his glory and my benefit later on after I gave my life to him. I would have you know that Satan is the author of sickness and disease and disasters, and death, not God, Satan hates you with the passion of everything that is evil incarnate. God on the other hand loves you with a love no human being can understand, no one knows the height or the depth or length or breadth.
Ephesians-3-14-And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully? Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.-
If you read this scripture from a Fathers perspective you will see that God desires you to know the depth of his love for you, he wants you to know the width and the length and the height and depth of his love for you, and to experience his love and experience the love of Christ Jesus also. He desires you to know he loves you as his son/ daughter, he wishes you to feel his love for you not just to know about it but to also feel it by an experience of his supernatural presence touching you.
When you understand how much your Father in heaven loves you, and know that he really does have a plan for you, your self image is changed permanently inside, brought about by the love of God your Father for you. Out of all the billions of people in this world God chose you to be his very own son/daughter and God never make’s a mistake in whom he chooses for his own You were created by God and for God and destined to live in God for all the days of your life, living a truly blessed life, and being filled with healing of rejection; how can you still feel rejected when you see how much you are loved. You have been called and chosen to live a supernatural life in Christ Jesus your brother and saviour also. The life you can live from this moment on can be the best life you could ever ask for, you can know with certainty that you are wanted and loved beyond any human love or affection.
Romans 8-15- 15 so you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. [h] Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”[i] 16 for his Spirit join’s with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. For all God gives to his son Jesus is now ours too.
God is saying in this scripture call out to me Father, Father, Abba means Father, and look what God is offering you, he is offering you an heirloom, he says you are his heirs, and an heir is set to inherit what the Father has, he is giving you his very own kingdom, everything God gave his son Jesus has now become yours also. God gave Jesus the firstborn Son everything he personally owned, and now he is giving you a share in the same massive fortune and kingdom that God owns.
Galatians-4-6-6 and because we[c] are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
[d] 7 now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. [e] And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. Again in this scripture God says to you I have made you an heir, and I don’t have to die to give you my kingdom and all that is in it, I chose to give it now, just like the prodigal’s son’s father gave him his inheritance, and he went away and spent it; you can wait for an uncle or aunt to die to leave you and inheritance, and they have to die before you receive it but you are given your inheritance now while the Father is alive, that’s love for you in action. You have two choices to make here at this point; to either believe God or to believe Satan, this is your choice entirely and no one else’s. Do you believe and accept God as your Father and all he has to offer, or do you chose to believe Satan the liar and destroyer, your choice can mean your healing or your continued torment; which do you chose?
You are a Son/daughter of God just like Jesus and you were planned from before time to arrive at this moment of truth, God knew you from before you were born and he has a plan for you as his son/daughter. Will you accept his invitation to let him love you through eternity from this moment on, or you have the free will to refuse, the choice is yours as I have already said, I hope you make the right one.
Let’s look at the following scripture and study it to see what it says. The first thing it says is, “who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?” No one –for God himself has given
us, {that’s you and me} right standing with himself. Right standing means that you are always in God’s favour at all times, you, the one no one wanted or ridiculed or put down, God chose you for his own and then challenges everyone to even dare criticise you or accuse you of being a waste of space or some other negative thing. Who can condemn us,{that means you and me} No one, “wow” no one can ever condemn us anymore, no one has the right to ever say a negative destructive word about us, that means those who mocked you or criticised you before has any power before God to say anything nasty about, Those words of God in scripture are life and are life to your spirit and are life changing words if you study them and take them on board, and begin to proclaim them to yourself. Because the word of God says; “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” you have to hear yourself speak those life changing words daily until you know inside you is transformed by the word of God, as scripture says, “your mind must be renewed by the word of God.” Your mind is what has been perverted by people putting you down as a child or even adult growing up, you accepted their negative words and those words crippled you inside; now God is crushing those negative words spoken over you and is crushing them into dust, to be blown away by his word spoken by you, he is renewing your mind by his love for you. Look who is pleading for you every day and night, Christ Jesus that’s who, imagine, Jesus Christ himself is actually praying and pleading for you to his and your father in heaven, and he is sitting beside his Father and your Father in heaven at his right hand, he is always talking to the Father about you.
Romans-8-33-who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Romans-8-35-Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[n]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
Can anything separate you from the love of God demonstrated by Christ Jesus himself, God is telling you that Jesus your brother loves you also, and it is he who gives you victory against those negative words spoken into your life, that means with Christ on your side as well as God you have everything you need to win the battles in your life. God is reassuring you all through his word that he was the one who loves you and he is the one with his son that made you in his own image, it matters not who didn’t love you up until now, Now today you can see for yourself that God loves you, Jesus loves you unconditionally and thinks that your just great.
Romans-8-38-and I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[o] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Have you been convinced yet that nothing can separate you from the love of God your Father in heaven? The angels won’t and the demons cant, all your worries can’t separate you from the love of God your Father shown to you through Jesus; nothing in all creation can ever separate you from the immeasurable love of God your father. When you know that you’re Heavenly Father loves you and cherishes you, because you are you, then healing has begun in you.
Matthew 6-26-26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
This scripture says you are worth much more than all the birds of the air and your heavenly Father feeds them, how much more will he look after you.
A prayer for healing for you; Heavenly Father Lies have been spoken over this child of yours, by Satan using people to speak those lies, and those lies have had a devastating effect until now in them. So by the power of your wonderful name Jesus, I break those lies and their effects in this person’s life, I break and dissolve all side effects and defects that have been left in this persons mind, in the mighty name of Jesus. I ask also that you wash their minds in the precious cleansing blood of Jesus, and that you sow in them the truth of your word, to the washing away of all negative words and actions that have dirty or soiled their minds. And that you bring them into a new life and healing, in you, for your greater glory and honour lord, in Jesus name, Amen