BUT I AM AFRAID THAT JUST AS EVE WAS DECEIVED BY THE SERPENT’S CUNNING, YOUR MINDS MAY SOMEHOW BE LED ASTRAY FROM YOUR SINCERE AND PURE DEVOTION TO CHRIST
(2 Corinthians 11:3).

The father-of-lies had a perfect plan when he attacked our relationship with God. He led our minds astray through our own childhood misinterpretations. Using them to his advantage, he turned these into his negative, destructive beliefs—deception that is strong enough to kill, steal, and destroy. Thus, the OLD MAN was born—a personality that speaks to us through our very own thoughts, with our very own voices, through our very own childhood conclusions.

PUT OFF…THE OLD MAN, WHICH IS CORRUPT ACCORDING TO THE DECEITFUL LUSTS
(Ephesians 4:22).

Over the years, these childhood misinterpretations—the negative, destructive beliefs in the OLD MAN—grouped together to form a Deserted Child, a Defiled Child, a Defeated Child, and a Deprived Child in us. The Deserted Child consists of the negative, destructive beliefs that deem us forgotten and abandoned by God. The Defiled Child is made up of the group of accusatory beliefs that deem us doomed and damned by God. The Defeated Child, raised by the father-of-lies, functions as the set of shame-infested beliefs that accuse us, daily, of not being good enough for God. And the Deprived Child oppresses us, moment-by-moment, with beliefs that God has rejected us.

Together, these OLD MAN characters keep us from experiencing God’s Presence. We desire to be loved by God, but the Deserted Child, under the management of the father-of-lies, barges in and lies “God does not care about you.” We want to be good, but the Defiled Child, controlled by the father-of-lies, interferes with the words, “You are evil from the inside out and nothing and nobody can change you…not even God.” We long for a purpose that would make us special, but the Defeated Child, formed by the father-of-lies, always reminds us that “You are a disappointment to yourself and God. There is nothing special about you. You do not count and have no purpose.” We long to have a relationship with God, but the Deprived Child intervenes by saying, “God does not want you!” Thus, the father-of-lies achieves his purpose—to oppose God’s Truth, so we might be separated from our relationship with God, to belong to him, instead.

PUT OFF THE OLD MAN…AND…PUT ON THE NEW MAN, WHICH IS RENEWED IN KNOWLEDGE AFTER THE IMAGE OF HIM THAT CREATED HIM
(Colossians 3:9-10).

How have you noticed these OLD MAN personalities interfering with your relationship with God, over the years?

Do you want to experience God’s Presence, daily? Then, you need to stop relying on your Deserted Child interpretations, your Defiled Child conclusions, your Defeated Child assumptions, and your Deprived Child beliefs. Instead, ask God for HIS Truth. Then, He will exchange these beliefs for a Redeemed Child, created in His Image.

PRAYER: Lord God, bring me to the place where I will have a real relationship with You through the NEW MAN.