There is no reason we should approach life intimidated by anyone or anything because God has gone before us.
Over the past week, I have been heavily meditating on the concept of Dominion + Strength, and how it applies practically. I was prompted by the fact that God has been rapidly enlarging our territory tangibly and intangibly. I found myself feeling overwhelmingly thankful, humbled, and strong!
I shared these sentiments with my husband, who coincidentally had been meditating on true Holiness and Wholeness in his daily study. While we have had hours long in depth chats about these concepts, in this post I wanted to convey the most pertinent take aways from those convos in the most concise way possible. If I had a dry erase board, I would just create a diagram, but since I don't, here goes:
Often times God will lead us to a place that we feel intimidated to operate within. We are up for promotion and we doubt if we are really the right person to be selected for the job. We get approved on a loan to buy a new house and find the perfect space and we question whether or not we are ready for that level of responsibility. We have an amazing start-up business idea and we worry if we will meet demand, before we even begin. We find ourselves fearing success. Let us not forget we have been given dominion + strength overall things. If God brought you there then you are equipped! So then I ask do you really believe he brought you there or do you not believe that he has equipped you?
The Fall
Adam and Eve were the first people to suffer from Imposter Syndrome because the were the first to doubt that they were truly like God; Whole, despite the evident dominion and prosperity they had in the garden, and close relationship with God. According to the Harvard Business review Imposter Syndrome can be defined as "a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. 'Imposters' suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence." When the pair didn't believe their holy likeness wasn't already rooted in God, they took it upon themselves to create their own "God like nature" by performing an act, that they believed would make them more like Him. To put it differently, when Adam and Eve didn't believe that they were already whole/holy like God they were tempted to seek it out for themselves (because you can only be tempted by things that you want). If they truly believed in their "God likeness"/wholeness/holiness then they could have never been tempted to pursue it by another means outside of what God had already shown and told them.
When God created the earth he gave us dominion over ALL things (from bugs to entire nations) via Adam and Eve. When they sinned due to their unbelief, they were cursed(destined to fail), Therefore the "ALL things" now had dominion over them! Hence why they became aware of their nakedness/shame and why we sometimes fear bugs!
They were suddenly aware of their inadequacy/their "unlike God-ness". Hence, why we wear clothes to this day and why we went from having a world that we were assigned to rule over, to having a world that is broken and rules over us. It's the very reason why we have fear, sickness, shame, inadequacy, inferiority, and every -ism known to man on our backs.
One last chance.
When God sent his Perfect/whole/holy son, who also was tempted like Eve was in the very same way, (reference: Matthew 4:1-If thou are truly the son of God...), it provided another and final opportunity for mankind to be Whole again, thus restoring the dominion we once held over this world. When accepted salvation we were introduced to a new dynamic: Christ now living within us, not just with us, ergo making us whole/holy as we once were created to be, because no other man-made/flawed practice could do it otherwise.
Sin itself was never our root issue, but our disbelief that we are already whole/holy by way of God's grace. Sin is simply the byproduct of the disbelief we hold.
The enemy tries to attack our identities because it's the easiest way to confuse and lead us to doubt that we are already whole/enough/holy. Therefore motivating us to create our own self-effortful identities, that are not rooted in the wholeness we already possess. Adam and Eve didn't believe they were adequate enough/whole/holy to really be like God. Therefore, anytime we suffer from imposter syndrome, it simply means we have shown up to where God has brought us not believing in the wholeness he has already provided for us, thus operating in self-effort.
"Anytime we suffer from imposter syndrome, it simply means we are showing up to where God has brought us not believing in the wholeness he has already provided for us."
Because we are free moral agents, God can't make us believe we are like him: whole, we have to choose to. We have to choose to be whole in him by simply accepting his salvation available to us. We maintain the dominion + strength we have been given when we operate from a place of wholeness, which is in relationship to the God that lives within us. We are simply a people seeking to reclaim our God like identities in this broken world and it has been available to us all along.
If you have the holy spirit/whole-ly spirit living within, it means you have dominion and strength over all things. There is no reason we should approach life intimidated by anything and definitely not as an imposter, not in love + relationships, career endeavors, exercise + fitness, academics, health + wellness, growth + development, finances, personal identity, self-esteem, the unknown + the future and anything else you put your mind toward!
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