My identity limitations, when it concerns what God says about me, are totally contingent on what I say about myself, because my heart, with very few exceptions, is the center of my self-awareness. That's what defines me, who I say I am. Those limitations don't come from a lack of education or economic background. When we're born again, we are given new hearts. That's definitely good news, but we have to renew our minds; the other part of the heart. When I talk about the heart, I want to make clear that it has two aspects. Just like our brains have a left side and a right side, the heart, according to scripture, is made up of two parts. The first part is the spirit, the pneuma, which the Bible says is "the hidden man of the heart" (1 Peter 3:4).The second part is the soul, which consists of the mind, the will, and the emotions. One of these is permanently saved-the spirit. The part that's in the process of being saved is the soul. Our spirits were made perfect when we were born again, but the soul is being saved as we're bathed by the rhema utterance of God, as we're washed by the word of God. Let me put it another way. Your self-image is being developed by something. If it's being developed by something other than what Jesus says about you, you're left with a false sense of identity, a false sense of self. The only truth is what Jesus says about you-not what your circumstances say, not what your spouse says, not what your children say, not what your boyfriend or girlfriend says. Again: the only truth is what Jesus says about you. Believing that will make all the difference in the world and will change your relationships-all of them. Remember when I said that your relationships are determined by your identity?
