The Enemy Doesn’t Attack Your Purpose First. He Attacks Your Identity.

I’ve been thinking a lot about identity lately.

Not just who we say we are. Not our titles, degrees, jobs, relationships, accomplishments, or the roles we play for everybody else.

I mean who we believe we are when all of that is stripped away.

Because I’ve realized something:

The enemy doesn’t have to take your purpose from you if he can convince you that you’re not the person God called to walk in it.

Sit with that for a minute.

We spend so much time worried about whether we’re going to fulfill our purpose. We pray about purpose. We ask God to reveal our purpose. We buy books about purpose. We attend conferences about purpose.

But what if the real battle isn’t always over the purpose?

What if the battle is over whether you believe you are the woman God says you are?

God Gave the Purpose

There are gifts God placed inside of you.

There are things He called you to do.

There are people you are supposed to impact. Rooms you are supposed to enter. Things you are supposed to build. Lessons you are supposed to teach. Stories you are supposed to tell.

And the enemy does not get to rewrite what God placed inside of you.

But he can work overtime trying to distort the way you see yourself.

Because if he can convince a gifted woman that she isn't capable, she may never use the gift.

If he can convince a called woman that she isn't qualified, she may never answer the call.

If he can convince a loved woman that she isn't worthy of love, she may spend years accepting things that don't look anything like love.

If he can convince a chosen woman that nobody chooses her, she may spend her life begging people to validate something God already settled.

See where I'm going?

Sometimes the enemy doesn't need to destroy the assignment.

He just needs you to doubt the person carrying it.

And Sometimes the Lie Doesn’t Look Like a Lie

This is where identity attacks get tricky.

Because nobody necessarily walks up to you and says, “Hi, I'm here to destroy the way you see yourself today.”

If it were that obvious, we'd be prepared.

Instead, sometimes it looks like rejection.

Sometimes it looks like being overlooked.

Sometimes it looks like the person you loved choosing someone or something else.

Sometimes it looks like failure.

Sometimes it looks like the thing you prayed for not happening.

Sometimes it looks like somebody making you feel like you are too much or somehow never enough.

And sometimes it happens so gradually that you don't even realize you've changed the way you see yourself.

Something happened.

You interpreted what happened.

And somewhere between the experience and the healing, you formed a belief about yourself.

Maybe I'm not enough.

Maybe I'm hard to love.

Maybe I'm not as talented as I thought.

Maybe nobody really wants me.

Maybe I'm always going to be overlooked.

Maybe everybody else has something I don't.

And eventually, you stop saying maybe.

You just start living like it's true.

But What Happened to You Is Not Your Identity

This one has been important for me to learn:

An experience can be real without the conclusion you drew about yourself being true.

You really may have been rejected.

You really may have been overlooked.

Somebody really may have mistreated you.

The relationship really may have ended.

The opportunity really may have gone to somebody else.

The disappointment was real.

The hurt was real.

But the lie you attached to the hurt does not automatically become truth.

Someone failing to recognize your value does not determine your value.

Someone not choosing you does not mean you aren't chosen.

Someone mishandling your heart does not mean you are difficult to love.

A closed door does not mean you have no purpose.

And a season where you cannot see what God is doing does not mean God has forgotten what He put inside of you.

That's where we have to start separating what happened from who we are.

Go Back to the Source

Ephesians 1:4 says that God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world.

Before the rejection.

Before the heartbreak.

Before the mistake.

Before the disappointment.

Before anybody had an opportunity to form an opinion about you.

God had already spoken.

And maybe that's where the identity reset has to begin.

Not with becoming somebody new.

But with going back and asking:

What did God say about me before life taught me to believe something different?

Because some of us have spent years allowing experiences to introduce us to versions of ourselves that God never named.

Rejected.

Unwanted.

Not enough.

Too much.

Behind.

Unqualified.

Unlovable.

Invisible.

And we've carried those names so long that they started answering when we called.

But they were never yours.

Maybe It’s Time for an Identity Reset

This is what I'm working through in this season.

I'm learning that healing isn't only about recovering from what happened.

Sometimes healing means examining what what happened taught me to believe about myself.

And then holding those beliefs up against the Word of God.

Does God call me that?

Did God say that about me?

Is this truth or is this pain talking?

Because I'm not interested in spending the rest of my life living from an identity created by rejection, disappointment, fear, or somebody else's inability to see me correctly.

I want to see myself the way God sees me.

And I want that for you too.

So throughout this series, we're going to talk about the lies.

Where they come from.

How they take root.

How our experiences can reinforce them.

How we unknowingly start living according to them.

And, most importantly, how we replace them with truth.

Because your purpose was never the enemy's easiest target.

Your identity was.

And maybe the way you protect the purpose is by finally remembering who is carrying it.

Before you leave, ask yourself this:

What happened in my life that changed the way I see myself and what did I start believing about myself because of it?

Don't rush to fix it.

Just identify it.

Because you can't challenge a lie you haven't recognized yet.

And guess what...

we're about to recognize some lies.

— Coach D 💗