Overcoming the Victim Mentality: Embracing Our Identity in Christ

The world is full of victims of one description or another, it's kind of uncanny. Practically every modern movie that you watch or every story that you read, it's about some victim. The news reporters, they climb all over themselves to be able to get a story about some victim because society loves a good victim. [00:17:24]

Satan tries to make us a victim in one of these areas for a reason, and he doesn't stop there because his work is not complete until he can get us to center in on the area where we've been victimized. He wants us to think about that, sometimes not only think about it but see ourselves that way, talk about it. [00:20:31]

A victim mentality will always think negatively in the area where they've been victimized. They always will. So think about it. I'm not talking about a victim who has been healed and they're moving on with God. That's not what we're talking about today. I'm talking about someone who still sees himself as a victim. [00:28:52]

Now, I could give you just one word to describe how a victim feels. You know what that one word would be? Okay, they feel helpless. That's a word that would describe every time. Anytime the devil makes you feel helpless, do something about it. Don't. The moment you think that, stop and think why am I feeling helpless. [00:46:39]

He revolted at that term victim. It just made him draw back, it made him angry. So he began to search the scriptures, and he found where Jesus saw the woman with the spirit of infirmity. She had been under that infirmity for 18 years, and he said surely this woman is a daughter of Abram and this ought not to be. [05:45:24]

You will not get healed, you'll not get your deliverance, you'll not see victory as long as you see yourself as a victim of it. This is so important. I hope you're taking this in. Now, it may be subconscious, but as long as you're seeing yourself as a victim, you're not going to become an overcomer. [07:56:52]

Jesus never allowed us to see ourselves as a victim. You'll notice in and study his life, never. He never allowed us to see ourselves as a victim. Right in the middle of The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 51 and 12, Jesus stopped and he said you will be falsely accused, man will revile you, man will persecute you. [09:42:59]

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad anyway because if you'll not receive that victimization, you're going to win. So Jesus was teaching this. He might not have used the word victim, but he's definitely describing a victim. He wasn't saying it's okay that you're being treated that way, but he was stating a fact. [10:20:48]

Rejoice because you are not a victim. That's basically what he was saying. He says you are an overcomer, and he was saying you can win in the long run if you'll go with me and if you'll do it my way. So he was saying don't receive that victimization. You can't be a victim and an overcomer at the same time. [11:07:20]

God created us with a protective wall around our soul and around our spirit. He created us that way, and he did that on purpose. And part of the reason was so that we would not take in the attitude of a victim. Now, just like the physical body is covered by skin to hold out the germs and the bacteria. [14:39:04]

The promises of God, the blood of Jesus, these are real, and this is a protection that absolutely cannot be penetrated unless we take in the assault. That's the only way it can come in. Now, if those assaults are taken in, then they're going to cause a breach or a break in that protective wall that God has put us around us. [15:20:39]

Self-victimization is a big one. It's the self-victimization that's one of the common areas where people subconsciously set themselves up to be a victim. For example, people who are in rejection. Rejection is a biggie. Many times a person who fears rejection will actually set himself up to be rejected. [30:00:72]