04 Well, I do declare!

Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

Why is it easier to develop bad habits than it is to break them, and harder to develop good habits but easier to break those? Nevertheless, that weekend I resolved to read my declarations out daily. We were encouraged to make our declarations personal by constructing them from the position of our identity in Christ. In this way we would declare into reality and truth the Christlike characteristics that we want to see in ourselves.

Some years ago, after a visit from Steve and Wendy Backlund to our church, I was inspired to start speaking out declarations. I particularly liked the ones they wrote for children. I printed these out on card for my child and for quite some time we would read these out aloud over breakfast. Sometimes, we made up a tuneto sing them like a sung liturgy.

However, I always found it difficult to make it into a habit. Something would always happen and I would forget or run out of time and my designated time slot would pass by. The worst part of it was that I would feel guilty and deflated and feel like a failure. Then I would stop altogether. Feeling like a failure, has for a long time, been part of the baggage that I carried from my youth and early adult life. Doing something ritualistically everyday made me feel bound and constricted. After a while, feelings of resentment would surface.

Despite all this misgivings, in April 2021 I started speaking my declarations out loud.

Yes, between then and now there have been more days of silence than there have been of declaring. The difference now though is that I don’t beat myself up about it, as much. If several days pass before I remember or have an opportunity to say them, I don’t give it another thought. This is because I have a lived reality of the truth that my standing before God has not diminished. I say ‘a lived reality’ because although I understood it doctrinally as head knowledge, I now live it as part of my daily reality and experience. God neither loves me more nor less than he did before. His love for me has always been the same, even before he hung the stars in the sky.

The impact they have made in my life cannot be understated. I have been able to see how they have been transforming not only different areas of my life but also the lives of my family and community, since I wrote declarations for them too. My faith and courage have increased, since God started to open up windows of opportunity for me. The change in gear of my faith lifestyle has unsurprisingly got the enemy on the run. Since starting my declarations my health condition took a sudden nose dive, after propping my mobile phone between my left shoulder and my chin, resulting in an audible crack.

If the idea of declarations appeal to you, here are the ones I wrote for myself. They have evolved and developed as I have grown into my Identity as God’s Precious Daughter.

I am a worshipper and I host the presence of God.

I live in joy and peace which I release into others, my home and community.

I will release people into freedom and hope, to lead fulfilled lives.

I am emotionally strong, confident in my royal identity and have a God given creative gift.

I have been anointed for healing and will see the miraculous in people’s lives.

Each day, God will reveal exciting opportunities for me to be a powerful women of God in more ways than I can imagine, including dreams as I sleep.

The kingdom of heaven and the culture of honour is powerfully present in our home, going beyond our boundaries and shifting atmospheres.

I declare Heaven’s purposes over my physical and cognitive health.

All ailments will be banished from my body as I stand firm against the fiery arrows of the enemy and declare and share the goodness of Almighty God.