Whenever I go through transition in my life from one place or season to the next, I always wonder what it will be and feel like. Will I feel the same as I do now? Will I wish I had or hadn’t made that decision? But of course, I can really only guess until I actually experience it.

I feel like our “reality” is absolutely persuaded and built by our environment, by our cultural norms, by the movies and shows we watch, by our family, by our friends and their opinions, and the list goes on…our reality is formed in majority by the voices we allow to define it. We could believe something is real or not based on many factors. Someone in the next house down the street most likely experiences a completely different reality based on what they’ve seen and walked through, and the people that have surrounded them their whole life.

How often do the questions, the thoughts, or the worries that pop up in your head define your reality? Or even begin to define who you think you are? I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of the shame and guilt spirals that are so common in minds today…I used to deal with them myself.

Growing up, we used to read a book series that began with a book titled “The Magic Bicycle” by John Bibee. I remember some scenes in the book (and the series) that detailed the author’s depiction of the spiritual realm in a powerful way. It stuck with me because the people he would describe would unknowingly be drug around in chains they couldn’t see in a reality they didn’t know existed. Unless their eyes were supernaturally opened, they would never see the truth of who they were and what was happening around them.

I think this is one of the reasons why Jesus is so adamant in John 14 that HE is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. If we allow anything other than HIM to define our reality, to speak into it, to mold and shape it, our reality becomes twisted – like a window smeared, bent, marred by little creases, cracks, and fog – lies that cause us to see everything differently than how Jesus sees it.

The enemy doesn’t have to kill and destroy you – if he can just twist your reality enough to make you think God is someone He’s not, and / or you are someone you’re not, he’s stolen what makes you dangerous to him.

When was the last time you did a reality check? I want to encourage you today to take inventory of your thoughts, what the voices around you are saying – write them out, and line them up against who Jesus is and what He says about Him and about you. When you find inconsistencies, renounce those beliefs and declare your agreement with the truth of Jesus over your life and your reality. You were made to walk in the reality of heaven here on earth and release that reality all around you!

We can’t afford to see God, ourselves, or our circumstances (yes, even COVID) as anything other than what HE says or thinks. Otherwise, we’re living in our own virtual reality.

Leighton