Get rid of negative labels

At one time or another, every one of us has been labeled, often by a frustrated, immature parent who didn’t understand that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

Labels define a person according to our personal view of them and their inability to perform according to our expectations or standards. But maybe they’re unaware of what we expect, or our expectations are unrealistic, or perhaps their past hurts make them rebellious or incapable.

We define people based on our perception of them at that moment instead of God’s mercy and His view of who they are in Jesus.

When we speak condemning, critical words about a person’s character, we release a curse over him or her and their destiny. Such words spoken early in life are buried deep in their subconscious mind. As they grow older, the buried message leaks out in every thought about themselves. That’s how many miss our destiny. We live the labels.

The father of a famous 1920’s industrialist labeled his young son “stupid” and told him he would never succeed. When the boy was 16, his teacher looked at his poor grades and agreed with his father, advising him to quit school and get a job. The teacher said he wasn’t smart enough to graduate. So the boy accepted the label, quit school and held a menial job.

Then one day his company gave every employee an IQ test and the boy discovered that he was a genius! From that day on, he exchanged the “stupid” label for “genius”. His whole life changed and he became a wealthy and famous man.

Think of labels people have put on you. Some can just be laughed at and shrugged off. Others still make you shudder. Today, many of us live under the curse of negative labels that have set false boundaries and limited our God-given potential. Labels also forge an assignment from hell over our life that supports the curse it created. People see us and treat us accordingly.

So what should we do about it?

• Ask God to reveal the labels that were placed on you by a parent or by someone you respect. It becomes a curse the moment you believe what it says about you.
• Forgive the person who labelled you. Then repent for believing those labels and for repeating them over yourself. Then appropriate the blood of Jesus and declare that curse to be broken over your life.
• Accept your identity in Jesus. Know the great life, power and destiny of Jesus that’s in you. Second Corinthians 4:7 says how God sees you: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” Always see yourself through the eyes of Jesus, not the label someone else put on you.
• Begin to dream again and break free from the false boundaries of those labels by consistently seeing and talking about yourself the way Jesus does. Research the many scriptures that talk about who you are in Jesus and confess them daily until you become them.
• Finally, avoid people who only see and talk about you in those negative labels. Some people will view you that way all your life. Surround yourself with people who can see you through the eyes of Jesus.

Negative labels are satan’s way of holding you back from your God-given right to succeed at what He’s called you to. Let this be the day that every label is broken and then refuse to allow anyone to ever label you again!

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