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When Identity Protection Becomes Pretension

6 minute Video

We all have a version of ourselves we’re protecting—a story we’ve told so many times we believe it’s true. I’m building this business for Kingdom impact. I’m following God’s leading. This is my calling, and I’m destined to make a lot of money. I have of an influential future showing others how to do the same. But what if some of these declarations are pretensions—sophisticated lies we tell ourselves to avoid the uncomfortable truth that we’re actually protecting our soulish identity as a performing servant rather than following the Lamb as a co-laboring son, Rev 14:4?

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The Anatomy of Pretension

Paul gives us the roadmap:

2Cor 10:4 – The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
                         On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
                      5)   We demolish arguments and every pretension
                         that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
                      and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Kingdom business can degenerate to a simple belief that God wants me to perform: make a lot of money, lead a big impact, and have large following, visibility.

A pretension is a claim we make that sounds spiritual but is really about identity preservation. It’s the Christian entrepreneur who says, “God told me” when they really mean “I want this.” It’s a belief about what God should do to fit our paradigm, instead of hearing what He is doing and doing it with Him (Jn 5:19-20). It’s the business owner who spiritualizes their ambition as “Kingdom purpose” while ignoring red flags in their finances and relationships. It’s seeking out a circle of codependent friends who reinforce the lie.

These pretensions function like strongholds—fortified positions in our thinking that feel safe but actually keep us from hearing Father, Jesus, and the 7 Spirits in the Council. Think prisons! The whole goal of discipleship is sonship, sons and daughters free of pretension who follow the Lamb. They learn by experiences in Heaven and exploits on earth, not instruction in class.

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The Addictive Personality Syndrome

Here’s where it gets uncomfortable: pretensions operate like addictions. A friend of mine once asked a man who had been a heroin addict, but now ministered to addicts in Seattle in Teen Challenge, “How do you know when they are lying?” He answered dryly, “When their lips are moving.”

An addictive personality seeks pleasure, comfort, or identity from external sources. We become addicted to:

• Our own narrative “I’m the visionary entrepreneur” – the lies we tell ourselves
• The approval we get from our spiritual-sounding declarations, and followers
• The identity we’ve constructed around our self-serving dreams
• The dopamine hit of believing we’re special, called, favored, wealthy, and visible

Like any addiction, these identity-protecting lies require increasing doses. We double down on our story, even when evidence suggests we’re off course. We surround ourselves with people who affirm our pretensions. We avoid the hard conversations—with God, peers, wife, and our accountant.

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Why We Lie to Ourselves

The root is simple: fear of discovering we’re not who we thought we were.

What if my dream isn’t from God? What if I’ve been building my kingdom, not His? What if I have to pivot, start over, or admit I was wrong? These questions threaten our carefully constructed identity, so we lie to preserve it.

Heb 4:12 – The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,
it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;
it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Living Words from God divide soul and spirit—they separate what comes from our soulish need for identity protection from what Father is actually saying to His sons and daughters. Most of us avoid this surgery because it hurts. Discipline is unpleasant in the moment, yet it bears the fruit of authenticity and transparency in the long-term, Heb 12:5-11.

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Two Reality Tests That Expose Our Lies

#1: Conversations in the Council

The first reality test is simple but terrifying: Have you actually heard anything from God?

Not a verse you cherry-picked. Not something a prophet said five years ago that you’re still riding. Not a feeling you had that confirmed what you already wanted. Not a revelatory crumb that fell from the table.

I mean Living Words—fresh, specific, current conversations in the Council with Father, Jesus, and the 7 Spirits. Words that are sometimes surprising, often uncomfortable, and always life-giving even when they redirect you.

Jn 5:19 – The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do.
For whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise.
20)   For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all the things that He Himself does.
 And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may marvel.

If your “calling” exists entirely in your head without regular conversations in the Council, you might be protecting a pretension rather than following the Lamb. You might be following a servant’s religious script instead of a son co-laboring with Father in real time.

#2: The Cash Flow Projection Reality Check

Here’s the second test, and it’s brutally practical: Do a cash flow projection on your Ps 37:4 dream.

Ps 37:4 – Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

We love to quote this. But have you run the numbers on your “God-given dream”?

• How much revenue does this require?
• What’s the timeline to profitability?
• What’s the gap between where you are and where you need to be?
• Can you afford to keep pursuing this, or are you bleeding your family and business dry?

Cash flow doesn’t lie. Spreadsheets are unimpressed by spiritual language. If your dream requires a miracle every month just to survive; consider whether Father is doing this with you.

Jn 21:18 – When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted;
but when you are old you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

Sometimes Father’s leading looks like going where we don’t want to go—like releasing a dream, pivoting a business, admitting we misheard, or death of our vision. Purpose is not just what happens to be in my heart, it’s primarily what is in Father’s heart. Alignment brings anointing when sons and Father are on the same page, the definition of righteousness! Taking up your cross is the prerequisite for following Jesus, Mt 16:24-25.

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Breaking Free from Pretension

The pathway out of self-deception requires brutal honesty in two realms:

• Spiritually: Stop performing your calling and start having actual conversations. Ascend to the Council. Ask Father what’s on His heart instead of rattling of your list of wants and needs. Listen for answers that aren’t on your script. Let Living Words divide/discern your soulish ambitions and your spiritual aspirations.
• Practically: Look at your cash flow. Let the numbers speak. If your business can’t sustain itself without constant crisis, debt, or financial strain, that’s data. Don’t spiritualize dysfunction and presumption.

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The Liberation of Truth

Here’s the surprising gift: when you stop protecting your pretensions, you discover your authentic identity—the one Father has been trying to reveal all along.

You’re not as great as who you pretend to be. You’re not as bad as who you fear you might be. You are who Father says you are when you’re brave enough to hear His voice without filtering it through your need for self-protection and promotion.

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The lies we tell ourselves keep us in bondage.
Presumption is a prison, a stronghold.

So ask yourself:

• What pretension am I protecting?
• What would I discover if I actually listened to Father instead of my need for identity preservation, the servant’s script?
• What do the numbers in my cash flow reveal about my heart’s ambitions, the gap between my declarations and reality?

The weapons we fight with in the Courts and Council of Heaven have divine power to demolish strongholds—but first, we have to admit the stronghold exists. Father is raising up Ezekiel’s army of David’s might men who do exploits and greater works… it’s starts with Sonship, Ascension, and Reformation.

Want to learn how to hear Living Words in the Council and align your business with Father’s actual purpose? Register for our next masterclass where we help entrepreneurs move from pretension to authentic Kingdom business.

 

Ten Substitutes for Conversations in the Council