(Be blessed by this post by guest blogger, Luc Niebergall)

Right as I began school, my teachers noticed that I learned differently than the other children. Those who taught me assumed I had learning disabilities and enrolled me in special help classes. I felt as though I was being placed in the category of being stupid.

This of course wasn’t true. However, when you’re told by people who you look up to that you don’t learn well, you will quickly take on that trait as part of your identity.

It is fascinating how we dismiss what we don’t understand. Uniqueness which was meant to be a gift becomes quenched until it is completely snuffed out. Genius is a common component of every person’s identity; we just dismiss it because it often doesn’t fit into our forum of comfort.

After embracing this false label, I immediately stopped trying to do well in school. When my teachers would begin teaching the class I would automatically tune out because I assumed that I wasn’t smart enough to understand what they were going to say. This false perception of who I was followed me through all my years of education. Throughout my 12 years of schooling I had actually never finished a book because I tricked myself into believing I couldn’t understand what I read.

By the grace of God I somehow graduated high school. A few years after I finished my schooling, I distinctly remember the Father speaking to me through an encounter.

I was walking with the Father throughout a library in heaven when He led me to a section of books. As I pulled one of the books off of the shelf, He began to tell me that these books were letters which were set aside for the last-day church. I looked at the book’s cover and saw my name where the author’s name was usually written.
The Father then spoke to me and said; “Luc, you’ve always believed you were stupid; but I’m going to show you how brilliant I’ve created you to be.”

From this point on every time I would begin to feel as though I couldn’t achieve something as an intellectual, I would start speaking over myself that I was brilliant. I did this because I wanted to receive the new name my Father was trying to give me. He took my false identity and gave me a new one. He burned away the chaff of all of my teacher’s curses and unveiled hope and purpose.

When the Father spoke this truth into me and broke me out of category by revealing my sonship, I successfully finished the first book I ever read; the Bible. Shortly after this I began writing my first book.

It was a challenge to write, to say the least. It would take me about 45 minutes to focus my thoughts enough to write a single sentence. Yet, since I knew what the Lord spoke to me, I continued to write. After hours upon hours of work, I wrote the first 50 pages of my book.

To be honest with you, when I reread what I wrote it sounded like absolute gibberish. But the Lord then spoke to me and told me to begin rewriting my entire book. As I did, writing became natural. I could actually formulate my thoughts and compose proper sentences. In the span of 45 minutes instead of only writing a single sentence I could write pages.

Since I was able to receive what my Father said about me, I was able to break out of a false identity which before that point I had embraced for my entire life. Now I have the great privilege of impacting the masses as an author.

Revelation concerning your identity is found within the secret place of intimacy with the Father; nowhere else. Your most profound training for ministry won’t be behind a microphone; it will be in the cave. It will be in the face to face encounters you have with God. It’s in this place where the world’s assumptions of who you are begin to burn away, revealing who you were truly created to be.

(Luc Niebergall lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Eline where he ministers as the assistant pastor of Imagine Church. Luc has a passion for revival and to see heaven invade earth across the world. You can order his first book here.)