8/21/26 | Written by Idina Cole
There are some things we carry for so long that we stop realizing we're carrying them. They become so familiar that they don't even feel like something we picked up along the way. They just feel like us. Maybe it's the way you always expect something to go wrong, so you stay prepared for disappointment. Maybe you second-guess yourself before making decisions because somewhere along the way you learned that trusting wasn't safe. Maybe you feel the need to control what happens next because uncertainty makes you uncomfortable. Or maybe there's a quiet belief that you don't really have enough, even when God has already provided something for you to steward. You may not call these things anything. You may simply say, "That's just how I am."
That was part of what caught my attention when I found myself back in Exodus 33. I've read this chapter so many times, and I love this story because of Moses' hunger for the presence of God. But this time, I found myself stopping at something I had read over before. God told Moses that He was going to send an angel before them and that He would drive out the inhabitants of the land. I knew their names ... the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites but this time I didn't want to simply read past them. I wanted to understand why they were there and why God specifically said He would drive them out.
The more I sat with the passage, the more the question changed. I wasn't just asking, "Who were the inhabitants?" I was asking, "What has been occupying territory in me?" Because God had already promised the land. That part had not changed. The people had rebelled. They had made the golden calf. God knew exactly what they had done, and He called them stiff-necked and rebellious. Yet He was still honoring the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promise was still there. The land was still there. God was still moving them toward it. But there were still inhabitants in the land.
That stopped me because sometimes we assume that if God is leading us toward something, then everything inside of us must already be ready for it. We can think the promise means the preparation is finished, but what I saw in Exodus 33 was different. The promise, the blessing and the preparation were happening at the same time. God could be leading you toward something He has promised while simultaneously revealing the things inside of you that cannot come with you into that next season.
And suddenly I wasn't thinking about Israel anymore. I was thinking about me.
I started thinking about the things God has been showing me throughout my own journey, especially the poverty mindset. For years, I thought poverty was primarily about money, but the Father began showing me that poverty had occupied much more territory in me than my bank account. It affected the way I thought. It affected the way I saw myself. It affected the way I made decisions. I could receive something and still feel like it wasn't enough. I could hold tightly to what I had because I was afraid I wouldn't have it again. I could make decisions based on what I had experienced before and call it wisdom when underneath it was fear.
I didn't wake up one morning and decide to develop a poverty mindset. Some of those beliefs were formed through my childhood, my environment, my experiences, and what I had witnessed over the years. Eventually, they became so familiar that I stopped questioning them. That's what happens when something has occupied territory for a long time. You stop noticing that it's there, and eventually you start building your life around it.
That made me look at Exodus 33 differently. Maybe the things God wants to drive out of our lives aren't necessarily keeping us from the promise. Maybe some of them are keeping us from fully living from the identity He has already given us. That's a different question than, "What's wrong with me?" The better question is, "What has been occupying space?" Because there is a difference between struggling with fear and allowing fear to tell you who you are. There is a difference between experiencing rejection and allowing rejection to determine your worth. There is a difference between learning to survive scarcity and deciding that scarcity is your identity.
What happened to you may explain why you think the way you think, but it doesn't get to define who you are.
That distinction matters because the Father isn't standing over you with a list of everything you've done wrong, waiting for you to become better before He can love you. When He reveals something, He's inviting you into relationship with Him around it. And this is the part that really shifted something in me. God didn't tell Moses, "You figure out how to get these people out."
No, He said, "I will drive them out." God was going before them.
That doesn't mean Israel had no responsibility. They still had to follow Him. They still had to trust Him. They still had to obey. But the removal itself was something God would accomplish as they walked with Him. That gives me so much peace because I know how easy it is to hear something like this and immediately turn it into another self-improvement project. "What do I need to fix? What do I need to change? How do I get rid of this?" And before you know it, you're striving again. In situations like this, my job is to trust Him and trust Him in the process.
And with that mindset, maybe the Father's invitation is simpler: Come here, daughter. Look at this with Me.
Not, "Look at what's wrong with you." Look at what I've been trying to show you.
If fear keeps showing up, ask Him what fear has taught you to believe about yourself and about Him. If scarcity keeps influencing your decisions, ask Him what you believe about provision. If control keeps showing up, ask Him what you're afraid will happen if you release it. If you constantly feel the need to prove yourself, ask Him where you learned that your value had to be earned. Let Him show you.
Because He isn't revealing it to shame you. He's revealing it because He is reclaiming territory. He is driving out the inhabitants from your heart.
And that's where identity comes into this conversation. The question isn't only, "What is God driving out?" It's also, "What is He making room for?" When you've lived from fear for a long time, peace can feel unfamiliar. When you've lived from scarcity, abundance can feel unsafe. When you've spent years controlling everything, surrender can feel like you're losing something. When you've had to prove yourself, receiving love without earning it can feel uncomfortable.
So the Father doesn't simply remove the old way of thinking and leave you there. He teaches you something new. That's what He's done in me with the poverty mindset. He didn't simply tell me to stop thinking from scarcity. He began teaching me how to see provision differently. He began teaching me that what He puts in my hands isn't simply something to possess. It is something to steward. And stewardship requires relationship. It requires His wisdom. It requires His presence.
That's why Moses' response in Exodus 33 matters so much to me. Moses understood that the land wasn't enough if God's presence wasn't going with them. He essentially said, "If Your presence does not go with us, don't send us." Moses wasn't simply interested in getting the promise. He wanted God with him while he received it.
That is what I want too. I don't want increase without wisdom. I don't want provision without the ability to steward it. I don't want to arrive somewhere externally while still living internally from the identity I was supposed to leave behind. I want His presence. I want His way of thinking to become the way I think. I want to live from who He says I am instead of what fear, lack, rejection, comparison, or my past has taught me.
And this is why I created the Kingdom Identity Assessment. I don't see the assessment as a quiz that tells you what's wrong with you. I created it as a mirror. A mirror doesn't judge you. It shows you what's there. Sometimes you look at yourself and realize, "How long have I been walking around like this?" You didn't need the mirror to condemn you. You needed it to help you see.
That's how I see the Kingdom Identity Assessment. It can help bring some of those patterns into your awareness so you can begin asking better questions with the Father. What has been influencing the way I see myself? What has been influencing the way I make decisions? What have I been agreeing with that God never said?
Because there are things that can occupy territory without having the authority to define you.
- Fear may have influenced you, but fear is not your identity.
- Scarcity may have shaped some of your decisions, but scarcity is not your inheritance.
- Rejection may have wounded you, but rejection does not determine your worth.
- Your past may explain some of your patterns, but your past does not get the final word about your future.
The Father does.
A Morning Stillness Practice
If you have a few quiet minutes today, sit with the Father and ask Him, "Father, what has been occupying territory in me that You never intended to stay there?" Then be still. Don't rush to answer for Him. Pay attention to what comes to mind. You might recognize fear, scarcity, comparison, control, rejection, perfectionism, insecurity, or something else entirely. When something surfaces, ask, "Where did I learn this? Is this what You say about me?" Then bring that belief back to Scripture and allow the Father to show you what is true.
You don't have to uncover everything today. Just let Him show you the next thing.
One Step Back Toward the Father
When that old thought or familiar pattern shows up today, pause before automatically agreeing with it. Instead of allowing the old belief to make the decision for you, take that moment back to the Father and ask, "What is true here?" That may seem small, but this is how realignment happens. We begin noticing what has been occupying territory, and then we stop automatically agreeing with it. Little by little, the Father reclaims ground.
And perhaps that's what He has been doing in your life too. Maybe you thought He was taking something from you when He was actually making room for something He wants to restore. You don't have to become someone else. You are learning to live from the daughter He created you to be.
So let Him search your heart without fear. Let Him show you what has been occupying territory. Let Him drive out what doesn't belong, and let Him restore what has been buried underneath old beliefs, fear, striving, and survival.
And when He leads you into the next place, don't become so focused on the promise that you forget the Presence of the One who promised it. You are still His daughter while He is correcting you. You are still His daughter while He is healing you. You are still His daughter while He is teaching you how to steward what He places in your hands and you are still His daughter while He is reclaiming territory in your heart.
The goal was never simply to get you into the promise. It was always to bring you deeper into the heart of the Father.
Maybe that's what He is inviting you into today. Sit with Him. Let Him show you. Break agreement with it. Align with His word. Then take one step with Him.
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