Did you enjoy the Narnia books and movies? I sure did. There was a moment in Prince Caspian that was particularly powerful and memorable for me.

To explain, I have to go back to the first Narnia story, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. In it, bears had voices, and were good and loyal to Aslan. They walked side by side with the just-introduced kings and queens of Narnia—Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy. But fifteen hundred years have passed between that story and Prince Caspian, and the royalty of Narnia were just discovering how different and ugly things were when Lucy comes upon a bear.

Naturally, she assumes a kinship with the beast. “Hello there, Mr. Bear!” However, the bear, intending to kill Lucy, charges her only to be stopped by the arrow of a Narnian dwarf. Shocked, Lucy asks, “What’s happened to the animals?” to which the dwarf replies, “Treat them like mere animals long enough, and they’ll forget who they are.”

I think the same thing has happened to us—the sons and daughters of God. Oftentimes our enemy seeks to hinder us not by rejecting us overtly and outright, but by slowly and persistently inducing us to abide by this world’s vision, methods and goals, one day to believe we are little different than those of this world. To borrow the dwarf’s response to Lucy, “Treat them like mere men long enough and they’ll forget who they are.”

In my little world of experience, here’s how Christians who have forgotten who they are (or never knew it to begin with) sometimes sound: “I’m only human, aren’t I?” To be succinct, here’s my response: “Hell, no.” That’s where that thinking comes from.

The apostle Paul chided the Corinthians for just this kind of thinking and behaving: “You are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not fleshly? Are you not acting like mere humans?” (1 Corinthians 3:3.)

Did you catch that? You and I will never again be merely men or merely women, never again once-born human. We’re the twice-born! Anyone who has believed and received Jesus has not only had a change in standing with God, but a re-born change in nature—a change in our spiritual DNA! When the Bible says that we’ve become a “new creation,” God is not trumpeting a new way of behaving better, or that we’ve been granted a new kind of good manners for good relationships. He’s telling us that we are now actual Spirit-born sons and daughters of God by nature. We have been born by and of the Spirit. Our humanity has forever been altered because “the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17; see also john 3:5,7,8; 2 Peter 1:3,4.)

That takes some getting used to, I know.

If you’re familiar with the C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, then you know that virtually all of the books are about the growing awareness of the kings and queens of Narnia—that they are, in fact, kings and queens already. Everyone in Narnia recognizes them, some in awe and delight, some with fear and dread. The more the kings and queens believe it, the more their behavior is affected, to the delight of Aslan. They act like the nobility they are.

It’s the same with us. This is not a burden you must do, but a truth you must know.

Ask God to show you yourself, the self He sees because He remade you. Quit praying things like, “Oh Lord, you know what a lousy sinner I am!”—He disagrees with you! That’s not what He remade you. Stop lamenting in prayer, “Oh God, I know I should be a better person than I am now!”—you ARE a better person because you’re a new person! You just don’t know how to live in Christ and by the Spirit. And stop saying, “Father, change me.” Father HAS already changed you! Besides, you’ve never heard Him answer those prayers, so don’t you think it’s time to change them?

Give it, oh, two weeks—don’t say any of that stuff. Instead ask God during prayer, “Father, did you change me already?” “Jesus, how well related to you am I right now?” “Holy Spirit, what do you like about me?” “God, have you secured me with you forever?” “Lord, am I really an authentic son of yours right now?”

In the same way that the kings and queens of Narnia struggled to believe they were the royalty of the realm, it’s likely that you will too. So get help! Get after it. Go read or watch the Narnia series, get and read my books (God’s Astounding Opinion of You, and Life According to Perfect), get and read anything Andrew Farley has written, or David Gregory, John Lynch, Jeremy White, Andrew Nelson or Mark Maulding, because they will help you grow up into who you already are. You’ve got to believe it before you’ll see it.

To borrow one more time on the dwarf’s response to Lucy, think of God instructing the angels toward us: “Treat them like the sons and daughters of God they are for long enough, and they’ll know who they are.” That’s what your Father is doing to you right now. Turn your attention to Him, and you’ll know—you’re royalty already.

See you later.