Well here we are again after a small pause, continuing my blog on the subject What Were You Thinking. I know that if you read it with an open mind, and heart, that it will help you as I was helped by those that shared this same message with me. Why? Because my friend, it is the Word of God, and that is the only thing that is eternal. It is the only thing that is sure and steadfast, and it will never fail us. The truth is, if His Word fails, He fails: because God and His Word are one. And my friend, that is just not going to happen. Jesus said “Heaven and earth would pass away, but my WORD WILL NEVER PASS AWAY.” I don’t know about you, but I want things to work for me in my life. Things that I can count on more than my husband, friends, doctor, or whoever it might be. But our belief system can make us or break us. It can keep us from receiving all God has for our lives. We must all realize this. Thoughts can hold us in bondage causing us to think only in one direction. Let me give you an example:
For instance, there is nothing more frustrating than to go to the store and purchase an item like a coffeemaker, go through all the process of cutting through all the plastic tape that seem glued to the box, destroy a couple of fingernails to finally get inside; and you take out the coffeemaker, unwind the cord, plug it in, and start following the instruction to clean it before use, and boom! Nothing! It sits there and looks at you as if you goofed, in total defiance of your ownership. What was my next reaction? Well, I start talking to it like it has ears. Don’t You? I start saying “You good for nothing piece of junk.” Then right away my mind goes right to the thought. I’ve got to trek back to the store and stand in the return line. Oh! now I start allowing frustration to take over, because I know that there is usually one person behind the counter with a line extending into the isle. Then the next thought that came to me, “I got a long way to go yet.” Why? Because I have to make the decision to get my money back or run back to the isle where the coffeemaker’s are, retrieve another, stand in line again, then trek back home to start all over again. Now I am thinking, “this is just sure torture,” because by the time I finally get a freshly brewed cup of coffee, I have spent the better part of my already crowded day with a small appliance that seemed to grow teeth and eat me alive. You know what I am saying? Just the thought sent me into a tizzy. Now did you hear what I just said? The thought! The thought alone, made my blood pressure rise; and, if I allowed it too, it would set the mood and even possibly set the course for my day. This is where Satan really works on our brain. He loves to sneak in and build a fortress of negative and defeating thoughts, especially when we are fighting frustration over something. How? I am so glad you ask. If he can get you thinking ahead of any situation, he will paint a picture in your head of the worse thing happening. And if you listen to that, he will capture your total attention and have you eating out of his hand. This is why you have to stop immediately, and cast down those thoughts, and commit your thoughts to God. I find praise is a good way to calm my mind and bring God on the scene. You see what I am getting at? Well, how about the course of our life being set by what we think. We develop systems of belief that we were told repetitiously, with no thought to question if they were right or wrong. I will give you another example using my husband.
My husband’s father was a Baptist minister, and therefore grew up in the Baptist systems of belief. He grew up being told over and over that God healed your body, but only if it was His will. Well we know that Jesus was no respecter of persons, and according to the Word of God, healed everyone that asked Him, and even those who didn’t ask. For instance, He met the man at the pool of Bethesda, and asked him if he wanted to be made whole. So for many years, my husband (Richard) believed this lie whole heartily until he started working with a ministry that believed God heals all the time. He had seen people first hand who came to the altar and exercised their faith, received their answer, right on the spot. Witnessing their healing made him realize his belief system was full of holes, hindering him from receiving healing for his self. Well, after that, my husband received healing many times. And in his latter years, having many illnesses, came home from the hospital despite what the doctors said. Wow! The Lord knows how to put man in his place, by confirming His Word.
Another lie my husband was told was that receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit was nothing more than the new birth. Which is true, you receive a measure at that time; but there is more, there is also the gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. You see, the Holy Spirit is a real person of the Godhead. You know Jesus before His ascension into heaven, told his disciples to go back to the upper room and stay there until the Holy Spirit came upon them. He told them that after the Holy Spirit came on them that He would make them witnesses to all people, and He would teach them how to spread the gospel. Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit was going to arrive after His ascension and that He would take His place. Well, of course it wasn’t long after my husband began to investigate the matter that he received this precious gift. So that lie was squashed. But for 25 years that lie was part of his belief system; and if you were to ask him about it, he would tell you he was cheated of a great and wonderful connection to God that gave him a direct line to Him and all the He had to offer.
Now let me ask you a question? Do you think if the disciples had failed to do what Jesus instructed, they would have been able to carry on His work? Or if they had just had their own thoughts on how to carry on His ministry, would they have been successful? No! Of course not! The Holy Spirit was the one who led and guided them after Jesus left the earth. The Lord Jesus plainly told them He would not leave them as orphans, but He would send them a helper. Hint! Hint! He said a helper. The Holy Spirit is called alongside to help, not to do the work alone.
You see your thinking and believing is what you act on. In other words, if your mother and father were worry warts, then you adopted that same system, unless someone came along and told you differently. If you are all messed up in your thinking, your believing will be wrong, and your actions will produce a harvest of results that can keep you in one place spinning your wheels.
So is it clear to see our belief system forms our thought patterns? If you were told all your life that you will never amount to anything, and you believed it, how destructive would those thoughts be to you? Horrible, isn’t it? I told my children to never be hard on another fellow student that was always acting out, because they may be a product of this kind of abuse. Yes, I said it! This is just as abusive as if you were beating that child: furthermore, this is a sure way to make your child one of those school-yard bullies. He thinks that is the only way he will ever get attention. Does this make sense to you? It sure does to me.
By giving you these examples, I hope you can understand the reason I am writing this blog? You see, our belief system must be carefully guarded from unbelief, hurt driven attitudes, and bad behaviors; and not to mentions a whole host of other things which cause damage to our thoughts. I want to say that there is hope though. No matter what belief system you were raised in, or what you were told all your life that was a lie. I AM HERE TO TELL YOU IT CAN BE CHANGED BY THE WORD OF GOD. But you must take time to get it inside you. We must let the Word of God become bigger and more important then what we think, or even what others think. After all, He framed the worlds by His Word.
In Matthew 15:16-20, (but first of all let me encourage you to read the complete chapter because it is too extensive to share, but first I want to give you just a glance of what led Jesus to share this with the people.) the pious and religious Pharisees which were in Jerusalem at the time asked Jesus why his disciples were not following traditions by failing to wash their hands before eating a meal. Jesus’ reply was, “Do you not understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught (meaning excrement)? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, and blasphemies (meaning slander): These are the things that defile a man; but eating with unwashen hands does not defileth a man.” You see it is the spirit of man that must be changed. The phrase meaning the real man, the heart, or the inner man is the true man; and is the part like God. The use of the word heart and spirit are interchangeable, meaning the same thing. When we have an unregenerate spirit we are unable to be in the family of God. When Adam fell the devil stamped his DNA in every cell, and sin literally entered the blood, and wickedness is all he could produce. This is mainly why God destroyed the earth with the flood, saving only Noah and his family. Then as man multiplied upon the face of the earth again, God under the old covenant brought the law into being through Moses. These laws governed them as a people. It became a tutor or schoolmaster until Christ came to change the old man into a new man. Jesus had to change that old man’s DNA from Satan’s, to His DNA by literally cleansing each one of us with His own blood. That is the awesome work of the new birth!!! He did this for every man, woman, and child, and all we have to do is acknowledge it, confess Him before men, and then live like the master Jesus. This was the reason that Christ came to this earth. It was to give mankind back what was intended for him by God the Father: but as we know it was high-jacked and stolen by Satan.
When Jesus came, according to Colossians 1:13, He declared that He delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of light: (King James) my friends, that is the Good News! And even though we have become a whole new species, or new man, we are still made up of three parts, spirit, soul and body. The spirit of man can be made new, but the mind, even though Jesus sprinkled our minds with His blood, the mind still wants to go its own rebellious way. The mind wants to think in the old patterns of destruction, darkness, evil speaking, and on and on until it is made to think like Jesus. This comes through meditation, confession, and acting on the Word of God. “Yes, we can change are old belief system by this process.” That is called the mind of Christ. Also, our body wants to continue in its old ways, and it too must be brought in subjection to the right way of living. It isn’t easy, and even as Christians we allow things in our life that are ugly and make us look and act like the world. But the Bible plainly says this must not be so, because we are to live a life that is blameless and holy unto God. Amen!
Well the Bible has much more to say on the subject of our thinking, and I will share more as the Lord leads, but I do hope you do your own study and reap the benefits of it. May God Richly Bless you as you study and become doers of God’s Word. You won’t believe the changes it will bring to your life in a short time, if you get serious and put this message into action in your life. Amen and Amen! So be it!