An essential element of the power of vision is the power of right thinking. We’ve got to pay attention to what goes on in our thinking. God created us in His own image, a likeness or copy of God! We are free moral agents. We can decide for ourselves what we will think. This is His design and His will for you and me. So, listen up.
Whatever you choose to habitually think will affect you in your subconscious mind. What does that mean? Well, the operation of the automobile you drive for a while becomes second nature to you. Moves can be executed without conscious analysis or planning. You automatically know what to do to travel to a familiar destination in a familiar ride. That is your subconscious operating. Sort of your autopilot.
When it comes to changing our thinking from wrong to right and changing the influence it has on our behaviors, it will take repetition of the chosen (preferred) content to change the effects in the subconscious as well. Those effects are revealed to us when we say or do something that does not align with our conscious moral code. When you say, “Why did I say that?”, or “How could I have done that?”.
Well, we know Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.” In order for it to come out, it first has to get in. Here is where our will can change in our thinking and our subconscious processes by what we allow to input. When God’s Word tells us to watch over our heart, I believe this refers to our spirit and soul. The seeds (content) you drop into the soil of your heart produces the fruit of your life.
Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. Your mind is the watchman and must be continually aware of what is allowed into your heart. When your mind chooses to seed your heart with the Word of God, you get the result described in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. You will be thoroughly equipped for every good work!
2 Timothy 3:16-17
‘All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.’
That 2 Timothy passage above talks about the Word being profitable or beneficial or useful for correction which sounds negative to some people. That word “correction” is so positive to me. If I am piloting an airplane, you better believe I want my course corrected sooner rather than later. Here is a good place to correct your thinking and embrace what God has provided to keep you on course to your destiny.
Your thought patterns are like a mental map. Old maps will not take you to new places, and incorrect maps can never take you to the right place. The Word of God is the correction that we all need. When He instructs us in Romans 12 to not be conformed to this dark world, he is pointing us, instead, to the light to be had in study of His Word, as we are transformed by the renewing of our mind thus accomplished.
Wrong thinking produces wrong beliefs. Wrong beliefs can never produce the right outcomes. When you align your thinking with God’s, you get right beliefs. At the same time, you must wage war against unbelief, against doubt of His sufficiency, by the continued sowing of the good seed in your own mind, while you refuse to give ground to ungodly thoughts and root them out.
Realize that your established methodology of thinking is actually taking you somewhere. Like the warning lights and sounds in modern automobiles, the living Word of God can alert you to course deviations from what God has planned for you. By continuing to come to God’s Word for answers, you give the Holy Spirit opportunity to bring light in any area you need it.
One area of your thinking that may need to change is your perceptions and declarations regarding your own character or situation. Keep it constructive, asking, “How can I do this better?”, rather than “Why am I so stupid, slow, poor, etc.” You have to start from a place of recognizing your identity in Christ in order to receive what God has for you. No, you don’t deserve it, but Jesus died to give it to you.
You have the mind of Christ available to you, for heaven’s sake! Yes, your mind has to be renewed and your thinking transformed, so you may prove, demonstrate, what is the good, the acceptable, the perfect will of God. The change in you will be as dramatic as that of a caterpillar after metamorphosis to a beautiful butterfly.
All of us, before Christ, were like that caterpillar, unable to do much but consume. Through the rhema Word of God seeded in your heart, you can miraculously become like that butterfly who beautifies the earth and pollinates crops for harvest. The power of right thinking will bring you into your destiny, as you check your thinking against the word of truth, quickened to you by the Holy Spirit.
DIVE DEEPER
• Proverbs 23:7
• Luke 6:45
• Proverbs 4:23
• II Timothy 3:16-17
• Romans 10:17
• Romans 12:1-2
• Mark 9:23
• Matthew 7:7
• I Corinthians 2:16
• II Timothy 1:7
REFLECT
1) Do you ever wonder why certain things habitually come out of your
mouth that you’d rather would not?
2) Have you experienced the prompting of the Holy Spirit alerting you to
thoughts that do not agree with the Bible?
3) Do you believe that God’s Word can transform you?
PRAY
- Thank God that He has given you a sound mind and instruction in governing your thoughts.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to help you develop the disciplines to study and meditate on God’s Word more from now on.
- Praise God for the transformation ahead!
