What's Your Story?
We all have a story ... those thoughts we play through our mind that combined form our reality.
In Philippians 4:8 Paul speaks of these thoughts and how they work in our lives.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
I heard famous author and teacher Earl Nightingale say it this way once "you are the sum total of your thoughts to this point in time". Take a minute to look at your own thoughts, what do they say? Are they speaking praises or curses? If your not sure of your story or thoughts, take a look at the reality you are living, what fruit are you producing? Is it everything you know God has for you? If not, consider your thoughts and how they impact and construct the world around you. You do have a choice, God has always given us free will and choices.
Deuteronomy 30:19
The Message (MSG)
19-20 I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So I ask you what thoughts have you chosen? I remember my thoughts when I was in the world. I used to listen to Earl Nightingale and Tony Robins and believed the practices of thoughts they presented. Such as "what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve" and how these practices worked for all the so called motivational guru's. I remember meditating with Napoleon Hill to "Think and Grow Rich" and found so many successful, or who I believed to be successful, people endorse and advocate these teachings. What I also found equally amazing was how many of those same people don't understand or chose not to understand that all those principles have biblical parallels. The last one of those secular books I read was called "The Secret" ...it teaches on the power of suggestion. Well that really is no big secret, the idea of controlling your thoughts goes way back. Paul in the new testament speaks of how God intends for us to use our thoughts to align ourselves with Gods Truth's:
2 Corinthians 10:5
King James Version (KJV)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Herein lies the truth! And it is no secret, God has great plans for each of us who diligently seek him:
Jeremiah 29:11-13
New International Version (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Understanding these things intellectually will get you some degree of success, don't doubt for a minute that Satan himself is not aware of how he can use these principles against us if we allow it. Once you get the revelation on how your thoughts can bring you into a life in Christ, then you can begin the process of renewing your minds.
Romans 12:2
New International Version (NIV)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Gods perfect will for us, although not void of trials, will enable us to experience the proverbial "Heaven on Earth". Our lives will flow from blessing to blessing and the Glory of Christ will shine as a living example for all who have an eye to see and an ear to hear. We become Gods Glory here on earth and a witnesses by the fruit of the spirit we produce. Going back to my original reference of that book "The Secret" they speak of a man, meditating on a new sports car in order to obtain it. Tony Robins says for you to make a dream board keeping images of those possessions you wish to obtain always in front of you. All the guru's talk about how you and your thoughts can lead you into getting what you want. Well I did that and got many things I wanted and now they are ALL gone!
The point of this lesson is to not only realize how your thoughts impact your life but also how to ensure you recognize you are only going to be truly successful if you have trusted in God and get to realize His perfect will for you. The way scripture revealed to me how to do this, was to seek Him first:
Matthew 6:25-34
Common English Bible (CEB)
25 “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than they are? 27 Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. 29 But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn't dressed like one of these. 30 If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? 31 Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ 32 Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I want to point out that in verse 33 above He say's ... all these things will be given to you .... what this means is you in your own infinite wisdom, of course and I'm being facetious here but you really have to worry for nothing. He will give you everything as a gift you don't have to obtain or meditate on any of these things just focus on a relationship with Jesus, the Kingdom is at hand, He is the way the truth and the light, you are heirs to His kingdom! He the giver of all good things ... the giver of good gifts!
James 1:17
Common English Bible (CEB)
Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all.
Matthew 7:11
Good News Translation (GNT)
11 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
In our next lesson I will explain a revelation of what "SEEKING HIS KINGDOM" looks like in my life and I'm sure you will be blessed. Until then may your eyes of enlightenment be opened to the understanding of who you are in Christ Jesus!
In Philippians 4:8 Paul speaks of these thoughts and how they work in our lives.
Philippians 4:8-9
The Message (MSG)
The Message (MSG)
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
The Message (MSG)
19-20 I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So I ask you what thoughts have you chosen? I remember my thoughts when I was in the world. I used to listen to Earl Nightingale and Tony Robins and believed the practices of thoughts they presented. Such as "what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve" and how these practices worked for all the so called motivational guru's. I remember meditating with Napoleon Hill to "Think and Grow Rich" and found so many successful, or who I believed to be successful, people endorse and advocate these teachings. What I also found equally amazing was how many of those same people don't understand or chose not to understand that all those principles have biblical parallels. The last one of those secular books I read was called "The Secret" ...it teaches on the power of suggestion. Well that really is no big secret, the idea of controlling your thoughts goes way back. Paul in the new testament speaks of how God intends for us to use our thoughts to align ourselves with Gods Truth's:
2 Corinthians 10:5
King James Version (KJV)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Herein lies the truth! And it is no secret, God has great plans for each of us who diligently seek him:
Jeremiah 29:11-13
New International Version (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Understanding these things intellectually will get you some degree of success, don't doubt for a minute that Satan himself is not aware of how he can use these principles against us if we allow it. Once you get the revelation on how your thoughts can bring you into a life in Christ, then you can begin the process of renewing your minds.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Gods perfect will for us, although not void of trials, will enable us to experience the proverbial "Heaven on Earth". Our lives will flow from blessing to blessing and the Glory of Christ will shine as a living example for all who have an eye to see and an ear to hear. We become Gods Glory here on earth and a witnesses by the fruit of the spirit we produce. Going back to my original reference of that book "The Secret" they speak of a man, meditating on a new sports car in order to obtain it. Tony Robins says for you to make a dream board keeping images of those possessions you wish to obtain always in front of you. All the guru's talk about how you and your thoughts can lead you into getting what you want. Well I did that and got many things I wanted and now they are ALL gone!
The point of this lesson is to not only realize how your thoughts impact your life but also how to ensure you recognize you are only going to be truly successful if you have trusted in God and get to realize His perfect will for you. The way scripture revealed to me how to do this, was to seek Him first:
Matthew 6:25-34
Common English Bible (CEB)
25 “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than they are? 27 Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. 29 But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn't dressed like one of these. 30 If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? 31 Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ 32 Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.I want to point out that in verse 33 above He say's ... all these things will be given to you .... what this means is you in your own infinite wisdom, of course and I'm being facetious here but you really have to worry for nothing. He will give you everything as a gift you don't have to obtain or meditate on any of these things just focus on a relationship with Jesus, the Kingdom is at hand, He is the way the truth and the light, you are heirs to His kingdom! He the giver of all good things ... the giver of good gifts!
Common English Bible (CEB)
Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all.
Matthew 7:11
Good News Translation (GNT)
11 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
In our next lesson I will explain a revelation of what "SEEKING HIS KINGDOM" looks like in my life and I'm sure you will be blessed. Until then may your eyes of enlightenment be opened to the understanding of who you are in Christ Jesus!
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