What are you thinking?

Talk: 

There are so many self help books around now a days; even inside Christian book stores. How to overcome addictions, how to do spiritual warfare, how to raise a family, how to, how to, how to… Some of them better then others, and some extremely good and useful. However, they almost all seem to present the same basic idea or structure; determine what the problem is and focus on it (whether by solving it or battling it) with steps, programs, routines, quotes, and reciting scriptures. This of course has its place and usefulness, but it goes both against scriptures and what any good psychologist would say; in fact, a lot of these books say the exact opposite to what the Bible says.

I remember being taught once an idea; it was asked of me, “How did you end up forgetting your grade nine science? (or any piece of information you’ve forgotten). Most people say, “they don’t know, they just stopped thinking about it.” You don’t have to spend days reminding yourself to not think of biology, math, or whatever it was; or reciting steps and saying, “I will no longer remember photosynthesis” ten times every hour.

Psychology tells us the same thing; how do we stop an addiction? Not by saying, “I’m going to no longer do such and such and see where it is so I can avoid it.”, but by replacing it with something else and focusing in on that new thing.

So much energy is put on our minds trying to avoid our issue or trying to not think about it; which is funny because what we are really saying is, “I’m going to think really hard about not thinking about that issue.”; which of course forces us to remember the issue we are trying not to remember.

The Israelites in the Bible had the same issue going on in their heads. Psalm 106:6-7 reads, “We have sinned with our fathers… [because]…they did not remember the multitude of your mercies.” They did relatively the same thing. They weren’t necessarily trying to avoid sin in this case; but their focus was on the wrong thing; which got them into trouble.

Now before you read on, I want you to note we are going to be taking a look at the idea of a battle (or a garden in a later illustration) in our mind; BUT, I am NOT talking about “the power of your mind”, “Mind over matter”, or “if you just think a certain way”, it goes much deeper then that and much simpler then that.

Walk:

Psalm 106:6-7 gives us a warning, “we have sinned with our fathers… They did not remember the multitude of your [God] mercies…” Our mind is where the battle begins.

Jesus gave an illustration in Matthew 13:1-23 (also Mark 4:8) of the seeds on different soils; some did well and others quickly faded. Romans 7:15-20 shows Paul’s own battle in his mind between what he wants to do verses what he doesn’t want to do. He warns later in Romans 12:2 “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Which, by the way, will shed light for you on Psalm 37:4)

So, going on the theme of Jesus and the seeds; Romans illustrates 4 principles of the mind (or laws in the KVJ) Also note that God’s laws (Romans 7:22) is referring to the 613 Old Testament laws; which is not to be confused with the 4 laws of the mind, hence the use of principles for this illustration.

1) Mind principle (which is our will)              Romans 7:23

This is where all the battles take place. The enemy can never make you do anything; but he can push and lie and trick us. We also have our own fallen nature (Gen 3).

2) Law of sin and death                                  Romans 7:23

This is what has come into us at the fall (separation from God) and we are now under the enemies lies and therefore also our own corrupt nature. This includes “good” things done on our own (Is 64:6 “our best is as filthy rags when in the flesh”).

3) Law of life in Christ                                                Romans 8:2

This is the salvation in Christ. Before this we didn’t even have an option to be able to do good.

4) Law of faith                                                 Romans 3:27-28

This is the Holy Spirit in us enabling us to actually do “good”. It is His protection, leading, and watering. Ephesians 6:16 (armor of God); John 15:5 (Jesus as the vine and without Him we can do nothing); Isaiah 58:11 (In Him you shall be like a watered garden).

This is why we are warned to remember; Heb 3:12-19, “Beware… Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (those wandering in Egypt for 40 years)… they would not enter His rest.” If we do not walk in the law of faith we will continue to battle (as in Rom 7:15) between the law of sin/death and the law of Christ.

Romans 7:25-8:6. Walk according to the Spirit; not the flesh. “For carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”. (Also Gal 6:8) This spiritual mindedness needs to be prompted for us since we are still in the world and yet to not be of it. We are still bound by our physical bodies.

2 Cor 10:4-6 tells us of this battle and commanded to, “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” This again illustrates that it isn’t us commanding our minds (as in mind over matter or just think good thoughts), but is about surrendering these thoughts to the command of Christ (Our 4^th law or principle)

Live:

So you want freedom? You want to get over that thing that is always on your mind? Are you exhausted, burnt out, tired of fighting the same battle over and over again?

Perhaps Remember the warning in Psalm 106:6-7, “We have sinned with our fathers… [because] they did not remember the multitudes of your mercies.”

What are you focusing on? Are you focusing on the problem or solution? Are you focusing on the little bad thing or the bigness of God?

Remember though it isn’t about just thinking good things; that will only get you so far and you will likely fall back into the same old traps this way. It is about truly knowing God and trusting Him.

To close, I want to leave you with 2 quotes that I enjoyed and hope they speak to you further.

“Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and ought to be devoted entirely to Him. You should seek to be ‘bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Cor 10:5). This will be one of the greatest assets of your faith when a time of trial comes, because then your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. When you have thoughts and ideas that are worthy of credit to God, learn to compare and associate them with all that happens… You will begin to see that your thoughts are from God as well, and your mind will no longer be at the mercy of your impulsive thinking, but will always be used in service to God.

We have sinned with our fathers… (and)… did not remember…” (Psalm 106:6-7) Then prod your memory and wake up immediately. Don’t say to yourself, “But God is not talking to me right now.” He ought to be. Remember whose you are and whom you serve. Encourage yourself to remember, and your affection for God will increase tenfold. Your mind will no longer be starved, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.”
My Utmost For His Highest- Oswald Chambers

“Inner stillness is essential for Spiritual attentiveness but it is the means, not the end. Contemplative prayer is not a strategy for stress management of a form of relaxation. Because it is prayer, it involves a relationship. It is being with and being drawn closer to God.

The goal of contemplative prayer is not to try and make yourself still. This is both impossible and misses the point that prayer is an encounter with God, not a spiritual self-improvement technique or a stress-management strategy. The goal of stillness before God is to be totally open to God and, in the words of Cynthia Bourgeault, to “consent to the presence and action of God within us whatever form it comes.” The purpose of stillness is to enable us to attend to God and to be fully and without distraction with God. It is to know God in the way that is only possible in stillness. Recall the remarkable words of Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Stillness is a form of spiritual perception. In stillness we can encounter God, and God us, in ways that are impossible under any other conditions…

…Silence and stillness offer us the same opportunity for intimate encounter with God. In stillness we can hear God’s word. Contemplation on works of art (or scriptures, creation/nature, His dealings in our lives)… may superficially appear to be the external focus of our attention, but in reality, if we are seeking God, they are not simply an aesthetic experience; as well sit before them in prayer and become a means to open ourselves to God. They are not the object of prayer, but an aid to prayer. Stillness and attentiveness are the means through which symbols speak their meaning to mind and spirit, and God’s Word is spoken into our hearts.”
Juliet Benner Contemplative Vision (InterVarsity Press 2011)

Did God Answer? (Part 3 of 3)

TALK:      

            The original title of this topic was going to be DID GOD HEAR ME?, but that really isn’t the question; everyone knows He hears our prayers; the real question is whether or not He answers us? This question is argued and debated amongst believers and philosophers from all sorts of life. Answers from everything from “Yes” all the time, to “No” never, and everything in between including conditional answers, have I prayed enough, gotten enough people to pray for me, been good enough and so on in order to earn an answer.

            Before all this though, lets take a quick look at a few verses to create a foundation for this topic. Jeremiah 19:11 read, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Or, from the New testament, Ephesians 1:3, “Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Jesus in the book of Matthew 7:7 takes this further with, “Ask and it will be given to you.”, or Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” These verses, plus an abundance of others, illustrate that God does answer, supplies and gives freely.

            So if God does answer, why do so many of our prayers go seemingly unanswered? For this, let’s take a look at both the “walk” and “live” portions of this topic. I do ask you read both of those sections before coming to a conclusion, as they are both important, and balance in this area is going to be vital in understanding what God is saying.

                       

WALK:

Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The disciples of Jesus asked Him how to pray and He gives them an answer. (Which is explained in the previous two postings); and He further explains this in John 16:24 with a response of, “Ask, and you will receive.” Notice how He says, “ask.” We often complain before God and sometimes are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask for very few things. The problem is that we don’t usually ask God anything until we are at our wits end. It is only at this point do we ever get in touch with truth and reality of God Himself. As long as you think you are self-sufficient you do not need to ask.

So have you truly asked? Or have you simply complained, vented and presented facts?

As in the previous two postings, prayer isn’t about informing God because He might have been unaware; it is about being in a relationship with Him. As a parent, we do and want the same thing God does with us. We could jump up and meet our kids every need before they ask but this teaches them nothing (except for self-centeredness). With prayer we often hear people say a person’s life will suffer if they don’t pray, but I question that. Perhaps what will suffer is the life of God in that person, which is nourished not by food but by prayer, and therefore the person will be left with only themselves. Just like the child, if I meet every need before they ask they may become physically healthy, but emotionally, psychologically, and relationally they learn nothing. It isn’t prayer that changes things but changes me and then I change things. Prayer isn’t a matter of changing things externally, but of miracles in the inner nature of people. In other words, prayer lines me up with what God is doing. Some of these things do appear as “miraculous” answers to prayer (Things that only God Himself can do by breaking into the laws of the universe) and other times God reveals what I must do to change things. (Please also remember God called us to be care takers of this world and our lives, this hasn’t changed and we hold a lot of responsibility to do our part.) We often think of God answering our prayers to mean He’ll do all the work while I sit back and relax; which is something we all struggle with thinking, but will often leave us disappointed because it isn’t the ‘normal’ way of God working in scriptures.

So with this in mind, remembering that God’s answer may be direction, discernment or guidance and not necessarily a magical genie fix all the time, try asking before the wit’s end moments of desperation; but begin to ask now. You may be surprised at what God reveals when you spend that time asking (and listening). Maybe the biggest road block you are facing right now isn’t your unanswered prayer but your one that is unasked. Just like back in school, the only wrong question is one not asked.

LIVE:

     

            This now brings us into the living portion of the question. We looked already at Jeremiah 29:11 and God’s plan to prosper us; but you need to have a balance of scripture. Jeremiah 30:11 goes on to add, “I will not make a complete end of you. But will correct you in Justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished.” Please note, this punishment can be similar to the type of correction in Hebrews 12:7 where God chastens, corrects, punishes, disciplines and TEACHES right from wrong. It isn’t necessarily that you have done something wrong, but perhaps the omission of doing what is right, or very often to simply strengthen a teaching to ensure you get it.

            This can take us all the way back to Genesis 12:2-3 and God’s call to Abraham, “Get out of your country, from your family and your father’s house, to a land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you.” If you notice, in order for Abraham to obtain this blessing he had to first get up and leave; an action was required on Abraham’s part. We similarly, whether physically or other, need to leave our old ways in order to get into the new. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” This is also reflected in Galatians 5:19-25 where it discusses that the old nature of who we are must be crucified and done away with in order for the new nature of Christ to live in us. Romans 6:6-7 summarizes nicely with, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” 1 Peter 1:16 quotes, “Be holy, for I am holy.” To be new, to move into a new land, to become holy, you first need to get rid of the old, leave the old country and leave the old things that are unholy. Mark 11:23-26 gives a nice illustration of what God was talking about. We are told in this story that we can command a mountain to move into a lake and it will be done. It says ask of God and you will receive; but there is a catch. The very next verse tells us we need to forgive others before we begin to pray. This helps to point out that we need to change ourselves first before the blessing can come. Sometimes this is easy and other times very difficult all depending on the circumstances. This may be forgiveness, it may be an attitude change like Job, it may be changing a life style, or any number of things.

            Overall, the point is that ultimately prayer is about God and His will. Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” As we walk with God we begin to change who we are and become like Him, as this happens our prayers should change and we begin to stop praying for our own desires (living in our old country) and begin to pray what He is telling us to pray (living in the new country). Psalm 37:4-5 reads, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” So often we put this verse backwards and want God to give us the desires of our hearts and then we will delight in Him; but that isn’t what the verse actually says. Matthew 16:24-25 (Denying ones-self) or Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” In other words, when you give yourself to God, He will begin to show you how you should be thinking and therefore change the way you pray to match what His will is in any given situation. This is why God chastens us as in Hebrew 12:5-11. This correction of sorts helps point us in the proper direction. James 4:3-4 gives us another summary of all this, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” This is the challenge we all end up facing, even when we do “Christian” things (prayer, ministry etc.), the underlying motive is ourselves and not God. Job faced this challenge, as we all do, to determine whether we are praying God’s will or our own. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we get to know God Himself.

            For many people this is going to be difficult to hear and hard to swallow. But Jesus warns of this as well in Matthew 11:6, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me (Jesus Himself and His teachings). And Hebrews 3:14-15, “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence (Christ and His teachings) steadfast to the end, while it is said, ‘today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion’.”

            Of course this is all easier said than done, which is why we hear so many Christians claiming it from the mountain tops and then disappear in the valleys. The realities of life scoff at believing God can do something when we feel down and out. I personally believe God supplies all our need; but the real test of faith begins when times are dry. When I am blind, will I endure until the end or turn and run in defeat? Faith therefore, must be tested, because it can only become our intimate possession through conflict. (Matthew 11:6 again). These trials and challenges in prayer and life will either prove or kill your faith.

            So for those of you who may be in question as to the practicality of this I have a personal testimony to add. For years (about 15 years) I had struggled with an addiction. I battled, prayed, read scriptures and pleaded with God to take away the desire for this particular addiction. I did all the Christian things, prayed without ceasing and truly thought via scriptures that God would want me freed from this addiction; and yet my freedom never came. The funny thing was, is that, yes, God did want me free from the addiction, but I didn’t want to face the consequences of the actions it caused. I wanted God to free me on my terms not His; get me out of trouble without really learning from any of my mistakes. I wanted the mountain top experience, not the valleys of trouble and challenges. Ultimately, a few years ago, I was finally obedient to what He was asking me (and I leave out the details as they are specific to each person and situation and I don’t want anyone to get caught up in formulas) even though it was the hardest thing for me to do. This forced me to leave the old nature, previous country, or dying to myself and moving into the new. The real kick in the pants is I got my freedom about two years ago, but the last year has caused a new set of circumstances to occur that have caused that freedom to be tested. Would I turn back to my old ways, or allow the trials, fire, God’s seemingly unanswered prayers to make  my faith more personal, real and solidified.

            John 11:6, “So, when He heard that he (Lazarus) was sick, He (Jesus) stayed two more days in the place He was.” This made no sense. Someone was sick and yet Jesus waited two more days before He left to go to His friend. Jesus understood prayer and understood that His life was not His own but belonged to God. Jesus stayed put until God led Him to do otherwise; He did God’s will and not His own. In the end, Jesus got to heal a dead man instead of just a sick man. Romans 8:26-27, “likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” God’s will will be done. We have the option of either listening to His Spirit and actively being a part of it or not. 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” and Mark 11:16-17, “He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple…my house shall be called a house of prayer…you have made it a den of thieves.” As we mentioned throughout, God will not allow you to be your old self when you become His house. We cannot pray with our junk and allow our bodies to be used for our own convenience no matter how spiritual it may seem. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple. God does the same to our old nature when we become His; He throws out the old garbage to make room for the new good stuff. Romans 12:2, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The renewal will show us what God is really wanting to do.

            We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires growth of spiritual discipline to see Him in every detail. We miss so many of God’s answers because of this. We think or even want God to act in the outstanding showy way that we often miss His simple answers. We then fall back and try to come up with excuses (which often destroy people’s faith) like I didn’t pray enough, didn’t say the right words, didn’t get enough other people to pray for me and so on (which every single one of these are lies). We need to beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.

(There are several quotes from “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers throughout this post. I have intentionally paraphrased them and left them unmarked for a specific reason; that of what was summarized in the last paragraph. I am attempting to prevent people from taking a few lines from either what I’ve posted, from scripture, or from what is in Oswald’s book, and simply basing their walk with God on that. My hope is that people will dive further into the sources and go into further depth.)