The Power of Thought

So how powerful are our thoughts, anyway?

How is it that "knowing" something, or "seeing" something, can cause that thing to appear ..?

First, we have to understand just how influenced we are by the "western" thinking, that tells us that cause and effect exist only on the physical plane. We look for the physical cause of every effect we experience.

For instance -- what are we saying when we believe that microorganisms (bacteria, viruses) are able to kidnap our health and vitality, and thus render us UNhealthy, and UNwhole..? Aren't we saying that we believe that they're stronger, more powerful, than God's Life, which we have in us?

In effect, if we are honest, we'll see that our beliefs reveal that we see more power in the creature (that which God has created) than in the Creator (who made everything).

This has led to a culture of fear ... look at the things we fear: nature, the environment, animals, humans, life itself ... and the God we believe has put us in this unsafe predicament.

Our fear, individually and collectively, has created a world that continues to demonstrate fear, and "prove" to us that we really do have much to fear...! Do you see the self-perpetuating cycle of this insane thinking?

We know this works with children ... if a child is told he is stupid, and believes it, that child will grow up to demonstrate stupidity. Criminals are demonstrating what they believe about themselves ... if the child, if the criminal, were to see themselves differently, they would behave differently.

If we see ourselves as we really are, the way God sees us, everything about us would be different.

The really good news here is that God wants our minds renewed -- lies replaced with truth -- He wants us to live the Abundant Life Jesus told us about. We don't have to keep the tainted view we have of Him, of Life, of ourselves. It's not as though God is reluctant to share truth with us ... we don't have to convince Him to do so, or to earn it. We don't need to beg, or perform, or prove to Him that we're somehow deserving.

We just need to desire to see as He sees ... and it happens.

We're told that we have (present tense) the Mind of Christ.

The lies we believe, individually and collectively, are in the way of us experiencing the Mind of Christ that we have -- and living the Abundant Life that's ours.

It all starts, I believe, with our perception of God ...

If we have a faulty image of God, then we'll experience that very sort of God ... until we fire that god, and let the real God emerge from behind our "graven image".

Here's what I know about God ... what He's shown me about Himself, over time, as I've been willing to let go, to "die to," my former image of God:

God is unchangeable and constant ... God is love ... God is goodness ... perpetual goodness ... God does not react - He does not change how He views me, how He deals with me, based on what I do/think/believe ... He changes not ... He is Light and in Him is no darkness at all ... He sees the best in me, no matter what I'm seeing about myself ... He delights in me ... I do not disappoint Him ... for it's not possible for God to have a wrong expectation about me (for He made me, as I am) ...

God is not like a man, though we have continuously projected our own human failings onto Him ... therefore seeing Him as petty, judgmental, angry, vengeful, punishing, reactive, regretful, disappointed.

We're the ones who judge ourselves -- and we imagine that God does too.

But we can leave all of this behind .. all that we think we see and know and believe about God ... all that we fear is true ... we can question what we believe, for if it's true, it will withstand all manner of scrutiny ... and if it falls away, good!

We can, and must, enter the heart and Mind of God... and when we see as HE sees, everything will change, and we, too, will see His creation as "very good" ... including our bodies.

We will see everything as the gift that it is ...

We can pray, ask, for this understanding -- pray that God would reveal and correct all that we believe, which does not align with His truth.

We don't need our circumstances to change ... we need our perspective to change...!

Next time, I want to get a little more into what disease *is*. Want to check it out with me?

Shalom, Dena