The Power of Thoughts -- for Good or for Harm

After a bit of a detour into the absurdities and adventures of my past, I return now to exploring how we can (if we dare) live beyond disease/dis-ease...

Let's think about thoughts ... I've come to see them as incredibly powerful forces. For good, for harm, for change ... always impacting us and others, but seldom recognized for what they are. It seems we largely take them for granted, and discount them as powerful ... which, of course, enables them to affect us, unchecked.

And I'm reminded that we're to "take every thought captive" ... could God be telling us to no longer allow ourselves to be "victims" of our own uncaptivated thoughts, but to realize that we're co-creators, in His very image, and that perhaps it's time to wake up and become responsible for our own thinking ...?

Could it be that thoughts (& the resulting words and actions) are the most powerful force we have? And if we're ignorant of this, could we be unknowingly thinking and speaking ourselves into our own misery...?

What if the thoughts we entertain, and defend, and cling to, are the stuff of "graven images"? Dos a graven image have to be on stone, or can they be engraved in our minds..? As I'm learning, whatever is engraved in our own imaginations actually appears in the world of form -- what we see (inside) is what we get (outside).

If we don't like what we're experiencing/getting, perhaps we should take the time to ask God to show us what thought we're clinging to that's in contradiction to His Truth ... IOW, show us our graven images, so that we can cease to worship (hold as valuable and worthy) them, and instead worship God.

Is it possible that disease begins as a thought...? Not necessarily a thought about a particular disease, but as the very atmosphere of (individual or collective) thought that sees a world filled with disease, dis-ease, ruled by confusion and chaos...?

If we are seeing confusion and chaos, then we do not see, nor expect to see, GOD ruling His creation in Love and Divine Order. If we are seeing the world through the graven image of confusion and chaos and dis-ease, then we will experience circumstances, situations and ignorance ruling instead of God.

How we see God, and how we see ourselves, is absolutely imperative for how we experience Life. Do we see God as Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient, or do we see God as conditional, withholding, and limited...? Do we see ourselves as spiritual beings having a physical experience, Children of the Light, offspring of God ... or do we see ourselves as fallen and unworthy wretches, undeserving of mercy, physical beings who must strive to become spiritual...?

Should we maybe question what we believe, what we've been taught, and turn to the only One who can tell us the Truth about Himself, about ourselves...? Can we let go of what we think we know, what we think we're supposed to believe, to make room for the "much more" that the Spirit wants to lead us into? Do we trust what humans have taught us to believe, or what God wants to show us...?

Does the physical determine the spiritual, or does the Spirit determine the physical? Which is preeminent? Which came first? Which is eternal?

The moment we let the physical trump the spiritual, we fall into a state of confusion, chaos and darkness that leads to dis-ease/disease in our minds, in our bodies, in our world. NEVER should the created usurp the Creator. Never should the physical lord over the spiritual.

The body does not determine the Life - the Life determines the condition of the body.

Look around at the magnificent order and harmony of what's created ... everything functioning in Divine Order ... from the smallest atom, to the most seemingly complex solar system ... the seasons flow with perfect order ... stars "appear" in the same places in the heavens ... all creatures follow an inner life-flow of when to sleep, when to awaken, when to mate, when to hibernate or migrate ... everything flowing in concert with the Mind of God, the Mind of all Goodness and Divine Order ... including your very body.

And yet -- we believe that we have to intervene, with pills, and programs, and check-ups and x-rays, and examinations and human interventions...! Is the human body exempt from the absolute, sovereign, loving authority of God's Divine Order...? Do we truly need human help and intervention, and manufactured replacements, or do we just *think* we do...?

When did we give over trust in Divine Order to the traditions of man? Who led us to believe that we must see ourselves as victims of chance and probability? Who taught us that disease is inevitable, and we must fear it and fight it?

We have become convinced, as a society, as a culture, that we cannot survive without human intervention. Have you yet noticed that what we believe - we then experience? As a man thinks in his own heart so is he (I know, I know, I repeat that verse ad infinitum, but it's so crucial to see this on a deep level!). Then we see what we believe happening, which reinforces what we believe ... 'round and 'round and 'round we go ... projecting our beliefs, judging by appearances, justifying what we believe, believing it with more conviction, until we cannot and will not accept any challenges to our carefully-crafted creations...!

BUT -- when the Christ awakens us to His perspective, when the Spirit of God rests upon/in us, "we will not judge after the seeing of our eyes, or the hearing of the ears, we will instead judge according to truth and what is eternally right" (Isaiah 11:3f -- and this is prophesying the new covenant -- which we have been IN ... perhaps time to live what we have?).

When our judgments are challenged and change, and our beliefs are aligned up with God's perspective, then our experiences will change as well.

So, why do we spend time asking God to change our experiences (which we have orchestrated and created), when the root is what we believe...? Is prayer for the purpose of changing our circumstances, or for changing our perspective...? Do we need a fish, or do we need to learn how to fish?

I can hear someone asking, "yeah, but what about diseases in animals and plants? And what about infants? Are they indulging in wrong thinking/believing, too?"

Great question! Glad you asked! ;)

Here's what I'm seeing about that: "ALL creation groans and travails in pain together waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." Or: "All Creation stands on tip-toe, awaiting the sons of God to appear."

(My father really liked that last rendition -- he would literally stand on tip-toe and grin, right in the choir loft, when he sang that song..!)

I see that humans are the crowning glory of all creation ... the only part God called "very good." And it was to man that God said, "go and take dominion over all the earth, and subdue it." (ever notice how He said it to male and female? with no mention of hierarchy? Hmmm...)

How do we subdue? Not by raping the earth for our own greed and waste, but by taking care of it, with self-sacrifice, wisdom, stewardship and love ... for the good of *all*. AND, we subdue it with the knowledge of truth ... for as we perceive life, so do we govern. If we believe in, and thus live in, disorder, confusion, fear, greed, lack, and dis-ease, so too will the rest of Creation appear and manifest.

Yeah, we're that powerful, for good and for harm. It's time we saw that, and got responsible about that.

We either infect, or bless, all of Creation, with our own thinking...! Yes, thoughts are THAT powerful!

(& it's not just our individualized thoughts that create disease ... but the power of the collective thoughts around us ... which has prevailed for millennia ... which is not often, if ever, questioned or challenged ... the very system in which we are born and which we unthinkingly accept ... the very group-think that creates "reality" around us ... that which we accept, acquiesce, adhere, and allow ... that enables disease to flourish ... and with which we must contend, for ourselves, for all.)

But as we awaken, individually and collectively, coming out of the murky fog of selfishness, lethargy, insanity ... as we remember who we really are, why we are here ... all the rest of Creation will respond ... as we realize who we really are, and thus appear and manifest as we really are (the Sons of God, coming into our own), THEN will all of creation respond in kind -- no wonder it's groaning and awaiting this...! No wonder it keeps displaying God's truth and divine order to us, trying to get our attention, giving us message after message of His goodness, of His love, of His Presence, of His mercy, of His Omnipresence, for all to see, if we would have eyes to see..!

God is speaking, through His creation ... are we listening?

Shalom, Dena