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| Broadcasting Our Thoughts; Ref: Peter Tan (Thought Life) | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 15 2008, 05:13 PM (64 Views) | |
| Stace | Feb 15 2008, 05:13 PM Post #1 |
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Dr./Ps Peter Tan http://www.eaglevision.com.my/mc9thoughts.htm Lets look at the book of Daniel; we are going to look briefly at the attitudes that are required for wisdom to come. It is the desire of each one of us here to know what our future is like. The wonderful thing is God not only is able to tell us our future through the gift of the Holy Spirit but He is able to allow us through the mind of Christ to have a gleam into our own future. Or even to the future of this world and of our business. Wise is the man who anticipates what is to come. So we need to be able to have the ability. We have learned about wisdom and we are coming to a close on wisdom but there are just a few other things that we need to encourage each one of us so that we will be in a position to receive the wisdom of God. So we go back to that story in the Bible when king Nebuchadnezzar had his dream. He was not a believer. He did not know God. Yet God revealed to him the future. How much more God will reveal the future the things to come through His Holy Spirit whom Jesus said will show us things to come. But there is a reason for God revealing the future to Nebuchadnezzar as he revealed to Pharaoh. In fact it is because Nebuchadnezzar had a certain realm of what I call concentration to desire after those things. Although he didn’t know God, but his attitude was just perfect for God to bring that revelation to him. Lets look at Daniel 2 after king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and he told all his wise men to go forth and interpret but none of them could because he wanted them to tell the dream and the interpretation. Finally it was Daniel and his friends who managed to pray to God and sought God and God revealed to them both the dream and the interpretation. So as Daniel stood before the king Nebuchadnezzar, these are the words of Daniel to the king. In chapter two he says in verse 28, he talks about the king lying on his bed. This was what happened to the king “But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and He has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and your vision upon your bed were these. As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secret has made known to you what will be.” So that dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in verse 29 was from God. Here Daniel gave the word of knowledge. Nobody would have known what happen except God. Daniel gave a word of knowledge and said O king before you had that dream you were lying down and you were thinking before you slept about what was going to come to pass. About what is the future like and your mind was consumed by that thought. And the king fell asleep while thinking about that. There was the occasion for the dream to come. We have looked at the Hebrew word, several Hebrew words on imagination but here we look at the word thoughts - thoughts came to your mind. This word thought is an interesting word because it is not the normal Hebrew word for thought. It is the word ‘rayon’ in Hebrew that speaks about our emotion, our soul and everything of our being, being captured by one’s thought. It speaks more leaning towards the imagination. In other words, it is like being anxious or being worried, being taken up by a single thought. We know that happens to some people when they are without God and they are in a crisis. Their heart and mind are no more in their work, no more in their home, always thinking about that particular area that is bothering them. That is what ‘rayon’ is like. It is no more just a normal thinking process where you will intellectually sit down and you will think about things and analyze it. That’s not the normal Hebrew word for that; this Hebrew word symbolizes the emotion, rayon, the emotions and all that is in our being, being captured and taken by those thoughts. And as I studied that, the reason God began to show me that was I asked, “Lord why should you show that to Nebuchadnezzar? What made you show that dream to him?” Although he didn’t have the interpretation, nevertheless God was trying to communicate to him. What made that happened? It seems that Nebuchadnezzar had a part involved and his part was that all the luxuries and activities in Babylon were available to him as a king. For that night was a different night. He was consumed with one thought. His emotions, his soul and his being were consumed with that one thought, “What will the future be like? What will happen after I am gone?” In that condition God was able to tell him the future. And of course he didn’t understand the language of God. He didn’t have a relationship with God. He didn’t understand what God was trying to tell him. He needed Daniel to interpret for him. Now that study is important in the word rayon because that word speaks about how anyone and every one of us who wants to desire those things to come. They will not come to you just because you think about it once in a while. It will not come to us just because we say if God will He will tell it to me. He doesn’t mean just ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, but that means effort on our part. Now as an unbeliever, we have also the life of Daniel, how Daniel himself desires to know certain things and it consumed him. Daniel 7:1 “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. Verse 15 “I, Daniel was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.” Do you notice something about the thought that Daniel was receiving? The thought that he was receiving was causing an emotional upheaval in his soul and he was experiencing some sort of grievances in his spirit. Why should he be grieved? I mean he is a prophet of God, look carefully; he was grieved in his spirit within his body. In other words the grief consumed his spirit, his soul and his body, so that he could hardly tell whether it is spirit or body. It is what I would call the experience of rayon. There are certain times in our life when we are able to let something consume us. A work, a task, or a thought consumes us so that day and night you give your whole being onto that. We are talking about that kind of condition. That’s not the first time that he has been consumed by that, in Daniel 8:15 “Then it happened, when I Daniel, has seen the vision and was seeking the meaning, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man.” Notice what he was doing? He was seeking the meaning of ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find. Now the problem why many Christians are not receiving from God is because they do not fulfill the beatitude, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. If there is no hunger there is no filling. And because there is no hunger, no desire, no consummation of their whole desire for a purpose or a revelation from God, it does not come to pass. They will live and die without the moves and the intervention and the revelation of God coming upon their lives that God desires. Daniel 10:2 see I want to show you what kind of man Daniel was. In chapter 10:2 “In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks.” We know that he was fasting and praying but why mourning? Now that mourning, that grieving and that emotion that he was experiencing is tied up to desire. He was not mourning and interceding for the Israelites, which he did in the previous chapter. It looked like he was mourning just for that, he may have interceded for them during this 21 days fast but that’s not the only reason. If that’s the only reason you may think that he mourned and cried because of intercession but that is only part of the reason. How do we know? Because when Gabriel appeared to him, Gabriel made a statement that gives us more clues as to what Daniel was mourning after. In verse 12 “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard.” There is where we have it. Now we see the largeness of the word rayon in the Hebrew. I mean he wanted it so much that his emotions were consumed with it. It would be like John Knox who said, “Lord give me Scotland or I die” kind of approach. Where Jesus says the violent take it by force but we are not talking about physical violence, we are talking about mental violence. For a lot of people their thoughts and their minds are not able to concentrate on an object. There are people who are strong physically; there are people who are weak physically. All of us have different physical sizes. Mentally there are different degrees of strength. How do you measure a person’s mental strength? Is it emotion? Is it I.Q. test? These are not the only measurement. The correct measure of a person’s mental strength is the ability of his or her mind to focus. And what is in your mind causes your emotions to flow along. And all of your being is consumed by that task that is before you. To understand that word rayon, we have to look at Matthew 6:22-23 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. Here in verse 22 and 23 he talks about the eye, the inner eye that is inside us. How it needs to be single. In cross-reference to other Gospel Jesus talks about having a single eye. A single eye is a single mind. The word single is from the word ‘haplous’ which means in a sense without duplication. In other words there is only one. The meaning of it is gathering together haplous. It has a sense of not just single but a gathering together to become one. The original Greek word that was used in the New Testament was the word that means together. The opposite of it is the word double. They are unique in a sense that they were talking about concentration, a single concentration, and not just taking one area of your soul. In other words, I could concentrate with my will but not with my emotion. But haplous means concentrating on something with your will, your emotion, your intellect, your spirit and your whole body. In other words that something consumes your whole being. That’s the singleness that is needed. Lets look at the opposite word double. In the book of James, double minded. James chapter one, it says here in verse 7 and 8. “For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Now the word double-minded comes from the Greek word that means a gathering of different things together. It has a meaning to the word single but here is the relationship. The double mindedness he is talking about is a little bit here and a little bit there. The meaning is like it’s being divided, opposite from the other gathering there of a single eye. It’s just like where if you are having a certain prayer for certain item, or you are seeking God for something. If you put half your heart into it, you may get it. For example, God will give it to you in a certain time. It comes at twice the time that it possibly can take if you give your whole heart to it. It will come in God’s perfect time if you give a little attention to it. The time that God want to work in your life to bring that revelation or the understanding will be stretched forth. I believe that when Nebuchadnezzar was lying down his whole being and body was consumed by that thought. And as a result he was able to open the door for God to speak to him about the future. This single mindedness opposite from double mindedness is important in the Christian life. This ability to have a single mind depend not just on concentration, it’s talking about keeping the thought in your mind long enough for it to bear fruit. It’s not so much our effort; it is God’s effort. God’s thought in our thought. God’s word becomes thought to us and His words, which are His thoughts, remain in our thoughts for a length of time. If given sufficient time, that word will produce after itself. Now that ties up with II Cor. 10 “Take every thought captive to the Lord Jesus.” Only those thoughts that are biblical, scriptural, glorifying Jesus, having virtue, having praise, let these thought remain in your mind. The others you must take them and bring them into captivity to the Lord Jesus. You must replace those thoughts. It is not possible to have a clean mind by thinking no thoughts. An empty mind is not a positive mind. We cannot stop thinking bad thoughts just by stop thinking. But we have to stop thinking bad thoughts to replace the bad thoughts with good thoughts. Matt.13: 19-21 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself.” Now I want to find out what the root is because if he says that person doesn’t have root then there is a problem he is having. I want to find out how to grow roots. It says that he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful. But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the Word and understands it. The normal Greek words for understand is the word ginosko. Here Jesus uses the word suniemi. That’s the word that means to be in agreement with. To understand and to be in agreement is different. To understand is to see something you didn’t see before. To be in agreement is to accept and receive what was said. Now Jesus uses the word suniemi or understand which is a special Greek word. And he who understands it will indeed bear fruit and produces, some a hundred, some sixty and some thirty. That word understand originate from the Greek word suniemi that means that you agree and line up yourself together with. Now although it doesn’t seem to be the mind but if you observe carefully, in all the other three grounds where they didn’t produce lasting fruit, the problem was in their heart and in their mind. All the different grounds receives the same word, the same seed. Lets look at the first ground in verse 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom (and you notice what he says) and does not understand (the same word suniemi is used, and in this case the person does not come into agreement) then the wicked one comes.. Now it becomes clearer, Jesus is not just saying that the person receives and disagrees with the word. See the word understand means to come into agreement. Therefore the word does not understand in that Greek context is not the word ginosko. It’s a different word to come into agreement with. That the person heard, the person received but the person has doubts and did not come into agreement. Jesus said it: they won’t believe it and therefore they won’t have it. So when that happens the thoughts were not remaining. For example, He can say but His stripes I was healed. In your mind you say it cannot be since the symptoms are still there. The moment you allow other thoughts to replace that thought, the devil comes and steals the Word away. Any thought and any word that come from God in line with the scripture when we doubt, when we are in disagreement in our mind, we are automatically the first ground. It will be stolen from you. In other words, the heart and the mind must work together. How long can that thought occur in your mind? Some people hear the Word and keep it for only a few seconds. The ability to hold the Word in your mind and heart is important. Sometimes you hear the Word or you read the Word of God in your devotional life and it stays with you. You notice what the Holy Spirit is trying to do. After you leave your house, you have done your devotion, the one scripture that came up in your mind; you were very much impressed with that scripture. Then as you are going out to work, the thought still lingers. Why, because God want it to remain long. It’s not how much mental power you have; it’s how much word and the amount of time it remain inside you. If it remains long enough, it’s going to drop into your spirit. But if it is very short, there is not enough time for it to go in and so the Holy Spirit reminds you. Sometimes if you didn’t meditate, contemplate on what He has spoken that morning, by lunchtime you would have lost what He spoke. Can you imagine going all our lives that way? Receiving the seed and letting it go without growing. You will be in the same place after 100 years. But what the Holy Spirit was trying to do was trying to get that thought into our mind so that we constantly think about it. And you notice that although you thought is there, your free will is still available to choose to think. Satan cannot make you think. Satan gives you an offer but you are the one who chooses to think. Satan cannot control your mind and force you to think what he wants. He can only make you an offer. In the same way, God makes you an offer. The Holy Spirit brings the thought to your mind and He says choose you this day what you will think. The moment you accept that thought, and you let it vibrate through your mind constantly, the Word will sink into your spirit man. Inside each one of us we have an inner voice in our soul and thought. Originally before the fall that inner voice was a powerful communication system. After the fall it became different. See in heaven I Cor.13 it says we will know just as we are known. In the spirit realm you don’t have to be introduced to somebody to know him. The mind of Christ knows it. For example, none of us have met Joshua in the Bible, when you get into heaven and you see Joshua, you will be able to recognize him. Matt. 17, when Moses and Elijah were on the mount of Transfiguration, the disciples who have not spoken to Jesus yet saw the two manifested and they recognized it was Moses and Elijah. Who told them? Jesus hasn’t spoken to them yet. They recognized them. In the spirit world when see it, you will know it. See in heaven you cannot hide your thoughts. What you think right now God knows but not everybody knows. But in heaven what you think everybody knows. Then why God gave us a mouth? The mouth was originally made to praise God. It was God’s praise instrument given to man but after the fall the mind of man was darkened. According to Eph.4, the Gentiles who were alienated from the life of God had their understanding darkened. And so our minds do not function in the full capacity, as God wants us to function. But our thoughts are powerful; our thoughts are louder to God than our words. How is that possible? God is a spirit and He hears our thoughts. He wants us still to vocalize it. Because there is a release of faith in our life and we hear and we speak. But we are talking about the mind of Christ. I want to show the power of the mind that God has given if we were to renew it in God. Every thought we think has an impression upon the atmosphere. It doesn’t mean we read each other’s mind. Jesus could know the thoughts of the people because He was so much in the spirit. Just like every thought we have has an impression upon the place we live in. Just like when you are staying in a place, in a house and after sometime it reflects on your flavor, your characteristic, your style and the kind of things you use. Our thoughts leave its impression wherever we are. Last week we saw how after some time what the thoughts you think become reflected on your body. Do you know all criminals have a criminal look? All their evil thoughts are reflected on their face. Although we cannot read each other’s mind and God does not allow it unless through His Spirit He allows and permits you to know. You say why not? You will be too miserable and you cannot bear to live that way. But out thoughts are so powerful that it will sub-consciously influence a person without their knowing. When you come face to face with people and you are having a bad thought about them, there is an invisible wall that is put up, even though physically there is nothing. But lets suppose you either would be grieved or be angry with a brother, supposing that we have something against each other, we need not say one word. Lets say we didn’t quarrel, we actually communicate. Lets say that he hasn’t heard about me and I haven’t heard about him and we haven’t met each other. He heard something about me from somebody. I heard something about him from some other people. I had a free choice and he had a free choice. If he chose to believe the bad and I chose to believe the bad, before we meet each other, there is already a war. So one day the Lord arranges that we be in the same place. As we sit across the table, I meditate on those things that they have told me about this guy. So invisibly there is a barrier, somehow inside me, he sensed it because he was sensitive. This guy doesn’t like me and I would sense this guy doesn’t like me. And every word you say this fellow would attack back. There is an invisible barrier we create with our thoughts. People respond to the type of thoughts we have. I want to talk about Frank Lobard who wrote a great book, Prayer the Mightiest Force on Earth. He talked about how the whole world is filled with people and he said, on the average when the people of the world are thinking bad thoughts, if there are more people thinking bad thoughts than good, the whole world begin to move in a negative world of realm. Everything begins to go down, the whole world, recession and all these start taking place. Wars and rumors of war start happening, evil start abounding. But when there are more people thinking good thoughts, in the world, in the visible realm then the world start shifting and moving towards the positive side. What a revelation this man has. I could see thoughts coming out from people like little lights, white light and dark lights. So when there are more bright lights, the whole world is moving into that direction. There are other areas. The other area is there is different strength in our thoughts being focus; the Bible speaks about thoughts as if there are real entities. In the book of Genesis 6, God only destroyed men because of his evil deeds. If you read carefully, it says God saw that the imagination of man’s heart were evil. He didn’t destroyed men because of what they did. He destroyed men because of what they were going to do and what they were thinking of doing. The thoughts that we think take on a living quality. In the spirit world it’s very powerful. The moment you think, it is done. Percy Collette went to heaven for a while. When he was in heaven, he thought of seeing somebody and the same time he thought of it that somebody knew or thought of seeing him and they saw each other. Then in heaven when he thought about paradise, he was there. The moment he thought about the heavenly food, it was in front of him. Thoughts became creative. As you think them they come to pass in the spirit realm. They are not exactly that way on this earth now but the thoughts we think still have a living quality in them. Think about this in this way, one man thought of this church building and then many others came together and they built it. When you drive a car, that product was for some time in somebody’s mind. Everything you look in this life came as a result of somebody’s thinking. Now we see around us the results of the people’s mind that they have acted up. Everything that you handle and you touched in this life began in somebody’s mind. Now having understood that we see how that right now every thought we think has a potential in itself of doing something. How much more powerful when thoughts are God’s thoughts in line with God, which is what Jesus was saying. The problem with the first type of ground was not that they didn’t hear the word. If you cross reference to the other parable, you would find that the first type of ground received it for sometime. It was in their thought life for a short span of time. Not enough for it to bear fruit, for it was immediately rejected. They refused to come into agreement with that thought. Agreement is first in your mind before it’s in your action. If you disagree in your mind, there is no way we can get you to do those things. Agreement starts in the mind, in the mental arena. Now the thought that we think have a quality of positive or negative influence. For some of us our minds are not trained yet and they are so weak that our thoughts are scattered. There will be what the other Greek word double minded talks about, scattered all over the place. Now you will notice this, if you look at people you have thoughts in your mind. The thoughts that occur get reflected in your face. You notice that as you project your thoughts to them, there is something in them that respond to it. If we keep going out and we tell the love of Jesus, we project the love of Jesus to people. You say brother, why should I do that? Then what are you doing with your mind? The mind is thinking of something all the time. We allow circumstances and free gear to move our mind. When you go in a bus, whatever was on was on. Whatever thought comes this was it. In other words, your mind is loose. It is what II Cor. 10 says don’t let it happen. Instead our mind should be controlled. As you step in a bus, although you cannot shout Jesus love you, you can’t do that but as you get on the bus, your mind shouts Jesus loves you. Anywhere you go, your mind shouts. Some people’s minds don’t know how to shout. Their energy forces in their thought life are very weak. Frank Lobard has been honored by the United Nations for his work among the illiterate people. He is a born again believer and he did a tremendous work for God. He said this; he tested it when he was on a train. He was at the back seat and there was a lady in front. In his mind he was projecting his thoughts and he is saying to the lady, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus loves you.” And the lady in front whispered to another guy and pointed to him and he concentrated his thoughts on her. Later that lady said, “Are you very religious?” See she cannot read the thoughts but her mind was being influenced towards God. At one time he was sitting next to a person on a plane and he is saying, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus loves you.” He didn’t say it out. His thoughts broadcasted it out. Our thoughts and our mind are like a broadcasting station. The first time that person talked to him half way through the journey, he asks, “What do you think about God?” And it happened so many times. He concludes that is no accident, it’s the level of our mind renewed. It is taking every thought captive and not allowing your thoughts to wander. Too many people allow their thoughts to wander and so their minds are not trained and ineffective. At first when you do it, your broadcasting power is very weak. People whose minds are not engaged in something or some mental activities seem to respond faster. In other words, when his mind is absorbed in some calculation or something, it does not affect him much. But when his mind is not doing anything, he tested it out and he found that it has a positive influence. It turns people towards God. So the picture he draw was like we are in fellowship with God. The people cannot contact God, God find it hard to talk to the people because the people cannot receive Him. They are on different frequency. But we know God, so God through us influences the people and through that we are able to turn people’s hearts towards God. So there is a link. We are the salt of the earth; we are the light of the world. We are giving out spiritual light all the time. We are talking about the mind of Christ and what a trained mind in God is like. When I examined those Greek words for the word understand, the word single and the word double, I could find that there is an emphasis that Jesus is saying not that we began to understand something but the meaning behind it is that we keep those things in our minds for a long period of time. So when I have a word of Jesus or something that God wants me to think over and over again. In my mind it will be broadcasted out all the time those things that Jesus wants me to think about. And sometimes I will just sit down and broadcast it to the whole nation. You will feel as if something is lifting you up in the spirit realm and you feel like in the spirit realm, you are looking down over the whole nation and your thoughts are just broadcasting covering the entire nation. That’s how powerful our thoughts can become; one thought can influence the world. Jesus, all the thoughts He thinks and all the thoughts He spoke continue to live today. And we can develop such strength of the mind of Christ. I have sought to understand the mind of Christ. See Jesus in His mind when He looks at the people, He was not thinking of here and there. In His mind He was talking to them in the spirit. He must be saying to them, God’s love is coming to you. For as we say God loves you, that you would know God, His thoughts are constantly coming upon the people. No wonder when the people saw Him, they respond to the love of God without Jesus saying a word. One look is enough. When Peter denied Jesus and the cock crowed thrice, Jesus turned to Peter and Peter saw Jesus eyebrow to eyebrow is enough. I know what kind of look gave Peter. Not that kind of look I told you so, but Jesus look must be filled with love. O remember my word, when you are turned and converted strengthen your brothers. I could imagine the unseen conversation that was going on, the thoughts that was coming across Peter. And I tell you that one look was enough. And Peter wept and he ran out of that place. The thought, He hasn’t even spoken a word. How many times those of us who have vision of Jesus, when Jesus stood right in front of you, He doesn’t need to say anything and you could feel His thoughts. That’s how powerful His thoughts are. When He speaks the whole world shake. We are not even talking about His voice; we are talking about His thoughts. After the fall man’s thought became so weak that we need our voice but when we are restored to God, the thoughts become powerful. Marvin Ford said that when he died, he was taken to the throne room and he was face to face with Jesus. Jesus never said anything, the moment Jesus thinks he heard what Jesus thought and the moment he thought Jesus heard it. That is the deep realm of God. That’s the fullness of the mind of Christ functioning the thoughts that we possess. As we began to understand what Jesus is saying here, that the first type of ground is made up of people whose minds do not understand. The word do not understand means they are not in agreement or do not allow the thoughts to remain. When God speaks just let those thoughts linger. There is no doubt if you want to develop your mind contemplation comes in because Jesus doesn’t want us to have a filthy mind. Jesus doesn’t want us to have a weak mind. Jesus doesn’t want us to have a distracted mind. He wants us to have a mind that is strong, that is pouring outwards and not influenced inwards, a mind that is pouring out His thoughts and His words all the time. The moment you go to your office say something in your thought life, “Jesus loves you.” You will see your own action also changed. Why before you went to your office, you say, “Hiya, they are persecuting me.” You didn’t say it but your mind. And as you are working you say that person is the no.1 persecutor, there is no.2 persecutor. Of course you didn’t say it out but your thoughts were thrown out to the people and there is an networking of these negative thoughts. No wonder your office atmosphere was horrible. You created it yourself. You can change it by changing your thoughts. It isn’t going to be easy but it will change if you change your thoughts. The moment you step into your office broadcast those thoughts, “Jesus loves you.” And when you want to think other thoughts, Satan send other thoughts and give you an offer, you say no way Satan, I will think about this lovely and noble thought. See if we realize that our thoughts are being broadcasted, we will be more careful. Think how great it will be if everybody has good thoughts. So the first ground is because we didn’t allow the thoughts to remain long. Look at the second type of ground in Matthew 13 verse 20-21 “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.” Now that’s the second type of ground. It says in stony places, the thoughts could not last to hardship. Sometimes no matter how difficult your circumstances are, do you know the first thing that comes to mind is, “Something is not happening the way it should be” is a wrong thought. What happens when something doesn’t work your way? When difficulty comes and your answer is not coming. You are praying and you are praying, what happen, the first few thoughts are like this, I don’t know why it did not come. I don’t know what it say is true or not. I don’t know whether I have all these sins in my life. All these thoughts start coming. The first fall is thought. But if you choose in difficulty to retain the thoughts of God, you will succeed in overcoming the situation by holding fast to the thoughts of God. I have situations confront me that you would need to practice this. As situations confront me where if I think about wrong thing, I will never be able to minister. How do you like to minister knowing that every word that you say is being recorded? And if you say any wrong word, you will end up in prison. You better think good thoughts, yet in my mind I never broadcast any bad thoughts. Do I say, “All these people are watching me”? No, in your mind you broadcast, “Jesus loves you.” The moment you see one of these guys whose purpose there is to be a vulture in the meeting, they are not there to attend a Christian service. They are there to check your message. When you project loving thoughts your action to them becomes loving. That’s what God said, “If you cannot love people with your mind, you cannot love people with your words and you cannot love people with your action.” Before you can love somebody, you have to love somebody in your mind. Before you hate somebody and your action shows, you have first hated that somebody in your mind. It all starts in your mind. Jesus said, we must never have any enemy in the new covenant. Let people make whatever enemy of us but as far as our heart is concerned we have none. Jesus said, “Love your enemies do good to them that hate you.” What does do good means? Project good thoughts, for love thinks no evil (1 Cor 13: 5). How can you love your enemy and think evil? So there is no evil in your heart and in your mind. There have been many situations where you think bad thoughts. Say I choose what I think, I choose what I believe, I choose what I speak but it starts with what I choose in my thought life. People are surprised that we can choose what we think and we must make the right choices now. This is the type of Christianity Jesus talks about. Jesus wants us to change our heart, our mind, and our thought. John said in 1 John 3: 15, Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Jesus said in Matt. 5: 21-22 You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Jesus is saying that you couldn’t even allow hatred in your heart against your brother. This is the same Jesus that we are giving to you. The same Jesus of Nazareth. This is the Jesus who requires our minds and hearts to be consecrated to Him. Project our mind unto the mind of Christ. Taking every thought captive to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The third type of ground was sown among thorns. Matthew 13: 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. Jesus says the cares and the pleasures of this life have choked the word in their life. How does he choke? What do you do when you have the cares of this life? You think about this life, what do you do when you think about pleasures of this life? What exactly did this third type of ground do? They thought the thought of the world, they thought like the world and they acted like the world. When you pick the papers in the morning, those papers are filled with the thoughts of the world. If you are going to accept everything inside, it’s going to pollute your mind. We must reach the high degree. It doesn’t mean you cannot read, you must realize thoughts are important. You can let them pass through your mind but don’t let them remain on your mind. We have to make a choice. There are some things that you completely don’t go into. There are thoughts of the world out there, there are thoughts that are being produced and if you allow those thoughts to dwell in your mind for a sufficient time, your mind will produce after the world. And Jesus says in Matthew 13: 23, But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it (that is, agree with it, hold fast to it, gets align with it and those thoughts will constantly be on your mind) who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. The wonderful thing is that, it is not our strength but the strength of the word we have received into our life that remain on our mind. The growth was caused not by us, not by the ground. The growth was caused from the seed producing. If we will hold on to the thought of God long enough it will produce. It is just a matter of time. That’s what the Word of God says, the Word of God prevails mightily in Acts 19:20. The words must prevail in our heart and in our mind. The next time you do your devotion, the next time God give you one word, one scripture, don’t let it go. I sensed in my spirit some of us have been given seed by God but we let it go too fast. We must take the seed, which are in thought form, which are spoken word to us. Through the scripture, through the logos or through a prophecy, those seeds are important. And then when you take those seeds you don’t keep them long enough to bear fruit. When it doesn’t bear fruit, the first thing you do is blaming other people, blame those who gave you the seeds, blame the Word, and blame this blame that. But it is the ground, not the seed that is the problem. How long should we hold on to that seed? Forever, that’s what we want. Hold fast to it forever. |
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7:49 AM Nov 26
