It matters what you THINK!!!

There is a book called As a man thinketh by James Allen but James Allen is not the original writer or author of the saying. This saying is actually from the Bible and it is found in Proverbs 23:7. It reads -

For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is He. 

We can underestimate the impact of our thoughts because they are like software running silently in the background. Often with phones, you can have a lot of programmes running in the background and while they may have the advantage of being easily available when you need them, they can affect the performance of your phone when it comes to battery life and data usage. Most importantly, they can also make your phone run slowly. Often, when trying to manage your phone smoothly, these programmes need to be put in deep sleep mode so that your phone can run smoothly.

Thoughts can run like this as well though their impact can be deadly when they are wrong thoughts. Nobody sees thoughts or can tell the damage they do. For this reason, you might be deceived to think it does not matter what you think since nobody knows what you are thinking. Sometimes, you may think immoral thoughts and while no one knows what you are thinking, you know you shouldn't be thinking that way. Of course, you may not know how damaging such thoughts are. If this is you, such thoughts will affect your right standing in God’s presence. Feelings of inadequacy and guilt can stand between you and your Heavenly Father when it comes to fellowship. Not only that, it dampens and causes your appetite for God’s word and his people to wane. Ungodly thoughts also defile or corrupt and that is where the sense of guilt and inadequacy come from. These are sinful though and we should avoid them instead of relishing in the fact that nobody knows what we are thinking. 

However there are thoughts that though not immortal or sinful, can be just as damaging. These are the kind of thoughts that we call wrong thinking. When you think this way, you misunderstand or misconstrue a situation or condition and so you always come to the wrong conclusion. As a result of thinking like this, it then affects your progress. No matter how you try, your conclusions are always off because of how you think. You may go to church and pray, but until you change the way you think, you and nobody else will stand firmly as the obstacle in the path to your breakthrough.  

I heard a man of God say this, that prayer cannot deliver what your tongue has forbidden. What does this mean? It means that no matter how much you pray on a matter, what you keep saying will override your prayer; and what you keep saying is a function of what you believe. We may think it does not matter what goes on inside us as long as our outward actions are correct but this is a deception 

It is not what we say before an audience that matters. What we say before an audience only impresses that audience but holds no water with God. What we do in public does not carry any weight if we behave differently in private. If we behave this way, we deceive ourselves and the Bible says in ‭James 1:22 that “do not just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” 

Do not fool yourself into thinking it does not matter if you hear God's word but do not do it. It is not enough to hear the word of God if you do not intend to do what it says. You must not only hear it - you must do it as well. You must make sure the word you are hearing goes beyond your physical ears and enters into your mind. You must think on the word and let it change the way you think. You must question wrong mindsets and you will know they are there by the results you are getting. 

Wrong programming or a wrong mindset can affect your results, so it is important to take time out and pray and I am talking about praying in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit for long periods of time, will do something phenomenal to your mindset. 

Recently the Lord told me that Speaking in Tongues for long periods of time changes the mindset. How does this happen you might ask. Well, as you pray in the Spirit for extended periods of time, the Holy Spirit is able to begin to point out areas of concern and show you what you need to do to change those areas of your life. As you make the necessary adjustments, it will begin to affect your thinking. If you do this and notice that wrong thinking still persists, God will bring deliverance through others who will then give counsel, wisdom or advice that helps you to start thinking differently.

It really does matter how you think and what you believe. So, if you find that your results are consistently different from what you keep praying and want to see; there is wrong thinking somewhere and it is affecting your results. 

I used to think that all that was required for me to prosper was prayer. I thought God was so powerful that he didn't need my help. All I needed to do was to pray and wait for the money or opportunity to arrive. With such thinking, I was not looking for what I needed to do to start to prosper. I was waiting for prosperity to show up and this is wrong programming or thinking. Even if God’s word spoke to me of a blessing, I had a part to play and my part did not end at waiting for the miracle to happen. I needed to be doing something that God could bless!!!! Thankfully, I no longer think this way and I watch my train of thought. My husband says “Pay attention to what you are thinking about”, and now - I DO!!!

So, let's look at our lives this week. Are things the way you want them to be? Are things in your life falling in line with what His word has promised? If not, take out time and begin to pray for extended periods of time so that the floodlights of heaven can shine and show you what you need to do differently.

Flourish in God this week ❤️