DEFAULT THINKING…the mind of Christ

Today, once again, I sit here struggling to write. So I will just start. I ask for grace with this post as this is something that I am still learning as I post about it.

This year has been a very eventful year. There has been a serious storm, which you are well aware of, and in it, I have chosen to keep my eyes on Jesus and walk with Him. This is working for me. By staying focused on Him and in His presence, it seems to be easier for me to hear Him and respond in faith when confronted with a BIG WAVE or a STRONG WIND. My way of thinking and responding has changed dramatically this year. God has me on the potter’s wheel and He is removing some things that don’t look like Him and adding more of Him. At times my faith and thinking even surprise me. =)

One of the WAVES in this storm concerns someone very dear to me. This person is struggling with her faith…what exactly she believes about God…Christianity…Jesus. As I have prayed for her throughout this journey, the Lord will drop little “words of wisdom”, “words of knowledge”, or “words of encouragement” in my spirit and give me a peace for her. One day as I was thinking about her, I just heard in my spirit, “It doesn’t matter if someone says they don’t believe in me or if they say they believe, but don’t live like it, they both just need a touch from me.” That was eye-opening to me…such simple truth, but great revelation.

As I have shared with My Tribe during this season, asking for prayer, I would share about this person and her situation and as I would share, I would say something like, “I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I don’t know what she is going to have to walk through before she comes to the Lord, but I know she will serve Him.” While I was saying those words, I would think the worse case scenario and it would make my heart sad.

So one night I was headed to bed and I was just thinking in my mind about this person, not even speaking out loud, but I thought, “I don’t know what she is going to have to go through before she comes back to You, Lord”, and immediately I heard the Lord speak to my spirit. He said, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT!!!” He looked beyond what I was saying and discerned my thoughts. (The “not so good” thoughts) It was as clear as day. Oh my goodness…you talk about a shift…this brought about a shift.

I realized at that moment that I had been allowing the enemy to fill my thoughts with his plans instead of allowing God to fill my thoughts with His. It wasn’t just in her situation…anytime I would think in my mind about situations that were not good, my thoughts would always go to the bad. They were never “God moving and shifting and working things out for His good”. Nope, I would see all the negative that could happen.

Now, this is a mindset. Probably goes back to my last post, where there was still a little piece of a lie that I believed about God and His true character. But, when God spoke that truth to me, it broke whatever the lie was that I was believing. At that moment, I just begin to see things differently. I began to see that God LOVES RECKLESSLY!!! And His plans are good. His character is good. He is good.

Dictionary.com: Reckless

• utterly unconcerned about the consequences of some action; without caution, careless.
• characterized by or proceeding from such carelessness: reckless extravagance.

THIS IS HOW GOD LOVES!!!!

Since God spoke those words to me, I look at her and her situation so differently. When I think about her, my mind doesn’t just go to all the terrible things that she could have to walk through before she comes back to Jesus. Nope, I can see God so overwhelming her with His love that she cannot resist…she cannot deny His identity…she cannot question if He is Creator or the authenticity of the Scriptures. She will KNOW with an unshakable assurance. Sometimes those “not so good” thoughts will try to enter in, but I will quickly bring them captive to the obedience of Christ! (2 Cor 10:5)

I just want to say right here…that sometimes it is in the dark night when people come to know the Love of God and turn to Him, but it is never the “dark night” that turns people’s hearts towards God…it is ALWAYS HIS LOVE! I don’t believe that it is God’s plan for us to walk through the dark night, but sometimes that is the choice that we make.

After God gave me this revelation and after a few conversations with some different people, I was curious as to how many people automatically thought that “dark times” were inevitable for people away from God to come to Him. So I constructed a poll.

Poll: When you hear someone say or you say, “God’s going to get their attention” or “I don’t know what they’re going to have to walk through before they come to God”, what do you automatically think? It’s going to be “good” or “not so good”?

71% Believed Not Good (I believe this is a low number, but it’s still very high) Why is this? Why is it that our “default thinking” is that something “not so good” is going to happen to someone for God to get their attention? Why isn’t our first thought about God’s overwhelming goodness and how His love is going to wreck her life?

Is it because we get this kind of teaching at church? Is it that we believe that “not so good” things get our attention so this is how God will work? Is it that we don’t believe these people deserve the “overwhelming goodness of God”? Why is it?

How do we change our default setting from “not so good” to “beyond our expectation good”?

I believe that only God can change our thinking, but He tells us how He does it. The Bible tells us in Romans 12 that we are not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (The Passion Translation: Stop imitating the ideas and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you  think…)

God is good. His plans for us are good. He loves us with a reckless, wild, overwhelming love. He is passionately seeking after us, revealing Himself to us every day. He sent Jesus to show us Himself to us and to draw us to into an intimate relationship with Himself. He loves us and His heart is for us!!! There is nowhere that we can go that He will not go with us!

Get into His word. Meditate on it. Know it! Know Him! Declare it daily! Share it! Write it out! Post it! Do whatever you need to do to get it in you to where you believe it with every fiber of your being and it becomes your default thinking.

I’m going to leave you with this. When the word tells us to meditate on it…it means to act it out in your mind. Just like you will “replay” something that may happen over and over in your mind…and you will begin to get the emotions, you will speak it out loud what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it, etc. This is what the Lord wants us to do with His word. If you’re praying for a loved one to come to Jesus. See it in your mind. See them being overwhelmed by the goodness of God and calling out to Him. Let it become real to you…feel it, see it, hear it!! God’s word is alive and active…it is powerful! Speak it out and allow it to change your circumstances…no matter what they look like…speak His word!