It Doesn't Matter

2 Corinthians 10:5 AMP
…and we lead every thought and purpose away captive…

Next level thinking will cause you to check your every thought and take it captive until you clear it with a very high set of standards. This can be exhausting at times but very rewarding.

Some things that change as you learn to take every thought through your set of standards.

1. You notice change in yourself
2. You see the world differently
3. You notice more negative and unproductive language in yourself and society.

The bible is clear that the Lords thoughts and ways are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:8) For us to reach higher levels of thinking, we must realize that we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16(b)

says, but we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. Though our old life is gone (2 Corinthians 5:17), we still need to do all we can to prevent the negative and unproductive thoughts to settle in our minds. We need to renew our minds daily (Romans 12:2) or we will daily face the consequences of an unfulfilled calling.

Jesus wants you to have a full life. (John 10:10) Start today by taking every thought captive. Sift it through the Word of God. If it’s scripture, keep it. If not, cast it down.

Insecure God…Not!

God may be a jealous God,

But God is not insecure.

He wants no idols before you

because He’s jealous for you.

He knows the price you pay for that idol.

He knows you’re short changing yourself

with other idols.

He knows the idols make you idle in life.

He knows the idols are a covering for pain

or a symptom of addiction.

God may be a jealous God,

But God is not insecure.

He’s jealous for you.

Death in the Garden

Jesus crucifixion started in the garden. The Father gave Him a vision. (Luke 22:41) Jesus died to His own will. (v42) Jesus accepted, visualized and internalized the Father’s plan. (v44) This sequence of steps was a defining moment for Jesus and for us. No, it was much more than that. It was the beginning of the final great battle that led Jesus to the victory that had been foretold for thousands of years. This was the established point in time for Jesus. The same point in time God gives to all of us. He gave His only begotten Son, our only chance, a vital, critical and crucial choice in the matter at hand. Make no mistake, the vision and the weight of it was clear. (v44) He chose to die.

I know I often choose to carry my cross. I do have to ask myself why. It could be of pure motives wanting to be more like the Lord. It could be I may get some sort of gratification out of it. It’s the “woe is me” syndrome that could get it the way of my sincerity. I could carry my cross all my life and never have to die. This way I can still partially have my way in any given situation in my life and not die. As long as I don’t die to a situation, I still have a bit of control in my life…so I think.

Today I’m not going to name any situations. I believe you are already thinking about them.

I’ve become tired of carrying my cross without the end game of death. I’ve had to die to what I’ve wanted in this life and cry for Him to give me the desires of His heart so I could live again.

I thought I would share this from my heart.

Andy

Picking Scabs

As a boy, I had several cuts, scratches and bruises just like most boys do. I remember one particular incident when I had a good sized scrape on my knee from a bike accident. After few weeks I had a full scab and was on my way to complete healing. Unfortunately for me, we had a friend of the family visit us. Somehow this “friend” convinced my parents to pour peroxide on my scab. In a panic I tried to talk my way out of the forced treatment but it was to no avail. As my parents held me down, I cried through the torture. I’m not sure what it was to accomplish. The only thing that happened was I felt pain, I was angry and the peroxide removed the scab. The scab had to grow again before I healed.

I’ve had to deal with some deep pains lately. What I’ve come to understand in my life concerning emotional healing is this. I couldn’t deeply believe God the Father completely and absolutely loved me. My experiences, since I was child, left me believing I was unlovable. Even though I received Christ as my Savior at sixteen years old, I was so emotionally injured I couldn’t grow in His love and grace. Even though the chains of my addictions and issues were broken through Christ I continued to destroy my life. I would accept criticism from others and would listen to the condemnation that was screaming at me in my head.

Here is the picture in many Christians lives. Before accepting the invitation to follow Christ, we were fettered. After Christ, the fetters were broken and we were set free from sin and death. Unfortunately the fetters left deep cuts on our wrist. Through our walk with Christ our cuts begin to heal and scab. The scab in the natural is protection until the wound heals. The scab in the spiritual represents Gods grace as we grow in Christ. In the natural we are constantly tempted to scratch and pick at the scab because it has a nagging itch. We tend to do the same in the spiritual. Because we do not fully believe God’s love for us is full and complete, we keep pulling His grace off of our lives. We keep going back to the past pain and sin disbelieving in full redemption through Christ. In this place of unbelief we cannot believe the Father absolutely loves us. This starts the cycle of self criticism and condemnation and keeps us from deep inner healing. This unbelief of total redemption corrupts, misrepresents and twists our perception of God and how He sees us. It doesn’t allow us to live beyond our past. Instead of healing, our damaged past becomes a logical and acceptable part of our daily lives. There are a couple of problems with this scenario. God is not logical and Jesus came to heal the broken hearted.

If this describes you, here are some steps you can take to help stop the cycle of self criticism and condemnation.

1.     Stop picking at the scabs.

Learn to filter what the media (including Christian media), family and you say about yourself. Filter the truth from the lies. Resist accepting and repeating the lies. This can be difficult at first but keep doing it and it starts to become easier to deflect the deceit of the past.

Give yourself time to heal.

We always seem to be in a hurry. Remember renewing the mind takes time. In addition, it’s not all about healing. It’s also about building a relationship with Christ. When you have a relationship with Him, your negative opinions of yourself and others opinions matter less and less. Relationship building takes time. But the closer you get to Christ, the more emotional healing takes place organically.

Use ointment.

Spend quit time reflecting on all the good the Word say’s about you. Also remember, since your salvation, you have done good deeds. Reflect on those actions or deeds for a moment and ask the Spirit to help you to enjoy this life by finding other ways of doing good deeds. There is something about serving others that helps bring healing. These actions are like a healing ointment for the soul.

Are you ready to break the cycle? Are you ready to heal? Start using these steps today to move forward in the life Jesus came to give you. Start believing in total redemption because God doesn’t do anything half-hearted.

What are other ways in which we can break unbelief in total redemption?

Andy

Indulging in Fruit

John 5:6-7 When Jesus noticed him lying there [helpless], knowing that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, Do you want to become well? [Are you really in earnest about getting well?] 

The invalid answered, Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; but while I am trying to come [into it] myself, somebody else steps down ahead of me. 

Think about this man’s response to Jesus. His statement gives us a very revealing look at his spiritual state.

To better understand this, we must clarify the meaning of the word “invalid”. This word has two pronunciations. 1) in-va-lid 2) in-val-id. Definition #2 means: an intended point or claim is not valid, is null or void. Definition #1, in which I will focus on, means: a person made weak or disabled by illness or injury.

Here’s the point. This man’s response revealed that he was not only physically disabled but also spiritually disabled. His first words to Jesus, who asked him a yes or no question, was a negative statement that had nothing to do with the question. He helped make him-self weak and disabled by the words that he spoke. Proverbs 18:21 states: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]. If his first response to Jesus was negative, he had a mental stronghold of negativity. Negativity mastered him. He had been thinking negatively for so long that he couldn’t tell Jesus he wanted to be healed. The man was weakness, failure and self-pity and his tongue followed. He achieved what he thought and spoke every time.

 Unfortunately, this man’s life reveals a part of mankind and our nature of negativity. So what can we do differently? Proverbs 8:6-8 says: Hear, for I will speak excellent and princely things; and the opening of my lips shall be for right things. For my mouth shall utter truth, and wrongdoing is detestable and loathsome to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous (upright and in right standing with God); there is nothing contrary to truth or crooked in them. When we read the Word regularly and pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance, we can stop our tongues before they repeat the negative. We will have scripture to replace the negative thoughts. Then we can speak the truth of God’s Word, in faith, and see it come to pass.

“Next Level Thinking” requires us to search out our negative thoughts and words and align them with the Word of God.

Ask yourself today what fruit am I indulging in? Death or life? 

Invisible Chains

The chains of your past may have cut deep into your soul. If you still feel the pain of the chains, it's not the chains, it's the cut. 

You are free from the chains but the Lord needs to heal the cut. 
Let Him go there.

The Ground

God gave us the perfect picture of how deep His Son's blood will penetrate our past and wipe it clean. Luke 22:44 says:
"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
The ground is what God used to make Adam. Gods redemption can't go any deeper than that. When Jesus bled on the ground He was drawing a line in the sand stating His people are no longer bound to condemnation.

Don't let condemnation hold you back. Condemnation is only a shadow not a reality.

Are You Hoarding?

Matthew 6:19-20

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal

I admit it. I enjoy watching the reality show “Hoarders”. It used to be that my self-righteousness would want to kick in and judge. Fortunately the Spirit reminded me how messed I would be without my Savior.

The show has a central theme of why most hoarders are hoarders. An unfortunate or traumatic experience in their past has made them get stuck. As Christians we could be “spiritual hoarders”. No, I’m not promoting a new reality show. What I am doing is looking at what I’ve had to realize in my life and share it in hope’s it will help someone else. In essence, I’m removing clutter from my house and giving to others. This very act of removing clutter from a house is the beginning for a real life hoarder to heal and get unstuck. So it is with Christians. Some of us Christians get stuck at the cross of Jesus. They never grow or build from there. Some of us grow for a few years until we get offended or a tragedy happens. Some just quit because they were looking for all the goodies of God and didn’t get them fast enough. (Sorry for stepping on some toes.) It could be any number of situations that would keep us from moving forward in any area of our life.

What is it for you? I would guess if you’re not experiencing growth in any area of your life, you are stuck. If you’re stuck it’s hard to see a good future. It’s hard to see a way to get unstuck. You’re likely frustrated with life. When we are stuck it’s difficult to have faith and hope in our God.

Here are a few steps that have helped me get unstuck.

1.  Identifying the area(s) of your stuckness. (Is that a word?) Is   it you health, career, a relationship or is it emotional? You may find it easy to identify or you may have to dig deep but do this step first. Once found, you can then start the process. Remember Peter before he denied Christ. He was stuck in his own limited ability to follow Christ. After he came face to face with the truth, he then became a pillar in our Christian history.
2.   Read Luke 9:13-17 several times in different translations. This is a powerful principle for “spiritual hoarders”. Simply put, when we give the wisdom, knowledge or gift that  God has given to us to feed the hungry, we don’t lose it. It multiplies when you share it. If you share your story of  salvation, you aren’t suddenly un-saved. If you share some bit of helpful information at work, you don’t suddenly  not know what you just shared. On the contrary, it multiplies. In addition, Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his  life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. If we start sharing little by little what we  know, in any area of our life, to the benefit of others, we will start to notice the flow of life again. To not share your  wisdom, knowledge or gift is hoarding.                                                                                                                                   
3.  Go with the flow. Revelation 22:1 (AMP) says, “Then He showed me the river whose waters give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing  out from the throne of God and of the Lamb." We have the fullness of Christ living in us. Therefore we, potentially,  could have the river of life flowing out of us. Hoarding stops the flow of life. First it stops your life then the life  you could have touched. If a kitchen sink is clogged, the water will flow slower and slower because of build up in the drain. When the drain  is completely clogged the water will back up to the surface and will bring a vomit inducing smell with it. (Sorry for  the gross description but I’m trying to make a point.) This is what happens to us if we get spiritually clogged. We slowly die and become a bitter smelling portrayal of Christ and Christianity. Sharing your wisdom, knowledge or gifts keeps the river flowing.

Are you hoarding? If so, start with these steps to begin to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

The Spirit helps us in many different ways. I hope this helps you.

What are other ways the Spirit has helped you get out of your stuckness? (There’s that word again.)

Don't we all have choice in our future? Most of us realize we have this choice daily. What most of us don't realize is the effect it will have on countless others for the good or bad.

God the Father gave Jesus a choice in the garden and He chose crucifixion because of the long term effect on your life.

What we do today, good or bad will make a difference in someone's life.

What will you do different today for the long term effect of someone you don't know?

Next Level Thinking Manifesto

Next Level Thinking Manifesto

I will not speak calamity

I will not let my mind harbor fear.

I will not let my mind live in the past.

I will take responsibility for my thinking.

I will learn to keep my tongue under control.

I will think and speak of unlimited opportunity.

I will pursue positive, productive and powerful thoughts.

I will not blame others or circumstances for my life today.

I will train my mind to live by principles and not by my feelings.

I will not let my mind harbor anger, resentment or unforgiveness.

I will take every thought captive and sift it through high level values.

I will choose daily to think purposeful, deliberate and meaningful thoughts.

I will not speak any negative, critical or demeaning thoughts about myself or others.

Pass The Salt

Let your speech at all times be gracious (pleasant and winsome), seasoned [as it were] with salt, [so that you may never be at a loss] to know how you ought to answer anyone [who puts a question to you]. (Colossians 4:6 Amp)

My friend once told me a trick he used to help him avoid eating all the food on his plate lest he over eat. He would open the salt shaker and pour salt over the remaining food. I’m not so sure it was a good plan. It may have solved the issue at the moment but what about the discipline it takes to live a healthy lifestyle.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, in part, the importance of following the teachings of Jesus. They were being lured into thinking that Jesus was not Lord and that He was insufficient. Paul had an interesting way of urging the Colossians to continue to believe in the lordship and sufficiency of Jesus. He writes,

“That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition]. [We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy, “(Colossians 1:10-11)

There is a load of teaching in these scriptures but I will focus on one thought. Paul is talking about our conduct. Though we cannot, in any way, earn our salvation, we still must work out our salvation. (Philippians 2:12) We do this as a response to love, not as a requirement.

Now back to the opening text. “Let your speech at all times be gracious (pleasant and winsome), seasoned [as it were] with salt…” For many of us, this can be very difficult. It will take discipline and not some trick to fulfill this request. But it is not impossible. Here are a few steps that will help you to be disciplined in your speech.

1.     Think before you speak.

a.     Ask yourself if the words you are about to speak are going to add flavor to the conversation or will you be dumping the whole salt shaker of salt on it. If you are dumping the all the salt, you will leave a bitter taste with someone.

2.     Ask the Spirit to help you daily with your speech.

a.     The Spirit is our Counselor. He will help you in your time of need and will show you your thought process. Your thought process precedes the words that you choose. When this is revealed, you then can work on changing your words.

3.     Ask the Spirit to help you walk in love.

a.     God is love. The more you are like Him the easier it is to respond in love.

Paul was trying to teach us that our words make a difference in how our testimony is perceived by others. Jesus said we are the salt of the earth, therefore we must decide, before we speak, how much salt to put in our every day conversation. “Next Level Thinking” disciplines us to think before we speak. Then we can make a choice of words before we open our mouth. Think of your mind as a salt shaker. Your mouth is the lid. Choosing the wrong words to speak is like opening the lid to the salt shaker and pouring out all the salt.

Ask the Spirit of God to show you the choice of words that you need to change in your thoughts and in your conversation.


To listen to the audio version visit: http://bit.ly/Hxda1s

Filled To The Brim With Garbage

Our society has slowly eliminated the

"Is the glass half empty or half full?" analogy.

Since we are totally affixed to the on-line,

blogging, cable TV world, we are always

being filled to the brim with garbage.

We as individuals must engage in a mental

battle to keep our glasses overflowing with

good, positive and uplifting thoughts.

We truly are the artist of our own future.

And it starts with what we are thinking.

And to fully have a successfully fulfilled

life we must have Next Level Thinking.








If you would like to hear this in audio form go to:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/648238-thoughts-on-filling-our-mind