Mind Pictures

                                                                                                                                                          

Aloha Dearest Family,

               The images we hold of ourselves determine to a great extent, victory or failure in our lives. Top athletes learn to visualize themselves performing the proper moves and plays in order to have victory in their sport.  They have trained themselves to consistently hold a clear mind picture of themselves performing their given sport perfectly and precisely. If they made the wrong play or perform the wrong movements, they must instantly bring themselves back to seeing themselves doing the next one right. This is vital to becoming a champion. But it is also true for every aspect of living that we need to have positive mind pictures in order to carry out our plans and dreams. The clearer the mind picture, the greater the capability for success.

                Children learn how to imagine at an early age.  For a brief period of time (very brief), I started to get into wood working. I had bought several types of saws and a router, and with the help of a neighbor, tried to make something out of wood. This evidently led to many wood scraps lying around. My son picked up one peculiar shaped piece of wood and he cut out some little arms and legs out of paper and taped them to the piece of wood, which became to him a dinosaur. What I saw as scrap wood, he saw as a possible toy. Children are great at using their imaginations. But in time, as we grow, we start to lose this ability to imagine and start seeing things the way they “really are”.  The mind is meant to work in pictures so that we can “see” success before it actually happens. God designed man to not only see things with his physical eyes, but also see, or imagine, what could be.

                   A great example of this is Abraham. When Abraham was already an old man, God promised him that he would have a son, even though he and his wife Sarah were past child bearing age. (Abraham was about 90 years old and Sarah was about 81) God promised him a son and from that son would rise many nations. But God had to get Abraham’s vision up to the point of seeing that this was possible. To help Abraham get a clearer mind picture of God’s promises coming to pass, He told him that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky and as numerous as the sand upon the sea shore. Now that’s a vision. This is something that Abraham could see. Moreover God changed his original name from Abram, which means “father of height”, to Abraham, which means” father of multitudes”. In short, God needed Abraham to see things the way He saw them.     

 "(As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which are not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17b) 

God calls things that are not, as though they were. God needed Abraham to do the same. And in time, Abraham became totally convinced that what God had promised He was also able to perform. (Romans 4:21)

                How do you picture yourself? Is it the way God sees you. God’s Word says that:

-We have been given all spiritual blessings. (Ephesians 1:3)

-We are more than conquerors. (Romans 8:37)

-God shall supply all of our needs. (II Corinthians 9:8)

-We are complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10)

-We have Christ in us. (Colossians 1:27)

-We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. (Romans 8:17)

If our picture of ourselves does not match the truth about who we really are, we must change the picture. We must “change the channel”. The continual mind pictures we hold of ourselves will either result in victory or defeat in our lives.  The problem is that, most people don’t know that there is another channel to watch. If you are stuck on the channel where you see yourself defeated and sickly, you will never break out of your bondage. Why not change to the healthy channel in your mind where you are never sick again? When you watch the channel about your finances, do you see poverty or even bankruptcy? Or are you watching the channel of continual abundance where you have more than you need? If you don’t like what you are watching, change the channel. Change to the channel of God’s continual well being for you and endless supply to answer your needs. Give God’s plan to see you victorious a chance. Remember, you are God’s best and He wants the best for you.   

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:” (Proverbs 23:7a)           

                                    Love Always, Ray