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#4 from Nurturing Spiritual Desires.
Check out these two powerful truths. 1) To be spiritually minded is life and peace, but to be carnally minded is death. 2) Life and death are in the power of the tongue.
What you think and what you speak are planting seeds of life or death. The direction of your thoughts in any given area will determine the outcome of that issue. The content of your words in any given area will determine if you’ll reap life or death.
Think life and speak life.
Self-Talk
Your thoughts about yourself and inner self-talk have the power to produce life or death.
Think about it. What happens when you’re feeling sorry for yourself or you spend time beating yourself up in your mind? How does it feel? How do those kinds of thoughts influence your inner state and your choices? Same question about your words.
You are nurturing yourself or killing yourself. You are planting seeds of life or death. (I speak about this in more detail in the sermons above.)
Nurture Life
Try this. Identify an area you’re struggling. Identify the emotions associated with that area. In the days to come, notice how you think, speak and feel about yourself in those areas. Whether it be health, finances, relationships of your profession
Once you get an understanding of what you think and feel about yourself, take it to the Word of God. Do a search in the Bible for the kinds of thoughts you have; depression, anxiety, lack of focus, fear, over-confidence, etc…
Adopt what the Bible says as your new self-talk and thought life. I recently posted a 30 minute video in the Facebook group for our church, it may be helpful.
A Secret Weapon
It’s a good idea to guide your mind to Biblical truth and speak healthy things, but what should you do when you can’t seem to pull yourself out of the funk? Fortunately, God gave you a secret weapon to bypass your thoughts and self-talk.
“The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself”
Tongues means language. Praying in unknown tongues is praying in a language unknown to you. But something IS happening. Your spirit is praying. And, God is praying for you, through you. Praying with your spirit bypasses your thoughts and words and gives God’s spirit the reigns of your life. Who doesn’t want that? When you use this gift, everything will work out for your good—more on that in the sermon above.
All Believers Have the Spirit
If you’re born again, God’s spirit lives in you. You don’t have to wait for a second blessing, an infilling, or anything else. What does need to happen is for you to yield to His spirit and allow Him to come upon you. The Holy Spirit is in you to come upon you. He used to come out of Heaven to rest on people, then go back into Heaven. But now Heaven is in you. So He still comes out of Heaven to rest upon you and empower you, the good news is He never leaves.
It’s up to you to be empowered by the Holy Spirit in any gift, whether it be praying in the spirit, healing, receiving provision, or casting out devils. Praying in the spirit is not when God takes control of your mouth and makes you speak. Praying in the spirit happens when you make a conscious decision to make unknown sounds, as an act of faith, and trust that God is using the power of life and death in your tongue for His purposes.
Remember, life and death are in the power of the tongue. Allow God to merge His power with the authority you have as a human in this world, and pray His purposes for you and the world around you, through you.
