BIBLICAL THINKING & CONFESSION. Part 1 of 4.
This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. -- Psalm 118:24.
Live victoriously 365 days a year? Is it really possible? It is not only possible, but this blessing has also been promised to every believer who will appropriate it by faith. Jesus came to give us an abundant life--free from sin, sickness, worry, poverty, depression, fear, frustration, and defeat. Most Christians, however, have allowed Satan, who is described by Jesus as a thief (John 10:10), to rob them of their health and prosperity, as well as to usurp their rights and authority. Did you know that God never intended for His children to be sick and afflicted, nor poverty stricken and oppressed? Are you aware that it is His will for you to prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers (III John 2)? Did you know that He desires for you to live a fruitful and abundant life, walking in victory 365 days a year? God has pledged that His children, who obey His Word, shall enjoy prosperity in all things:

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:3

We are not suggesting that God intended for His children to live a life free from any problems or trials, or without testing; but we are saying that God has provided the means whereby these things do not need to dominate us, as they do so many, and that they can be controlled and overcome. Although most Christians have been reading the Bible for years, many of them do not seem to realize that God has invited them to walk through life on a pathway literally paved with His promises. There are thousands of promises in the Word of God made to the believer, and yet the average Christian has appropriated only one--the promise of salvation in John 3:16. A certain number have, to be sure, asked for the promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), and others have believed the promise of divine healing (Mark 16:18); but few Christians have grasped the full nature of their inheritance as joint-heirs with Christ. The Scriptures are filled with divine assurance, rights, privileges, blessings, and promises whereby God has made provision for the Christian's spiritual, physical, and temporal needs, as well as for the accomplishment of the work He has commissioned His church to do. All these provisions and blessings are available to the extent that we are willing to press through by faith and appropriate them.

Jesus characterizes Satan as a thief who has come to rob you of your abundant life and defeat you through circumstances. The enemy has most Christians deceived into believing that all of the promises of temporal blessing were for the past and applied only to Israel, in heaven, in spite of such glorious promises as are found in Matthew 6:19-34; Mark 11:22-24 and 16:16-20; Luke 11:13; I Corinthians 3:21-22; Philippians 4:19; and III John 2.

The Word of God promises the believer an abundant and fruitful life, with the assurance that he can rise by faith above all opposing circumstances, endure even the severest trials, overcome his problems, enjoy peace and security, and walk in victory 365 days a year.

For most Christians, however, life consists in just "getting by somehow" from day to day--hoping they will not get sick, worrying whether or not the money will hold out until the end of the month, praying that their children will not get into serious trouble, hoping the old car will last through the winter, struggling to get through one more day, then catching a few hours of rest before beginning the endless cycle all over again the next day. Life consists of 365 days of cares, worries, and problems, with only an occasional ray of sunshine breaking through the dark clouds of life. This mediocre form of living is definitely not God's will for His children, but results from the simple fact that, although most Christians have been taught how to prepare for death, few have learned how to live. Thus, to them, one day looks like the next; it is filled with cares, problems, troubles, and worries. For most it seems that life has become sheer drudgery.

How were your last 365 days of life as a Christian? Were they filled with joy, victory, and accomplishment? Were you able to overcome your problems? Did you endure your trials by faith? Was there a definite growth in your spiritual life? Did you experience an increase in your faith? Or were your last 365 days not much different from those of Mr. and Mrs. Average Christian--filled with cares, troubles, sickness, disappointments, and failures?

Do you know that God has set forth in His Word certain principles concerning the Christian's thoughts, attitudes, and confession which will enable him to achieve emotional stability and peace of mind, as well as an enduring faith, empowering him to walk in victory over all circumstances each day?

This is no empty hope, impossible of realization, but is more and more becoming the actual experience of many saints. Because of their uncompromising faith in the Word of God, they are as the Psalmist describes them: ...like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.---Psalm 1:3
What is the secret of such victorious living? It is thinking and staying in agreement with the Word of God!

BIBLICAL THINKING.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. ---Proverbs 23:7. A person literally is what he thinks and believes. His personality is the sum total of his thoughts. You are today what your thoughts, beliefs, and convictions have made you. Many times you are defeated, not by your circumstances, but by your attitude toward your circumstances and problems.

What you think and what we say.
What we think and believe is generally what we talk about. Our speech is, in the final analysis, merely the vocal expression of what we think and believe. Therefore, if our thinking is wrong, then our speech will be wrong. If our thoughts are negative, then we will not make right statements based on scriptures. If our mind is filled with thoughts of trouble, fear, failure, and anxiety, then this will be reflected in what we say, "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).

Sickness, failure, trouble, and adversity are often the result of wrong thinking. We generally experience what we think and believe, just as the Scriptures tell us: "as [a man] thinks is his heart, so is he." Therefore, we must correct our thinking habits, for our thoughts are the seeds we plant in the garden of our mind that will produce the harvest which we will reap.

Satan works through the mind. Thus, much sickness, trouble, and failure begin in the mind and result from listening to lying, deceiving spirits from the Enemy. When you became seriously ill last winter, perhaps it was because you said, "I think I must be coming down with the flu, as I don't feel too well. There are so many who are ill and off work because of colds or the flu. If I stay at home today and lie down, maybe I will feel better; but if I don't improve, I'll just drop by the doctor's office for an examination." You fail in certain things you attempt to do because you think that you will fail; or you have convinced yourself that you lack the ability, so you do not believe you can succeed even if you try. Your marriage is not as harmonious as you would like it to be because you allow Satan to implant negative thoughts into your mind over every trivial thing that arises. As a consequence, you see the worst in everything---and, of course, you usually get what you expect. You cannot seem to get healed of some disease or affliction, or you fail to receive deliverance from some problem, because you do not think that you can. You think that it is too serious, or you think that the problem is too complicated, or you think you do not have enough faith, and so on. You get up some morning and say, "I sure hate to think of going to work today. The auditors are coming, and I know what an ordeal that will be! I always wind up with a splitting headache when they come." Is it any wonder that your day ends no differently than you expected? You receive the negative things you speak because you expect to receive them. How often, when something does not go as planned, or just as you wish, do you say, "Well, it happened just as I expected. Nothing ever seems to go right for me"?

A person who speaks fear, anxiety, sickness, and defeat does so because he believes in fear, anxiety, sickness, and defeat! He believes in these things because his mind is always dwelling on them. You will ultimately come to believe what you think, if you think the thought long enough. If a person entertains thoughts of fear, and DOES NOT RESIST those thoughts, then he will begin to talk fear, which in turn will only add to his fears, setting up a cycle that increases the very thing he wants to be rid of.

Countless numbers of Christians are being defeated today by negative thinking. They think they are either too young or too old for God to use them (forgetting that Samuel was a child, David a youth, Abraham and Moses advanced in age when they were called). They think they lack the education or the ability to serve the Lord effectively (overlooking the fact that many of the apostles were uneducated fishermen, that Jesus Himself had no formal education, and that David, the King of Israel, was but a shepherd). They think that they lack sufficient resources to undertake some work of the Lord, or do not have as much time as they would like to devote to spiritual interests because of financial burdens (apparently ignorant of the fact that Christ has promised to supply all their needs if they will "seek...first the kingdom of God," Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:19). Thus, many Christians are not living victoriously because of wrong thinking. They think they will fail. They think they will have an accident. They think they will get sick, as though a certain amount of illness is inevitable. They think they will not receive a promotion at their place of employment. They think they may be an exception to God's promise to heal the sick. They think they will not have enough money to attend the conference. They think their children will become involved with drugs, or get into some kind of serious trouble. They think they will probably lose money on their home which they are selling. They think others do not really like their company. The list goes on, ad infinitum. Of course, they generally receive what they expect.

The power of thought over our physical and mental well-being, as well as over our circumstances, is phenomenal. Medical science agrees with this. If your mind is continually dwelling upon some physical ailment, you can hardly expect your body to mend. If your thoughts are constantly occupied with some problem or imperfection, there is little hope for improvement. A pastor prayed for his wife's healing some time ago, her husband said one evening. "Nevertheless, she gets up every morning thinking that she is still sick because she still has certain symptoms, and she doesn't believe that she will ever get well." He said.

This situation was remarkable because, during the same meeting in which the pastor had prayed for this woman he had also prayed for a man who had exactly the same condition. He was healed, although it happened gradually, and on the same night the concerned husband spoke about his wife, this man also came praising the Lord for his healing. Why then was one healed and the other not? They both had an identical ailment, and both received prayer. It was simply because the man had accepted his healing after prayer, and changed his way of thinking concerning his aliment, which had opened the channel of faith, so that healing could begin to flow to him. But the woman did not think that she was healed, because she had experienced no immediate improvement; and she now continued to be bound to her illness because of her negative thinking.

Occasionally, a doctor will refuse to give a patient any further treatment or medicine because he knows the condition is psychosomatic and he cannot persuade the individual to change his thinking about it. There are many people who think they must be sick, or who think that they cannot get well, or who think that they must stay on medication, or who think that they must have surgery. In one instance a young woman became hysterical when her doctor insisted that, if she wanted to get well, she could no longer lie in the hospital, but must allow him to remove the cast and send her home.

In another case, a Spirit-filled physician confided that many of his patients, some of whom are baptized in the Spirit, actually want to believe that they are sick. "For example," he said, "I will take their blood pressure, and they will immediately ask me, "Well, doctor, which is it--high or low?" They do not really expect it to be normal. They want to think that they are sick or that they have an ailment. Sometimes when I tell them there is nothing wrong with them, they will go to another doctor until they can find someone who seems to agree with what they think about their condition."

Scripture tells us that we become what our thoughts, beliefs, and convictions have made us ("for as [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he"). Therefore, it is imperative that we change our thinking habits and thought patterns from the negative to Biblical, and bring our thoughts into harmony with the Word of God. We must stop thinking and expecting sickness, poverty, inability, and failure. We are admonished in Romans 12:2 "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." How may we do this? Here are four basic principles to apply in order to develop the habit of Biblical thinking, which will in turn result in speaking in according to Scripture.

1. Accept the fact that attitudes are more important than circumstances. Any problem confronting you, no matter how difficult it may appear to be, is not as important as your attitude toward it. Usually it is not your circumstances that defeat you, but your attitude toward them and what you think about them. Remember this: circumstances give you neither defeat nor victory; they merely provide the opportunity to reveal what your thoughts and convictions really are, and what you intend to do about the situation. Often an individual allows his circumstances to overwhelm him mentally and, as a consequence, he is defeated before he even attempts to deal with the problem. Thus, in the final analysis, attitudes are really more important than circumstances.

In view of this, here is what you should do when you are tempted to be depressed and discouraged by some serious problem, or overcome by circumstances.

A. First, find a quiet place where you can be alone with the Lord and commune with Him about your problem. In many cases Christians have allowed some problem or trial to overcome them merely because they failed to spend sufficient time before the Lord seeking a satisfactory solution, hoping instead that things would just "work out somehow." We must learn to be still before the Lord and wait patiently upon Him if we would have Him speak to us (Psalms 27:14 and 46:10).

B. Determine from the outset that you are going to maintain a scriptural outlook concerning the situation, regardless of how dark the picture may look at present. Keep in mind that no problem, no matter how difficult it may appear, is as important as your attitude toward it, for it is often your own attitude that defeats you. God cannot work in your behalf in an atmosphere of doubt, fear, or negative thinking.

C. Pray about your need with a conscience that is free from any offense before God.
It is at this point that Christians too often allow a spirit of pride or insincerity to defeat them. This is the time to be honest with God and yourself if you expect His help. Admit your faults and mistakes concerning the situation. Confess your own weaknesses or sins, for as often as not, those things which seem to bother us so much in others are actually in us and need to be purged from our own hearts (Matthew 7:1-5). Many times the solution to our problem, which God will show us if we allow Him, involves a change in our own attitudes or conduct. We are assured in John 3:21-22 that if our hearts do not condemn us when we pray, God will answer our petition and grant us a solution to our problem. Maintaining a stubborn attitude of self-righteousness about the situation, or attempting to pray with an unforgiving spirit (Mark 11:25-26), constitutes a basic hindrance to prayer which must be removed before we can expect heaven to undertake on our behalf.

D. Next, calmly assess the whole matter in the light of the Scriptures, making a mental note of all those things which are definitely in your favor in the situation.
Of coarse, you may be tempted to think that your problem is beyond solution. It may seem impossible to maintain a right attitude about it. It may appear a waste of time even to assess your situation, when it seems there could not possibly be any points in your favor, nor anything to encourage you to believe that things could ever get any better. But such an attitude will invariably result in defeat, "for as [a man] thinks in his heart so is he."

Remember, too, that no problem is impossible for God to solve ("with God all things are possible," Matthew 19:26). No situation is so bad that some favorable aspects cannot be found which are in your favor. If you will calmly and sincerely assess the situation, these favorable aspects will often point toward a solution, or at least present you with some other alternative besides defeat in the matter.

Years ago, a man suffered several serious trials of his faith within a relatively short period of time, tempted to be discouraged. After working a long time on a manuscript for his book, the publisher who had promised to publish it turned around and rejected it, giving no reason whatsoever. He had to give up a teaching position, after many years of preparation, because he would not compromise his Christian convictions. He lost the confidence of some of his friends and members of a church for several years, because of misquotations and other things said about him by certain individuals. He had to face the fact that now he had no regular income. Finally, he was struck with two serious illnesses.

Certainly he was tempted to be discouraged by so many adverse circumstances, but instead he determined to maintain a Godly pleasing attitude. He began to count his blessings, rather than sit around and complain about all the problems. And he found, upon assessing the situation, that he could rejoice in a number of things: Although the publisher had not kept his word, there were others to whom the manuscript could be submitted for publication. Although he was rejected by the place where he taught, and some of his friends and relatives thought his convictions were somewhat extreme, he rested in the Lord's promise in Psalm 27:10: "When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." Although he had given up his teaching position, and the Lord had discouraged any attempt to establish an independent Bible institute, yet God had directed in establishing a New Testament church, with no outside religious organization dominating its message or ministry. And in this small body of believers there was a unity of spirit and a oneness of purpose which few other churches enjoyed. His family supported his decisions in these matters. In spite of the serious illnesses, he remained in relatively good health. Although he had no regular income, God had provided his family with a home paid for, and was continuing to supply all of the material needs in other ways.

Because he had decided to keep a Biblical outlook about these trials, and could praise God in them (Matthew 5:10-12; James 1:2-4), he could clearly see the many favorable aspects in the situation. And just as in the case of Job, God ultimately turned all these trials into blessings. He received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the entire church also received this blessing in a short period of time. His manuscript was accepted and published by another publisher, and was soon recognized as the leading book in its field at that time. He received supernatural healing of his ailments. He was blessed with material prosperity. The Lord increased his ministry, so that he was traveling extensively as a Bible teacher and conference speaker. He became the author of several well-received and widely read books. The glory belongs to Jesus for changing these circumstances so dramatically.

But the point is, attitudes were more important than adverse circumstances. It is not your problems, nor your circumstances, which defeat you, but your attitude toward those problems and circumstances. It is what you think about them, "for as [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he." The Christian life does not mean freedom from trials, but it involves developing right attitudes toward them, so that we may learn to endure and overcome them, thus maturing in the faith and glorifying God. If you calmly assess your situation in the light of God's promises to you in His Word, it is certain that you will find some aspects in your favor, which will ultimately lead to a solution. Edited. Shared.
To be Continued.

God willing, more will be posted soon. All glory to Jesus alone.