He quoted the scriptures throughout the book. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil. 4:13. Matthew 17:20 says that if you have faith that is like a grain of mustard seed, you can tell a mountain to move and it will. And we must not forget what Jesus said in Mark 9:23: If you can believe, all things are possible. Remember also that in Matthew 8:25-26 Jesus rebuked the disciples for having too little faith as they were terrified of a storm that bounced their boat ominously about. He then rebuked the winds, which immediately became calm. There is no doubt that Jesus had the power of God in Him. He even said that we shall do these things, and even greater things we shall do.¹¹

There is no doubt that Jesus wants us to be aware that, as children of God, we have access to tremendous power—and if we read His words carefully in the Bible, we will not make the mistake that so many who are caught up in the power of positive thinking, make. I will be back to tie up this loose end in few minutes. First let me share with you how God dealt with me, as I began to immerse myself in the positive thinking ideas of this Christian, who spoke so highly of thinking positive.

As I read the many examples of people who became more positive and had wonderful results because of that, I began to feel an old fatigue creeping back into my soul. I can only say this in retrospect because, in addition to that feeling, my wife was feeling some alarm as I shared portions of the book with her. Later, we had a discussion and she and I both agreed that we should ask God about whether He wants us to read this literature.

I had been reading these books solidly for about three days, not even taking time to pray as I had done before. That evening, as we sat on our bed, I prayerfully flipped the coin before the Lord, asking, “Do you not want me to read this man's books?” I got a No, but I had to do some mental gymnastics, because I had asked so awkwardly. No meant Yes, it was okay to read the books. Eva, confused at the way I asked the question, asked if she was to read the books. Her answer, as she prayerfully flipped the coin was No. I began to ponder this whole situation.

“Dear,” I said, “I'm going to ask God if He means that it is okay for me to read them, but it isn't okay for you to read them.” This coin toss before the Lord was No. That meant that it wasn't okay for me to read them, but it was okay for her to read them.

The conclusion I came to was humbling to me. I saw, at that moment, that I was out of favor with God's Holy Spirit. After having spent three days reading this positive thinking material, and not praying in my usual solitary manner, communing with my Savior, that final answer I got showed me complete gibberish. I couldn't make heads or tails out of it, so to speak.

I looked at my wife and said, “Thank you for being so sensitive to the Holy Spirit and recognizing that I was taking an errant path by immersing myself in these books.” Tears came into her eyes, tears of joy, perhaps tears of relief, for her previous husband, who had taken his own life four years earlier, had spent his last days reading all kinds of books that were off-base, spiritually; with emphasis more on mind-power (or self-sufficiency) and less on complete sufficiency in God. She did not want to see me getting into those types of books. And, I could tell, neither did God.

Nature of God: The casting of the lot (or the prayerful flipping of the coin) before God didn't work for me at this time. I felt God's Holy Spirit tell me that we can easily get out of God's favor by immersing ourselves in our mind power ONLY. Notice I didn't say we don't have mental powers. We do. But God wants us, by our free will, to use these powers in entire submission to Him. He does not want us to turn the powers on and off at our will and for our selfish desires. He wants these powers turned on for HIM all the time, as we pray without ceasing, utilizing these powers to trust Him, love Him and submit to Him as we learn to hear Him.

God said, in the Word, that we are not to worry or be fearful¹². This means we are to keep the faith at all times. We are to know that God will take care of us. We, therefore, have permission to jerk our minds out of the clutches of the devil, who would bring us down and make us feel hopeless. It is a sin to believe Satan's lies. It is not in our best interests to wallow in stinking thinking. That sad cesspool needs to be climbed out of, the moment we become aware we are in it. It is Biblically legal to do so, otherwise Paul would not have asked us to take charge of our thoughts¹³ and be released from Satan's fearful hold.

Our Lord has acknowledged that whatsoever we believe in, will come true for us¹⁴. In Luke, God asks us to knock and keep on knocking and the door will open, ask and keep on asking and you will be answered, seek and keep on seeking and you will find¹⁵. Let's take note, here, that we must be focused in our prayers, but it is so easy to be caught up in the technique, rather than petitioning to and relying on our awesome mighty God, from the very depths of our soul. There could, unfortunately, come a time when our mental stance is more dependent on doing this process correctly, than it is in doing this in submission to, and with a deep, deep love and reverence for, our almighty God. If we don't have the submission to, and the deep, deep love and reverence for our almighty God, we have stopped just short of our purpose here in this world, which is to draw all men to Christ, by our example. If we carefully plan our lives and order our steps as we see things, we will not be of much service to God—because, truthfully, we can't see much from here.

Do you see how easy it is to just be positive, but lack the deep reverence for, and the trust in, God? Do you see how it is possible to ask God for help as we do things OUR way? If God had His way, we might not be doing much of what we're doing at all. It is wonderful that God will help us out of our jams—but why don't we knock and keep on knocking until His plan is revealed to us, so that we can avoid the confusion and problems that come from following our own will in the first place?

We MUST love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, souls, mind and strength. It is very important that we not take some of Jesus' words without acknowledging all that He said. We have God's power. But how should it be used? Do not skip this next profound statement from Jesus. This statement from Jesus clarifies what we are to do with our “powerful” minds (and what so many in the New Age religions--or “prosperity” minded Christian religions--fail to do): Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you. Do not forget, also, that we are to spend time alone in prayer to God and He promises He will reward us openly—but if we spend time praying in such a way that we will receive man's compliments, we'll already have our reward (in those compliments from man).

What does that mean, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…”? This is where we close our eyes, and rush into the arms of our God. This is where we humbly bow down before Him, sometimes even shedding tears, as we glimpse how wonderful our God is. This is when we ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking, seek and keep on seeking…for what? God's will! This is what we are to use our God-given, tremendous mental prowess for. All other uses are trivial and even meaningless, because we don't know very much at all, so how can we know what to even ask for? As we trip, get up, then stumble along life's highway, we may be tempted to be determined to continually rise up from the ashes of our past, which continually go up in flames—but wait, how do we submit our lives completely to God, forever doing only His will, completely backing off from doing our own will?

Seek ye first the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within and it consists of the fruit of the spirit, love being the greatest of all the fruit, peace, joy and even tenacity, or faithfulness. Knock and keep on knocking until the love, peace, and joy comes forth, blessing all those around you. This isn't happening for you? Do not give up, but fight on until you see the hand of the Holy Spirit. Reach for Him with all your heart and let Him guide you through your life. Do you see how important a contrite heart is, in this process?

Now, in this carnal world, we reside in the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling could easily come into our living rooms (and, sadly, he often does), but let's invite Jesus instead, and ask and keep on asking, for the love, peace and joy that is supposed to spring from each of us. What is stopping it? Be willing to look and be willing to be healed on the deepest level by our Lord and Savior, Jesus. God does not want us to use the gifts He gave us, in so limited a way, as we often do. If we seek Him and thirst for Him with all of our hearts, we will then begin to be aware of a huge treasure chest of gifts that will never rust or deteriorate in any way. Where our hearts are, there, too, is our treasure¹⁶. Do you treasure Him as much as I do? I pray that you do.

12 Luke 12:29. Back

13 2nd Corinthians 10:4-5. Back

14 Mark 9:23. Back

15 Luke 11:9. Back

16 Matthew 6:21. Back

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