Do You Need a Paradigm Shift?

Matthew 13:10–17 NKJV

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Christian Smith’s Clogged Tub

“Christian Smith’s tub was clogged for three days. He assumed it was the result of some recent remodeling. He spent the better part of three days trying to fix it and even went to the basement to attack the drain with a ‘plumbing snake; from below. Nothing worked. There wasn’t even a trickle of water. He finally gave up. Exhausted, defeated and covered with twenty-year-old drain muck, he sat on the edge of the tub and considered life without a shower. He goes on to explain, ‘Suddenly, I had a sinking feeling. It couldn’t be. I reached over to the drain toggle and flicked it up. Instantly, the dirty water swooshed down the drain in a liquid twister. I had left the drain plug down.” “The obvious moral of my drain debacle was this: no solution, no matter how creative or high-powered, can succeed if you have defined the problem incorrectly. Put differently: more important than giving the right answers is asking the right questions. And differently again: when you prematurely limit the range of probable causes of your problems, you are likely to end up with drain muck in your face. To get my tub fixed, I needed to step back and consider whether the trouble was something other than horsehair plaster. I needed to approach my problem in a totally different frame of mind, with a radically reordered interpretation of the evidence.” [Christian Smith, “Tub Drains, Planets, & Mountain Bikes: On the Need for an Ecclesiological Paradigm Shift,” Voices Newsletter, Number 1, 1.]

Do You Need a Paradigm Shift?

What is a “paradigm”?

“A paradigm is a set of concepts, thought patterns, or methodologies that form a particular view of understanding or interpreting the world.” (www.Helpfulprofessor.com/paradigms-examples/)

Examples

Paradigm Shift (Old Woman or Young Woman?)

Paradigm Shift (JESUS)

Our paradigm determines the way we relate to the world, people, problems, and God.

How do you see the world, people, and problems?

How do you view and relate to God?

What are the right answers?

Have we properly diagnosed the problem?

Do you need a paradigm shift?

The Mysteries of the Kingdom

There are three basis paradigms:

The paradigm of this world.

The paradigm of our own heart and mind.

The paradigm of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven in parables.

What is a “parable”?

A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

Why did Jesus teach in parables?

To reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who would see and hear.

To hide the mysteries of the kingdom from those who refuse to see and hear. Why? Their hearts have grown dull. They hear but they refuse to listen and obey.

How does Jesus reveal the paradigm of the kingdom? It is by the word of God and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

John 16:12–15 NKJV

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

1 Corinthians 2:6–16 NKJV

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Response to the Word

We will never experience God’s richest blessings until our hearts are ready to see, listen, and adjust to God’s paradigm.

Matthew 13:16 NKJV

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;

The paradigm shift begins with the New Birth through faith in and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 3:3 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The New Birth is a work of the Holy Spirit through whom you are made a new creation in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Christ’s kingdom paradigm will unfold as we read the word of God with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 12:2 NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The paradigm shift will cause you to put God’s kingdom first.

Matthew 6:33 NKJV

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.