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Intro: Last few weeks
A. Misquoted
· To thy own self be true… A thought from Polonius in Hamlet.
Has become a spiritual idea.
· The feel good God… “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” That God is what you use to make your life better.
And how God uses suffering to make you like him,
B.
Last week “How good is good enough
· This idea that our world thinks that getting into heaven is about being a good person
· That they idea “all have sinned and fallen short…” has morphed into “I have sinned but not as bad as him…”
· We all need Jesus
>>> You can catch up on these past teachings by going to our website afreshwind.org or fresh wind central myfw.church.
Today we are again, going to talk about something that seems right, feels right and sounds right but slips outside the bounds of Christian doctrine.
The Power of positive thinking and speaking.
I.
Where does it come from
I.
Where does it come from
I.
Where does it come from
A. A wave of (pop–New Age spirituality ) has washed over the US.
· Such as in books and films like The Secret
· One of the most attractive ideas is positive thinking and speaking as a means to creating positive life circumstances.
· Every generation in the past century has had a breakout self-help book that sells a million copies and Makes its way through a few million Christian wallets.
· Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich did it first in 1936.
Then it was Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking about 20 years later.
Then Tony Robbins’ Unleash the Giant Within came along in the ’80s.
This last go-round, it’s been Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, that describes the (in)famous ‘Law of Attraction.
Which might actually work in a way that’s not a Secret but a horror show.
More on that later.
· Law of Attraction, in a nutshell.
I can think and speak the things that I want if my life into my life.
>>> This has made its way into many Christians’ understanding of their spiritual lives because Scripture really emphasizes the power of words.
However, this growing movement (in its Christian form) misquotes Scripture consistently.
B. The Christian form of this comes from the bibles emphasis on how powerful words are
· We talk about it here at A Fresh Wind all the time.
You can’t take your words back.
The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.
· We love the first part and ignore the second.
We want power over life.
The word of God says right here we have it.
· We love the first part and ignore the second.
We want power over life.
The word of God says right here we have it.
· In the New Testament the first five verses in reinforce the great power that is in our words.
· The Bible clearly teaches that words are more powerful than you think.
From the first page of the Bible, words play a massive role.
God spoke the world into existence by the power of his word.
· The Bible clearly teaches that words are more powerful than you think.
From the first page of the Bible, words play a massive role.
God spoke the world into existence by the power of his word.
· Jesus is the Logos the word.
Jesus spoke the world into existence.
He is the living word of God.
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
· Jesus is the Logos the word.
Jesus spoke the world into existence.
He is the living word of God.
>>> That is powerful.
C.
This is where many get off track.
· They rightly see in Scripture that God creates realities with his words and that we are created in the image of God, but they fail to make the distinction between the word of God and the word of humans.
· J. R. R. Tolkien famously called humans “sub-creators.”
What he meant was that only God can create something out of nothing, but humans have an incredible knack for taking the substance that God creates and building things with it.
And this is a good gift of God.
· Here’s the catch: human words do have the power to create.
· What they create (in their sub-creation way) is sub-realities.
ILLUS: Where does a child’s self-image come from?
It comes from an accumulation of words spoken about the child over her lifetime.
Another way words create sub-realities is through truth telling vs. lying.
If you lie to your friend and tell him you did not say hurtful words about him behind his back, you have created a reality (albeit, a false reality!) that he now lives in—at least until the truth comes out.
· James’s emphasis on our the power of words comes into focus when we hear Paul’s admonishment in
Then we will no longer be immature like children.
We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.
We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
· to speak “the truth in love.”
This is the true power of words.
· to speak “the truth in love.”
This is the true power of words.
>>> The scripture makes no bones about it words are powerful.
That web of lies we live in.
The sub realities that we spin.
The way your words can shape the realities of people around you.
Sticks and stones may brake my bones but your words can eventually shape me.
We realize the power of words.
II.
Does it work
A. There is a measurable difference in healing of the body
· A positive mindset when sick, does help the body heal.
· Speaking positive words in this situation helps the mind rest and then the body is better able to rest and heal.
B. Focus…
· When you are trying to bring about change in your life focusing on what you want helps navigate you there.
· When you have focus you keep your eyes on your goal and avoid things that will not help you get there.
C. Recognition…
· One of the reasons it feels like it works is because of Recognition.
I realize what I said I really wanted and spoke that for my life and I received it.
Those things happen all the time but we miss them.
That’s why a prayer journal is so important.
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