Thinking Stretching Your Thinking

Thinking

Stretching Your Thinking

Your thinking will determine who you are and your future

That is why we need the influence

Of our Father in Heaven and the Holy Spirit in our minds

We will never come to the place where we can instruct the Lord

But we can come to the place where we can have the mind of Christ

We must realize it is not enough to believe in God, many do that in vain

We must believe and know God in a way that it changes our thinking

From a world point of view to a heavenly point of view   

Warning – heavenly thinking will stretch your thinking

And may result in a headache as your mind is renewed

Stretching Your Thinking

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,"

 declares the LORD.

9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Some of us get a headache when we think.

If you are one of those people, you may want

to take a strong headache pain reliever…

Because God wants to stretch your thinking.

Not a little stretch.

 But to stretch your thinking from earth to heaven.

There is a great contrast between God’s thoughts and ours.

That’s a problem.

There are demons who believe in God
but tremble and work against God.

James 2:19

There are those who believe in

God but believe in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:5

Just not being an atheist will do little for you.

Isaiah 55 tells us the first thing we need to recognize is…

 We have a need and we don’t have

the resources to meet that need.

We need to come to the realization…

 We need God.

We need more than temporary provisions…

 Like God feed me or make

me rich so I can feed myself.

We need eternal provision.

We need what will last forever.

Finding that provision means

we will have to seek for it.

Seek the LORD while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way

and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the LORD,

and he will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

 Isaiah 55:6-7

We are encouraged that if we seek the Lord

we will find mercy and pardon for

our wrong thinking and actions.

The mind of the Lord is not like our mind.

According to 1 Corinthians 2:6-ff,

 we gain understanding by the Spirit of God

who searches even the deep things of God.

We talk about inviting God, Jesus into our heart.

It is not the thing beating in your chest,

the heart is part of the mind.

When we invite the Holy Spirit into our mind

the determination of our thinking changes.

 

When we bring every thought into captivity

unto the obedience of Christ.

 2 Corinthians 10:5

There is a battle in our minds,

 it is the standards of this world.

 2 Corinthians 10:2

Every person in the world has standards.

Your standards will be different than your neighbor’s,

 but we all develop standards

based on our world experience.

God’s ways are higher than ours.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray,

He was teaching them how He prayed.

Jesus wants us to recognize where

we are directing our prayers…

“Our Father who is in Heaven”

It is important to recognize our relationship to God as “Father”.

But also to recognize where He resides…“Heaven”

This picture of Heaven is very important to our thinking.

God’s thoughts are above our thoughts.

Unless we get a picture of heaven in our minds,

 we will be unable to understand the thinking of God.

If you live in a big city like New York or Chicago

you can stand in the street and look all around you

and see buildings and all the activities around them.

But unless you look up you cannot see heaven.

On the streets of the big cities, your window

of heaven is very small in comparison when

you are on a mountain you can see heaven

in every direction except down.

 

Prayer opens our view of heaven.

The more we see of heaven, the more we

understand the purposes and plans of God.

The second time we see the word heaven

in the Lord’s instruction on how to pray is…

“Thy Kingdom come Thy will be

done in earth as it is in heaven.”

 Our time in prayer is a time to open our eyes

 to the changes God wants to make in the world.

 Have you ever gone to someone’s house or to

a Home Show and your mind was filled with

ideas on how to change or redecorate your home?

That is what praying to our Father is all about.

Seeing heaven and bringing it back to earth.

Most of us do not travel more than 50

miles from home throughout the week.

Think about the area of the world you live in every day.

How does your world look in comparison to heaven?

Most of us think of complaining when

we are not happy with the space we live.

Spending time with our Father in heaven

in prayer and reading, hearing God’s Word

with the Holy Spirit in our minds will open

our thinking to making a difference.

Your thinking will determine
who you are and your future.

That is why we need the influence of our Father

in Heaven and the Holy Spirit in our minds.

We will never come to the place where we can

instruct the Lord, but we can come to the

place where we can have the mind of Christ.

We must realize it is not enough to

believe in God, many do that in vain.

 We must believe and know God in a way that

it changes our thinking from a world point

of view to a heavenly point of view.

   

Warning…

 Heavenly thinking will stretch your thinking.

And may result in a headache as your mind is renewed.

Scripture Reading

Isaiah 55 NIV

"Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

3 Give ear and come to me;

hear me, that your soul may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

my faithful love promised to David.

4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,

a leader and commander of the peoples.

5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,

and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,

because of the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel,

for he has endowed you with splendor."

6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way

and the evil man his thoughts .

Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways