Tag: brain
Eternally Present
There’s a story about a couple who had been married quite sometime. One afternoon they were driving through the countryside in their antique Buick – the type that have those front bench seats. The wife, who was leaning against the passenger door, turned to her husband, who was driving, and said, “Dear, do you remember when we used to sit together on this front seat and cuddle as you drove?” He turned to her and responded, “In twenty years, I haven’t moved.”
Our relationship with God has its ebbs and flows. There are the mountain tops and the valleys. Sometimes we feel closer to God than at other times. This is the focus of today’s Reflection in continuation with our series on Intimacy with God.
In the previous Reflection, we talked about how we refer to God’s location. We often refer to Him living in eternity, as though eternity were somewhere outside of our time and space. Let me offer you a different idea. Eternity is eternally present.
When God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He referred to Himself as I AM. Perhaps this is an extraordinary insight into the realm of eternity. You and I base our existence and even talk about our experiences in the context of a timeline. “I did this, I went there, I used to do this.” The past tense is likely the most common verb form used in our language. We also employ the future tense quite a bit as well – “I will do this later” or “I want to do this.”
But what about the present tense? I would venture to say that we often don’t utilize it because it is merely a verbalization of our current action. In other words, we live the present tense rather than talk about it.
However, if you’re like me, you get distracted. I can scan the pages of a book, and before I know it, my mind is elsewhere – thinking about something I did or I’m going to do. Sometimes my mind and my body are totally disconnected. I have to stop myself and refocus. Often times I do this verbally. “Come on Justin! Get your head in the game. Focus!”
My good friend Dr. Bill Smith, whom many know from New Hope Chapel, teaches and counsels people on issues regarding leadership to addictive behavior to sleep deprivation. A recent article of his called “The Sleep Game” caught my attention:
The word “pretend” is made up of two words, “tend” which means “to take care of”, and “pre” which means “ahead of time.” Your system (or sub-conscious mind) has no ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. Pretending is done with the conscious mind. The subconscious believes and follows the conscious mind. So, the problem with thinking, “I am going to sleep” is the subconscious will follow that instruction literally. Instead of sleeping the subconscious will keep you awake so you can be in the state of “going”.
While all of us can relate to at least a few nights of restlessness, it isn’t the sleep part that caught my attention (though I will be sure to apply his methods if I have trouble sleeping). What caught my attention is how this brain activity relates to prayer.
Like the wife in the old Buick, we often merely think about our relationship with God. How do we think about it? We often think of it in the past – the awesome experience we had with God; or we think about it in the future – at some point we’ll reconnect with Him (even if it’s later today). But as long as we think about Him this way, we will perceive God to be somewhere along our timeline or spatial scope and never in our present moment. He will always be “I was” or “I will be” but rarely or never I AM.
What ends up happening is a cycle. You think about God in terms of past or future time and space; therefore, you perceive God to be distant from you. If you perceive God to be spatially distant from you, then you feel as if you don’t have a present relationship with Him. If you don’t have a present relationship with Him, then you feel you are failing as a Christian. If you feel you are failing as a Christian, then you think about God in more distant terms. Gradually, our conscious mind pushes God further and further away, and our subconscious mind follows along.
You know how to break the cycle of feeling distant from God? Be present with Him. On Sunday, Bill did a tremendously powerful yet simple prayer exercise with us during communion. Together we said, “Father, I am here. Father, I am listening.” When I said those words, something inside my brain started firing. My conscience told my subconscious that I am here in the presence of God, and that I am listening. My subconscious showed me God and alerted me to His speaking. Suddenly, my heart was at peace. I was present with God.
Remember, if we ever feel distant from God, it is not because He has moved away. God is always present with us. We don’t need to invite God into our presence; we need to invite ourselves into His – “Father, I am here.”
Let me invite you to do this right now. I want you to pray, but as you pray verbalize it in the present, avoiding past or future tense verbs. It might go something like this. “Father, I am here. I am listening to you. I am being clothed in Christ. You are making me new. I see you. I am experiencing your glory, your peace, your joy…”
Transformative Prayer
One evening I talked with my daughter Annalia about hearing God’s voice. Just before I put her to bed, I instructed her, “Just listen with your heart Annalia, and you’ll hear Him talk to you.”
A little while later, I heard Annalia crying hysterically in her bed. I ran upstairs to see what was wrong. “I can’t hear God talking to me,” she said amidst the tears.
In my eagerness for her to hear what God was saying, I forgot to teach her how to hear Him. It made me think of my own prayer life and ask, “How did I learn to hear God? When did that begin in my own life? Do only a few people have that gift, and if so, why does the Bible emphasize heading to God’s instruction? If it is for everyone, how do I teach others not only the importance of hearing God but how to hear Him?”
That’s my focus for today in continuation of these reflections on intimacy with God, and I want to begin this discussion by talking about your mind. Our minds are powerful circuit boards. There’s so much that goes on in our brain that affects what we perceive and how we act. In fact, our minds are so powerful that Jesus tells us that we could commit adultery or murder within the confines of our thoughts. So my question is, if our minds are that powerful to make us guilty of heinous crimes (even though we physically didn’t commit them), how powerful must they be to help transform us to be more like Jesus?
Have you ever had a day where you were really wrestling with your mind? Maybe lustful thoughts popped into your head all day, or you struggled with guilt and self-esteem. At the end of the day, how did you feel? If you’re like me, you felt worn out and spiritually maimed. You may have never said a word or committed an action, but your brain took a beating from the forces of darkness.
Is it any wonder why out of all the armor of God, we’re told that our salvation is best represented by a helmet. In Romans 12, we’re instructed to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If we want to act differently, we have to think differently. Last week we saw this with Isaiah when we studied his encounter with the Lord in chapter 6. Once Isaiah saw himself atoned with the blazing coal, he thought differently. He no longer cowered in the shadows of his own fallen state; he raised his hand and said, “Here am I, Lord; send me.”
As I began to learn how integral the mind is to our lives as Believers, it helped me to give some instruction to my daughter. “Annalía,” I said, “I want you to close your eyes and picture and sense Jesus. Do you see Him? What does He look like? Now, what’s He saying to you.”
As I left the room that night, I said, “Whenever you get scared, I want you to close your eyes and see Jesus.” Annalía interjected, “You mean, you want me to imagine Him?”
Ooh… imagination. Is this what I’m talking about? And when I say “imagination” do all sorts of red flags go up in your mind? When people start talking in terms of thinking, sensing, feeling, perceiving, imagining many people sum it up to either psycho-babble or some eastern religion type of therapy.
If that’s the case, then what did David mean when he wrote, “Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night?” What does it mean to meditate? Might it be similar to what Paul instructs in Philippians 4:8, “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
In 2 Corinthians 10:5, we’re told, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Take every thought captive? What about Satan? When do we take him captive? Perhaps taking control of our mind is one way we take control of Satan and his stronghold. Maybe Paul is giving us a clue that many of the battles of spiritual warfare are fought on the fields of our mind.
In Colossians 3, we read, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” When you incorporate your imagination, your mind, your senses in prayer, you are doing just that. Instead of letting your mind drift to all sorts of dark places, you are controlling your mind and surrendering it to the Lord.
Can you see now how Isaiah 6 can be a reality for your life? You too can see the Lord. You can ask Him to show you His glory. You can close your eyes, even right now, and meditate – imagine, sense, see, perceive, and be washed by visions of glory. This is where prayer becomes transformative.