I believe we are three part beings, experiencing life simultaneously on three different planes – physical, mental and spiritual. We have a mind, we have a body and we have a spirit. The only part of our being, that we can see, is our body. So, often we mistakenly decide that we are our body …for that is all we can see! Yet we have two more parts to us that are very real, but which we can’t see! We can’t see our mind, but we all have one. We can’t see our spirit, but we all have one. So, what part of us is our mind and where is our spirit?
Actually all those three parts of our being are very closely connected and influence one another. We have a body, which is the most obvious part of our being. It is like a house we live in. We have a mind that we can think with. Connected to our mind are 5 senses: see, hear, smell, taste and touch that allow us to connect with the surrounding physical realm. And then we have a spirit, which is actually the core part of our being. With our spirit we are connected to the unseen realm around us. With our spirit we are connected to God.
Unfortunately in our western thinking we have become so civilized that we have lifted our body and/or mind into great honour, while leaving the core part of our being out …and the result is poverty, sickness, fear, confusion, competition, unfulfilment etc. But just like we can train our body and mind, so also we can train our spirit.
Just like our mind, our spirit is the part of our being that we cannot see. The Bible refers to this part of our being as spirit or heart or human personality. …a little note: I acquire the information I use from the Bible for it makes sense to me. When I listen to teachers and mentors, I always go to the Bible to find out whether what they say is actually the Truth or their own theory. It doesn’t make sense to me to follow people’s theories. There are too many of them. One says one thing and another person says something completely different. If I follow one person’s theory one day, the next day some other theory might make sense to me and I might switch my beliefs. This would bring confusion into my life. So, I choose to believe the Bible, inspired by the Spirit of God. It makes sense to me to believe the One Who has created me …rather than the theories of His creation. I believe the Creator knows what He is talking about. So, I back up my thoughts with the Bible Scripture.
…right, we were talking about our spirit/heart/human personality. Some people refer to this part of our being as a subconscious mind. It is still the same thing. We cannot see our spirit, and yet it is the core part of our being. Our spirit is literally the part of us where our personality is recorded. Our spirit is the part of us that has no ability to reject ideas. Everything that our mind accepts, our spirit must accept. That is why so often people do not change! They grow up but they do not change. They do not change because they have accepted a certain way of thinking since their childhood ...and since they do not change their way of thinking, they themselves can't change! Yet we all have the ability to change ...through changing our thoughts and beliefs.
When a child is born into this world, it has no ability to think. The child is totally open to everything that is happening around it. It is like a sponge, absorbing everything …until it learns to think. But until a child learns to think, it receives everything and records it in its spirit/heart as the truth. That is how its human personality is developed. What a child sees happening in his home …what he hears his parents and other people around him talking about …whether he is encouraged or discouraged …whether he is loved or unloved it is all recorded in his spirit. The first 6 years of a child’s life are the years of true learning. He asks many questions and the answers he receives from the grown-ups in his life he records in his spirit/heart. He then perceives those answers as the truth. In reality what he hears and sees is often far from the truth, but he perceives those things as the truth …and out of those “truths” his personality is formed. As a child learns to think, that is what and who he becomes. Proverbs 23:7 says: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Now when a child learns to think for himself, he draws his wisdom out of what has been recorded in his heart during those early years and his life is shaped accordingly. Psalm 16:7 says: “My heart instructs me in the night seasons.” Whatever is in a person’s heart comes out especially during hard times. That is WHY so many people get depressed when things are not going their way. The recordings in their heart are saying: “things are bad and I can do nothing about it!” …“My parents were not rich to afford me to go to a good college and now I am having difficulty finding a decent job” …“no one would hire me with an education I have” …“my grandfather died of cancer, my father died of cancer and I am going to die of cancer too! It runs in my family!” …“my grandparents were on welfare, my parents were on welfare, so it is my destiny too! I was born into it!” …”I am not living in abundance but at least I am happy. Christians shouldn’t want to be wealthy, we should be content with what we have.” Etc. etc.
…we perceive those things as the truth …when the Truth is actually far from it! So, what is the Truth and where can we find the Truth in order to shape our human personality accordingly? For in order to change our life, change our circumstances, we need to change our thinking. The Bible says that the Word of God is the Truth. When we start reading the Bible, we start little by little noticing the wrong ways of thinking we have. When we take the time to meditate upon the Scriptures about abundance and answered prayer and perfect health of mind, spirit and body …the real Truth starts to flow into our spirit and push the wrong recording out. When we learn to think according to the Truth, our whole lives change! For “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Proverbs 3:13,14 says: “Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skilful and godly Wisdom, and the man who gets understanding [drawing it forth from God’s Word and life’s experiences], for the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, and the profit of it better than fine gold.” EVERYTHING in our lives depends on our thinking! When we invest time and money to train ourselves in right thinking, it brings better profits than fine gold! Gold is great …and it too is acquired through first of all right thinking …but gold is not worth much when we are miserable. And why not draw from the life’s experience of those who have that experience that we don’t yet have! It speeds our forward movement.
Unfortunately too many people see that their situations are not favourable and they quickly try to change their situations …without first taking time to change the wrong recording in their spirit/heart. So often when a person is poor, they try to earn more money by getting a second and even a third job! But this is not an answer! There are ways of earning money that do not bring us to an early grave! But we can’t find those ways of earning money UNTIL we change the wrong recording in our heart/spirit! Or otherwise the wrong recordings constantly draw us back to poverty!
Spirit within us is the power-center of our lives ...and yet it has NO ability to reject any thougth or idea that is impressed upon it over and over again. It has no ability to discern between good and evil, between big and small. Whatever our mind chooses to dwell on over and over again, is received by our spirit as the truth. Whatever registeres in our spirt, moves us into action!
If it is hard for You to believe what I am saying, believe God! The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever! He does not change! His ways do not change! And He has a lot to say about Wisdom and human personality.
Proverbs 3:15 continues to say: “Skilful and godly Wisdom is more precious than rubies; and nothing you can wish for is to be compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and honour. Her (Wisdom’s) ways are highways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold on her; and happy (blessed, fortunate, to be envied) is everyone who holds her fast. The Lord by skilful and godly Wisdom has founded the earth; by understanding He has established the heavens. By His knowledge the deeps were broken up, and the skies distil the dew. My son, let them not escape from your sight, but keep sound and godly Wisdom and discretion, and they will be life to your inner self, and gracious ornament to your neck (your outer self). Then you will walk in your way securely and in confident trust, and you shall not dash your foot or stumble. When you lie down, you shall not be afraid; yes, you shall lie down, and your sleep shall be sweet.” Proverbs 4:8, 9 continues to say: “Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her, and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honour when you embrace her. She shall give to your head a wreath of gracefulness; a crown of beauty and glory will she deliver to you.”
…ok, I’ll stop here! There is a lot in this bit! So, what does Wisdom do for us? First of all, it lengthens our life-span …it brings us riches and honour …it fills us with peace …it makes us happy, blessed, fortunate, envied …it brings life to our inner self …it makes us attractive …it makes us bold …we won’t be making mistakes that we make without it …it frees us from all fear …it brings us promotion …it brings us honour …it makes us graceful …it makes us beautiful (inner beauty)! Goodness, who wouldn’t want to have all this?! I believe we all would! And You know what, it is available to all of us!
God never said that some of us can have wealth and others will have to remain poor! God never said that some of us can have perfect health, but most of us will have to suffer at least some sickness and disease! God never created some people to be attractive while making others ugly! God never said that only some people can achieve success while others have to struggle all their lives to only get a little acknowledgement …if that! God never decided upon which of us shall be happy and which of us have to remain miserable! No way! The only thing He said was: "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity” (Deuteronomy 30:15 NASB). YOU choose!
God does not make choices for us! He has given each and every one of us the choice of life and prosperity or death and adversity! When we have either of those in our lives, it is not because God has put it into our lives ...it is because we have chosen it, consiously or unconsiously.
God is actually willing to share the very same Wisdom with us that He founded the earth and heavens with. It is all available to us when we take the time to learn and replace the wrong recording in our hearts with the Truth! It is SO simple and yet so few people have grabbed this Truth and changed their lives and situations! We are a fast-food, fast-everything generation …and when something takes more time, we discard it! Yet the things that take more time to develop and evolve, are the ones that stick!
Proverbs 4:23 says: “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.” When we have renewed our hearts to the Truth, we need to keep and guard our hearts above everything else, for it is easy to drop back to old ways of thinking …and thus drop back to failure. And here is WHY it is important to change the recording in our hearts …for whatever is stored in our hearts makes or brakes us!
