What do you do when you meet someone whose thinking is on the wrong level? It’s challenging to relate to people who have had different life experiences. Life has a way of causing us to relegate our thinking to survival concepts.
However, I think it goes without saying: we must change our mindset.
It is our natural response to respond at the level we are confronted.
Raise the level of the encounter.
“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13:30 & 33
We all are faced with this paradigm challenge. Iron sharpens iron. Diamonds are not dulled by iron.
Too often, lame expectations meet lame excuses.
In this story you have two classes of people.
Both recognize the size of the promise, One saw through the eyes of faith, the other measured the challenge by the wrong measure.
Grape Eaters Or Grasshoppers.
Grape Eaters saw themselves enjoying the sweet juice of victory. The other saw themselves ground underfoot of a size 23 boot.
The Majority Saw the Boot Grinding them into the dust.
The Minority could see themselves sitting in those houses they had not built.
They saw themselves eating fruit from trees they did not plant.
They saw themselves drinking from wells they had not dug.
Lame expectations will relegate you to settle for the crumbs of mediocrity.
God deliver us from this victim mentality—the Poverty Mindset.
Ephesians 4
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
Lay your hand on your head!
In Jesus Name, Deliver me from stinking thinking.
Deliver me from Negativity Syndrome.
Baptize My Mind with the Power of the Holy Ghost.
On the way to prayer meeting,
A lame man who they had passed how many times. He is asking for a handout. These guys did not have money, so they just learned to ignore him.
However, something had changed just a previous chapter.
God had changed the way they saw themselves.
“Silver and gold have I none.” Imagine that—the apostles, with Pentecost behind them, faith burning in their hearts, yet the golden steed had not arrived. So often, we can fall into these lame excuses and never go any further.
“Silver and gold have I none.”
That can become the crux of our conversation.
We might position ourselves at beautiful gates where people go to worship, looking for money, but with lame mindsets, we can’t enter the house of God.
Often, people bring their bodies to the temple, but their minds linger outside at the gates. The carnal mind cannot understand the things of God, so while we reach for the mighty God, we plot and scheme with plans of silver and gold, reasoning this is how we’ll reach the world.
If I only had money I could have Revival. I could reach our city if we could afford a Billboard.
Silver and Gold have I none. STOP IT.
“But such as I have, give I unto thee!”
Peter and John said, “Silver and gold have I none….”
Stop worrying about what you don’t have and realize and say,
“SUCH AS I HAVE GIVE I UNTO THEE!”
We can spend our lives worrying about what we wish we had and not use what we do have. You have a power that can transform lives. It doesn’t require a degree, certificate, training course, position, or title. All it requires is for you to let your lame excuses get an apostolic infusion to start doing what you can do.
I GOT IT! I GOT IT! There is something about the Power of the Holy Ghost, I can’t Explain it but I got it! OH I got it!
WALKING and LEAPING and PRAISING GOD!
The transformation of the Minds of the Apostles was a contangion of Life Changing Possibilities.
A Lame Man becomes a Leaping Man!
A Beggar becomes a Praiser!
Following this encounter, the lame man walked, leaped, and praised God into the temple. The result was that multitudes were added to the church—about five thousand men. Imagine trying to teach them all Bible studies.
We need our lame thinking to be lifted to a new level of faith and expectation.
The great miracle we need is not for the lame to start walking but for our lame thinking to be elevated to a new level.
We need to fix our vision on those things we can influence.
Lift them up, pull them up, drag them up, and walk them into the presence of the Lord.
“And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, ‘Look on us.'”
“Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.'” Acts 3:6
Meditate. Chew. Savor.
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:16-18