TWFJ 15. Making Changes
In this episode we are going to draw together the threads of our story by reflecting on the SD we have completed to learn how to effect change in our lives.
Let us remember we were created to have our crucial needs
for LOVE and BELONGING, VALUE and WORTH, MEANING and PURPOSE met firstly through our relationship with the FATHER.
If we are not in the Waterfall with our God as the source,
we go with our bucket to our own well.
If we have looked elsewhere other than God
we have been creating IDOLS and have SINNED.
Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
We have learned that
Our aim is always to get our needs met and we are all driven
by the beliefs we have about ourselves
to go to the source that we think will deliver them.
IT IS THESE BELIEFS, DEEP IN OUR UNCONSCIOUS THAT DRIVE OUR BEHAVIORS AND CHOICES AND
THUS IMPACT the way we EXPERIENCE OUR CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE WORLD WE INHABIT.
AS we completed the SD we took time to reflect with the HOLY SPIRIT. Transformation happens when we make inner changes
to the way we perceive and live our lives.
SO HOW? IT STARTS WITH AWARENESS a check on your spirit that there is inner work to be done.
Let the Holy Spirit speak into where and what this should be.
The tools we have looked at in the last 2 episodes – the timeline and the Spider Diagram help us as the Holy Spirit opens up our understanding
in the specific area He wants to bring to our attention.
So that we can see and understand what has been going on for us realise why we have been going to the cistern
recognise the beliefs that drove us there
and understand the consequences to our lives.
Then we can choose to make Godly changes
A fundamental truth of travelling the Waterfall Journey is you are, who God says you are!
The transformation starts with the renewing of our minds.
Our distorted thinking needs to come back
into alignment with the mind of Christ.
As we have identified through the Spider Diagram
the lies we have believed about ourselves
we now have the place to start this reframing of our belief’s;
a process that promises freedom and a new understanding
of God’s perspective of who we are in Him.
TOOL number4 is a process TO RENEW THE MIND led by 6 words that all begin with the letter ‘R’ and here we are learning the how of bringing alive Rom 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1. RECOGNISE THE LIE A lie is anything we have believed which is contrary to God’s truth as seen in His nature, character and word.
Write down the major lies from the Spider Diagram.
What is the biggest lie you have believed about yourself?
2. REPENT
Ask God’s forgiveness for living your life on the basis of this sinful lie,
which is at odds with what God says about you.
3. RENOUNCE
We now need to break the power of the lies.
WE NEED TO DEAL WITH PARTICULAR WORDS
WE HAVE SPOKEN OR THAT OTHERS MAY HAVE SPOKEN OVER US. Words have the power to become a curse upon our lives,
“You will never amount to anything.”
A throwaway, thoughtless word at the wrong time can become
the precept by which we live our lives.
A vow comes with chains that may cripple us in growth and rob us of happiness.
Speak out in the Name of Jesus - breaking any vow you may have made; refuting the lies you have believed about yourself;
breaking the power of words spoken over you;
declaring you will come out from under the bondage of the lie.
Believing the lie has been a habit and
you will have seen from your work on the Spider Diagram
that it has had a major effect on how you have experienced life.
The lie will keep popping up into your mind.
The more you actively refute it, the quicker it will recede.
When it pops up, lifting up your hand against it
and speaking out your rebuttal will speed up the process of killing its power.
4. REPLACE
It is God’s truth in His Word that we need to make our own.
Find verses in the Bible that speak the truth to you to combat the lie and replace it.
It does not initially matter if you do not feel the truth.
Choose to believe and trust in God’s Word.
He cannot lie so believe what God says about you.
Speak out the verses, memorise them.
5. RECEIVE
Work at being open to the new truth God is laying before you.
Listen and read and worship holding the new truth closely. Visualise Jesus saying the words to you as you
imagine standing under the thundering Waterfall of God’s love
pouring over and through you, washing pain away
and filling you to overflowing with the new truth.
Tell someone.
6. RELEASE
Such is God’s economy that where we have had weakness God will bring strength.
If you have believed you were unloveable watch out
for God is going to ask you to release His love as you are healed of this wound. Be ready to be used, for no-one understands more the need for love, than those
who have not been able previously to experience love
or have been deprived of love in their early life.
The renewing of our mind is accomplished by exchanging the lies we have believed with the truth and replacing worldly thinking with God’s wisdom.
As we journey onward God will be showing us where our thinking is skewed and where His truth is to be found.
Deepening our relationship with God and getting to know His Word will help us enter into His kingdom perpectives.
This is all about learning to live in the Waterfall, where I am who God says I am. The truth is that I am not ‘less than’ anyone else
I am the child of my Father, the High King of heaven.
When this truth, that you are of God’s family, the son or daughter of the King,
a member of the royal priesthood, created for God’s purpose,
sinks into your being, this new perspective changes the way you experience life.
Living in the truth. Break the habit of lies - Active stop --- speak out --- TRUTH . Borders don’t let the lie in - Keep out.
So WHAT DO I WANT MY NEW GODLY GOALS TO BE?
REFLECT AGAIN ON YOUR SPIDER DIAGRAM
What do your choices and behaviours tell you
about where and what, you have been relying on
to deliver your needs to feel, LOVE and BELONGING,
VALUE and WORTH, MEANING and PURPOSE ?
AS YOU LOOK AT THE DIAGRAM WHAT IS THE OVERALL WAY YOU HAVE RESPONDED TO THE NEED IN YOU?
WHAT STANDS OUT NOW TO YOU ABOUT YOUR REACTION TO THE PAIN? What have you done to try and keep safe?
Perhaps you have withdrawn from others so you do not get hurt
or exerted control over people and your surroundings.
What have you done to feel good about yourself and to fill the emptiness inside? Perhaps you have been a people pleaser
or must have the latest I phone whatever the cost.
Perhaps you use drugs, shop excessively or binge on chocolate.
NOW With your changed beliefs WHAT behaviours WOULD JESUS BE ASKING YOU TO CHANGE?
Choose a new Godly goal to replace what you sought in your bucket e.g. if you were striving to become the perfect Christian and
what people thought of you had fed you in the past,
you could choose to please God in your walk with Him:
THEN Working out of new truths, from within the Waterfall and in the flow of the Holy Spirit search for what God wants you to do
Doing the right thing and not just good things.
Making choices in line with God’s will and purpose for you.
Doing things that would please God. Keeping your eyes on Jesus
HOW DO WE MAKE THESE CHANGES BECOME REALITY ? This takes time and thought and exploration to adjust our lives
to break the habits of our thinking and the patterns of our behaviour and to get used to living out of the new place.
STEPS TO CHANGE There are three areas to work on: By making a decision to live in the Waterfall, the place God intended for us to dwell, we enter a new phase of our relationship with Him.
We can choose to believe what God says about Himself and us,
to draw our identity and needs from Him,
embracing Kingdom living with all its practical implications
in every area of our lives.
• AS the Holy Spirit reveals specific areas for healing and change We can consciously choose new goals for our life in line
with Godly principles. Selwyn Hughes used to suggest that our goal
should be ‘to live a life that is pleasing to God’.
We then can break this down into the specific areas
which God reveals to us as we follow His leading.
• Thirdly we need to actively work on rectifying our thinking to bring it into line with God’s Truth.
THESE THREE AREAS TAKE TIME, WORK AND ATTENTION TO BECOME THE NEW REALITY OF OUR LIVES. The outworking of these areas are the framework
as we journey onward in the Waterfall.
God cannot act outside His character
and the fact is if you are committing your life to Him in the Waterfall Romans 8 :28 comes into play:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him , who have been called according to his purpose.
THIS IS HOW DO WE MAKE CHANGE BECOME REALITY
So much of life in the Waterfall is getting hold of this robust view,
that God is good and great and powerful
and faithful and His face is turned towards YOU.
He needs us to respond to Him and take all He has given us in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit because
He has chosen to use us in His story.
Come on the healing journey and then you can play your full part in the Kingdom.
Do not fear for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 42:12
CHOOSE LIFE in all the abundance Jesus died to give us.
There are still other tasks to complete our healing -
in the next episode we will look at the way to deal with conflict
and begin to understand the importance of forgiveness
if we are to be set free.
