3 Habits To Insulate Your Thought Life from Negative Thinking
I have an idea that I think will really stimulate your thinking. What if we could pre-play the future that God wants to manifest rather than replaying the moments when things didn’t work out?
One of the defining pieces of armor in the Christian arsenal is the “helmet of salvation.” “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) This helmet has a few key characteristics. Its primary purpose is to protect your mind—your thought life. Satan has a mind and so do the minions of malicious spirits that do his bidding. Their task is to penetrate your thought life. The helmet is referred to as a helmet of “hope” in 1 Thessalonians 5:1. This could be described as the supernatural ability to keep a tightly insulated thought life against all intruding toxic thoughts and faith-robbing negativity.
Individuals who keep their helmets firm have trained themselves to avoid self-sabotaging self-talk as they partner with God in His plans and promises for their present and future.
What are some ways you can prevent self-sabotage?
- Record. You would be surprised at how many sacred moments occur in a 24-hour period. You will discover the significance of these experiences by making it a habit to review them at the end of the day. I have a journal that I carry everywhere. I encourage you to get a journal and take time to record these daily miracles as reference experiences for when you’re encountering a new challenge. Too frequently, we miss those God-moments that, whether they seem large or small, are truly sensational.
- Rehearse. Remind yourself of who God is. Look upon the whole of your life and one word about God will stand out—His faithfulness! Replay every victory you’ve ever had before you make a critical decision. Do this on purpose because if you’re not careful, without a helmet to intercept them, you’ll start replaying the tape of what has gone wrong in the past. If you yield to negative thinking you’ll focus on what went wrong. This will sabotage the results you want to see.
- Pre-play. The brain is a fascinating thing. Under the helmet of hope, you actually can protect your thoughts from self-sabotaging by pre-playing what God wants to do in the future. This is possible by loading up your thought life with times when things went brilliantly. Your imagination is a tool given by God. Use it to rehearse what you believe God wants to do. Mental rehearsal is the discipline of Olympic champions and miracle workers alike. Keep a visual image of what you’re aiming for—the outcome the Bible promises. Do this and watch what happens.
Question: I’m always looking to discover new tools. What are some daily habits you employ to stay positive and focused in your life? Comment below
As One!
Lance
Hi Lance, I have learned from Graham (and not perfect at it) to employ the opposites when a negative thought comes. Also the Jesus Calling devotional has been a tremendous help and then gleaning from those I respect and have qualities I admire and would like to emulate. The 7M periscopes have been a tremendous blessing!
Telling myself throughout the day that I like myself
When situations of wrong, injustice and sin arise.
I push the river of life flowing out of my belly to wash over the person and/or the situations bringing the life Jesus plans. I see the situation as a continuation rather than a finished situation because the life of God always caused beauty and growth for everything within it’s reach. I see the leaves(actions) of God’s trees (people) falling down to bring healing. Then I imagine how the lives will interact with the Healer.
Then I ask the living water flow over my soul(mind, will and emotions) to let me receive the healing needed to continue my day or sleep in peace.
Seeing myself as God sees me. Agreeing with what is written on my Scroll about my life , that I look better in the future than I look right now. I remind myself that I have only one shot at life on earth and that time is very precious and that I MUST make the most of every minute I have for the Glory of God. I ask God to make my time everyday “Rich” I must stay in my lane because the gifts that I carry are unique to me.
Very timely word for me (and us) at the moment. Envisioning my “face in the future” as a writer and watching God show up. Having recently come off a RELEASE THE WRITER conference, am armed with plenty of good information and walking in the destiny to which God has called me. Hope to connect with you at Christ Community Church on May 15th. Blessings
I look at the images on my Vision Board of past accomplishments, future goals and rhema words from the Father. I have a photo of it on my phone. It keeps my mind renewed to the present. Thanks for this teaching!
I believe that the Lord has led me down a similar path to the one you describe, except that form me, I do it electronically. I purchased a program by Bloom Software called Day One which syncs with my iPhone, home and Work Macs. Then, every new insight I see or hear, or thing that I might read on social media that I might want to remember, I enter or copy into my journal. I have assigned keywords to “insights,” “Prophesies by me,” Prophesies over me,” Graham Cooke, (and yes, “Lance Wallnau”), among many, many others, and then can search for just those “tags” and review them throughout my day. I can’t tell you how, often, in the past, there might be something that I knew the Lord was saying, but couldn’t remember what that was and it would drive me nuts. Well, now I have it all at my fingertips and I can review, anytime, anywhere. All of this is serving to assist me in being “transformed by the renewing of my mind.
I took the idea of a vision board and kicked it up a level or two. First, I took my main negative core beliefs that I battle against and wrote them out in a journal. Then I recast them as positive affirmations from the Word, sometimes using scripture, sometimes just a scriptural principle or a phrase that the Holy Spirit lit up to me when listening to someone inspiring. Then I downloaded digital images (or used my own photos) that had very positive emotional connotations for me (bright colors, happy people, etc.) that illustrate the positive belief I want to reinforce. I took the statements and the images and made an animated PowerPoint to play for myself. Each slide shows about 5 seconds, just long enough to read and then move on. I made the animations witty and entertaining so I don’t zone out. I added happy background music. There are slides for the following sections of my life: basic faith/following God’s plan, relationships, creativity, career, health, adventure/fun, things/tools I desire and financial provision. From time to time I update it as things come to pass and/or my vision changes. It’s a superb tool. It never fails to uplift me and keeps me moving in a positive direction. I also use the same goals and affirmations to pray over in my journal and I have them listed on my cell-phone so I can look at them wherever I am. It took some time to get all this in place, but it was worth it.
Oh My Gosh Katherine Gordon Rice what an amazing idea and that would help so many people stuck in a place( like me). For people who aren’t as computer savy is there some instructions that you have to help someone do a slide show for their computer and phone and how did you add the music?
I used PowerPoint to build my slide show based on a blank template. You can find free tutorials on YouTube on how to use PowerPoint, or Lynda.com (which has a monthly fee associated with it). You can drop in music from iTunes. The song will appear as an icon in the margin outside the slide itself and will play across multiple slides. (I don’t remember off the top of my head how to get to that command in the drop-down, and I am using Mac and it is different on PC-based platforms sometimes. But it’s not hard to learn at all. Just Google it or search for it on YouTube.) On my phone, I just list out the positive affirmations and then read them to myself or out loud if nobody is around. There are probably apps you could get to run the PowerPoint on your phone, but the text would be so tiny it would be hard to read. Hope this helps!
Thank you Katherine Gordon Rice. Love it!
There are times during this planetary life when “mind” (your thought life) over “matter” (your practical living experience) is ineffectual. That is to say that at those certain periods on your journey in Christ Jesus, you simply cannot alter, change or fix the pervading thoughts that are undeniably and acutely present within you. It is then that Holy Spirit begins intercession within our thought life because He is our Life Coach. Crisis beckons us to Holy Spirit intervention. I have found after 15 years of journaling Christ’s glorious Hand of works in my life, that at those hardest times, crisis times, ONLY running to the “Hidden” place we live in Christ in God, Holy Spirit gives VOICE and speaks in heavenly language through me while declaring His VICTORY in the midst of sclerotic chaotic activity. Then moved by THE Spirit… I’m enabled to “hang onto that which I’ve been given in Jesus, and move forward knowing that no matter what the challenge is I am called to meet it with courage because Christ is already The Victor.
Human Psychiatry and Behavioral Science calls the activity of the mind (or thought life) in negative modality… “Automatic Thinking”, which means; to replay negative thoughts, failures and fears of your life repetitively, because your brain chemistry has geared or engineered itself to this. It becomes habited to this activity. What they don’t know is that Holy Spirit POWER does break the cycle of that syndrome. And Lance is right rehearsing the past VICTORIES Christ has given You and speaking them forth (because from the mouth the heart speaks)…leads us to a HIGHER place in Jesus.
That is the stark reality within which we live as bearers of The sacred Name (Christ)—Holy Father God is only and always pointing us to His perfect Son… so we can all become One -John 17. It simply isn’t about us and our wants and desires only, and Father God in Holy Spirit will always show us that and point to that for our best Kingdom interest.
I remember that God has 3 voices, & I stay in touch with them all: 1) scripture (the Bible)- this is where I get the principles of the covenant from (my foundation), 2) the Holy Spirit- this is where I get the specifics for my life from (He speaks to me through dreams most of the time), & 3) His people- this is how I stay balanced. This last one seems to be where more people get off track: they don’t submit to other people. Independence is one of the worst dangers I know of for Christians today. As John Paul Jackson would say, “It’s lawlessness.”