Thinking is our first cause...
We have seen that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. God wants us to have a Right WHAT with a Right HOW/WHY.
The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes. We saw that deception is a Right WHAT with a Wrong (or no) HOW/WHY.
We are our Mind. The Mind is the same as the Soul and separate from our brain. EVERYTHING begins with Our Mind/Soul either making a choice to:
1. use our brain Profitably (an intentional effort to do the opposite of our nature...which can only be achieved by making the decision to allow God to do it through grace)
OR
2. not use our brain Profitably, which means we think according to our nature (flesh) which is the same as how an animal thinks.
The battlefield is NOT our Mind. The battlefield is our brain and our heart (physical).
The combatants are made up of two teams: The Holy Spirit (God) and our Mind/Soul vs. the enemy (unclean spirits) and our fleshly nature.
In order to understand HOW we OUGHT to build our faith AND how the enemy and our flesh fights our ability to do this, we need to become masters at understanding our Thought Processes...which are made up of WORDS and SENTENCES.
The first cause for all of us is the choice between thinking and "not thinking".
EVERYTHING else is an effect.
The Bible has a lot to say about thinking. We have seen that Jesus valued thinking and consistently encouraged us to think like God thinks and not like man thinks. The Bible recognizes our ability to accept and learn from the Bible is OUR responsibility...and this is expressed as our ability to think. Before ANYONE can determine ANYTHING about God, they must first make the choice as to whether they are going to think or "not think".
Man thinks in a short-term fashion and according to the OPPOSITE of the four God-given principles. The Traditional church, Calvinists, and the Pharisees are excellent examples of people thinking like men. These people focused on effects, lived with contradictions, made their points comparatively, and pursued comfort.
Every twenty years, people realize this is wrong. Their response is to attempt NOT TO THINK. This is called "post-modernism". People attempt to NOT think and encourage others NOT to think. However, it is impossible to NOT think. We are going to see that people attempting to NOT think are ACTUALLY damaging their brains! WHY have people considered this to be the correct response to the damage caused by short-term thinkers?
In fact, we ought to realize this strategy is hypocritical because they way (HOW) these post-moderns attempt to convince you is by requiring you to think in order to understand their perspective. Post-modernism is NOT new. It comes around every twenty years when the Traditional church falls out of favor AND post-modernism is the cause of the next rise in popularity of the Traditional church!
Do we want to break this cycle?
When everyone agrees that the Traditional church is wrong, we ought to realize there are actually two choices:
1. attempt not to think (post-modernism)
2. think MORE...according to the four God-given principles!
This chapter will approach thinking from a physiological point of view. In the last five years, the medical field has discovered some powerful information concerning our brains and HOW they were intended to operate. It is turning out that our thought processes are actually the cause of our ability to be Profitable...to the point that it can result in physical illness. This latest information completely agrees with the Bible!
This information concerns two areas...
The next two sections are going to explain HOW our brains form a full thought and HOW our response to this formation determines our physical health.
After that, we will spend three sections covering the Unaware Brain and the conscious brain...and HOW the lack of reconciliation between the two can lead to Unprofitability.
Finally, the last three sections will deal with HOW to repair our thought processes and the thought processes of others.
Let's look at HOW we form a "full thought"...
Next Section at Book Level: The First Feedback Loop
Chapter Summary
Part III Table of Contents
Part I Table of Contents
