Being avalanched by God’s love is the best thing that ever happened/happens to me. It’s not a one time deal, but a continuous divine comedy of extravagance, surprise, delight, and holy irony. It’s a daily walk of raising my expectations, lifting my eyes, expanding my faith. It’s choices to believe for goodness to show up. It’s opportunities to get under the circumstances or OVER them. (I must choose OVER.) It’s moments when fear is the environment, and my heart yawns in boredom at fear and chooses courageous love instead. That one poke through fear’s atmosphere changes it. My thoughts change the atmosphere. What you behold, you become. If you entertain yourself with fear, anxiety, negativity, and grim matters, you train your heart to focus on those things. Then you wonder why your attentions are drawn to negatives rather than positives. YOU have trained your heart.

It’s time to re-train our hearts. 

Romans says, “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.”

RENEW YOUR MIND.

When you renew your mind, the habits of your thinking, what you meditate on, you are better able to recognize God’s will. If you submerge yourself in nightly news full of grisly images and negative statistics, guess what? You are teaching your mind to meditate on those things. There is often a fine line between being informed and being persuaded. It’s one thing to be aware of world events,  it’s another to be persuaded that what the news says is the TRUTH. Truth and fact are different things. The news may be factual. It may relate earthly reality, but it is NOT truth; it does not portray the reality of heaven or JESUS, who IS incarnate Truth.

Re-train your heart.

If you are a follower of Jesus you are a citizen of heaven. You are NOT of this world. Therefore, you should not be first led by earthly circumstances. You should be able to pause and tune your heart to heaven. What is God saying about this particular matter? What does it look like for heaven to come to earth in this particular situation?

Raise your sights. 

Rather than expecting a so-so turn around, expect a magnificent turn around. For example, if you lost $110,000 when the housing market plummeted, believe the money will be restored. Not only that, do not stop at, “Well, maybe I will get some of that back somehow;” approach it with a declaration, “I declare I will not only get what was lost, but a seven-fold return.” This is an example; you may feel God leading you to make a different confident declaration. It’s not based on a formula, it’s based on faith. It’s based on your determination to make your WORDS line up with heaven’s design.

Luke 6:45 says, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

What you speak reveals what is in your heart.

SOOOOOoooooo, RE-TRAIN YOUR HEART. 

There is great authority in your words. When you say someone is “stupid” you are actually agreeing with satan’s lies about someone. When you live in a city others may see as drab, but you say, “It’s lovely” you are actually making a proclamation over your city and calling forth its real identity. Many things are not first visible to the eye, but to the heart.

LOOK FOR THE GOLD. 

In people, places, circumstances, train your heart to look for what is good, to find the gold buried in the ground. Someone may seem altogether mean, but maybe he is really good with animals. Emphasize that. Talk about that. The more you agree with the ways God delights in someone or something, the more you draw that person or place into it’s heavenly design.

Proverbs 25:11 puts the authority of our words thusly,

“A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”

There is power in your words. You can speak life or death. You can champion someone or degrade someone. You can find a small virtue and water it to grow big and strong, or you can find a large flaw and water it to grow big and strong.

The choice is yours. If you are a follower of Jesus, you should be bringing life to everyone everywhere. And you CAN do this, simply by knowing who God is, who He has designed you to be, and by making choices in what you think about and what you speak about.

You are designed to be a life-giver. Moreover, as you give life to others, you give life to yourself. You will see your environment shift into a happier place and you will be happier too. Besides, it is very liberating to not feel obligated to abide by the world’s outlook or emphases. You must have a different perspective in order to bring a different perspective.

Start today. Ask Holy Spirit to show you how to re-train your heart. Change your wording. Resist the pressure to agree with negative interpretations and gloomy outlooks. Dare to believe for HOPEFUL outcomes. Dare to dream knowing all of heaven is on your side. Dare to see like Elisha’s servant Gehazi saw, and to say the words of Elisha, “”Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (2 Kings 6:16)

Ask God to show you what is going on behind the scenes. Then agree with heaven’s purposes for a particular situation. If you see a newspaper article about a poor economy in Yemen, you can say silently or aloud, “Yemen, I bless your economy to thrive.” Often agreeing with heaven is as easy as speaking the opposite. When you hear bad news, speak the opposite, think the opposite, believe for the opposite.

You will quickly discover it is fun to dream with God and co-labor with Him to transform your life, and the world.

“nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37)

That’s right, NOTHING. The most dark-looking situations can be transformed with light and hope.

You are important.

Your words are important.

YOU, YES YOU, have the ability to transform the world and to bring heaven to earth.

HOORAY!!!!!

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Nutrition for the re-training of your heart:

free downloads: The Invitation to Victory:     http://www.box.com/s/rdxydpmyasr7rq6x51lg

                                  As it is in Heaven:    http://www.box.com/s/3k681ig1xu1hzsxsj568