“It is easy to become set in our thinking and in ways. In fact, we can become so accustomed to one way that we can’t conceive of any other way to do something. This settled pattern limits and confines our thinking. “
It is easy to become set in our thinking and in ways. In fact, we can become so accustomed to one way that we can’t conceive of any other way to do something. This settled pattern limits and confines our thinking. We become rigid and fit that expression of “being set in our ways.” If we could change just one thing in our thinking, we could change our deeds and enter a whole new phase of operating in life. It is true that our ability to do stops at our ability to conceive or think.
Israel was so used to prison and the slavery of Egypt; they didn’t know how to enter into the freedom promised them. Their spirit was the spirit of enslavement. They were subject to another’s will and word. They had no idea how to be free or even believe it was possible to enter a land of promised freedom. But before these people died they birthed a generation with the spirit of freedom and these were the ones who claimed the Promised Land and entered into it.
In church situations it is possible for us to be so used to the struggle, the little results, and the labor that we don’t have any idea how to begin a revival or even maintain one. We see it as a dream or an ideal but we have the struggle mentality—enslaved to our rigid thinking. We need to break out!! If we could shake ourselves free from a struggle mentality and break out to a faith mindset, we could see the renewal or personal growth we long for.
How do we do that? We do it by breaking out of the mentality that tries to control everyone in our orbit, even God. I have seen hard working pastors and families who long for a move of God but don’t have the faintest clue about how that happens and or the part they have to play in it. The problem is control. They try to control God the way they control everyone else. Revival is a God thing and we will never see a revival if it has to filter down through our struggle mentality.
The key is to move into the flow of God in prayer and find out what He wants to do, when he wants to do it, and where he wants to do it. This requires submission and obedience to God, but most of all it requires submission in prayer. Many factors are involved, but first we must get a mindset it is possible. This is why the first generation of Israel that left Egypt lost their promised land. Like Israel we limit God because we set boundaries for Him forgetting that God works outside the boundaries. He works beyond the limits of our finite minds. Israel limited God and questioned whether or not He could set a table in the wilderness or give meat and bread (Psalm 78:19-20; 41). They only knew one pattern and that was struggle. They did not know how to trust and believe that God could provide even outside their own way of thinking.
We set boundaries and patrol them because of our fears and insecurities. No one comes in or goes out unless we say they can. We want to be in charge of our lives as well as everyone else’s. We even add God to that list. In prayer we devise a plan of spiritual growth and ask God to move within that plan. We think we know how something should work and we tell God that is what needs to be done. We limit him to the confines of our minds and its experiences.
But God is infinite and cannot be confined. When we move past the limits of our minds and move out into the realm where God is then nothing shall be impossible to us. To him that believes (goes past his own limits) all things are possible. It is natural to move in set patterns but to move outside the obvious is to move in the supernatural realm.
God help us to move on out past our own gates and fences to walk in the realm that knows no boundaries—the realm of faith. We must give up our control and let God be God not asking Him to move within our boundaries but to move into His realm where there are no fences. As we move outside the realm of our own thinking we enter into faith.
When Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, He said to her, “Your faith has made you whole.” She moved out past the barriers of her own experience and thinking. She said within herself, “If I can but touch Him, I will be made whole.” With this thought she entered into the territory of Jesus which has no boundaries and she was healed.
Let us break out of the mindsets of struggle, enslavement, and control. We can do all things through Christ for He has set us free from the bonds of slavery. If we give up our control and submit ourselves to God, we will have the faith to trust Him. He then will lead us beyond the limits of our horizons. That is Break Out!!
~Cheryl Craft
This article is taken from Brother Bean’s seminar on prayer, his book, “Prayer,” will bring you into a deeper relationship with God. Also available in Spanish.