Thoughts That Dread

Welcome to Running With Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible. Shirley Weaver wants to take you there.

And now here's today's episode. From personal experience, and maybe this is true for you, there are times when we are completely confident. You know, we see clearly and have a handle on what it is God is saying, what He is asking of you, asking of me.

But I would also say, and see if you agree, that is not the norm. For the most part, we walk by faith, and so there are times when we operate in a level of risk and vulnerability, and really the inside, on the inside, there's a depth of questioning and a depth of unrealized confidence. So I don't know if unrealized confidence if that's an accurate way to say it.

I just made that up, okay? But maybe you can relate here. If you've ever experienced, you know, it's a subtle kind of dread.

It's underneath the surface. You might come to the place that you think it's anxiety, but I'm really speaking more subtly. You feel unprepared, maybe not qualified, and when that is going on in your body chemistry, I've been learning more and more about how that affects the brain, and then the brain picks up on those messages. And throughout your central nervous system, there's this ebb and flow of this, as I said, it is subtle, you know, in the way that we perceive it, but it's not subtle in the way that we're responding to dread, anxiety, feeling less than, and I'm not talking about inferiority. I don't mean that.

I mean you are positioned to do something that you feel is important to the Lord and you, as an individual, are really responsible to see that the word you've heard is carried out. So again, in the way that the body is responding and the way that the brain perceives what is taking place, thoughts take over to make the case that really solidify and validate your dread, your fear, and it comes through, you know, it resonates in the body language, the way that we communicate with other people. So we believe we are doing a pretty good job of covering all this up, when in fact, that's probably not the case. So I just want to say, if that's the issue, if that is the problem, and again I would say, you know, hey, I never have any problems, I never have any questions, I never have any dread or anxiety, said no one, no one says that, because that's just not real.

That is not reality. So what do we do? Listen, you're in the optimum place to sort of break this thing down, unpack it, and realize that you are dealing with thoughts.

That's all. It's sort of like that place in the Word where we are looking, the day comes and we are looking at Satan. Fast forward to, you know, the time that we are ruling and reigning with the Lord, and we look at Satan and we say, is that the one who deceived the nations? You know, it's laughable at that point. Right now, he is a cruel destroyer, but there will come a time when we'll see it as it really is.

That's my example. The thought that you have, multiple thoughts that embrace these dread, this sense of dread and fear, those kinds of things, just remember, like Satan, you know, is that all there is here? I mean, it's just thoughts. So you see, you take those captive. This is 2 Corinthians 10, 5, probably a well-known verse. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion that is raised against the knowledge of God. And you can interject here what God has said, what He's telling you to do. And you take, you take every thought captive and make it obey Him. The directive that you have from God, the thing He's telling you to do, you make your thoughts obey Him.

And therefore you and your thoughts, spirit, soul and body, you are cooperating with the power and the direction that God is releasing into you. Think about it this way. This is really helpful if you think about it this way. There are pathways to the brain. Thoughts communicate with the brain. There are pathways, paths that are more familiar. The things we think more often, the most familiar things to us, those paths are wide open. They're called neural pathways.

Neural meaning brain, the root word there for neuro or neurology or the study of the brain, the science of the study of the brain. I don't know if that's an official definition, but you get what I'm saying. It has to do with the brain, paths carrying thoughts and repetitious thoughts and recurring thoughts. Those paths are wide open because they're used so often. The other paths that are not as open may be the very ones that you need the most.

They may be the ones, those pathways may be the ones that carry out the instruction of the Lord in a way that you not only determine to obey Him, but you are able to experience peace as your body, your mind and your will and your emotions cooperate so that you're not dying on the inside while you're trying to do the thing that God has asked for you. You know the verse that's coming to me right now. It says that the path of the righteous is like the morning sun. That sun gets brighter.

Think about it. The sun gets brighter and brighter until the height of the day, until the full day. Well, that's the way the pathways in the brain are. Proverbs 4 18. This pathway, the path of a righteous thought gets stronger and stronger. The pathway to the brain gets stronger and stronger and think of it like the brightness of the shining of the sun at the very height of the day. So this is important and you know you can do this. You can do this. I've been practicing for a while in areas where I feel I'm weak and I can tell you that the strength that comes when you realize the thought that you are entertaining is really an illegitimate thought and it's not from God at all.

So hey, you can just bump it right out of there. Our strong belief on this podcast is this. We have the mind of Christ.

We have the thought life like him. 1 Corinthians 2 16. And in another place, Philippians 2 5, we're actually encouraged.

I love the way the King James renders that verse. We're actually encouraged to allow that to happen. I'm really just saying it in another way.

Allow the right pathway to be opened, to be proven, to be solid, to become the favorite. So whatever it is that has become a really treacherous scene for you, a hardship. Maybe it's the way you parent. Maybe it's the way that you carry out the task that you are assigned in the workplace.

Maybe it's your role as a husband or a wife. All of these places, all of these levels of life, you can do this. You can apply this principle that you want the neural pathway that carries the right thought to be the most open one, the most obvious one. If you're on a highway and you have two, you come to a fork in the road and you can go to the left or to the right. Think of this. If the road to the left is dark and looks treacherous and the road to the right appears to be more bright and more open, appealing, more appealing, you would probably choose the right path, the pathway to the right, to the right side here at the fork in the road.

That is exactly the same thing here. We want the thoughts that are coming to you, the thoughts that you accept are the paths that go, that are well lit and are bright and appealing in the sense that you've tested those pathways that they remind you are consistent with and imitate the thoughts and the pathway of thoughts that Jesus has, that he would have for you, that he has for you. So we pray that way today. Father, we believe that we have the mind of Christ, that we have the thought life of our Lord and so in these areas where these negative and dark neural pathways have opened up from really use, from habit, Lord we renounce those. We refuse to continue that way and we thank you Holy Spirit for prompting us when that occurs so that we're not caught off guard and we don't do things just because they're familiar or habit but rather we choose new pathways. We choose the path of the righteous and it's bright and it's shining and it gets more and more familiar so that soon the negative thoughts that are fearful, that are anxious, that are dreading, those are not likely. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for helping us with this and we just state and declare to you this is our intention to do this. We believe with the help of your Holy Spirit that we can do it. In your name we pray. Amen and amen. Listen, you can do this.

You can do this. You have the thought life of a king. You have the mind of Christ.

Be blessed. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.