Being thankful is not an option! It"s not something that would be nice if we felt like doing it; it"s the way G.o.d made us to be. So, do we have to do this? I don"t believe we have to do anything. G.o.d loves us unconditionally. If people truly put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they can be born again and will spend eternity with Him. But they are not fulfilling G.o.d"s will in their lives the way they should if they gripe and complain along the way. That is not how G.o.d intended us to be. That is not His plan for us.
Do we really want to be all G.o.d wants us to be? One of the chief characteristics of a Christian ought to be that of a praiser-someone who gives glory and credit to G.o.d, who is thankful and humble and praises G.o.d. That ought to be the sign of a Christian. It is not optional. That is the normal Christian life.
Abounding In Faith Through Praise As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7 When this verse says "abounding therein," the "therein" is referring back to the word faith. We abound in faith with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a manifestation or a part of praise. We could turn this verse around and say that if we are not operating in thanksgiving, we are not abounding in faith. That doesn"t mean faith isn"t there; it means it"s not abounding. It is not complete. It"s not the highest form of faith.
Anytime we begin to operate in a high form of faith-a Bible-type of faith-praise will be an integral part. It"s impossible to imagine a person whose faith is complete without thanksgiving. If there is something they are believing for, at the moment it becomes real, there is some form of praise.
As an example, say a person was believing and praying for a million dollars for a special need. G.o.d supplied that million dollars. Now when that million dollars was placed in his or her hand, I guarantee you there was some form of praise. Some people may get very emotional, shout, and scream. Others may show their praise in a more subdued fashion. But there would be some reaction of praise. It"s impossible to envision our faith being complete without some manifestation of praise when we receive the exact thing we prayed for.
If you"re praying for a person to get saved, when you see them accept Jesus, there"s going to be some reaction of praise. If you"re praying for your children to get right with the Lord, when you see that happen, there"s going to be some form of praise.
We can see by observation that when faith is complete, praise is always there. But instead of waiting for the manifestation to offer praise, we can act on scriptures like Colossians 2:6-7. By operating in praise, we build up our faith and make it complete. We can abound in faith before the thing comes. We can increase our faith and operate in a high form of faith by praising G.o.d from the moment we see the problem or the need.
Now, I believe it is very important that this is understood, because so much of what people do today in trying to believe G.o.d for something is not laced with praise. There is not a lot of praise involved in it. Some people come to me and talk about how they"re struggling-they"re believing G.o.d and standing, but they are so depressed and discouraged. They tell me, "I"m believing G.o.d with everything I have." But there"s no praise. Therefore, they can"t be abounding in faith. Praise can be used as an indicator of whether we"re really in true Bible faith or whether we"re just hoping and trying.
It"s very hard to define when people are just going through the motions and when they"re really believing from their hearts. We try all kinds of things to describe this. We say that there"s a difference between believing with the head and believing with the heart, but it"s hard to draw a definitive line between when we"re in faith and when we aren"t. Sometimes it"s even hard for individuals themselves to distinguish this. They can deceive themselves into thinking I"m standing in faith, but in their hearts, there"s fear that they just aren"t willing to acknowledge.
How can we recognize when we"re standing in faith? I believe that one of the keys is this area of praise. When we"re operating in G.o.d"s kind of faith, praise will be there. We abound in faith with thanksgiving. If there is no thanksgiving, we are not abounding in faith.
Praise is like a thermometer we can use to take our spiritual temperature and find out where we are in believing G.o.d. If there is no praise or if praise is limited, then our faith is limited. When we get to where we"re really abounding in praise-praising G.o.d as if it was already done-we know we are beginning to abound in faith, and it"s just a matter of time until we see the thing that we desire. Praise is a super-important part of faith.
Keeping Our Focus On Jesus The Scripture says in Hebrews 12:2 that we are supposed to look "unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." Our faith comes from Jesus. When we are standing on the Word and considering the Word, faith is flowing because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word (Rom. 10:17). When we are considering Jesus, faith is flowing because John 1:1 says Jesus is the Word.
When we"re looking unto Jesus, which is looking to the Word of G.o.d and using it as the basis of our faith, then faith flows. Faith comes from G.o.d"s Word and beholding what G.o.d"s Word has to say-considering G.o.d"s Word and not considering the problem.
On the other hand, unbelief or fear comes from considering things contrary to G.o.d"s Word. If a doctor tells a man he is going to die, and he thinks on what the doctor said, fear and unbelief are going to come. But if he turns to G.o.d"s Word and His promises, and thinks solely on what His Word says, then all he would get would be faith.
Faith has to have Jesus as its object. He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith, and praise is something that forces us to put our attention on G.o.d. When we make a decision to praise G.o.d-to discipline ourselves not to gripe, complain, or become negative-we will praise G.o.d. To follow through with that commitment, we must take our attention off the negative circ.u.mstances in our lives.
For instance, that doctor told that man he was going to die. The man"s reply was, "Well, I"m going to praise G.o.d," but he wouldn"t say, "Thank You, Father, that I"m dying. Thank You that according to this doctor, I"m going to be dead in six months. Thank You that my wife and kids are going to be dest.i.tute." No! There"s nothing praiseworthy in that. Those are negative thoughts and are not praiseworthy.
Instead, he would follow through with his decision to praise G.o.d and say, "I"ll praise G.o.d in every situation." Psalm 34:1 says, "I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." As he blesses the Lord at all times and continuously praises Him, he would take his attention off of the sickness, off of the doctor"s report, off of what would happen to his wife and kids, and focus upon G.o.d and His promises. He would have to start saying things like, "Father, thank You that the Word of G.o.d says that by the stripes of Jesus, I was healed (1 Pet. 2:24). Father, thank You that in the Word of G.o.d, You healed people in worse shape than I am."
He could look at Lazarus (John 11:17-44). He could look at Jairus"s daughter and the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:41-55). After reading about their situations, he could say, "Praise You, Father, that if You can raise people from the dead, You can surely keep people from dying. Thank You, Father, that according to the Scripture, You heal all of our sicknesses and all of our diseases" (Ps. 103:3). And everything this man could do, we can do too.
In order to praise, get your attention off of the problem and onto the answer. Get to a place where your faith, your attention, is stayed upon Jesus, the Word of G.o.d, and His promises. When you do that, faith works.
Faith really isn"t hard, but it is dependent upon thoughts and mind-set. If you think on problems, you"re going to have unbelief. It doesn"t matter what scriptures you"ve heard, who prays for you, how much you try, or how much you plead with G.o.d-if you think on negative circ.u.mstances, you"re going to be defeated. Doubt and unbelief come through considering things other than the Word of G.o.d; faith comes through considering the Word of G.o.d.
Prayer Or Complaining If we keep our minds stayed on the Word of G.o.d, we will get the results of the Word of G.o.d. If we keep our minds stayed on the problem, the problem will dominate us. I have dealt with many women who come to me and complain that their husbands are reprobate. They"re trying to pray for them, but they"re just beside themselves. These women are depressed and discouraged, and they say, "What can I do? I"ve got to have some relief in my home."
Many times, I"ve told them that the first thing they need to do is quit praying for their husbands. Most react with, "What are you saying? That"s terrible! That cannot be from G.o.d. I need to pray for my husband." Well, if it was G.o.dly prayer, based totally on the Word of G.o.d, then I"d say yes to that. But what most people call prayer is not really prayer-it"s complaining.
I heard Charles Capps talk one time about how he was in a real bad situation. He was praying and talking to G.o.d about it, and in the middle of his prayer, the Lord asked, "What are you doing?" He said, "Well, I"m praying." The Lord told him, "You aren"t praying; you"re complaining." I really believe that a large portion of what people are calling prayer is not true prayer. It is complaining.
Many of these women praying for their husbands have prayed, "Oh, G.o.d, I ask You to save my husband. He beats me. He beats the kids. He beats the dog. He spends our money. He buys booze. He doesn"t love me. He..." They"ll spend forty-five minutes talking about all the negative things their husbands do, and at the end of the prayer, they"ll say, "I"m asking You to save him, in Jesus" name. Amen."
They"ll spend forty-five minutes talking about the problem and five seconds talking about the answer. Then they wonder why they"re depressed, why they"re discouraged, and why their prayers haven"t been answered. I believe communication is vital to a good marriage and a good prayer life, but we need to learn to communicate good things. We need to repent of those things that don"t edify, that will only offend and hurt.
Bury them and don"t share them with anyone else, even G.o.d. Griping is not prayer!
I have seen this so many times when I have preached on forgiveness: One person will go to another person in the service and say, "I want you to know that I forgive you. Right now I am forgiving you for all of the rotten things you"ve done and said." I"ve even had people do that to me, and I didn"t know they were ever upset with me! By doing that, it gave opportunity for another offense to occur.
If you find yourself in a situation like that, desperately needing to forgive another, you should say, "Father, forgive me for taking offense. And forgive Andrew. He didn"t mean it. I"m sorry; I ask Your forgiveness. I ask You to take all bitterness away. It"s over, and I am going to forget it." Don"t speak to anyone about it, because by mentioning it, you put Satan in a position to tempt someone else with an offense.
The same thing is true in a marriage situation. Some things shouldn"t even be brought up. Sometimes we just need to repent of our wrong feelings and not blab about them. Sure, that"s communication, but it"s not good communication. And it"s the same thing in prayer. We don"t need to pour out our hearts, gripe, complain, and tell G.o.d how miserable we are. That"s not prayer-that"s complaining.
Now there is a place for bearing our hearts to the Lord, but it is not the place that most of us have used. It is not forty-five minutes talking about how bad the situation is and five seconds talking about the answer. Maybe we should try spending one minute telling G.o.d, "Oh G.o.d, this is how I feel..." and then start praising Him, expressing our faith, and speaking the answer for forty-five minutes.
That is why I tell a lot of people to quit praying for their mates, because they are focusing on all of those negative things. They would be better off to praise G.o.d for what the Word says about their mates. I tell them to start praising G.o.d for what they want their mate to be, what they are believing for them to be.
G.o.d loves you, personally. G.o.d longs for you to have personal, intimate communion with Him.
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pa.s.s; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:23-24 We can either say what we have, or we can have what we say. If we say what we have, looking only at what our mates are constantly doing, then we are just reinforcing those things. We"re making the problem grow bigger and bigger in our own minds. It will minister doubt, discouragement, and depression to us. But if we will focus on the answer, we"ll find out that faith will come. We must stay focused on the Word of G.o.d and what His Word has to say-then our prayers will be empowered by praise instead of being crushed by continuous negative complaints.
What"s The Answer?
How can we keep focused when we"re under pressure? When the bills are piling up, it"s hard to just close the checkbook and say, "I refuse to think on this." When we have pain on our bodies, it"s hard to ignore that pain. When we see relationships falling apart, how do we keep from dwelling on those things?
I admit that it"s not easy to control our minds, but one of the most important things we can do to concentrate on the answer instead of the problem is to praise. This is one of the most powerful weapons G.o.d has given us. When we are praising G.o.d, we have to get into what G.o.d is doing. Claiming the promises G.o.d has given and praising Him for them takes our attention off of the negative and immerses us in faith, love, and joy.
You will cease to praise G.o.d if you allow your mind to drift back to the negative. But if you make a decision to focus on Him, you can say, "Wait a minute," and go back to praising G.o.d. It will take some practice on your part, and it may not happen one time when you decide to do this. It will take some disciplined spiritual exercise.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Hebrews 5:14 Like exercising to build muscles in the body, it takes time and effort to build a consistent att.i.tude of praise. We don"t get discouraged if we can"t bench-press 400 pounds the first day we begin exercising. It takes time to build up to that. But every single time we exert ourselves, we get a little stronger, until one day we reach our goal.
It"s the same thing with praise. If you have been very negative, it may take a week or two weeks or longer before you begin to see the true benefit of praise. But if you will make this commitment, "G.o.d, I"m going to be a person who praises You. I"m going to think on the good things and I refuse to be negative," sooner or later you will exercise yourself unto G.o.dliness and reap the benefits.
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto G.o.d.
Philippians 4:4-6 Paul is talking about praising G.o.d and rejoicing in the Lord always. Then he starts talking about prayer. He says, "Be careful for nothing"-in other words, don"t be anxious, don"t worry about anything-but commit "every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving." Thanksgiving is a part of prayer. We should start our prayers with praise and end our prayers with praise. Any problems can be mentioned in between. But even then, we must keep our attention on the answer rather than the problem.
This is exactly the instruction given in Matthew 6, where Jesus talked about what is commonly called the Lord"s Prayer. He started it off in verse 9 by saying, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name." That"s praise! He ended this prayer in verse 13 by saying, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." He used what I call a "sandwich technique"-beginning and ending with praise. Before even presenting the problem, present the answer. You say, "Praise You, Jesus, that by Your stripes, I"ve been healed." Then you simply mention, "Father, I"ve got a problem in my body. Thank You that it"s being taken care of." The problem can be mentioned as long as it is not the focus.
I"m not saying to ignore our problems or not face up to them, but we cannot let the enemy steal our joy. Keeping an att.i.tude of praise will keep us filled with His joy.
How We Are To Pray The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:16 I believe that in emphasizing prayer today, we have told people just to talk to G.o.d. It really doesn"t matter what we say; just get there. For an hour or two hours, pray over the situation, and that"s all there is to it. We"ve done our duty. But that"s not so. The Scripture calls it an "effectual fervent prayer." That means that our prayers are effective and fervent. Are we effectively and wholeheartedly communicating with the Lord?
Being effective is praying His Word in faith, and being fervent is our whole hearts filled with praise and thanksgiving unto Him. We will see results when we pray this type of prayer. Complaining will get us nowhere, but praise will open heaven"s gates!
CHAPTER 5.
WAKE UP!.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G.o.d, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G.o.d, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G.o.d.
Romans 12:1-2 There are two types of problems-problems we have personally and problems in the world that directly or indirectly affect us. As I have said throughout this book, finding the answer to any problem begins with praise. When you praise G.o.d, you step into His presence and find the answer. But when you do not praise Him, you step away from Him, and all you see is the problem.
Stepping Away From G.o.d For the wrath of G.o.d is revealed from heaven against unG.o.dliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of G.o.d is manifest in them; for G.o.d hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and G.o.dhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew G.o.d, they glorified him not as G.o.d, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible G.o.d into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore G.o.d also gave them up to uncleanness through the l.u.s.ts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.
Romans 1:18-24 Paul is saying that every person who"s ever been created has an intuitive knowledge of G.o.d. However, because they do not worship Him, do not glorify Him as G.o.d, and are not thankful, they become fools. They enter into idolatry and from there progress into all types of perversion.
I want to point out the progression. First of all, every person has an intuitive knowledge of G.o.d (Rom. 1:18-20) so that "they are without excuse" (verse 20). Then notice how this stepping away from G.o.d starts-they don"t glorify Him as G.o.d. That"s talking about praise. They don"t give the praise and recognition to G.o.d that is due unto Him, nor are they thankful.
Then it says they "became vain in their imaginations." The next step is that their foolish hearts are darkened. Once people"s hearts begin to harden toward G.o.d, according to Mark 8, they become spiritually r.e.t.a.r.ded. That"s my own terminology, but that"s a result of a hardened heart. It takes away the ability to think rationally. So, one of the things that will keep us from stepping away from G.o.d is giving praise and glory unto G.o.d, and being thankful.
Ruling Over Our Feelings Some people say, "But I just don"t feel like praising G.o.d." Who cares how we feel? We need to do it because G.o.d"s Word says to do it.
Others may say, "But wait, I didn"t choose to be discouraged; it just happened. It"s just the way I feel. I can"t help it."
To let our emotions and feelings rule us is very, very immature. I say this in love; it cuts me the same as it cuts anyone else. We were raised to let our feelings dominate us, but that"s not right. Just because we feel depressed doesn"t mean we have to be depressed. I have thoughts of depression come at me, but I choose to reject them. I choose to build myself up and encourage myself in the Lord. Feelings are to be enjoyed when they are good, and they are to be rejected when they are bad. Emotions are never to dictate to us; we are to control them.
Psychology has told us, "Don"t suppress your feelings. Let them all out." Now I agree that it isn"t healthy to store things up on the inside and simmer and brood over them. But when we have negative emotions, instead of letting them out, we should reject them and choose the positive emotions of praising and glorifying G.o.d. If we would choose to do that, we would experience a new power in our lives. Our minds would be stayed on G.o.d, and our faith would abound on the inside of us.
Faith Isn"t Magic Many people try to use their faith to get rid of all their problems. We can do that, to a degree-we can avoid a lot of problems by just walking in the Word of G.o.d. Some of our problems are direct demonic attacks, and we can overcome those through the Word. But we"re never going to avoid every problem.
If we walk in health and never have any physical problems, and if we walk in prosperity and never have any financial problems, I can promise this: Satan will send someone along who rubs us the wrong way. And even if no one rubs us the wrong way and we get along great with everyone we meet, some problem will rise up against us, because we don"t live in a perfect world.
If your idea of walking in peace and victory is having all of your problems removed, you"ll never obtain that. You need to realize that it doesn"t matter what the devil throws against you, G.o.d says you can prosper in the midst of it. You can praise G.o.d and keep your mind stayed on Him. That"s the way to handle the pressures of life and maintain our Christian walk.
Guided By Circ.u.mstances The reason so many people are fighting depression today is because everything in the natural world is geared toward being negative and depressed. The news media reports all of the negative news. They don"t relate the good things, only the bad. If we listen to the world, it would appear that we are surrounded by horrible situations. And if we allow ourselves to be dominated by the thinking of this world, we are going to have depression among us.
Our circ.u.mstances don"t make us the way we are-that"s our choice. We can choose to react to our circ.u.mstances and be depressed or discouraged, or we can choose to look beyond our circ.u.mstances to G.o.d"s faithfulness toward us and be blessed.
I remember when the United States entered the Gulf War. Some members of Congress and many people in this country were saying it was going to be a bloodbath for the United States. Some predicted at least 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. lives would be lost. Others predicted that we were going to be wiped out by all of the Russian tanks in the Persian Gulf. Very few people boldly disagreed with those negative comments.
It caused fear and concern in America"s people. We entered the war very apprehensively. But in retrospect, it was the most minimal loss of life in the history of the United States. Our equipment proved superior over anything that the Iraqis had. So where were all these people who, a year earlier, had made those terrible predictions? They should have been voted out of office. They were totally out of touch and missed it big time. But, sad to say, many of them are still in office, still making their negative predictions, and people are still listening to them.
The Slant Of The Media The news media is slanted against reporting things from a Christian perspective. The truth is, I believe we are experiencing the greatest revival to ever hit the United States. Many people would disagree with me, but I"m basing this on what the Word of G.o.d says and what I"m seeing in the body of Christ today. I"ll admit there are plenty of problems out there. Satan"s crowd has gotten more vocal and more visible than they"ve ever been. Focused on those things, a case could be made for America being in total moral decay. But when really looking at it from G.o.d"s perspective, I believe that it"s different than the way the news media has presented it.
Take the gay rights" movement for example. The h.o.m.os.e.xuals have gained tremendous attention just from television. People are hearing so much about AIDS, equal rights for gay couples, and so on, that it has developed a mentality in people that the h.o.m.os.e.xuals really have become an accepted part of the community-or at least they are headed that way. Yet I heard a survey in 1992 on radio station KPBC in Dallas that gave the following statistics: in 1960, 68 percent of the American population thought h.o.m.os.e.xuality was wrong. They didn"t just express that it wasn"t their preference, they thought it was wrong for anyone. They believed that it was a perversion; it wasn"t normal. In 1992, guess what the percentage was. Most people would say it was probably less than 50 percent. That"s certainly the reaction I had. But the statistics in the survey showed that in 1992, 75 percent of the American public thought h.o.m.os.e.xuality was wrong, that it was a perversion. That was a 7 percent increase from 1960. We are more moral in that area today than we were in the sixties. Yet that"s not the perception most people have, because the news media is not being fair and honest. They are painting a deceptive picture.
As another example, the National Organization for Women (NOW) gets quoted constantly. Every time an abortion rights" issue or a pro-choice issue comes up, the media goes to that group of women to get their view because they are supposed to be spokespersons for women. Somewhere around 500,000 women are involved in NOW.
Concerned Women for America, a Christian group organized by Beverly LaHaye, also has 500,000 women in its organization. They have just as much representation as NOW, yet you never hear them quoted on political issues.
A few years ago, a rally at the Capitol drew literally hundreds of thousands of people protesting abortion. On the front page, the newspaper covering the story had a picture of about a dozen people standing with proabortion placards!
By listening to the media, it would be easy to think, Things are falling apart. It"s really a terrible world we live in! What a depressing thought. But the truth is, G.o.d is doing great things today. There are more born-again, Spirit-filled people per capita in the United States today than there has ever been in the history of this country. More people are praying and seeking G.o.d than ever before.
There Is Hope In my own personal life, I know at least thirty-eight people who have either been raised from the dead or have raised someone from the dead. I have a friend in Salt Lake City who has personally raised eight people from the dead. One of my staff members, Don Krow, saw his daughter raised from the dead after he prayed for her.
I conducted a meeting in Kansas City, and two people who had been raised from the dead stood up. I had been there when it happened to one of them eleven years before. At that time, during my message, the pastor and some of the people in the church went out and prayed for him. He was gone for forty-five minutes, but then he was raised from the dead and brought back in! The reason I say this is to bring up the point that only eight people were raised from the dead in the Bible.
It"s awesome to think that one person knows at least thirty-eight people-nearly five times the number recorded in the Bible-who were raised from the dead. That"s a reason to be excited! Something is happening in our day. I believe G.o.d is on the move. Great things are happening in America!
Satan Is Losing In traveling to different churches around the nation, I"ve been to at least a dozen places where people say, "This is the occult capital of the United States." Now, they can"t all be the occult capital! They can"t all have all the satanic power. But if they see any satanic ability whatsoever, they want to say it"s the occult. Somehow or another, it"s exciting to say, "We"re in this battle! We need to stand strong against this." The truth is, Satan is losing big time. I"m not saying Satan hasn"t made some great inroads and won some battles, but G.o.d"s winning the war.
There are two sides to this coin. G.o.d"s kingdom is getting stronger, and Satan"s kingdom is getting stronger. How can this be? All of the middle ground is disappearing. People who were just kind of moral but weren"t really seeking G.o.d are becoming either hot or cold. Now, we can focus on the cold. We can look only at the negative and paint a very bleak picture, or we can focus on the positive. There is a lot of positive out there. And there"s a lot of positive in your own situation if you would just wake up and see it!
Choosing Freedom We need to wake up! We need to jar ourselves and recognize that we have become negative. We have become murmurers and complainers. It"s not our hormones that make us depressed; it"s what we set our minds on. It"s our stinking thinking. If we would change our att.i.tudes and begin to praise G.o.d in every situation like Habakkuk and like Paul and Silas, we would experience the life of G.o.d. We can choose to be blessed. We have a choice in the matter.
I was in England in 1990 conducting some meetings, and a woman who had just left a mental hospital was brought to a meeting by a family member. She was suicidal and had tried to kill herself a number of times. I didn"t know any of these things about her, but I knew G.o.d was ministering to her. I called her out and began to pray for her. As I did, the Lord showed me that she had been mentally unstable. I told her that if she wanted to be free, she could. It was her choice. She could be depressed and guilt-ridden, or she could choose to believe that she was forgiven. This woman was already born again and was still experiencing these problems.
The next day, she called the pastor and told him she woke up and felt depressed again, but she chose to start praising G.o.d and said she had been doing great. She called back two more times the week I was there and said she had done the same thing with great results. It"s been years since then, and that woman is so set free, she"s been on television and radio, holding seminars and talking to people about how to be delivered. This woman was incapable of even functioning and now she"s helping other people because she realized her emotional state was a choice-it was her decision. She"s a tremendous testimony.
If you"re depressed today, you chose to be depressed. You may not have sat down and said "I want to be depressed," but you chose to think on things that made you depressed.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8 If we would choose to think on things that are honest, pure, and lovely, we would experience freedom from depression. If we would stay spiritually minded, we would have life and peace. But if we are carnally minded, that is death.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Romans 8:6 Being spiritually minded is being Word-minded. John 6:63 says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." If you"re experiencing anything other than life and peace, you haven"t kept your mind stayed on the Word of G.o.d.
How do we have life and peace? Praise puts our attention on G.o.d. Praise makes us aware of what G.o.d is doing. As we stay our minds on G.o.d, we"re going to have life and peace. The peace of G.o.d will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. G.o.d will keep us in perfect peace when our minds are fixed upon Him.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:2 We don"t have to think on the things of this world. We can set our affection on things above. And when we set our affection-our full attention-on G.o.d and what He"s doing, our problems are supernaturally swallowed up by our Answer!