Fear To Faith
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Tree of Fear
  • The Roots of Fear
    • Intimidation
    • Lower Level Focus
    • Self Preservation
    • Unholy Agreements
    • Helplessness
  • Faith
    • Law of Capacity
    • Law of Control
    • Law of Belief
    • Law of Expectation
    • Law of Attraction
    • Law of Correspondence
    • Faith-Seed Renewed Mind
    • Faith Seed - Expectancy
    • Faith Seed Capacity
    • Faith Seed Self Image
    • Faith Seed Thought
    • Faith Seed Dreams
    • Faith Seed Words
    • Faith Seed Authority
    • Faith Seed Focus
    • Faith Seed Sowing and Reaping
    • Faith Seed Seeking
    • Faith Seed Love
  • Discover Your Calling

How Do You Listen?

8/23/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
What in the world are you listening to?  No, I'm not asking regarding the kind of music you listen to.  I'm asking literally what are you listening to in the course of your day?

Jesus made a very interesting statement, which on the surface, seems odd.  But, when you think about it, is a very powerful and wise statement. 

"Therefore, consider carefully how you listen" (Luke 8:18). Consider carefully how I listen?  How I listen to what?;  I find myself asking myself.  How do you listen?  

Then He goes on.  "Whoever has will be given more;  whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him".  

Actually Jesus made a profound statement here.  Research has shown that the average person hears between 20,000 and 30,000 words during a twenty-four period.  That's a lot of words.  The average sentence length is around 14 words.  That means you and I are hearing between 1,429 and 2,143 sentences per day.  We are hearing plenty of noise.  This doesn't include times we're hearing other sounds in the course of our day, such as telephones, TVs, DVDs, etc....

What we hear goes into our thoughts.  We filter it and determine the most important.  The most important are embedded in our subconscious and eventually filters down to our hearts.

What Gains Your Attention?


So, all of this begs the question.  What gains your attention?  With all the words you hear each day, along with all the other noises, what words gain your attention over the course of a day?  What do you consider important to give your attention to and what do you discard?

Most of this is done subconsciously.  Our subconscious minds automatically filter out those noises that we don't want to hear.  For example, most of us have reached the point, where we automatically filter out written ads or television commercials.  We just don't listen to them.

Or we subconsciously tune in to something we wish to hear.  For example, you may be at a restaurant.  There are many people there talking.  Your mind is on let's say, your favorite sports team.  Even in the midst of a conversation, you may hear other people at the next table talking about your sports team.  Then without even trying, you find yourself keying in on that conversation.

So, we are constantly and automatically filtering in or out those things we wish to hear. 

Filtering is Dangerous


Picture
Filtering can be good.  In fact, most of the time it's good, because we are bombarded with so many words and noises all day long.  But, filtering can be very dangerous to us.  If you or I filter out the wrong thing, our lives may go down a path we don't desire them to go. 

We're told in Colossians 2:14, that through the penalty He paid on the cross, Jesus "canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us...."  Studies have shown that we have between 12,000 and 50,000 thoughts each day.  About 80% of those thoughts are a critical nature.

It seems that no matter the amount of success we've had or the positive things about us, our tendency is to focus on the negative we see in ourselves.  This results in negative self-talk that we indulge in each and every day.

Often we nurture the roots of fear by our negative self-talk.  We say things  like "I'm not good enough", I'm not pretty enough" or "I'm not intelligent enough".  More often, we filter out the good comments people give to us.  For the Christian, someone may pay us a compliment by saying something like "you're a very good singer" or "you're a very good speaker".  

Most often, what is our response.  "Well thank you, but it's the Lord".  Yet, we have no problem whatsoever taking credit for the negative things we say and think about ourselves.  These are the negative decrees we speak against ourselves. 

But, Jesus took those away and  made them powerless on the cross.  You and I need to be mindful of this.  Filtering can be good.  But negative filtering can be dangerous for us.  

Consider Job.  Job was a very blessed man.  In the beginning of the book of Job (1:3), it's  written that Job was very blessed and was the greatest of all the men of the east. 

Satan came before God and asked permission to attack Job.  God, knowing Job to be an upright man, allowed Job to be tested.  Satan attacked all Job had, including his health, but was not allowed to kill Job.  

In the midst of his troubles, Job made a very powerful statement.  "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me.  And what I dreaded has  happened to me."  Job had filtered out all the good things about his life and filtered in fear, by nurturing the roots of fear.  

​How Job "listened" brought great and needless calamity upon him.  

"Therefore consider carefully how you listen" (Luke 8:18).  

0 Comments

You Mean I Have To Pay For Fear?

5/18/2015

0 Comments

 

RSS Feed

Picture
Everything has a price.  Fear has a price.  The cost of fear can, potentially be huge.  In consulting with a large company, regarding fear, The Barrett Values Centre, calculated the cost of fear to that  company was close to $19 million.  The largest costs came from fear based bureaucracy,
confusion, information hoarding and empire building. 

What can fear cost?  It can cost lost opportunities.  It can cost talent hoarding.  When you give in to fear and not use your talents, you are hoarding those talents.  Fear can cost you from sharing with others and being a part with others and building your own kingdom.  Fear can cost people to know the real you.  The price of fear can be a life of regret or a life of a constantly lowering and lowering of your self image.  Not from humility but because of shame and unholy agreements about yourself. 

Fear, indeed, has it's costs.  Consider the end result of the one who buried his talent, recorded in the parable of the talents.  The master said; "you wicked, lazy servant.  ...And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

You know what the most incredible part of the story of the parable of the talents is?  Each man was given the talent, the money to invest, according to his ability.  The man who buried his talent was given according to his ability.  By burying his talent, he didn't even perform up to his ability. 

That is the greatest cost of fear.  You won't live up to your abilities.  What price are you willing to pay? 

Instead of living below your abilities, wouldn't you rather move mountains?  You can.  But, you will need to move from fear to faith.  

Picture
One of the most popular words today, is the word "free".  "Buy one and get one free".  "Get your free trial".  "Try it three months for free".  The word "free" is everywhere. 

Even in cyberspace, the word "free" is well..."freely" used.  "Information on the internet should be free".  "No one should be able to copyright information on the internet.  It should be free for all"!  Yes, we all love the word "free".  "Get you free ebook".  "Get your free email course".

Even in our churches we get excited about the word "free". God's grace is "free".  "We are taking up a free will offering".  "God's offer of salvation is free".  We get very excited about the word "free".

Several years ago, I took advantage of one of those "free" offers.  We were offered "free" lodging for the weekend, at a timeshare property.  All we had to do was listen to a short presentation.  There would be no high pressure sales tactics.  There would be no requirement to buy.

When time came for the presentation, it lasted about two hours and the sales people increased the pressure with every "no" response we gave.  It was an extremely frustrating experience. I left that place very frustrated.  Okay, I'll admit it.  I was a bit angry.  

Through that experience and others in life, I've learned a very important lesson.  Call me cynical.  But the lesson I learned is that everything has a price.  Nothing is truly free.  The illusion of something being free is there.  There is the illusion that something doesn't cost.  But, it is nothing but a mirage, a vapor, ready to disappear. 

The same holds true for fear.  Here is the deception about fear.  When you or I give in to fear, we have the illusion of avoiding pain.  The illusion is that giving in to fear is the easiest path to take, the one with the least risk.  But, it's nothing more than an illusion, a mirage, a vapor.         

0 Comments

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    June 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    June 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Author

    I'm a former pastor, and have worked in business for over 20 years.  My desire is to help you overcome fear and move on to great faith.

    Categories

    All
    Faith
    Fear And Death
    Finances
    God's Care
    My Book
    The Higher Dimension
    The MInd
    The Price Of Fear
    Transformation
    Your Future

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from quote2art, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, honikum, Andrew Gustar, JeepersMedia, Sten Dueland, Maura Teague, Elisabeth Lier, Rmonty119